Duke used one other massive recreation from working again Nate Sheppard, key throws from quarterback Walker Eget, and a strong defensive effort to open ACC play with a 35-7 victory over Stanford.
Here is every little thing Stanford head coach Tavita Pritchard mentioned following the sport:
Commercial
Opening assertion
I simply left the locker room speaking to our staff, and what I instructed them was, one, that is a very good soccer staff. And there is a motive that this program gained the convention championship recreation a 12 months in the past. And on the identical cut-off date, we didn’t play a very good recreation, and we missed the mark. And that begins with me. That begins with me as a result of I believed we had two actually good weeks of observe within the bye week. After which this final week, I believed our guys did an amazing job prepping and simply getting higher every single day. I believed we had robust practices each weeks, and we had been properly positioned to come back out and play properly on this recreation, and we didn’t. And that begins with me and that trickles to our employees after which our gamers. And the protection, I believed, performed properly early, obtained some stops and positively performed properly sufficient for us to get some momentum again on the opposite aspect of the ball and hold us within the recreation.
After which as the sport wore on, I believed we gave up some explosive performs. And granted, that is a very good again. There’s two good backs on that aspect, and so they do an amazing job of breaking tackles. And I do know that we’re additionally a very good tackling soccer staff, and that did not present at present in a few of these explosives, particularly on a few of these second-and-longs. On particular groups, we knew they’ve accomplished a very good job prior to now of stealing possessions. They did so once more at present on the opening kick. And I believed that was an enormous shift in momentum; clearly for us to not get that opening kick, performed an enormous function. After which on offense simply did not maintain drives. We did not maintain drives. And on the finish of the day you must, towards a staff that can decide to working the ball like that, you must do a very good job of sustaining drives and getting first downs and ending with factors not less than, however ending the tip zone.
And we didn’t do a ok job of that at present. And we will likely be again, and we’ll work out how we are able to get these issues to translate. And once more, it begins with me.
Commercial
On how Duke was in a position to get some massive performs
Yeah, first, Nate Shepherd’s an amazing again. He got here in main the nation in all-purpose yards and speeding, and so kudos to him. And on the identical cut-off date, we now have plenty of perception in the way in which that we deal with, the way in which that we train tackling. And with out having watched the movie, my guess is whether or not it was dropping leverage or wrapping up, it is a man that you must leverage together with your protection, and you must get him to the bottom, and you bought to wrap him up. And there have been some spots the place we fell in need of that, and that is the disconnect, and that is the place we now have to take a step.
On Duke changing the onside kick to begin the sport
For Duke to do this and get the ball again, it was an enormous swing in momentum. And we knew that they’ve accomplished a very good job on particular groups of stealing these possessions. And so for us to should go from, hey, we predict we’ll get the ball on offense to line up and play protection, that was, once more, they know who they’re, and so they’ve accomplished an amazing job of on this program teaching their guys to be there. And the fact is we now have to be centered from the opening kick. And that was living proof in that situation. And we are able to say we speak about it, however on the finish of the day, it is on us as coaches to make it possible for it is on me to make it possible for we’re centered from the very first snap.
Commercial
On QB being beneath strain all day
They do a very good job with a few of their strain packages. And I feel a few of the occasions that he was feeling strain needed to do with the blitzes. I feel typically we are able to do higher blocking up entrance or being on the identical web page within the blocking unit. And in order that comes again to our communication, our schemes. After which I discussed this, getting our week of observe and the issues we’re engaged on all through the week to translate to recreation day. And that falls on me and our employees to make it possible for we’re getting these issues to translate.
Message at halftime
On the defensive aspect, I do know we had been doing a fairly good job towards them and getting some stops. And clearly we had the large turnover early within the recreation of getting off the sphere. And so persevering with to tack the ball and getting stops on protection, getting that actually good again down. After which on offense, we wanted to complete drives, and we wanted to do a greater job defending the passer. And so I suppose going into the second half, we needed to maintain attempting to combine up the launch level and the timing of the throwing recreation and a few play actions, and it by no means felt like we actually obtained that off the bottom along with attempting to proceed to get the run recreation going. And that was unlucky as a result of, once more, whenever you speak about these halftime changes, to come back out and never have the ability to pull via in these, that was tough.
This text initially appeared on Duke Wire: Every little thing Stanford HC Tavita Pritchard mentioned following Duke’s win