A Few Thoughts on the Game

[Knucklehank1]

- credit to Duke for having a coherent game plan and sticking to it. Their goal was to keep Lamar off the field. They ran down the play clock, they made sure they controlled the ball, almost all their pass plays were screens which are easy catches and keep the clock running, their screen passes basically made our edge rushers useless

- essentially Duke ran 2 plays all night!! They ran right up the middle or threw a screen pass. I really cannot believe they gained any yards. Also I cannot imagine watching that offense week in and week out

- the play-calling by UofL before the last missed field goal was atrocious. First of all, we should have been running down the play clock. And then to run a reverse there was almost inexcusable. I think we got really cute and forgot that we were ahead by only a field goal. That whole series was managed like there was 10 minutes left in the 3rd quarter, not 2 minutes left in the game.

- Duke did a solid job containing Lamar. That was obviously something they were selling out for, so it is a little surprising we weren't able to get more receivers or tight ends free.

- yes, we did not get the "style points" victory. But the reality is that we need other teams to lose for us to get into the playoffs and we need to win. This game will be long forgotten once Washington, or Michigan, or Ohio State or whomever loses

 

[beasleythecard]

the reverse call after what jeremy smith displayed was ridiculous and absolutely kragthorpian. Bobby was bad, but grantham stunk the joint up. he makes a million plus a year, he should be able to stop an inside dive from Duke football.

That is send moving trucks to his house worthy.

 

[jmac1029]

Did we play any tight ends tonight?

 

[mwatson61]

Did we play any tight ends tonight?

Yes, Hikitini had a costly fumble.

 

[Knucklehank1]

Yes, Hikitini had a costly fumble.

Except they didn't rule it a fumble. But yes, had they not ruled his forward progress had been stopped it would have been costly

 

[BPGhost]

the reverse call after what jeremy smith displayed was ridiculous and absolutely kragthorpian. Bobby was bad, but grantham stunk the joint up. he makes a million plus a year, he should be able to stop an inside dive from Duke football.

That is send moving trucks to his house worthy.

Unless this was meant as parody - just a terrible post.

 

[beantowncard]

Unless this was meant as parody - just a terrible post.

Agreed. Duke was going no huddle then standing at the line milking the play clock. We couldn't get subs in and the DL wore down. We kept giving up big plays on first down leaving Duke 2nd or 3rd and short. Frustrating.

 

[TheRealVille]

The defense wasn't the problem. Duke would have had to abandoned their strategy had the Cards scored TD's like they should have. Duke is not UTEP. They have some big boys on their line and they have a accomplished head coach. I thought the Cards defense played well and after that first screen play didn't allow another long screen the rest of the way. They wore down in the 4th qrt during a 8 minute drive.

It was the Cards offense that stunk it up in that game. I don't know what Petrino was trying to do because his play calling was really strange. Lamar was a bit selfish and again our kicking game is terrible. Yet, despite all of this, they still almost had 500 yards of offense. And this despite Duke controlling the time of possession big time.

I think all of us expected a game where the Cards would win ugly. A game where we were big favorites but would not cover. I was picking NC State as that team but maybe it was Duke. And when you really think about it the day after, it makes sense. The bye week after the close heartbreaking loss to Clemson was in retrospect a negative. Too much time for the guys to stew over that loss and listen to everyone talking about their playoff chances. Then add a Friday night game against a average Duke team and to make it a black out and you got the perfect resume for a let down.

Shouldn't a night game with a special blackout be against a top 20 team? If you're going to go in a way to fire up the fans with the black out you need a opponent that fires you up. The guys were not fired up for this game.

So now I think the guys will be ready come noon next Saturday for the Wolfpack. Getting this ugly game out of the way the Cards are still poised to finish the year without losing again, I only really see two teams trying to duplicate what Duke did. BC for sure on the road and maybe Wake Forest. It's good that we now know how to react to that strategy.

 

[cardz4life]

I thought we left alot of plays out there. I thought Lamar was trying to go for the big play too much. Duke was taking that away and leaving underneath plays. There were dump down options and we needed to be patient matriculating the ball down the field. This is the down side of having to run up the score. You put undue pressure on yourself to do too much. Lamar was frustrated most of the game. Oh well it is what it is, we need alot of chaos.

 

[flyercard]

Except they didn't rule it a fumble. But yes, had they not ruled his forward progress had been stopped it would have been costly

Major break that. Not sure it was the right call but as a Card fan I'm glad we got it.