Northwestern Wildcats vs. Duke Blue Devils 2023

[Inveigle]

Date: Saturday, September 16, 2023

Location: Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham, NC

TV: ESPN+

Odds/Point Spread: Blue Devils (-19)

Total/Over-Under: 47

The Northwestern Wildcats (1-1) are traveling to Wallace Wade Stadium on Saturday, September 16, 2023 where they will attempt to beat the Duke Blue Devils (2-0). Northwestern opens as 19-point underdogs. The over/under has been set at 47.

Duke Stats:​

• Riley Leonard has passed for 311 yards while completing 64.4% of his throws (29-of-45), with one touchdown and zero interceptions (155.5 yards per game). He’s also rushed 12 times for 111 yards and one touchdown, averaging 55.5 yards per game.
• Jordan Waters has churned out a team-high 175 rushing yards (87.5 yards per game) and scored three touchdowns. He has tacked on three catches for 46 yards (23.0 receiving yards per game).
• So far this year Jaquez Moore has rushed for 115 yards on 18 carries (57.5 ypg), with two rushing touchdowns. Moore also helps out in the passing game, catching two passes for 46 yards (23.0 ypg).
• Jordan Moore has seven catches and paces his team with 104 receiving yards (52.0 ypg) while scoring one touchdown.
• Jalon Calhoun has contributed with 70 yards (on nine catches) and one touchdown.
• This season Sahmir Hagans is averaging 32.0 yards per game, with six catches for 64 yards.

Northwestern Stats:​

• Ben Bryant leads the team with 285 passing yards (142.5 yards per game) and has a 58.5% completion percentage this year (31-of-53) while throwing one touchdown with two interceptions.
• Cam Porter has taken 23 carries for a team-leading 98 rushing yards (49.0 yards per game). He’s also caught six passes for 40 yards (20.0 receiving yards per game).
• Jack Lausch has rushed for 53 yards on four carries (53.0 yards per game), with one touchdown on the ground this year.
• This season Cam Johnson has seven receptions for a team-high 96 receiving yards (48.0 per game).
• Joseph Himon II’s stat line this year shows two catches for 94 yards and one touchdown. He puts up 47.0 receiving yards per game.
• This season A.J. Henning has caught six passes for 58 yards, averaging 29.0 receiving yards per game.

The Wildcats have a bunch of smart guys who are trying to figure out how to slow down Riley Leonard and the Devils offense. While Duke is allowing 7 points a game which is 8th among Division 1 programs. The annual slugfest is back at Durham this season and Duke looks to go 3-0 while Northwestern looks to go 2-1 on their season, with their only loss to Rutgers 24-7.

Prediction:
Northwestern 7
Duke 24

 

[Devilsforlife]

Duke 38
Northwestern 7

 

[rhfarmer]

Loss

 

[Pantone287]

This one does worry me, for some reason. Stadium is gonna be dead, and I could definitely see the team coming out flat. Hopefully Elko will be able to use the terrible first half last week to prevent that though.

Vegas isn't usually off by 20 points, at least. Wild that this would be a much bigger upset than Duke over Clemson.

 

[Devilsforlife]

We’ve owned Northwestern lately (4 straight wins) and they are a program in disarray with no real offense to speak of. I expect them to be down there with 2014 and 2021 Kansas as the most feckless P5 team to come to Wade in recent memory. I’ll be extremely disappointed if the game is close in the second half.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

What happened to NW to make computers think they’re good but humans think they’re bad? Was there a QB injury right before the season started? Multiple other injuries? I can’t make any sense of this.

 

[Devilsforlife]

Duke 38
Northwestern 7

Damn, D4L had it nailed until the NW garbage time TD.

 

[DukeNukem05]

Duke 38
Northwestern 7

Damn, D4L had it nailed until the NW garbage time TD.

Is this a TUL moment?

 

[bfactor]

At minimum it's an Ultimate Truth®.

 

[Inveigle]

What happened to NW to make computers think they’re good but humans think they’re bad? Was there a QB injury right before the season started? Multiple other injuries? I can’t make any sense of this.

All the computer models were saying take the Under as well.

 

[Topher]

Northwestern was embarrassingly bad. Losing Pat Fitzgerald in August cratered that team. Duke has such a high floor now that they never had a chance in this game.

Gotta beat Uconn.

 

[bfactor]

#18 AP