Inveigle
All American
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- Jan 20, 2014
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The Virginia Tech Hokies and the Duke Blue Devils meet in Wallace Wade Stadium this Saturday in a 4:00pm Kickoff.Last Season's Game
Pummeled. Blasted. Steamrolled. All could be used to describe the way Duke took it to Virginia Tech last year at Lane Stadium in the Blue Devils’ 45-10 shellacking of the Hokies. It was one of the bright spots from last season's short comings.
2020 Hokies
But the Virginia Tech Hokies will be looking to build off a strong start to the season coming in the form of a 45-24 win over the NC State Wolfpack last time out. They also get 23 players back that were held out due to Covid issues last week. Against NC State Braxton Burmeister threw for 106 yards on 7 of 11 passing while Quincy Patterson II had 76 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 4 of 6 passing.
Khalil Herbert had a solid debut as the Kansas transfer had 104 rushing yards and a TD on 6 carries while Tre Turner had 53 rushing yards. Patterson II had 47 rushing yards and a score and Raheem Blackshear had a rushing touchdown as well. James Mitchell led Virginia Tech’s receiving group with 3 grabs for 68 yards and a touchdown while Tayvion Robinson hauled in 4 balls for 40 yards and a score.
On the Hokie defense, Keonta Jenkins has a team-high 8 total tackles while Justus Reed added a pair of sacks for the Hokies and Brion Murray and Divine Deablo each had an interception for VA Tech in the winning effort.
2020 Blue Devils
The Devils will be looking for their first win of the season after dropping to 0-3 on the year after a 38-20 loss to Virginia last time out. Chase Brice has thrown for 722 yards, 2 touchdowns and 6 interceptions on 51.3% passing while Deon Jackson has rushed for 175 yards to lead the Blue Devils on the ground. Noah Gray leads Duke with 13 receptions for 152 yards and a touchdown while Jalon Calhoun and Jake Bobo each have 100+ receiving yards for the Blue Devils this year.
Defensively, Shaka Heyward leads Duke with 26 total tackles including 14 assisted tackles, while Marquis Waters had 18 solo tackles with both Heyward and Waters logging 12 solo tackles this year. Victor Dimukeje has a team-high 4 sacks as well to lead Duke in that department this season.
Virginia Tech looked good against NC State, but the Wolfpack has been terrible on the road dating back to last season and we really don’t know what we’re going to see from the Hokies going forward in terms of a decision at starting QB and as far as Duke goes, well, the offense that David Cutcliffe’s been known to run just hasn’t panned out and Chase Brice has been disappointing to say the least.
What will Happen
Instead of getting better game by game it seems that Duke looks worse. So far it looks like Brice hasn't had enough reps at QB so he hasn't mastered the offense quite yet. He's also getting rushed passed an inept O-Line, or he's having no separation by his receiving corps to even get an open look. Then he has to eat the sack or rush an unwarranted throw trying to make something happen downfield that's just not there. There's been no running game and without that there can be no play action passing.
Countless turnovers, undisciplined penalties, and missed tackles are all a recipe for losses and Duke looks like the Wolfgang Puck of losing football recipes. Virginia Tech teams love to create turnovers. Until that aspect is turned around look for Duke to struggle moving forward.
Prediction:
VaTech 35
Duke 13
