Miami came into their Week 10 game hoping to get off to a quick start on both sides of the ball and put some pressure on the Blue Devils. The Canes would do just that, on their opening possession the Canes would put together a nice 12 play drive that would end with a Mark Fletcher Jr 1 yard TD run to go up 7-0. Duke would put together a decent drive but once they got to midfield the Canes defense stepped up and was able to force the Blue Devils to punt. The Canes would keep the offense rolling on their second possession. This time they would need 11 plays as Cam Ward would find Xavier Restrepo on a 4 yard TD pass to go up 14-0. Duke would comeback on the next possession and face a 4th and 2 from the Miami 39 yard line. Maalik Murphy would make a great pass as Eli Pancol beat his man for a 39 yard touchdown and would cut the lead to 14-7. Miami would be putting together another nice drive but the Blue Devils would catch Cam sleeping a little as he would be hit as he was going to throw the football and fumble. Duke would get the scoop and score and the ball game would be tied going into the half. "That fumble really hurt us there at the end of the half," said Coach Dealer, "Duke made a great call and Cam saw him too late. We talked at the half and I just told the guys, we had to put that behind us and we needed to make a play to get that momentum back on our side."
The Canes would get the play that they needed. It would come from LB Francisco Mauigoa as he would intercept a pass inside the 15 yard line. The Canes would try and capitalize quickly as on their opening play Ward would hit Jacolby George on a touch pass that would go for 48 yards. Four plays later, Damien Martinez was punching it in from 5 yards out to give the Canes a 21-14 advantage. Miami would get Duke to punt and the Canes offense was right back out there ready to go. Miami would only need 6 plays for their next score as Ward and Restrepo would connect for their second TD's of the game, this time on a 23 yard pass. Miami would go up 28-14 and were feeling pretty good. Duke would have other plans though as they would score in less than a minute to cut the lead to 28-21. The Canes offense would make play after play and Andres Borregales would kick a 28 yard field goal with just around a minute to play to go up 31-21 and give the Canes the final score. "The interception on Duke's opening possession of the 3rd quarter really helped get us that momentum back," said Dealer. "We capitalized on that turnover and played like we needed to the rest of the way to get a big conference win."
Duke hosts Miami this week fresh off of a big win against SMU the week prior. With the conference in such a tight race this late in the season, Duke needed a big upset over the Hurricanes to stay in conference championship picture. The task was tall but this Duke team has gotten up for games this season and we expected this one to be no different.
The first quarter is all Hurricanes as the Duke offense couldnt get anything going and Miami takes a 7-0 lead into the second quarter. Miami starts the second quarter the same as the first, controlling the clock and putting points on the board, taking a 14-0 lead. Duke finally gets the offense rolling a bit before the drive stalls out. Needing to get on the board late in the second quarter the Blue Devils put the offense out there on a 4th and 2. QB Maalik Murphy hits Pancol for a 39 yard TD to cut the lead to 14-7. The following drive the Duke defense gets a huge break with a scoop and score to go into the half tied 14.
Duke starts the second half with the ball and is on the move. The promising drive is brought to a halt when Murphy throws a dud on a seemingly open streak that gets intercepted. From that point forward it was pretty much all Miami. Duke gets on the board one more time but cant keep this Miami offense off the field. The Miami offense had the ball 19 minutes to Dukes 9. Any time Duke looked like they were going to get a stop and get the ball back, Ward and co came up with a key 1st down to keep the Blue Devils off the field. Duke ends up falling to Miami 31-21 and is now all but out of the conference championship conversation. Duke gets a week off and then looks to get back into the win column with a home game against a solid NCST team.
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