Duke’s bat-downs are no flukes

DURHAM – Duke’s defensive players joke with tackle Ja’Mion Franklin about a particular physical feature, and the 6-2, 311-pound defensive tackle has a simple response.

“Guys are always getting on me for having the shortest arms,” Franklin said after Saturday’s win over Virginia, “but I tell them I’m leading them in batted balls.”

Indeed, Franklin batted down two of Brennan Armstrong’s passes last weekend, bringing his total to four this season.

Those bat-downs aren’t accidents.

“If you look at me and the other guys at practice, that’s what we do,” said the fifth-year player, who’s in his second season at Duke after spending three at Notre Dame. “We get our knock-back if we can, to get clean on a rush, and we throw our hand up to see if we can bat the ball down.”

Duke had six pass break-ups against Virginia, right in line with the season average of 6.4 passes defended per game, which is tied for fourth-best in the country.

Not all pass defenses are the same, though.

When Duke had 14 pass break-ups (plus Brandon Johnson’s interception) against Northwestern, 12 of them were by defensive backs or Shaka Heyward.

Of Duke’s six break-ups against Virginia, only one of them – by safety Darius Joiner – was on a downfield pass.

The other five were a smattering of passes batted down at or behind the line of scrimmage. Franklin notched two, defensive end Michael Reese and Heyward had one each when Armstrong scrambled, and defensive tackle DeWayne Carter knocked one down at the line.

“We felt like (Armstrong) had a tremendous amount of moxie as a quarterback and we felt like when the play broke down, he got better,” coach Mike Elko said. “When he got out of the pocket and he was able to run free and see the field clean, he made some really impressive throws, dating even back to last year when he was doing that type of stuff.”