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There is lots to talk about during the Bye Week starting with the injury situation. I certainly hope Coach Cutcliffe has some good news to share at 5 pm today in his phone call. Current status is unknown on five players:

T.J. Rahming (leg) - hurt in practice last week
Braxton Deaver (back) - hurt in practice last week
Kyler Brown (MCL Strain) - hurt in Army game yesterday
Deondre Singleton (leg) - hurt in Army game yesterday
Carlos Wray (upper body) - hurt in Army game yesterday

Going 5-1 in the first half of the season sets us up for success. The opponents overall get tougher but no team left on our schedule has as strong defense as Northwestern and Boston College. Offense is another thing - Virginia Tech looked good against NC State but pitiful against Pitt. Our defense is more Pitt than State so I like our chances against the Hokies. Miami and Carolina can throw the ball, Pitt is tough in a run straight at you way. Virginia and Wake Forest are not good teams. I see 3-3 as the floor for the second half. 5-1 is doable as is 6-0 but I think we drop one or two to end the season at 9-3. That could be good enough to earn a trip to Charlotte.

As for Duke, the continued development of Thomas Sirk and the return of Jela Duncan are the topics on my mind. Sirk needs to get better. I'm not down on him I just believe he isn't playing like I expected he was going to based on the preseason hype. He must find his comfort zone in the pocket throwing the ball vertically. Duncan is our best back as he possesses power and speed, plus great hands as a pass receiver coming out of the backfield. I want to see him get more touches per game. Next up is Shaun Wilson who has almost disappeared. The staff has got to figure out how to use him other than between the tackles!

Finally, who is going to step up at receiver? It is all receiver by committee so far so someone needs to step up and be a consistent threat.

Okay Crazietalk, let's talk some Duke football!

Bob Green wrote:There is lots to talk about during the Bye Week starting with the injury situation. I certainly hope Coach Cutcliffe has some good news to share at 5 pm today in his phone call. Current status is unknown on five players:

T.J. Rahming (leg) - hurt in practice last week
Braxton Deaver (back) - hurt in practice last week
Kyler Brown (MCL Strain) - hurt in Army game yesterday
Deondre Singleton (leg) - hurt in Army game yesterday
Carlos Wray (upper body) - hurt in Army game yesterday

Going 5-1 in the first half of the season sets us up for success. The opponents overall get tougher but no team left on our schedule has as strong defense as Northwestern and Boston College. Offense is another thing - Virginia Tech looked good against NC State but pitiful against Pitt. Our defense is more Pitt than State so I like our chances against the Hokies. Miami and Carolina can throw the ball, Pitt is tough in a run straight at you way. Virginia and Wake Forest are not good teams. I see 3-3 as the floor for the second half. 5-1 is doable as is 6-0 but I think we drop one or two to end the season at 9-3. That could be good enough to earn a trip to Charlotte.

As for Duke, the continued development of Thomas Sirk and the return of Jela Duncan are the topics on my mind. Sirk needs to get better. I'm not down on him I just believe he isn't playing like I expected he was going to based on the preseason hype. He must find his comfort zone in the pocket throwing the ball vertically. Duncan is our best back as he possesses power and speed, plus great hands as a pass receiver coming out of the backfield. I want to see him get more touches per game. Next up is Shaun Wilson who has almost disappeared. The staff has got to figure out how to use him other than between the tackles!

Finally, who is going to step up at receiver? It is all receiver by committee so far so someone needs to step up and be a consistent threat.

Okay Crazietalk, let's talk some Duke football!

Good ideas, Bob. I'll start.

Sirk has started 6 games, IIRC. I think he'll continue to mature and grow as the season continues.

Duncan was a pleasure to watch yesterday, especially as he carried 2 guys named Army the last 5 yards into the end zone with him on his TD run.

Barnes gave me some additional hope yesterday WR spots, as did Nash who is hopefully at full strength/speed now.

We gotta stop some of our dumb ass penalties.

The injury reports/healing will be very important over the next 10-12 days, hopefully being mild and quick, respectively as I'm not sure Norman and Cash can get much better at what they've done so far this year. I expect Norman to get some recognition this week with one of the all ACC defensive awards with his show yesterday.

And, the refs didn't suck yesterday but I suspect they will when we travel to turkey town on the 24th with Beamer's thugs.

Another Bye Week discussion topic can be Top 25 rankings seeing as Duke is #24 in the Coaches Poll:

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootbal ... oma-slides

#25 in the AP Poll.

There was no 5 pm phone call yesterday due to it being the Bye Week. Unfortunately, that means no updated injury news to report. Rumors on The Devils Den indicate Kyler Brown is probably done for the regular season. No news leaking out on Singleton. I have no idea on the veracity of these reports, but TDD has posters close to the program via parents, etc...I'll keep my ear to the pavement.

Perfect time for a bye week. Injuries are obviously a concern, and this will give those who are hopefully coming back a nice week and a half to heal. (Meaning hopefully they will be involved in practice before VT for a few days.)

For those that aren't coming back (Sigh...Brown curse.), this gives those who need to step in and fill some shoes some extra time to do just that.
Rest up, heal, get better as a team, and smoke a turkey. (And officially get us on the bowl list!)

Bob Green wrote:There was no 5 pm phone call yesterday due to it being the Bye Week. Unfortunately, that means no updated injury news to report. Rumors on The Devils Den indicate Kyler Brown is probably done for the regular season. No news leaking out on Singleton. I have no idea on the veracity of these reports, but TDD has posters close to the program via parents, etc...I'll keep my ear to the pavement.

There are some very good talking points in your post Bob. This is a great week to assess the first half of the season and start thinking about how these next six games will play out.

First of all, I am hopeful that most of the injury scares during the Army game were not serious. Deondre Singleton and Carlos Wray were both standing on the sidelines for the remainder of the game after they exited on Saturday. This leads me to believe that they should be okay going forward. If either of them had injuries that were at all serious, they would have either been in the locker room, or at least sitting on the benches. The injury to Rahming definitely concerns me. I believe we need his production going forward if winning the division is the goal. As excited as I was in the preseason for the return of Braxton Deaver, it has been a disappointing one to say the least. I do hope he gets healthy ASAP, but our production at TE has been solid with Reaves and Schneider.

Overall, going 5-1 through our first six games was a success. Before the season started, I figured 5-1 was necessary for us to have a chance at winning the division. Seeing how poorly Georgia Tech’s season has gone, it shouldn’t be a surprise that we are 5-1. With all due respect, four of the five teams we have beaten are really bad. Boston College just lost to Wake Forest 0-3. Yes, 0-3. Being 5-1 and ranked #24 looks and sounds great, but our offense will HAVE to play much better starting next weekend or there will be a rough stretch of games.

Thomas Sirk has definitely shown that he has the potential to do very well in this offense. He made some very quality throws against Army to Nash, Barnes, and McCaffrey. In my opinion, we have to run the ball successfully in order for him to get comfortable throwing the ball. He just is not talented enough to sit in the pocket every play and sling the ball around like Renfree was able to do. If our running game can get going early, (like it did Saturday), Sirk should be more comfortable throwing the ball.

Bob, I agree 100% about Duncan and Wilson. Duncan is looking more and more like he did in 2013 when he was our best RB. I am still waiting on one of these three to separate themselves from the pack. Shaun Wilson is still a favorite of mine, and it is going to be difficult to get him going with such limited touches. I would love to see them line up Duncan and Wilson in the backfield with Sirk to open up some more options throwing the ball.

The best thing about this post is that I do not have anything to say about the defense other than WOW. This is the best defense that I have seen at Duke in my lifetime. There are multiple NFL players on this defense. (Yes, you read that correctly.) Cash is looking more and more like the ACC DPOY, and watching Dwyane Norman develop into a solid linebacker has been very fun to watch. I have no concerns about this unit going forward, and I can’t wait to see how they perform against the offenses of Miami and UNC.

Coach Cut has done very well with the bye weeks in the past. I expect our team to be 100% rested, prepared, and ready to go on October 24th in Blacksburg. This VT team isn’t great, but they did look much better against NCSU last week. Our offense must be able to move the ball if we want to get a win there.

Quick and healthy healing to those injured during the Army game.

Per Steve Wiseman on Twitter, everyone will be okay although Kyler Brown will miss some games. I was really worried about Deondre Singleton and Carlos Wray. We cannot afford multiple injuries. Brown should be back at some point this season.

Bob Green wrote:Per Steve Wiseman on Twitter, everyone will be okay although Kyler Brown will miss some games. I was really worried about Deondre Singleton and Carlos Wray. We cannot afford multiple injuries. Brown should be back at some point this season.

Quick and Healthy Healing !!!!

Here are my latest ramblings:

http://bluedevilnation.net/2015/10/prev ... he-season/

1. Recap of 1st half of season
2. Notable performances
3. ACC Power Rankings
4. Preview of 2nd half of season
5. Prediction on final record and bowl game destination

Brought to you courtesy of your friendly neighborhood hack.

Bob Green wrote:Here are my latest ramblings:

http://bluedevilnation.net/2015/10/prev ... he-season/

1. Recap of 1st half of season
2. Notable performances
3. ACC Power Rankings
4. Preview of 2nd half of season
5. Prediction on final record and bowl game destination

Brought to you courtesy of your friendly neighborhood hack.

Thanks again, Bob. All that sounds very reasonable, unless, of course it doesn't happen .