Duke football looks to minimize third down woes on senior night

After losing two straight, Duke football took down NC State 29-19 last weekend to improve to 7-3 on the season and take down North Carolina and NC State in the same season for the first time since 2013.

The Blue Devils now turn to their final home game of the season after the bye against the Virginia Tech Hokies (5-5, 3-3). Duke has the opportunity to win ten games in a season for the first time since 2013 if the program wins out and wins its bowl game.

The Hokies have been an up-and-down team in the ACC with near huge upsets but also some tough losses. Virginia Tech led #7 Miami up until the final two minutes of the game and also had a halftime lead last week against #23 Clemson, but also lost 31-7 to a 2-7 Stanford team and 42-21 to a 5-4 Boston College team.

It's a bit of a trap game against a frisky Hokies team, but it's a game that the Blue Devils should absolutely win especially at home.

The most important aspect of the game for the Blue Devils will be to convert on third down, something Duke hasn't been able to do on any sort of consistent level this season.

Duke is converting just under 29% of its third down attempts which is good for second-worst in the ACC and sixth-worst in the entire NCAA.

So how is Duke going to get it done against the Hokies?

The Blue Devils will need their run game in this one which has lacked over the last few games after being a prominent part of the offense in the middle part of the season. The Hokies allow the fourth-least passing yards per game to opponents in the ACC (206.1) and allow the third-lowest opponent quarterback completion percentage (54.7). Virginia Tech also pressures the quarterback well and has the second-most sacks of any ACC team (31).

On the other hand, Virginia Tech has one of the worst run defenses in the conference. The Hokies are giving up the second-most rush yards per game to opponents in the ACC (158.5) and are tied for the fourth-most rushing touchdowns allowed (13).

The Blue Devil defense will be able to hold the Hokies offense. Duke has faced tougher opponents and has held just about all of its opponents this season to under its point average besides Miami.

Through the week of rest, head coach Manny Diaz and offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer are still looking for ways to diversify the offense and see what works to finally get some conversions going on third down.

After the run game has taken a dip in production over the last few games after being such a heavy hitter in the middle of the season, next Saturday seems like a prime game to integrate it back into the scheme regularly.