Duke used another big performance from running back Nate Sheppard, along with a solid defensive effort, as the Blue Devils opened ACC play with a 35-7 rout of Stanford.
Here is what Duke head coach Manny Diaz had to say after his team improved to 3-0.
Opening statement
I stood in this exact spot on Sunday afternoon in our team meeting after the Illinois game, and I said this team had a chance to do things that last year's team couldn't do, beating Tulane, beating Illinois, and we'd have another chance to do something similar this week, even though we hadn't played Stanford. We had struggled in two years with expectation. We'd struggled with being the favorite. We'd struggled of not trying to be perfect, of at times playing tense in those type of games.
And we really challenged our guys this week to just present as the best version of ourselves and just be us. We had a phenomenal week of preparation, and the thing I'm most proud of is that we just played. I sensed no tightness, no one afraid to make a mistake. I think the way we started the game with a surprise onside (kick), I think that really got our guys set the tone in terms of how we're going to play.
And I thought they carried that through over 60 minutes. Even when we gave away the touchdown before halftime, the locker room at halftime was outstanding. Guys were ready to go, and a huge drive by the offense to make it 21. And then I think we got the strip sack after that and really just took over the game. Got to give Jonathan Patke, the defense staff and the defensive players a ton of credit again for another second-half masterclass. Absolutely just dominating the game and just sucking the life out of Stanford's offense. So like I said, just a very, very proud game because again, I feel like we did a thing that we've not really been able to do before: last week when everybody said we had no chance to beat Illinois, we kind of can play with that chip on our shoulder. And then this week, when the outside world is saying, ‘Oh no, you have no chance to lose. It'll be easy.’ We denied that, we rejected that, and we just went to work and just played good football. And so, like I said, from my standpoint, very, very proud to be the head football coach here.
Why does this team take that message to heart compared to the last two years?
It's hard to say in terms of comparison to the last two years. I do think what does help is I do think this is a team that has extraordinary belief in their identity. And I think that's been obvious. And the identity is in body blows. I mean, dominating the line of scrimmage, which again, it's not a first-round knockout type thing. It's just can we dominate the line of scrimmage on both sides over 60 minutes? And Stanford's hard to run the ball against. Miami didn't get 100 yards on him. I think we ran for 260 or something like that. And again, everybody knows you got to stop number 20. It's three weeks in a row in the first half that he's broken explosive runs. So I think that identity, I think that helps because we're not trying to. I think we just go to work, and I think it's just kind of old-timey football of how to win a football game, and our guys are really, really long into that.
On second half adjustments
I think you get a feel for what people are trying to do. The thing that really disappointed us in the first half is we just didn't tackle very well. I was disappointed that the running back, I think had seven a carry at halftime. Really, we thought we were doing a good job on the quarterback in the past game. We have a lot of respect for that quarterback, and they're very well coached in their passing offense with a pro scheme. We just didn't tackle great. I thought we just tackled better. We played the run better. And when we played the run better, that put them in more obvious passing situations. And it felt like without knowing the numbers, it felt like we were dominant on third down. In the second half, we had one disappointing penalty, a third-down penalty, but then we went right back out there and basically three-and-out of them again.
We've got to clean up. Penalties are our Achilles heel right now. We're still committing way, way too many penalties. So that's something that we will focus on. But again, they were great.
On the pass rush
Yeah. I mean they've got some guys out up front. We felt we had to win that matchup, but you're not going to get pass rush. The quarterback is so good with just getting the ball out to his first read, and that's what we've seen on film the last couple weeks. If that tight end's available one, two, three bang and just the ball's out, you won't get a pass rush. So I think the credit goes first to the coverage. I thought we covered very well to make him hold the ball and then it just felt like we were relentless up front. There are a lot of guys back there creating discomfort for the quarterback. I think we sacked him on the first third down, which was big. Then once the guys started smelling blood, I think they were after it.
On Walker Eget’s performance
I think he's getting better and better. I think of Walker the same way I think of our receiver room. Our passing offense is going to improve. It's going to get better. I thought we made some big plays today, throwing for over 200 yards, but I think we'll watch the film and see that we also had some misses that could have been more explosive for us. But the plays he made, the back shoulder to Jared and the deep ball to Solomon, those were big-time throws. In a moment where we really needed that, Stanford's going to challenge you to make the one-on-ones down the field. I just thought making those plays is just going to do Walker’s confidence as a guy that's just three games into the system. I'm sorry, against three good defenses. We've had a really challenging non-conference schedule. Again, if you look at what Stanford's done defensively and how hard they are to run the ball and everything being press man, it's been a challenge.
This article originally appeared on Duke Wire: Manny Diaz speaks after Duke starts ACC play with rout of Stanford
