What many expected to be a competitive game turned into a laugher on Saturday afternoon at Wallace Wade Stadium. Duke came in favored by around a touchdown against a Boston College team that was coming off back-to-back wins over Pitt and Georgia Tech.
The Blue Devils suffocated the Eagles on both sides of the ball, rolling to a 47-2 win. Duke had things clicking on offense and defense, with the one blemish coming on special teams, with Duke botching the hold on one first-half extra point that resulted in a blocked extra point returned for the only two points of the day for Bill O'Brien's team.
Duke improved to 6-2 on the season with the win, gaining bowl eligibility before a brutal four-game stretch to finish the regular season that includes three road games.
Here's our biggest observations from Duke's blowout win on Halloween:
1. Nate Sheppard deserves to be a legitimate Heisman Trophy contender
Star RB Nate Sheppard continued his dominant sophomore campaign with a five-touchdown performance against Boston College. He carried the ball 20 times for 97 yards and punched it into the endzone five times.
His five rushing touchdowns were a single-game record for the Blue Devils. His 14 rushing touchdowns for the season are now tied for the single-season record in Duke history. His 18 total touchdowns are officially a Duke record for total touchdowns in a season.
Folks, it's only Week 9. Duke still has four regular-season games remaining. He's going to put these records so far out of reach that the only player capable of surpassing them might be Sheppard as a junior next year.
2. Walker Eget and the pass game have come to life
With opposing defenses keying in on Sheppard and the Duke ground game, the Blue Devils have needed Walker Eget to kick it up a notch.
He certainly has the last couple of weeks.
Eget threw for 201 yards on 11-of-18 passing and a touchdown toss to TE Jeremiah Hasley. That doesn't quite tell the whole story either, because Boston College committed numerous pass interference penalties that kept Eget's numbers further down than they should have been.
The way he's playing, Duke looks to be hitting their stride on offense at the right time heading into November.
3. Duke's defense totally overwhelmed Boston College
There's nothing Manny Diaz enjoyed more than watching his defense totally dominate Boston College. Prior to garbage time, the Eagles mustered just 160 total yards of offense. The Blue Devils' defensive line dominated the point of attack, taking away the ground game and constantly harassing BC QB Mason McKenzie.
Duke forced two turnovers, tackled BC in the backfield nine times, and racked up five sacks. They took away everything that Boston College wanted to do on offense.
Duke held Boston College to 2-of-13 on third down and 0-of-4 on fourth down.
4. The light is clicking on for DT Owen Wafle
Penn State transfer Owen Wafle arrived at Duke with significant pedigree this offseason. He started the year further down the depth chart than anyone expected, but he's kept his head down and just worked hard.
That work is paying off.
Coming off a breakout seven-tackle performance in last week's win over Virginia, Wafle recorded his first career sack against Boston College.
It was a dominant effort for Duke's defensive line, and Wafle's emergence is making that group even more dangerous.
5. Duke took full advantage of a litany of Boston College errors
It wouldn't have made a big difference, but Boston College self-destructed against Duke. They committed 15 penalties for 129 yards, including several personal foul penalties in Duke territory when they had chances to put points on the board early in the game to keep it from getting out of hand so quickly.
They also put the ball on the ground twice, with Duke jumping on both and taking advantage by punching in points.
As big of an issue as Duke has had with penalties itself this season, it was nice to see it happen to an opponent for once.
Add us as a preferred source on Google