ACC Football Recap – Duke Crush Syracuse on the Road, 38-3

Blue Devils crush Orange on the road

Duke QB Darian Mensa threw two touchdown passes to Cooper Barkate and Nate Sheppard ran for two more, and Duke scored 35 unanswered points in routing Syracuse 38-3 Saturday. Mensah, who has 13 touchdown passes, was 22 of 28 for 268 yards. Sheppard had 168 yards on 15 carries for the Blue Devils (3-2, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), including scoring runs of 49 and 12 yards. Duke amassed 504 yards offense, averaging nearly 8 yards per play, to the Orange’s 314.

On the other side, Syracuse (3-2, 1-1 ACC) quarterback Rickie Collins making his first collegiate start replacing injured former Notre Dame QB and starter Steve Angeli, who is out for the season with a torn Achilles. Collins was 24 of 37 for 229 yards. The loss was the largest under second-year Syracuse coach Fran Brown and matched the largest home loss for the Orange since joining the ACC in 2013. It came a week after Syracuse dominated Clemson in Death Valley 34-21.

“I want to apologize to the Syracuse fan base,” Brown said. “That performance that you’ve seen out there today was not good.”

The game turned early in the second quarter with Syracuse trailing 10-3 and driving. Collins hit Cook on a 19-yard pass play to the Duke 39. The Blue Devils were called for targeting, but after a lengthy review, officials ruled Cook fumbled. The ball was recovered and Duke scored just three plays later on a 34-yard strike from Mensah to Barkate, extending the margin to 17-3. Syracuse never threatened after that.

“Yeah, it was (a turning point), because obviously it would have an opportunity to be a big catch for them,” Duke coach Manny Diaz said. “It was a bang-bang play and the ball came out and again, just gives us confidence, probably hurts their confidence a little bit, but it was what we did with it. And I think that was really the point.”

“I’m not sure (it was a momentum shifter),” Brown said. “It was one of many that didn’t go our way. We still have to be able to learn. You can’t take one play and take that as something that would shift the game.”

Things looked promising at the start for Collins as he completed his first pass to Cook for 18 yards, but his next attempt was batted down. 

“I think he’ll get better,” Brown said of Collins. “It can’t get worse. He was doing his job. He was moving the ball. There were a lot of different flags at certain weird times that would never give him a chance to spark a drive. I’m comfortable with him and what he’s done..”

“We had some sparks in there, but we shot ourselves in the foot a whole lot that killed our momentum, but some things to build off of, definitely,” Collins said.

Duke led 24-3 at the half.

Takeaways: 

Duke: The Blue Devils could be a surprise contender for the ACC title with Mensah leading the way on offense. 

Syracuse: Collins started out well, but things deteriorated quickly. Syracuse’s defense didn’t help either. The loss ended Syracuse’s three-game winning streak.

Next:

Duke: On the road at Cal next Saturday.

Syracuse: Travels to SMU next Saturday.