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Duke has opened in Vegas as a 4 points favorite. We need this win desperately to break the slide and gain some momentum heading to the bowl game.

Bob Green wrote:Duke has opened in Vegas as a 4 points favorite. We need this win desperately to break the slide and gain some momentum heading to the bowl game.

Vegas must not have watched our last ~3 games.

The UVA game was a downer.....until the fourth quarter. I'm optimistic about this last game. Our players are the same young men we cheered early in the season. I view this situation as somewhat like when our children have struggled to accomplish things we know they can do. Being upbeat and acting accordingly is the first step of changing the outcome.

Devil in the Blue Dress wrote:The UVA game was a downer.....until the fourth quarter. I'm optimistic about this last game. Our players are the same young men we cheered early in the season. I view this situation as somewhat like when our children have struggled to accomplish things we know they can do. Being upbeat and acting accordingly is the first step of changing the outcome.

YES! Hugs and vibes to our guys!!! GO DUKE!!!

Devil in the Blue Dress wrote:The UVA game was a downer.....until the fourth quarter. I'm optimistic about this last game. Our players are the same young men we cheered early in the season. I view this situation as somewhat like when our children have struggled to accomplish things we know they can do. Being upbeat and acting accordingly is the first step of changing the outcome.

Ditto !!!!

LET"S GO DUKE!!!!

Game Day! Let's Go Duke!! Beat Wake Forest!!!

I am so happy NOT to see black uniforms

It's a win. It's a relief, but holy shit, our *efense sucks. WFU got 450 yds.

Ending the regular season on a high note, always good to take a win into a bowl game. Not perfect by a long shot, but I'm smiling.

devildeac wrote:It's a win. It's a relief, but holy shit, our *efense sucks. WFU got 450 yds.

An adjustment was made yesterday. DeVon Edwards was moved to cornerback in place of Alonzo Saxton/Jeremy McDuffie. Those two guys have been getting eat up by opposing wide receivers. Phillip Carter played the safety slot normally filled by Edwards. Carter made a couple of good plays defending passes, but he can't tackle. We need a second cover corner to complement Breon Borders. Perhaps Bryon Fields comes back healthy or freshman Mark Gilbert is ready to go as a true freshman.

Which seniors are we losing and what is the impact (from least to most):

* Linebacker Dwayne Norman. Little to no impact as we have lots of young talent at linebacker.
* Defensive ends Kyler Brown, Deion Williams and Britton Grier. These guys are not good with DE being our weakest position.
* Defensive tackle Carlos Wray. Big shoes to fill but we are solid at tackle.
* Strike Safety Jeremy Cash. Huge shoes to be filled by someone. A return to a 4-3 defense next season would not surprise me.

Overall, lots of improvement needed on defense with the biggest weakness being defensive end where our current players cannot create a pass rush or seal the edge on running plays. To be quite blunt, our defensive ends suck.

Bob Green wrote:

devildeac wrote:It's a win. It's a relief, but holy shit, our *efense sucks. WFU got 450 yds.

An adjustment was made yesterday. DeVon Edwards was moved to cornerback in place of Alonzo Saxton/Jeremy McDuffie. Those two guys have been getting eat up by opposing wide receivers. Phillip Carter played the safety slot normally filled by Edwards. Carter made a couple of good plays defending passes, but he can't tackle. We need a second cover corner to complement Breon Borders. Perhaps Bryon Fields comes back healthy or freshman Mark Gilbert is ready to go as a true freshman.

Which seniors are we losing and what is the impact (from least to most):

* Linebacker Dwayne Norman. Little to no impact as we have lots of young talent at linebacker.
* Defensive ends Kyler Brown, Deion Williams and Britton Grier. These guys are not good with DE being our weakest position.
* Defensive tackle Carlos Wray. Big shoes to fill but we are solid at tackle.
* Strike Safety Jeremy Cash. Huge shoes to be filled by someone. A return to a 4-3 defense next season would not surprise me.

Overall, lots of improvement needed on defense with the biggest weakness being defensive end where our current players cannot create a pass rush or seal the edge on running plays. To be quite blunt, our defensive ends suck.

Happily impressed by Corbin McCarthy filling in for Cash.

CameronBornAndBred wrote:

Bob Green wrote:

devildeac wrote:It's a win. It's a relief, but holy shit, our *efense sucks. WFU got 450 yds.

An adjustment was made yesterday. DeVon Edwards was moved to cornerback in place of Alonzo Saxton/Jeremy McDuffie. Those two guys have been getting eat up by opposing wide receivers. Phillip Carter played the safety slot normally filled by Edwards. Carter made a couple of good plays defending passes, but he can't tackle. We need a second cover corner to complement Breon Borders. Perhaps Bryon Fields comes back healthy or freshman Mark Gilbert is ready to go as a true freshman.

Which seniors are we losing and what is the impact (from least to most):

* Linebacker Dwayne Norman. Little to no impact as we have lots of young talent at linebacker.
* Defensive ends Kyler Brown, Deion Williams and Britton Grier. These guys are not good with DE being our weakest position.
* Defensive tackle Carlos Wray. Big shoes to fill but we are solid at tackle.
* Strike Safety Jeremy Cash. Huge shoes to be filled by someone. A return to a 4-3 defense next season would not surprise me.

Overall, lots of improvement needed on defense with the biggest weakness being defensive end where our current players cannot create a pass rush or seal the edge on running plays. To be quite blunt, our defensive ends suck.

Happily impressed by Corbin McCarthy filling in for Cash.

I noticed this as well. I think Corbin will have a chance to compete for one of the starting safety spots next year with how well he has played at times this season.

Our defense obviously needs to improve next year. Hopefully we will have Edwards, Borders, Singleton, and Fields all healthy for the start of the 2016 season. Those four have all proven themselves and play well when they are all on the field at the same time.

wolfpackdevil wrote: Our defense obviously needs to improve next year.

I'd be happy with it looking like it did in September.

CameronBornAndBred wrote:

wolfpackdevil wrote: Our defense obviously needs to improve next year.

I'd be happy with it looking like it did in September.

I think that has more to do with the teams we were playing. Our defense has been very good all year against teams that are "run-first" offenses. Our defense was good against NW, and then great against GT/BC/Army. We started giving up a massive amount of points when we started playing teams that were capable of throwing the football. In my opinion, this is due to our lack of a pass rush and our linebackers not being able to play in pass coverage.

There are several freshmen on the defense who did not play in 2015 who could make an impact as redshirt freshmen in 2016:

LB - Joe Giles-Harris (6'2" 220)
DE - Trevon McSwain (6'6" 265)
DE - Twazanga Mugala (6'3" 230)
DT - Zach Morris (6'3" 295) - out for the season with a knee injury in 2015
S - Brandon Feamster (6'3" 210)
S - Jordan Hayes (6' 170)

The 2016 class will bring in a lot of talent at linebacker. The defense needs to improve and that improvement will be from both upperclassmen who are a year bigger, stronger and more experienced, and from an infusion of young talent. As Wolfpackdevil states above, we can't generate a pass rush and our linebackers can't pass cover so upgrades at DE and LB will be mandatory.

One guy who could make an immediate impact is CB Mark Gilbert who is the #1 CB in North Carolina and cousin of Darrelle Revis. Rankings and bloodlines do not always work out but Gilbert is a guy worth being excited about.