[private](From Official Duke University Press Release) DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke's Thaddeus Lewis and Vincent Rey have received ACC Player of the Week honors after leading the 
Blue Devils to a 41-31 win over Navy this past Saturday, the league office announced on Monday afternoon.
Lewis, a junior quarterback from Opa-Locka, Fla., was named the conference's Offensive Back of the Week after completing 25-of-35 pass attempts for 317 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for a career-high and team-best 41 yards on 12 attempts. In addition to extending his school record streak of consecutive pass attempts without an interception to a nation's active best 206 tosses, Lewis and teammate Eron Riley became Duke's top touchdown-producing quarterback-wide receiver tandem with three scores on the day and 17 in their careers together. Against the Midshipmen, Lewis and Riley hooked up for touchdown passes covering 27, five and 49 yards.
Rey, a junior outside linebacker from Far Rockaway, N.Y., was tabbed the league's Defensive Back of the Week following a 12-tackle performance that included four tackles for loss, one sack and one fumble return of 37 yards for a touchdown. Rey helped the Blue Devil defense hold Navy to just 207 rushing yards -- 245 below their NCAA-leading average of 452 entering the contest.
Other weekly award winners included Clemson's Thomas Austin (Offensive Lineman), Virginia Tech's Brett Warren (Defensive Lineman) and Darren Evans (Rookie) and North Carolina's Jay Wooten (Specialist).[/private]
Category Archives: Duke Football
Duke stifles the Middies attack in the 2nd half for a 41-31 win
[private]There is one thing for certain three games into the 2008 Duke Football season, that being Cutcliffe and his staff make masterful adjustments at the half. The Blue Devils have outscored each 
opponent after the break, Today they throttled the Navy offense in the second half by adjusting the Midshipman's crafty running attack.
Take away one big pass play for Navy and Duke would have shut them out. Still, they outscored them behind the arm of Lewis and the hands of Riley 21-7 to take a 41-31 win. Lewis had a great game going 25 of 35 for 317 yards, three TD's and added another 49 yards on the ground.
Thad was only as good as Eron Riley. Navy had no answers for the star senior receiver who made 8 catches, all three of the passing TD's, for 137 yards. When Duke needed a big play, the combination of Lewis to Riley was dependable. Lewis also found 9 different receivers in the game.
Duke opened the game on a 12 play 78 yard drive ending with, of course, a Lewis to Riley hook up. Navy came back with a huge 73 yard scamper by White. From that point on the game was nip and tuck with Navy taking a 24-20 lead at the half.
But Duke got some huge momentum from Joe Surgan who nailed a 52 yard field goal which cut into the half time lead. Unlike the SI cover jinx, Surgan made one of the biggest kicks of his career on a day he graced the cover of the Duke Football Game Day program.
As mentioned earlier, Duke came out ready in the second half, especially the defense. Linebackers Vinnie Rey and Michael Tauliili combined for 23 tackles, making the occasional vicious hit. Rey made the biggest defensive play of the game when he scooped up a Navy fumble scampering into the end zone.
All in all, it was a huge day for Duke Football and they now have two weeks to prepare for Virginia. On a hot and humid day, the resilient Devils gave the Wallace Wade crowd a good show making their fans proud.
Whether you talk chants like "We are Duke!," or you look to the slogan "Dawn of a new day," it's clear that Duke Football is turning the corner.
Be sure to check back to the Blue Devil Nation for more coverage of this big win, including some photos from the event!
[/private]
Quick Hitter #8 – Thaddeus Lewis talks Navy, getting over Northwestern
[private]On Navy -
They will come at us hard every down. You'll never play against anyone that comes at you harder. 
They are disciplined and sound and they do all the little things correctly. They will use the cut block, so we'll have to stay up and fight all the time.
On the Northwestern game -
We were very upset with last week. The guys ... nobody had their heads down, we just all said "next week." We are going to practice well and make sure that doesn't happen again. The guys aren't going to let anybody slack and that's a great thing.
We learned if you are there you have to make the play. A couple of things happened during the game ... finger tipped balls ... problems in the open field. We're a real good offense right now but if we make those big plays we could be a great offense
We could have easily gone into a shell, bit that's not happening. Guys are confident in what we're doing and we have to go out there and come together as a team and show this week and play better and get us over the hump.
On the Seniors -
The seniors are not going to let anybody slack up and we'll have to help them out. We've had some guys in the past moping around, but that's not it - they say are you ready to go watch some film? Coach Cutcliffe challenged them after the game and they will make sure we get better this week.
What was Cut's message?
He just said two turnovers to none and if you didn't turn the ball over the outcome of the Northwestern game would have been different.[/private]
The word is out! Duke freshman Johnny Williams can play!
[private]True Duke freshman Johnny Williams had a coming out party on Saturday where he pulled in eleven 
catches for 135 yards in a loss to Northwestern. The performance earned him Rookie of the Week in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
No Blue Devil freshman has posted those kind of numbers since Walter Jones in 1988 who tallied 139 yards versus the Citadel. "Johnny Williams is a great player. The kid came in and worked hard in the weight room. He was actually the only freshman here and we put him in the fire early in seven on sevens and he came along nicely," said Duke quarterback Thaddeus Lewis during this weeks press conference.
Williams was the first freshman on campus and learned his way around during the hot summer months. He was a three year letter winner at St. Stephens HS in Alabama where he helped his team to a 39-4 record during his career. He missed five games due to injury in his senior season, yet still managed 25 catches in limited action. As a junior, Williams had 893 yards on receptions and 312 rushing.
Anyone who watched the Northwestern game would agree that Duke has landed a special player which will help build the program during his career in Durham. Williams played with a confidence ahead of his years.
"He's a competitor and he was telling me during the game, they can't check me, they can't stop me and if you throw it I'm going to make a play. And he was out there making plays. The thing is when he catches the ball he's making moves and making people miss and that's a good addition to this offense," said Lewis
Coach Cutcliffe was just as impressed with Williams play stating, "Johnny had a tremendous game. He's a really fierce competitor. What we are looking for more from him is consistency. If Williams pulls in anywhere close to as many passes as he did this past weekend, it will benefit players like Eron Riley who might not draw as many double teams.
Cutcliffe went on to say that he challenged Williams and all the freshman to be all they could be during a morning practice. "In my opinion, Johnny could have had 14 or 15 catches in that game. He could have been a little sharper down the stretch and maybe have been national player of the week," said Cutcliffe.
Only time will tell if Williams can achieve lofty goals such as national player of the week, but if he shows the consistency the staff is looking for, there is no reason to think it can't happen.[/private]
Quick Hitter #7 WR Austin Kelly talks moving ahead to Navy
[private]
You had some key catches on Saturday ...
Eron went down and Coach stressed to us he needed somebody to step up. I was able to get open, got the ball in my hands and I made the play.
After a tough loss, how do you rebound? What is your overall feeling going into the Navy game?
Going into the Navy game, it's really just getting back to the basics. We felt like we dominated the last game, but we just couldn't finish. Our defense did a great job of keeping there offense off the field and letting us stay on the field. We just have to get back to the basics and work hard this week.
Is it easy to move on after a tough loss or do you think about twenty or so plays where if two had been different you would have won the game?
It still lingers, but we've got another game - an important game coming up this week with Navy. They got us last year in a close win, we're still think about that ... I mean it's just going out hard in practice this week and if we finish those practices off right we'll feel good about our chances against Navy.
Is it safe to say that you guys are itching to get back out on the field?
Oh definitely! I think I can speak for the whole team saying we are ready, but we have to dedicate ourselves this week. Saturday will come, but we have to take care of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday first.[/private]
Northwestern downs Duke 24-20 in a frustrating loss
[private]It was a frustrating evening for Duke in that they played well enough to win minus two mistakes. The biggest one was when the ball was centered over the punters head. The other snafu was a fumble in Duke territory. Both mistakes led to scores by an opportunistic Northwestern team which clipped the Devils 24-20.
Another reason Duke may have lost was the fact that the Wildcats had no turnovers. Perhaps this was ball protection on their part, but you must consider the possibility that Duke failed to create takeaways.
On a night where the Duke offense out gained the visitor, the lack of big plays when it counted spelled doom. While the home team couldn't make the plays to find the end zone. Northwestern quarterback hit a couple of key third down passes which proved to be deadly.
Duke was unable to get it done on two opportunities in Northwestern territory late in the game. Still, the Dukies were the better team in the second half, and Cutcliffe once again made good adjustments in the locker room.
A huge bright spot was an 11 catch effort by freshman Johnny Williams. With Eron Riley going out in the second quarter and playing sparingly again in the fourth quarter, WIlliams made his case for ACC Rookie of the Week. Readers of BDN know we tipped you off early on concerning the speedy wideout and he'll be fun to watch as the season progresses.
About the only thing you can do in Dukes case is pick up the pieces and put the game behind you. The taste of losing a winnable game should motivate them to get better as they prepare for Navy. There's a lot of football left in the season and Duke looks improved and the games are once again fun.
Fans likely had that pit in their stomachs after the loss on the ride home. They probably discussed the what if's. If it didn't hurt, then you wouldn't care and I can tell you firsthand that more fans truly care this season. More importantly, fans are talking about Duke after a loss and that was not the case for eight years.
I didn't want to do a game write up this morning. Instead, I simply wanted to share a few thoughts. As Jimmy V once said, "Don't give up. Never give up!" That should be this mornings motto of fans and team alike. Let's reach down and pick it up and get ready to rock the house and beat the Naval Academy. A victory cures all ills and this team will prepare better than ever in the coming week.
Notes- Coach Cutcliffe challenged his seniors and team to more or less get after it after the game.
Gripe-We need better uniformity with concerns to new cheers and scoreboard operation. Folks, you do not play music designed to pump it up when Northwestern enters the field each half. You wait until they are lined up for kickoff. Try using what I thought was a good "stand up" cheer during critical moments instead of a NW field goal attempt as time is expriring in the first half. Try to time the music better for there were too many times when it was inappropriate or during the start of a play. Get the graphics right. Don't pump up the Navy game yet have Duke vs. Northwestern at noon next week on the promo. Try this one .... when Duke gets a first down, try saying with enthusiasm, "and it's another Duke Blue Devil first down." The crowd will eventually join in on the "first down." Play the "noise meter or get loud" on all opponents third down attempts. Please, try and tighten up a bit. As fans we like the additions, but make them flow properly.[/private]
You must be logged in to post a comment.