From an eleven-point lead to a 22-point loss: what happened to Duke football against #5 Miami?

After a crushing defeat at home to #20 SMU last Saturday, Duke football was looking for a statement win on the road at undefeated #5 Miami. It was a shaky contest for both squads. Duke looked dead in the water early, then gained all the momentum, then it all went wrong in the blink of an eye.

Even with one of the best defenses in the country, the Blue Devils' defensive unit couldn't contain the Miami offense, which might be the best in the country, from the opening kickoff.

It was a first quarter that couldn't have gone worse for the Blue Devils as the offense couldn't find any motion early on. With three and a half minutes to go in the first quarter, Duke had just five yards of total offense compared to 156 for the Hurricanes. The Canes also got in the end zone twice to make the score 14-0.

But from there, quarterback Maalik Murphy settled down after throwing an interception on a throw not even near his target, Jordan Moore.

The second quarter was like the flip of a switch as Duke looked like a brand new offense. Murphy had more time in the pocket and was on target with his deeper throws. Aside from an outstanding grab from Moore, offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer found slant and smash routes that worked well with Miami's man coverage.

Duke scored fourteen points unanswered to silence the crowd and tie the game up at 14-14. The offense continued to roll and after giving the Hurricanes a field goal, Duke took the lead 21-17 heading closer to halftime.

After such a brutal first quarter for the Blue Devils offensively, Brewer adjusted well to put Murphy and the rest of the offense in the best position to succeed.

It continued to roll after the second half kickoff as Duke started with another endzone find to go up 28-17 with just over ten minutes to go in the third quarter. The Blue Devils had full control.

From there, it was a collapse that Duke hadn't even looked capable of committing. The Blue Devils proceeded to be outscored 36-3 through the remainder of the game, resulting in a 53-31 loss. After the offense looked so smooth and the defense was holding Miami as much as it could, what led to this second half collapse?

The main thing defensively was the ability of the Miami offensive line to keep Duke's front seven from getting to the quarterback. Duke is one of the best teams in the ACC in total sacks and thrives off of pressuring the opposing quarterback in the early downs, but the Blue Devils had no luck finding Heisman candidate Cam Ward, finishing with just two sacks on the day.

From an offensive standpoint, it's a lot more of the same we've seen all season. Inconsistent rhythm, dead periods, and times where the offense doesn't look in sync at all. Murphy threw for 325 yards and three touchdowns, but also threw three interceptions. His deep balls are extremely inconsistent, and his misses down the field are nowhere near his intended target. Two of these interceptions came in the second half, and gave Miami the ball right back to take the lead further.

There were some highlights on the offensive side of the ball from guys that haven't been wildly productive this season. Sahmir Hagans finished with a team-high nine catches for 139 yards and a touchdown and Peyton Jones carried the ball twelve times for 71 yards and a touchdown while also racking in three catches for 61 yards and another touchdown.

In the end, Duke faced off against potentially the best offense and maybe the best team in the nation. Good offense beats good defense, and that's what happened to Duke through most of the second half.

Look for Murphy to polish himself on his deep balls, as that needs to happen for Duke to have any sort of consistent success on offense.