Louisville imposes will upon Duke

Duke went to Louisville and had a no good, very bad day that means the Blue Devils no longer control their path to the ACC championship game.

Louisville throttled Duke 23-0 on Saturday at L&N Stadium, dealing the 20th-ranked Blue Devils their second straight loss and third in the last four games.

The Cardinals (7-1, 4-1 ACC) scored the game’s only two touchdowns in the first quarter on runs of 14 and 23 yards by Jawhar Jordan.

It was enough to beat a Duke team that started flat.

“Hats off to Louisville. They physically got after us today, and that’s me,” Duke coach Mike Elko said. “That’s me, that’s my job. My job is to get this team ready to go physically and we didn’t answer the bell that way.”

Elko talks often about the recipe and formula for Duke to win and this was the opposite. The Blue Devils (5-3, 2-2) were outgained 234-51 in rushing yards, gave up four sacks, lost the time of possession by nearly 14 minutes and had season highs in penalties (10) and penalty yardage (82).

Duke hasn’t scored since late in the first half of last weekend’s game at Florida State; it’s the first time under Elko (21 games) that Duke has been shut out.

“Louisville has a great defense,” receiver Jordan Moore said. “I think we just didn’t execute our game plan well enough. … I think everything we’re doing is kind of self-inflicted. I need to be better, the receivers need to be better, everybody needs to be better.”

After going 72 and 49 yards for touchdowns on its first two possessions, Louisville tacked on a field goal in the second quarter and two more in the third quarter.

That was plenty to beat a Duke team that had 62 passing yards through the first three quarters and never established much of a running game.

“Obviously, we knew it was a challenge,” Elko said. “Unfortunately, we just didn’t meet it. We knew they had a good front, we knew they were going to force us to throw the ball. We knew that was something we had to get going, we weren’t able to.”

Another part of what Duke knew but failed to stop was Jordan.

Louisville’s star running back had 163 yards on 21 carries; he had two carries for 8 yards in a loss to Pittsburgh two weeks ago, which was the Cardinals’ previous game.

“The main thing is we came out flat,” defensive tackle Ja’Mion Franklin said. “That’s a mistake when you’re playing a good team, especially with a good running game and such an explosive running back like Jawhar Jordan is.”

Duke entered this game as one of four teams in the ACC with one league loss (along with Louisville). Entering the final month of the season, the Blue Devils likely need to win out and receive some help — namely, Louisville losing twice or winding up in a three-way tie — to secure a rematch with unbeaten Florida State on the first weekend of December in the ACC championship game.

Extra points: Duke’s first five losses of Elko’s tenure came by a combined 23 points; losses in the last two games have been by 18 and 23 points. … Riley Leonard completed 9 of 23 passes for 121 yards. Freshman quarterback Grayson Loftis played at the end of game, completing 3 of 5 for 30 yards. ... Duke was missing left tackle Graham Barton for the second time this season (Notre Dame being the other), and lost starting interior lineman Jacob Monk to an injury in the first half. The Blue Devils' offense was also without tight end Nicky Dalmolin, and Duke's defense was missing top cornerback Myles Jones.