Duke Football: Blue Devils, Wildcats ready for battle between unbeatens

It’s time for some more Duke Football as the Blue Devils travel north to face the Northwestern Wildcats on Saturday afternoon.

It is going to be a war at Ryan Field on Saturday afternoon between a pair of 1-0 teams.

David Cutcliffe and the Duke Blue Devils will be heading up to Evanston, Illinois to face the Northwestern Wildcats in a rematch from a game last year at Wallace Wade Stadium where the Blue Devils beat down the Wildcats 41-17.

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Northwestern is coming off of a major victory on the road in primetime against conference rival Purdue while playing two quarterbacks.

Clayton Thorson and T.J. Green both shared time in the first half in the Wildcats victory last week, but it was Thorson who got the snaps in the 2nd half, despite Northwestern not being able to score in the 2nd half.

Duke is coming off of a home throttling of the Army Black Knights and now head on the road for the first time in 2018.

The Blue Devils did a good job at stopping the triple option of Army, but they let West Point quarterback Kelvin Hopkins Jr. throw for 197 yards and a touchdown.

While Northwestern doesn’t run a triple option, they are a run first team and the Blue Devils cannot get lazy on the back end of their defense despite their commitment to stop the run.

Northwestern running back Jeremy Larkin ran for 143 yards and two touchdowns against Purdue and the Blue Devils defense led by Joe Giles-Harris and Ben Humphreys need to key in on Larkin and limit the versatile running back.

Duke quarterback Daniel Jones was very efficient on Friday night against Army completing 13 of his 17 passes for 197 yards and a touchdown while rushing for 43 more yards and a touchdown.

However, the Blue Devils relied heavily upon their rushing attack as Brittain Brown ran for 75 yard and a touchdown after being hobbled for a majority of the game with a knee injury but should be good to go on Saturday afternoon.

This game will definitely be a great test for Cutcliff’s squad, going on the road and facing a tough team in their home opener, but if the Blue Devils want to show improvement from last season, this is a game that they can and should win.

Prediction: Duke 27, Northwestern 16

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