Duke football: Blue Devils can’t sleep on North Carolina A&T

These teams have teeth and will bite

North Carolina A&T is an FCS school and has a record of 0-2. If you’ve been paying attention to the first few weeks of the college football season, you know that doesn’t guarantee a win for Duke football. Many times so far, teams considered to be a lesser opponent have either beaten or given fits to a heavily favored team. The Blue Devils can’t sleep on North Carolina A&T.

Respect your opponent

The North Carolina A&T offense has not been very good so far. They’ve scored just sixteen points and average just 273 yards per game. The Aggies have struggled to run the ball (3.7 yards per carry), are completing barely over fifty percent of their passes, and have turned the ball over four times in their two games. But Blue Devil head coach Mike Elko pays all of that no mind and still feels this is a dangerous offense, “They spread you out. They’ve got really good athletes. They’ve got a really talented running back. They’ve kind of been bouncing around two quarterbacks so far to this year, so it’ll be interesting to see kind of where they settle on that coming into our game.”

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Despite giving up seventy-one points, the Aggie defense has put up some respectable stats. They give up only 271 yards per game and are holding opponents to just 3.4 yards per carry. “They’re going to really make it hard for you to run the football. They’re going to pack numbers into the box, so we’re going to have to really do a good job with our run schemes and creating movement up front,” Elko said at his weekly press conference. That being said, teams are eight for eight scoring touchdowns once they get into the red zone and they are coming off a 43-3 shellacking at the hands of FCS powerhouse North Dakota State. Duke is the first FBS team North Carolina A&T has faced.

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Take care of business

In a game like this, here is what you want to see from the Blue Devils: be focused, look sharp and execute well, put the Aggies away early so you can get the starters off the field to avoid injuries and give the younger players some playing time. Do not look sloppy. With Kansas on the horizon the following week, there is always the danger of a sloppy performance carrying over.

Kickoff for Saturday’s matchup is at 6 P.M. The game is being carried by ESPN Plus.