Holliday: Duke rocks Miami, eyes bowl bid

By Bob Holliday, WRAL sports columnist

After whipping Miami 45-21 for its fifth win, Duke needs only to beat Boston College at Chestnut Hill or Virginia Tech in Durham to lock up a postseason trip in head coach Mike Elko’s first season.

Saturday’s pivotal win at Hard Rock Stadium revealed qualities in this 2022 Duke team we had not previously seen. Duke had not lost a fumble all season, yet receiver Jalon Calhoun fumbled deep in Duke territory on the game’s second play, gifting Miami a short field touchdown. The Blue Devils fumbled again the first time they had the ball in the second half; three plays later Miami took a 21-17 lead.

But not only did Duke overcome those fumbles, the Blue Devils also overcame a somewhat pedestrian offensive performance. Duke did run for 200 yards against a very good Miami run defense. But the Blue Devils only amassed 336 yards of total offense and that’s about 100 below their seasonal average of 434. And yet Duke won handily without moving up and down the field all day as it had in its previous wins and indeed even in the close losses to Kansas and North Carolina.

So how did the Blue Devils overcome the Hurricanes in a game the home team desperately needed to win? By forcing Miami turnovers, in numbers not seen in the ACC since the turn of the century.

Given the stakes, Duke’s defense played arguably its best game of the season. Because Miami, after scoring in the first 4 ½ minutes of the game, threatened to make it 14-0 on its second possession, moving the ball to the Blue Devils’ 23. But Duke stoned Lucious Stanley on fourth and one, as the Hurricanes came away without even a field goal.

Now the Duke offense did not score in the first quarter and in fact barely moved the ball. But Rob Smith’s defense jump started the offense, creating turnovers in Miami territory that gave the struggling offensive unit a series of short field scoring opportunities.

Riley Leonard made sure his crew cashed in.

Duke’s first touchdown drive started at the Miami 23. Leonard picked up 15 of those yards himself, including the final nine. Game tied.

Duke’s defense struck on the final play of the first quarter to force that turnover. DeWayne Carter stripped the ball from Jaylon Knighton and Shaka Heyward recovered. It was actually the Blue Devils’ special teams that created the second turnover. Duke kicked off following the Leonard touchdown.

Keyshawn Smith tried to return the kickoff. Cameron Bergeron ripped out the football and fell on it at the Miami 22. Jaquez Moore ran for 20 yards on Duke’s first play of the series. Three downs later, Leonard produced another six pointer, with an effort run. The quarterback used his physicality to reach the one, then lunged across the goal line, stretching the ball across the stripe as he was being tackled. So in the span of 2:59 Duke went from seven down to seven ahead. And only had to move a collective 45 yards to do it.

In last week’s column I suggested that Duke could beat Miami and that Tyler Van Dyke and the Miami offensive line were susceptible to blitz pressure and that TVD could be sacked. I also noted that the Canes committed lots of turnovers.

Duke took down Van Dyke twice in the second quarter. The second sack, unfortunately, knocked TVD out of the game. It also produced a third Miami fumble-this one courtesy of Brandon Johnson.

This time Duke could not hit pay dirt, even though the drive started at the Miami 10.

I also wrote last week that Miami has a really good red zone defense and that Duke would need a Charlie Hamm field goal or two to win. Well, Duke did need the three pointer, but this time the kicker would be Todd Pelino. Pelino in fact did not miss a kick all day. Ham had missed 6 of his 15 field goal attempts, including a critical three pointer in the last minute loss to UNC.

Duke did not score again in the first half, but the defense made another big play. In the closing seconds, Miami drove into field goal range. But for the second time the Hurricanes’ offense left the field without kicking. Backup quarterback Jake Garcia missed his target and hit Duke’s Jaylen Stinson instead.

Garcia did briefly redeem himself early in the third quarter. He hit up and coming star Colbie Young with a 72-yard bomb. Then, after Eli Pancol’s ill timed fumble on Duke’s first play of the second half, Garcia found tight end Will Mallory for a touchdown. Mallory was able to play despite suffering concussion like symptoms in the Canes’ win at Virginia Tech.

So Miami needed less than two minutes to score two touchdowns and retake the lead.

But this Duke team is no stranger to momentum swings, as we saw in the see-saw battle with UNC.

That touchdown pass to Mallory marked the higher water mark for Garcia, whose afternoon went downhill from there. The Duke offense went to work and the Blue Devils gradually retook control.

Commander Leonard directed his troops across 89 yards of Miami real estate, and needed 18 plays to score. Duke had to convert a third and thirteen, a fourth and nine, then finally a fourth and goal at the two. Duke scored on a shovel pass from Leonard to Nick Dalmolin. What a call by offensive coordinator Kevin Johns.

Had Duke come away empty there, who knows how the game turns out? Instead, Duke goes up 24-21 thanks to that fourth down gem. Again, the Blue Devils called on their defense.

Miami’s offense got moving again though. The Canes drove from their own 23 to the Duke 44. But the Blue Devils held on downs as Garcia could not connect with anyone wearing green on third down or fourth down. Still, as the third quarter ended, Duke led by just three and the Blue Devils spotted the Hurricanes a 21 yard advantage in total offense.

But then came a fourth quarter to remember for Duke.

Leonard scored from 11 yards out, his third touchdown of the day. Duke blitzed Garcia and the quarterback fumbled when hit by Darius Joyner. Cam Dillon recovered at the Canes’ 25. Four plays later Jordan Waters plunged in from the one. So here again, Duke scored two touchdowns in less than five minutes, making a solid working margin out of what had been a precarious lead.

Miami had not run effectively to this point, getting just 48 yards on the ground. But now the Canes HAD to pass virtually every down to catch up. This brought disastrous results. Stinson intercepted a Garcia pass, his second of the day. Duke couldn’t move offensively, but then Garcia threw another pick. Brandon Johnson took this one 29 yards to the house.

That ended the scoring, but just for good measure, the Blue Devils forced Garcia to fumble near midfield, Miami’s eight turnover of the day.

So in the final 28 minutes, Duke outscored Miami 28-0, outgained the Canes 187-65, and won the turnover battle 4-0.

Miami had committed nine turnovers prior to Saturday. The Canes nearly matched their season total in game seven against Duke.

The Blue Devils now get a week off, then they’ll play Boston College. Don’t look now but the hard luck Eagles have already coughed up the football a whopping 11 times this season. Bowl eligibility anyone?