What the heck happened on the shores of Lake Michigan Friday night?
This was one of the weirder games we can remember.
Duke struggled offensively for much of the game and trailed 13-10 in the fourth quarter. Todd Pelino had a chance to tie but missed a 33 yard field goal attempt with 6:30.
He got a chance to make up for it with 1:46 left with a successful 51 yard attempt. Northwestern could not score before the end of regulation and so the game went into overtime.
In the first OT, the Wildcats scored a TD on a 10-yard run by Cam Porter. Duke responded with a one play touchdown strike on a pass from Maalik Murphy to Jordan Moore.
In the second overtime, Murphy found Moore again but Duke missed on the two-point conversion. Northwestern failed to score on a six-play drive and Duke won 26-20 for its sixth straight win over the Wildcats.
The game was played in Martin Stadium, which sits right on the shore of Lake Michigan but only seats about 15,000 and there was a fair amount of wind – not your ordinary D-1 environment.
Also unusual: a rabbit came on the field during the third quarter and was chased off by Willie the Wildcat, Northwestern’s mascot, which some people thought was the most entertaining part of the game, at least prior to overtime.
All in all, it was just a strange environment. This is a bit strange but still cool: with the win, Duke stays ahead of 0-2 Florida State and 0-1 Clemson in the ACC standings.
