Duke football wins regular-season finale. Takeaways from Blue Devils’ win over Pittsburgh

A strong second half Saturday allowed Duke to complete a stellar home slate and head into bowl season with momentum.

Tied with Pittsburgh at halftime, Duke put together four second-half scoring drives to beat the Panthers, 30-19, at Wallace Wade Stadium.

The win gave the Blue Devils (7-5, 4-4 ACC) a 6-1 record on their home field, including wins in all four of their ACC home games. Pitt (3-9, 2-6 ACC) completed a disappointing season.

Duke’s third starting quarterback of the season, due to injuries to Riley Leonard and Henry Belin IV, freshman quarterback Grayson Loftis threw for 248 yards while completing 20 of 37 passes.

Loftis heats up in second half

As was the case in his three previous starts, Duke freshman quarterback Grayson Loftis had pedestrian statistics in the first half before finding his groove after halftime.

Part of that, Elko has said, is game plan as the Blue Devils choose to keep it simple for the first-year player until the game’s crucial portions.

Against Pittsburgh, Loftis had only 62 passing yards over the first two quarters as he completed 8 of 15 throws.

That was good enough for Duke to be tied 10-10 with Pitt at the break.

In the third quarter, while leading Duke on two scoring drives, Loftis matched exactly his first-half throwing numbers with eight completed passes on 15 attempts. But he threw for 165 yards.

That included a 15-yard touchdown pass to Jalon Calhoun that put Duke ahead for good at 20-13 with 3:44 left in the third quarter.

Loftis’ most impressive play came on the play prior to that touchdown pass, though.

With Duke facing third-and-7 from its 39, Loftis eluded a Pitt defender and shoveled a short pass to Jordan Waters, who rambled for a 46-yard gain to the Pitt 15.

Only two of Loftis’ completed passes in the first half gained more than 10 yards. In the second half, his big-play completions gained 31, 46, 15, 32 and 16 yards.

Then, with 4:57 to go and Duke facing third-and-11 while leading 27-19, Loftis fired a 22-yard pass to Jordan Moore for a key first down.

Duke defense regains its bite

The first half of the season, Duke was among the nation’s stingiest in terms of allowing points. After six games, Duke had allowed just 9.8 points per game.

The back half of the season hadn’t been as good, with Florida State scoring 38, North Carolina 47 and Virginia 30 while beating the Blue Devils.

Pitt produced points on consecutive first-half drives, including a 93-yard touchdown drive, to take a 10-3 lead on Saturday. But Duke’s defense tightened up from there, allowing just a field goal over Pitt’s next five possessions. Pitt gained 105 total yards on those five drives.

Third down improvement is a big reason why. After allowing Pitt to convert five of their first seven third downs situations into first downs, Duke stopped the Panthers on the next five.

During that time, Duke’s offense got moving and built a 27-13 fourth-quarter lead.

The Panthers finally scored against with 5:17 to play on Nate Yarnell’s 14-yard touchdown pass with 5:17 to play

The Blue Devils played well up front, recording 10 tackles for losses. That included four sacks.

RJ Oben, a senior defensive end, collected 2.5 tackles for losses (1.5 sacks).

Special teams help Duke

In addition to Todd Pelino kicking three field goals, Duke’s special teams tipped the field in the Blue Devils favor by forcing Pitt to regularly start in bad field position.

The Panthers’ average starting position for their 10 drives was their own 19.