Duke Blue Devils football has concluded the regular season at 9-3 in the first year of Manny Diaz's tenure as head coach of the program. Duke finished 9-3 overall and 5-3 in conference play, just the third time the program has won 5 conference games since 2014.
Duke took down Wake Forest (4-8, 2-6) by a score of 23-17 on the road to cap off the regular season on a high note, and they did it in the most 2024 Duke football way possible.
After today, Duke is 6-1 in one-score games. Time and time again, the Blue Devils have found themselves in close games against inferior opponents when the offense just can't seem to get rolling. But late in games, the Blue Devils have found a way much more often than not, and it was more of the same today in Winston-Salem.
The offense was nonexistent for the entirety of the first half. Quarterback Maalik Murphy was really struggling with the pressure coming from the Demon Deacons' front seven and it led to poor throws and little momentum for the Blue Devils.
Murphy threw an early interception and was missing a lot of his receivers on throws over 15 yards. The Blue Devil defense contained Wake well, but the Demon Deacons were eventually able to get out to a 10-3 lead at the halftime break.
Duke had been in this position so many times before and it knew how to get out of it. Diaz highlighted postgame that they "just weren't having fun" and needed to relax in the second half.
The speech didn't work right away, but the Blue Devils eventually found some consistency on the offensive side of the ball.
Early in the third quarter, a Jaquez Moore fumble deep in their own territory set up Wake to score and take a 17-3 lead with about 10 minutes to go in the third.
From there on out, it was all Blue Devils.
Duke forced a punt on the next Wake possession and got the ball back around midfield. After Murphy found Que'Sean Brown for a 30-yard completion, Star Thomas ran it in from a few yards out to finally get Duke in the end zone for the first time.
The Blue Devils followed that possession up with another touchdown when Murphy used his legs to get in, setting up an exciting fourth quarter with the score all knotted up at 17-17.
Duke's defense did what it's been doing all year, keeping Duke in the game. After Wake was driving on a 12-play possession, the Blue Devils held Wake and forced a punt.
The offense found nothing on the next possession, but the defense again forced another Wake punt.
Duke actually forced a fumble that Wesley Williams took back to the house, but Williams' foot was out of bounds as he picked up the ball blowing it dead after review.
The Blue Devils were set up with 2 timeouts and the ball with 1:22 to go in the contest. Duke played a methodical drive bringing it up the field, trying to set up Todd Pelino for the field goal who was 4-of-4 on the day.
Murphy found Jake Taylor who got out of bounds with 8 seconds to go to set up one more potential play for Duke to gain about 15 yards to get inside field goal range.
The Blue Devils proceeded to cap off the regular season in the best way possible.
Murphy dropped back and didn't see anything right away. The clock was winding down and it seemed like Murphy was going to throw the ball out of bounds to at least give Pelino a look, which would've been a 57-yard attempt.
Then out of nowhere, Murphy launched it downfield and found senior Jordan Moore for the miraculous touchdown at the buzzer.
In all its glory. You always have to cover 8! pic.twitter.com/Yi8P1ITUIz
— Duke Football (@DukeFOOTBALL) November 30, 2024
There's no other way this 2024 Duke football team could've closed out the regular season then with an ugly, grind-it-out, come from behind victory.
The Blue Devils improved on third down, finishing the game 4-of-4 after starting 1-of-9 and Murphy showed poise and leadership after a lackluster first half.
Murphy finished 26-of-34 for 235 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception. Moore capped off his memorable Blue Devils regular season career with 5 catches for 98 yards and maybe the biggest touchdown of his career.
Blue Devil football now awaits its bowl game opponent.