The Duke Blue Devils are trying to win the ACC Coastal for the second time in three years. That they’re not going for a three-peat is a source of frustration, but all they can do at this point is shrug their shoulders and say, “Hey — two outta three ain’t bad.”
It’s not… if the Blue Devils can get there.
On Saturday afternoon in Blacksburg, Virginia, Duke’s football team took a big step on the road to Charlotte for the ACC Championship Game. Yet, the particulars of a divisonal race will sort themselves out in the month of November. The immediacy of the moment carried a more personal meaning for coach David Cutcliffe’s team.
*
A year ago, a blowout loss to North Carolina in a Thursday night game locked Duke outside the ACC Coastal candy store. Georgia Tech gained the chance to represent the division against Florida State. Yet, as painful as that rivalry-game drubbing was for the Devils, they lost control of the race — and their season — a few days earlier in November of 2014.
Duke entered Wallace Wade Stadium with an 8-1 record and a boatload of confidence against a reeling 4-5 Virginia Tech side that was in big trouble in terms of achieving bowl eligibility. The two teams began the game the way one would have expected, with Duke surging to a 10-0 lead and Virginia Tech looking a step slower than its opponent. Though Virginia Tech’s defense produced a number of critical stops to keep the game manageable, the Blue Devils remained in control, leading by a 16-7 score at the Virginia Tech 36 in the final minutes of the third quarter. Even a mere field goal would have forced an anemic Hokie offense to produce two touchdowns to win, something which seemed highly unlikely at the time (and in fact did not happen).
Yet, that’s when a game, two seasons, and a division race all changed in a heartbeat.
Duke’s Anthony Boone threw an interception which was returned by the Hokies to the Blue Devil 9. Even though Virginia Tech’s offense lost nine yards on three plays, Frank Beamer’s team collected a field goal to move within one score, at 16-10, when the third quarter ended. Duke was confronted with scoreboard pressure, and the Blue Devils felt every ounce of it.
A fumbled kickoff promptly gave Virginia Tech a chance to take the lead. Even after a holiding penalty on the Hokies created second and goal at the 15, Virginia Tech was able to score a go-ahead touchdown.
Duke, resilient even though it was in fact panicking, created a field goal attempt of 40 yards — not a gimmie, but certainly a boot that veteran placekicker Ross Martin should make. With 2:26 left, the kick missed.
While Virginia Tech couldn’t run out the clock, the Hokies’ defense had turned a corner in terms of trust and belief. A nine-yard sack on second and two blunted the Blue Devils’ final drive before it could ever get into field goal range. Virginia Tech won, 17-16, using that triumph to make a bowl (sealed with a win over Virginia a few weeks later).
*
Fast forward to this year’s rematch in Lane Stadium.
Martin — the kicker who missed two field goals last year against Virginia Tech — once again failed to put two kicks through the uprights, one from just 29 yards. When Duke lost leads of 21-10 and 24-16, committing three penalties on Virginia Tech’s tying 2-point conversion attempt before the Hokies finally converted with under 2:26 left, it certainly felt as though history was repeating itself. The score wasn’t exactly the same, but the larger pattern of Duke unraveling in crunch time was unfolding again. The pattern was powerfully affirmed when Martin missed his second field goal of the day with 1:04 remaining. For a second straight year, Martin just had to hit one of two field goals against Virginia Tech, and for a second straight year, he missed both.
Ross Martin has missed four field goal attempts in two years. All four of them against Virginia Tech.
— Adam Rowe? (@AdamRoweTDD) October 24, 2015
When a game so clearly and noticeably parallels a previous contest, especially one in which an athlete or team suffered a wrenching defeat, it is impossible to avoid thinking of the moment, if only for a second. The image will come — it can’t be shut out of the mind by willpower. It’s there, and it’s going to remain there.
The difference between the winning athlete and the losing athlete is that the winner acknowledges the image and doesn’t give it power, thereby giving himself (and, in a team sport, his teammates) permission to move forward without bitterness. The losing athlete will focus on the experience, get sucked into its negative energy and unpleasant associations, and allow that feeling to hijack on-field performance in the heat of the moment.
Duke-Virginia Tech 2015 was ugly and confusing, much as the 2014 game was. One main difference: This year’s game had four overtimes, while the previous year’s edition (mercifully) did not. The bigger difference, however, was this: When Duke fell into a ditch, the Blue Devils halted their panic attack. They didn’t solve all their deficiencies, but they steadied themselves on offense. When they needed a touchdown in both the second and fourth overtimes to keep the game going, they produced it. When they needed a two-point conversion to win the game in the fourth extra stanza, Thomas Sirk — who had struggled so profoundly as a passer in the first half of the season — insisted on getting into the end zone.
Duke didn’t ignore its demons, but it pushed past them in a way it had been unable to do a year earlier.
The ACC Coastal chase will take care of itself. On Saturday, Duke took care of a highly irritating piece of history, finding an ideal response to pressure almost 12 months after a failure to do so against Virginia Tech ruined its 2014 conference season.
Do Devils have demons? When they’re human beings, they do. Duke fought back against some ghosts the week before Halloween. It’s the kind of cathartic conquest players and coaches remember many decades after the tumult and the shouting subside.
