The biggest takeaways from Duke football's historic victory over Florida State

Duke football took home a historic victory against the now 1-6 Florida State Seminoles, beating FSU for the first time in school history by a score of 23-16. The Blue Devils were 0-22 all-time versus the Seminoles before Friday night.

Duke's defense led the way once again in a contest that saw just one offensive score. Here are the biggest takeaways for fans to be thinking about over the remainder of Duke's season

Injuries beginning to pile up

The Blue Devils have been fortunate in terms of the injury bug through the 2024 campaign, with none of its true stars with the exception of running back Jaquez Moore needing to miss time due to injury. On Friday night, though, a few of Duke's main targets showed up on the injury report late. Tight end Nicky Dalmolin was ruled out before kickoff due to a lower body injury, so the Blue Devils were without their top two tight ends after Jeremiah Hasley went down with a season-ending injury earlier in the season. On top of that, Duke's top receiving threat, Jordan Moore, ended up not starting, dealing with an undisclosed injury himself. Moore was targeted just twice for one catch for ten yards against Florida State. Ja. Moore has been listed as active since Duke's matchup against North Carolina two weeks ago after missing two games, but his workload hasn't been ramped up much at all. Moore totaled just one carry against the Tar Heels and didn't see the field last night. With fellow back Star Thomas taking the keys to the backfield, the coaching staff is being much more patient with Moore before he gets back on the field. However, it certainly gave Duke a harder time to get offense going without two of its top receiving targets.

Duke has the best defense in the ACC

With each week that comes, it looks like this Blue Devil defensive unit continues to get better and better. Duke came into the week ranked #2 nationally in tackles for loss with 58 and tacked on eleven more against the Seminoles to go along with a stellar six sacks. Defensive end Wesley Williams led the way with 2.5 tackles for loss of his own and 1.5 sacks. Defensive end Vincent Anthony Jr. followed behind with two tackles for loss and linebacker Alex Howard finished with two sacks. The Blue Devils also held the Seminoles to just two conversions on fourteen tries on third down and didn't give up a single offensive touchdown all night. The Noles' lone end one find came off of a pick-six and Duke forced a punt on four FSU drives along with two interceptions and two fumble recoveries. Duke leads the ACC in points allowed per game at 17.3 and hasn't given up more than 21 in a game this season. It also leads the ACC in passing yards allowed per game (153.6), sacks (24), and opponent third-down conversion percentage (27.4).

Offense is still finding its way

The Duke football offense has struggled with inconsistencies for the entirety of the 2024 season, and fans hoped the bye week last week would give the Blue Devils time to fix these woes. It was more of the same againt FSU for the Blue Devils offensively, with the team greatly struggling to find any sort of rhythm for much of the game. Quarterback Maalik Murphy, who was averaging 239 passing yards per game up until Friday night, finished the contest with 70 yards in the air. This was also his first game of the season without at least one passing touchdown. Duke punted on its first four drives of the game, two of those being three-and-outs, before Thomas was able to get in the end zone after Duke recovered an FSU fumble. From there, the Blue Devils had no way of moving the sticks, but the defense keeping the Seminoles out of enemy territory for the majority of the game to keep Duke in it. Third downs have been a major issue all season for the offense, and Duke put that on display again last night converting on third downs at just a 3-for-17 clip.

Next up, the Blue Devils host #21 SMU on Saturday, October 26th at 8:00pm EDT. The Mustangs are averaging close to 41 points per game, and it'll be another huge test for the defense against the best ACC opponent in terms of offense that the Blue Devils have faced thus far.