A look back: Duke routs Tulane 47-13, stays unbeaten

DURHAM, N.C. – The Duke Blue Devils stayed undefeated following a 47-13 victory over the Tulane Green Wave in front of 20,197 in attendance at Wallace Wade Stadium on Saturday.

The Blue Devils moved to 4-0 on the season for the first time since 1994, but didn’t look overjoyed by the accomplishment.

A 34-point margin of victory should have yielded a cheerier feeling, but the Blue Devils had to work hard against a Tulane squad that challenged them early and throughout the first quarter on both sides of the ball.

“That was an interesting game,” Duke head coach David Cutcliffe said.

“There was a lot of work goin’ on – a lot of hard work by our coaches, not just in X’s and O’s, a lot of hard work by the players. When everything doesn’t go just like you want it to go, that’s a lot of busy people. There’s a reason the game ended up at 47-13 victory. A lot of that is just how you respond to adversity that sometimes we created ourselves.”

The adversity that Cutcliffe spoke about included the Blue Devils taking seven penalties for 80 yards that gave Tulane the ball for longer periods of time than desired or needed.

While the Green Wave offense possessed the ball for nine minutes longer throughout the game, the Blue Devils defense eventually made up for its miscues, and the offense supported those efforts, particularly during the second half.

Early on, it looked as though Duke would not have much trouble against Tulane, but they quickly realized that would not be the case.

The Blue Devils scored on their first possession of the game as quarterback Thomas Sirk crossed the goal line to cap off a seven-play, 75-yard drive that included a 43-yard rush on one sequence by the pivot.

The early 7-0 lead was accomplished easily enough, but Tulane quarterback Tanner Lee (14-35, 160 yards, 3 INT) responded quickly.

He orchestrated an 11-play, 85-yard drive that kept pushing the Duke defense backwards until the Green Wave crossed the goal line and tied the score 7-7 just under five minutes later.

Duke quarterback Anthony Boone threw for 181 yards on a 15-of-27 passing effort, rushed for a touchdown and stayed unbeaten in 14 career starts, but was frustrated at times, including when he threw his first interception of the season.

After he moved the Blue Devils into position to take a 14-7 lead on their second possession as the result of a Josh Snead (6 rushes, 18 yards, 1 TD) run into the end zone, Boone and the offense struggled to score throughout the second quarter.

“It’s the mindset we have as an offense – we just want to go out there and be perfect every time,” Boone said.

“Obviously I had a little frustration whether it be a pass-protection pickup or a run-block that we’ve seen before. We do a great job practicing stuff teams may bring us or may not bring us. We never see anything that we haven’t seen throughout the week. It’s just frustrating that we don’t get it, but it’s nothing that affects our team or our game. It’s just that I have high expectations for myself and for my teammates as far as the offense goes. It’s one of those things where I get frustrated and I know I’ve seen it a hundred times, and 99 percent of that time it’s on a good day, you don’t want that one percent to be here out on Saturday. One of those things where we’re trying to be perfect.”

Defensively, Duke reacted quickly after Tulane took advantage of the opportunity to score on its first possession.

Following Snead’s score, the Blue Devils’ kickoff team contained the Green Wave return team to its own 22-yard line.

From there, the Blue Devils pressured Lee, blitzed more and eventually sacked him for a seven-yard loss that forced Tulane to punt the ball from its 12-yard line.

The ensuing snap flew over the punter’s head, out of bounds through the end zone, and resulted in a safety that pushed the Blue Devils lead to nine points, 16-7, with 2:58 to play in the quarter.

Linebacker David Helton (11 tackles, 1 Sack, 1 TFL) and safeties Jeremy Cash (11 tackles, 1.5 TFL) and Deondre Singleton (11 tackles, 1 PBU) led the Duke defense throughout the game and quickly reacted to the dynamic offensive schemes they saw from the Green Wave.

“We definitely have a lot to work on,” Helton said.

“They came out and did something that we weren’t expecting at all. They did a lot of split backs, a lot of two-back stuff. A lot to work on, but it was real exciting for us to support out in the red zone like we need to and like we usually do. I’m excited to come in tomorrow and work on it.”

Duke’s kicking game was a particular bright spot as place kicker Ross Martin’s field goal and six converted PAT’s help him to establish new Duke overall records for career points (242) and successful PAT’s (126).

Punter Will Monday also helped the Blue Devils special teams unit to push Tulane back for much of the game with four kicks totaling 198 yards (49.5 average), and established his season-longest punt at 65 yards.

Carrying its 16-7 lead into the second quarter, Duke added to it further while keeping Tulane scoreless.

Martin’s successful 31-yard field goal at the 4:21 mark allowed the Blue Devils to carry a 19-7 lead into the halftime break.

For the final two quarters, Duke’s defense held Tulane to one touchdown, a run from Lazedrick Thompson (19 rushes, 124 yards 1 TD), and completed an overall performance that included three pickoffs by Cash, cornerback Bryon Fields (career first) and linebacker Zavier Carmichael.

As Boone eventually got his emotions under control, he helped to lead the offense to score 28 more points – 14 in each quarter.

Taking the snap from the Duke 36-yard line, he aired out a 48-yard pass to Jamison Crowder (6 catches, 119 yards) that put the Blue Devils in position to post the next score of the game.

The catch helped Crowder contribute to eclipsing the 100-yard mark for the first time this season.

After consecutive runs of nine and five yards from Snead, Boone rushed the ball into the end zone to score and set up the career-setting PAT for Martin.

Martin’s kick pushed the Duke lead to 26-7 and gave him Duke’s all-time successful PAT-conversion record at 123.

As Duke scored three more touchdowns, the place kicker added three more PAT’s to his career total.

Though they scored ample points, the fourth consecutive game posting 34 or more, the Blue Devils’ receiving offense didn’t click on all cylinders in the manner it’s become accustomed to according to Crowder.

“I think we just gotta’ clean up all our miscues,” Crowder said.

“Whether it’s getting on page with the quarterback, running assignments, blocking and creating holes for running backs. I think we have to increase our confidence level as a whole offensive unit. Right now our confidence isn’t where it should be. We have broken plays throughout the game and at the same time we have plays that hold us back as far as productivity as an offense. Right now, the only focus is to really work hard and just prepare for Miami.”

Boone echoed Crowder’s sentiment that the offense needed to produce more effectively and consistently during upcoming league games.

“After a while they picked up on what we were doing, but our offense has so many answers,” Boone said.

“Even if you try to scheme us, it’s kind of hard to be right because we have answers to everything you could see under the moon. It’s just one of those things where we just gotta’ execute. Next big games are ACC, so every play is gonna’ be very critical from first down in the first quarter to first down in the fourth quarter.”