2017 ACC Football: Coastal Division power rankings Week 13

When God Fearing Women Get the Blues

As has happened many times, the song title isn’t a perfect fit. Obviously, there are no women playing football for the Duke men’s football squad. However, someone clearly put the fear in them as they found a way to win two straight and become bowl eligible.

Duke’s season has definitely had its ups and downs. It started with a four-game winning streak to open the season that had some believing the Blue Devils were top 25 good. During that span they beat a Northwestern team that ended up winning eight games this season.

That opening win streak was misleading though as two of those wins came against UNC and Baylor, two power five teams that combined to win five games this season. So it shouldn’t have surprised anyone that the Blue Devils then went on a six-game skid.

In fact, the Blue Devils were on their way to a seventh straight loss as they entered halftime tied with Georgia Tech 20-20. Though it was at that halftime that the fear of God must have hit the team, because they went on a tear afterwards.

They put up 53 points over the next six quarters and found themselves bowl eligible for the fifth time in six seasons. To put that in perspective, the team had scored a grand total of 73 points in their previous six games.

The defense came alive forcing 10 punts and two turnovers during that stretch. The offense also found life with Daniel Jones completing 61.4 percent of his passes for 454 yards and three touchdowns. In his past six games Jones had three total touchdowns while averaging 169 yards per game.

What all that meant is that the Blue Devils went from having the blues, to giving other teams the blues, mainly Georgia Tech and Wake Forest.

Up next for Duke is the aforementioned bowl game, yet to be determined. This time it will be Duke hoping to put the fear into someone as they look to win their second bowl game in three seasons.