As we’ve seen all season, Duke’s defense was quite good Saturday night against SMU, but the offense struggled.
Duke had three critical situations near the end of the game where the Blue Devils couldn’t capitalize: first there was a missed field goal attempt by Todd Pelino. Second, Pelino had another attempt from 30 yards, a potential game winner with time running out that the Mustangs blocked. And third, in overtime after scoring a touchdown, Duke opted for a two-point conversion that just missed, giving SMU a 28-27 win.
Duke forced six turnovers in the game including three interceptions and put tremendous pressure on SMU, particularly in the fourth quarter, but the offense just couldn’t capitalize. Obviously it’s a loss, but we’ve seen repeatedly now that this is a tough group that sticks together and competes. Look at this this way: despite the offensive issues, this team is two points away from being 7-1 and not all that far from being 8-0.
After the loss the Blue Devils will play at #6 Miami next Saturday. That’s going to be a tough one to be sure, but there are some motivational factors: first, Duke knows it can play at a higher level and second, Miami fired Diaz in 2021: all in all, some pretty solid incentives. Toss in a tough loss and you can be reasonably sure that Duke is going to come hard at the ‘Canes next week.
