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The first of two consecutive road games against P5 opponents. What five things am I looking for this week:

1. Consistency - can the team repeat the positives from Friday night: special teams, Daniel Jones efficient, power running game, defense controlling line of scrimmage, etc...
2. Emotion or fire - will the team play inspired football on the road, in a game that starts at 11 am local time?
3. Tight Ends involved in the offense - we did not see this in Game 1.
4. A better performance from the secondary - our cornerbacks did not look good against Army, will they respond and get the job done against a main stream offense?
5. Pressure the quarterback - Thorson isn't great, but he is good so we cannot let him stand in the pocket and pick his receivers. Pressure from the DL combined with a timely blitz or two will be critical to disrupting the Wildcats offense.

My intention is to list five things each week building on what we saw in previous games to generate some discussion. I'll post my game prediction in a couple days after we hear about a few things such as Brittain Brown's health.

Duke opens as a 3 point underdog:

http://www.vegasinsider.com/college-foo ... las-vegas/

Vegas has set the Over/Under at 47 points:

http://www.vegasinsider.com/college-foo ... /team/duke

I still don't know what to expect from NW. They looked like they would win handily in their game Thursday night, but were actually pretty lucky to come away with a win. It was only a boneheaded penalty that let them run out the clock.

Duke will be a much better test for them than Purdue.

In the latest Coaches Poll, NW is essentially 27th. (Duke is 35th)

It appears Brittain Brown is good to go after he scared the daylights out of us Friday night so here is my official prediction:

Duke 20, Northwestern 17.

Both defenses set the game tone but Duke manages to win.

Bob Green wrote:It appears Brittain Brown is good to go after he scared the daylights out of us Friday night so here is my official prediction:

Duke 20, Northwestern 17.

Both defenses set the game tone but Duke manages to win.

I think the ball will be aired out lots by Northwestern, which will burn us for more than 17 points. I see a Duke win in a high scoring game.
Duke 37, Northwestern 27

I'm interested to see how our defense will look against their rushing attack. Jeremy Larkin looked really good against Purdue last week. While their QB Clayton Thorson is coming off injury, he's a talented veteran and I expect him to play well. It will be imperative that we get pressure with our front-six or our secondary could be in trouble.

It was encouraging to see Aaron Young play so well last week. With his size and strength he will be a tough one-on-one matchup for any team this year.

Feeding Brittain Brown is vital. I love Deon Jackson and his role, but this is Daniel Jones and Brittain Brown's offense. He needs 20 carries a game, no excuses.

I hope to see an intense, fired up Duke team on Saturday. Say what you want about Virginia Tech, the fight they brought to FSU on Monday was impressive. Guys flying around on defense craving contact. Playing in an empty stadium at 11am is not easy, but our guys need to bring the fight to a physical, experienced NW team.

This game is a huge opportunity for the 2018 team to make an early statement. I like our defense to win the battle up front and Daniel Jones to light up their secondary for a close win.

Duke 31
NW 24

LET'S GO DUKE!

wolfpackdevil wrote:Feeding Brittain Brown is vital.

You're 100 percent correct!

Brittain Brown has played in 14 games so far in his career. Duke is 6-0 in games Brown has 11 or more carries, 2-2 in games with exactly 10 carries and 0-4 in games with less than 10 carries.

wolfpackdevil wrote:I'm interested to see how our defense will look against their rushing attack. Jeremy Larkin looked really good against Purdue last week. While their QB Clayton Thorson is coming off injury, he's a talented veteran and I expect him to play well. It will be imperative that we get pressure with our front-six or our secondary could be in trouble.

It was encouraging to see Aaron Young play so well last week. With his size and strength he will be a tough one-on-one matchup for any team this year.

Feeding Brittain Brown is vital. I love Deon Jackson and his role, but this is Daniel Jones and Brittain Brown's offense. He needs 20 carries a game, no excuses.

I hope to see an intense, fired up Duke team on Saturday. Say what you want about Virginia Tech, the fight they brought to FSU on Monday was impressive. Guys flying around on defense craving contact. Playing in an empty stadium at 11am is not easy, but our guys need to bring the fight to a physical, experienced NW team.

This game is a huge opportunity for the 2018 team to make an early statement. I like our defense to win the battle up front and Daniel Jones to light up their secondary for a close win.

Duke 31
NW 24

LET'S GO DUKE!

Our guys should be right at home .

I'll go with:

Duke: 27
Northwestern: 24

Uniform reveal:

Blue helmet, White jersey, Blue pants.

Sounds like a winning combo to me.

Story of two halves offensively, for both teams. Nice to see our defense play a solid whole game.
Not too optimistic about the diagnosis for Jones, but of course I'm crossing my fingers.