Duke football head coach David Cutcliffe met with the media on Monday to review Saturday’s loss to Boston College and this week’s matchup with Virginia.
Cutcliffe shouldered the blame for the loss to Boston College, but expects growth from his team this week as they head into another week against an opponent taking the field for the first time.
Opening Statement
Obviously a unique weekend to deal with. Our team had great work yesterday. It wasn’t easy to rekindle a fire, but we were able to do that. We have standards that have to be met. It’s a unique year to say the least with dealing with all of the time away that the squad spent, getting back in rhythm. Didn’t play near as well the second week as the first week, which puts certainly the pressure right here. I’m 100-percent responsible for that, because our standards have to be set by the head football coach. I don’t think there’s any question that we have some guys playing really well. Can’t say enough great things about the way we’ve pressured the quarterback. Vic Dimukeje has been outstanding. You see Chris Rumph showing up. Ben Frye. The defensive front has really set a tone for us. I think our offensive line has been better and good. Devery Hamilton has played really, really well and that needs to be said because people don’t see that near enough.
But do we need consistency? Absolutely. Do we need a little bit more hunger? Absolutely. I’m looking forward to a week of practice. The opportunities as they present themselves. Continuing to move forward and we will attack the problem. We have never run away from any issues since we’ve been here and we’re certainly not running away from his one.
On the defensive pressure they have gotten on opposing quarterbacks
One of the things you do, and we’re able to do - you do a lot of your contact one on one. So we have a lot of pass rush work. Our ones versus our ones. We do half line pass rush work where you’re working your twist and different circumstances against ones versus ones. I think Coach Frey and Coach Albert have done a great job of doing that, of setting a tone. I that experience of the defensive front is paying off. They understand our standards of play and the consistency we have to have and I really expect this to get better and better. Now you’re going to run into some really fine offensive lines. Notre Dame had one, absolutely. Boston College had a good offensive line. But that’s the work that we’ve got to go get done. Hopefully we get better as the season goes along and we don’t see any kind of fade off in that regard.
On ball security and red zone efficiency
You have a difficult time knowing right where we are. We had one scrimmage in the fall camp and that was it. We had no scrimmages from the spring, which obviously we didn’t get a spring. So trying to get a team game ready, and that’s one of the things I have critiqued myself as a play caller - when you see things or you try things you better know what’s game ready. And I’m not going to blame a player if it’s not executed just like it should’ve been if we haven’t put it in a circumstance where it’s game ready. So it kind of goes back to all of those challenges.
Now, taking care fo the football - what I call staying belly down, I don’t want to see people carrying the ball with turning their belly up. Those are going to be fumbles. People have to finish catches and runs. Quarterbacks have to be accountable where they put the ball. Receivers have to be accountable where they are on the field. If that sounds like coaching, it is on my part. You have to coach all of those little things to take care of the football and put yourself in position to put touchdowns together. The reality is this - we’ve probably left eight touchdowns on the field in two games. And we know we turned it over five times in this past ball game and when you do that you’re not going to win. Can you fix it? Yes, you’ve got to go fix it out there on the practice field.
On Virginia
They’re really a good defensive systematic team. I think they’re as intricate defensively as any team we play. They’ve done a good job of recruiting players. Their players on well prepared. I’ve known Bronco for a long, long time. They’ve had some good fortune with some guys - Bryce Perkins coming in there made a huge difference. They were Coastal Division champions for a reason a year ago and they’ve got a lot of players back that return. So they’re just challenging for a lot of people. Certainly we haven’t played as well as we would’ve liked against them. Virginia was a team we had been playing well against. We’ve just got to go out and do the things you do to win football games. First of all, as Coach Bryant used to say, more games are lost than won. We can’t go out there and lose the game with turnovers and a year ago we wrapped up gifts and gave it to them.