Duke used another big game from running back Nate Sheppard, key throws from quarterback Walker Eget, and a solid defensive effort to open ACC play with a 35-7 victory over Stanford.
Here’s everything Stanford head coach Tavita Pritchard said following the game:
Opening statement
I just left the locker room talking to our team, and what I told them was, one, that's a good football team. And there's a reason that this program won the conference championship game a year ago. And at the same point in time, we did not play a good game, and we missed the mark. And that starts with me. That starts with me because I thought we had two really good weeks of practice in the bye week. And then this last week, I thought our guys did a great job prepping and just getting
better every day. I thought we had tough practices both weeks, and we were well positioned to come out and play well in this game, and we did not. And that starts with me and that trickles to our staff and then our players. And the defense, I thought, played well early, got some stops and certainly played well enough for us to get some momentum back on the other side of the ball and keep us in the game.
And then as the game wore on, I thought we gave up some explosive plays. And granted, that's a good back. There's two good backs on that side, and they do a great job of breaking tackles. And I know that we are also a good tackling football team, and that didn't show today in some of those explosives, especially on some of those second-and-longs. On special teams, we knew they've done a good job in the past of stealing possessions. They did so again today on the opening kick. And I thought that was a big shift in momentum; obviously for us to not get that opening kick, played a big role. And then on offense just didn't sustain drives. We didn't sustain drives. And at the end of the day you have to, against a team that will commit to running the ball like that, you have to do a good job of sustaining drives and getting first downs and finishing with points at least, but finishing the end zone.
And we did not do a good enough job of that today. And we will be back, and we will figure out how we can get those things to translate. And again, it starts with me.
On how Duke was able to get some big plays
Yeah, first, Nate Shepherd's a great back. He came in leading the country in all-purpose yards and rushing, and so kudos to him. And at the same point in time, we have a lot of belief in the way that we tackle, the way that we teach tackling. And without having watched the film, my guess is whether it was losing leverage or wrapping up, this is a guy that you have to leverage with your defense, and you have to get him to the ground, and you got to wrap him up. And there were some spots where we fell short of that, and that's the disconnect, and that's where we have to take a step.
On Duke converting the onside kick to start the game
For Duke to do that and get the ball back, it was a big swing in momentum. And we knew that they've done a good job on special teams of stealing those possessions. And so for us to have to go from, hey, we think we're going to get the ball on offense to line up and play defense, that was, again, they know who they are, and they've done a great job of in this program coaching their guys to be there. And the reality is we have to be focused from the opening kick. And that was case in point in that scenario. And we can say we talk about it, but at the end of the day, it's on us as coaches to make sure that it's on me to make sure that we are focused from the very first snap.
On QB being under pressure all day
They do a good job with some of their pressure packages. And I think some of the times that he was feeling pressure had to do with the blitzes. I think sometimes we can do better blocking up front or being on the same page in the blocking unit. And so that comes back to our communication, our schemes. And then I mentioned this, getting our week of practice and the things we're working on throughout the week to translate to game day. And that falls on me and our staff to make sure that we're getting those things to translate.
Message at halftime
On the defensive side, I know we were doing a pretty good job against them and getting some stops. And obviously we had the big turnover early in the game of getting off the field. And so continuing to tack the ball and getting stops on defense, getting that really good back down. And then on offense, we needed to finish drives, and we needed to do a better job protecting the passer. And so I guess going into the second half, we wanted to keep trying to mix up the launch point and the timing of the throwing game and some play actions, and it never felt like we really got that off the ground in addition to trying to continue to get the run game going. And that was unfortunate because, again, when you talk about those halftime adjustments, to come out and not be able to pull through in those, that was difficult.
This article originally appeared on Duke Wire: Everything Stanford HC Tavita Pritchard said following Duke's win
