Duke’s defense found a new groove. Can the Blue Devils keep it going against Kansas?
Though Duke’s defense has struggled more than any other ACC team this season getting stops on third down, co-defensive coordinator Matt Guerrieri’s focus isn’t solely focused on those plays.
Rather, Guerrieri said, look earlier in those sequences.
“The key to being successful on third down is what happens on first and second down,” Guerrieri told the News & Observer this week.
The Blue Devils enter Saturday’s game with Kansas having seen its first three opponents gain first downs on 52.08% of third-down plays. Miami is No. 13 among the ACC’s 14 teams at 47.83%.
A sign of hope, though, arrived last Saturday when the Blue Devils beat Northwestern. The Blue Devils limited Northwestern to first downs on 5 of 13 third downs (38.5%).
The difference, as Guerrieri pointed out, was the type of third down plays he and co-defensive coordinator Ben Albert’s defense faced.
Northwestern’s average yards to gain on its 13 third downs was 7.8.
Compare that to Duke’s earlier games, like the season-opener when Charlotte’s average yards needed was 6.3 when it converted 10 of 18 (55.6%). The 49ers upset Duke, 31-28, with a pair of late fourth-quarter touchdown drives.
Duke beat N.C. A&T, 45-17, on Sept. 10. But the Aggies netted first downs on 10 of 17 third downs (55.8%). N.C. A&T only needed an average of 4.9 yards on those third downs.
“If you are dealing with third-and-shorts, it limits what you can do,” Guerrieri said.
The Blue Devils were much better defensively earlier in drives in beating Northwestern. Where N.C. A&T converted 5 of 7 third-and-shorts (needing between 1 and 4 yards), Northwestern had only four such situations with two conversions.
In the loss at Charlotte, the 49ers were 6 of 8 on third and shorts against Duke.
Conversely, Duke backed Northwestern up to five third and long situations, where nine or more yards were needed for the first down. The Wildcats were 1 of 5.
“How you play good at anything is that every down there’s some form of consistency,” Duke coach David Cutcliffe told the News & Observer. “Doing the right things. Being where you are supposed to be. You are not always going to win the play. You are not going to win every personal battle on the field. But if you are consistently doing the right things, you are going to have a better third-down percentage, you are going to have a much more productive first down.”
While doing that against Northwestern, Duke also recorded five turnovers -- the team’s first five takeaways of the season.
Safety Lummie Young forced one fumble and intercepted a pass. Defensive tackle DeWayne Carter forced a fumble. Defensive tackle Ben Frye recovered both of those fumbles for Duke.
Safety Jeremiah Lewis and cornerback Leonard Johnson also had interceptions.
What allowed Duke to be so much more disruptive than the previous two games? Following through on instruction was a big part of it.
“As a coach you get what you emphasize,” Guerrieri said. “Our guys listened to us. We say `Here’s where we have to be better to win consistently.’ The guys took ownership of that.”
Said Young, “I just feel like we were more intentional about getting after the quarterback and getting those stops. I feel like everybody was swarming to football better this game. We were intentional about getting off the field on third down. We knew that that’s something that we had to do better. So we did.”
Now the job is to consistently produce these efforts week after week. It starts with Saturday’s game with Kansas.
For all its struggles while starting the season 1-2, Kansas hasn’t had problems with ball security. The Jayhawks have lost one fumble and haven’t thrown an interception this season.
But Kansas has been poor on third-down conversions, turning only 34.1% of them into first downs to keep drives alive.
So Duke will once again look to exploit that area which, of course, means slowing the Jayhawks on first and second downs to set things up like last week against Northwestern.
