Duke Football: Blue Devils, Panthers ready for an ACC battle
Duke Football is back in action this afternoon as they travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Panthers in a major ACC battle.
The Blue Devils are coming off a bad loss to Virginia where they hoped to catapult themselves back into the ACC Coastal Division race, but instead couldn’t get things going last Saturday.
As for the Panthers, they are coming off a bye week, but prior to that they narrowly fell to then No. 5 Notre Dame in South Bend.
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The weather is not great in Pittsburgh and they key for the Blue Devils will be to establish the run game early behind an offensive line that has not been great over the past couple weeks.
By setting up the running game, it allows Daniel Jones to work in the play action pass where he can take his shots down the field and the possibly to keeping the ball himself and using his athleticism to get out and space and gain valuable yards for Duke.
On the other side of the ball, the Duke defense who has been very good all season is going to need a bounce back game after a poor effort against Virginia last Saturday.
It all starts with the front seven for Duke as if they are able to constantly get in the Pittsburgh backfield and stop the lethal Panthers running game, the Blue Devils will be in good shape.
It’s going to be an ugly day at Heinz Field and it most likely will not be a pretty game, but which ever team makes the least mistakes and it able to control the football will win this game.
This is the type of game Daniel Jones doesn’t have to go out and win, if he can be a game manager today and not throw that costly interception, Duke can win.
PREDICTION: Duke 20, Pitt 13