Preview: Lafayette at No. 21 Duke

DURHAM – It’s easy to look at the contributions of Wesley Williams against Clemson and be surprised.

Duke’s second-year defensive lineman blocked both of Clemson’s field goal attempts on Monday night, along with recording three QB pressures and two tackles, grading out as Duke’s fifth-best defensive player (68.3), per Pro Football Focus.

Not bad for someone who played in one game last season.

But also not surprising.

“It’s not surprising to say that you emphasize something, you work really hard at it, and that creates results,” coach Mike Elko said.

(there was more specifically on Williams here)

And you could say the same for Duke’s win.

It was a result that surprised bettors, given the Blue Devils were double-digit underdogs. Dabo Swinney seemed surprised on a few occasions.

Within Duke’s program, though, this has become the expectation — regardless of what those on the outside say.

“The word that just keeps coming to mind is validation, right?” Elko said. “Because I can say that just like every coach in America can say that. Sometimes validation is what helps (confidence) grow. I can say you should be confident to go out there in this game and if we go out there and lose by four touchdowns, there’s no validation to it and they look at me (after) the game like, ‘You’re crazy.’

“But if you get the validation to what you’re saying, I think that is what allows it to snowball.”

Duke scored its first win over a top-10 team since 1989. Among the array of rewards is the program’s first national ranking since the 2018 season.

More than 100 high school visitors were at the game. Duke’s roster wasn’t overhauled through the transfer portal when Elko took over, so a large portion of the roster endured part or both of the combined five wins across the 2020 and 2021 seasons.

“It was one of the best experiences ever,” junior safety Jaylen Stinson said. “I had a great time, you know, first time being on a field that was stormed. I really enjoyed that.”

The rewards from the season-opening win won’t end just because Duke has another game five days later.

It’s just that the Blue Devils have to move forward.

“I would think after this morning’s team meeting, they’re refocused,” Elko said on Thursday, his voice sharpening a bit on that last word.

“Probably the best way to word what today was like,” he added.

There’s as much of a glimpse into a team’s overall psyche as you’ll get. There was a reset button to be pushed and a refocusing to be achieved.

And now there’s a second game in the season.

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Here’s a primer on what you need to know for Saturday night’s game:

Time: 6 p.m.

Location: Wallace Wade Stadium.

TV: ACC Network Extra.

Announcers: Lowell Galindo (play-by-play) and Charles Arbuckle (analyst).

Radio link: Listen to the crew that knows Duke best.

Forecast: Thunderstorms possible leading up to kickoff, and then sometime in the second half. Temperatures in the mid-to-upper-70s, winds around 4-7 mph.

Series; last meeting: First meeting.

Records: Lafayette 1-0; Duke 1-0.

Stat to watch: 6.6 | 3.0.

The first number is Duke’s yards per rush against Clemson; the second is Lafayette’s yards per rush allowed in its season opener.

Look, there are obvious caveats that come with this. The Blue Devils have some matchup advantages against an FCS team that should turn this game into a formality sometime in the second half.

But that doesn’t mean we’ll write it off as such and move on.

Duke just knocked off the team that’s been perched atop the ACC for nearly a decade by rushing for 199 yards on 30 carries. Quarterback Riley Leonard and both running backs who played, Jordan Waters and Jaquez Moore, accounted for all three of Duke’s touchdowns.

Of those 199 yards, 161 came in the second half. The Blue Devils wore down Clemson and salted the game away with a physical rushing attack that became a staple during last year’s nine-win season.

Moving into a game in which Duke should have a size advantage up front means the Blue Devils should continue to pound away on the ground.

Quote of the week: “Yeah, I had to let him hear it after the first drive. But you know, he’ll bounce back.” – Stinson on fellow safety Jeremiah Lewis dropping an interception on Clemson’s first drive

“He did get a fumble recovery later.” – me

“Yeah, he did, he did. With a cast on his hand. So I guess that makes up for it.” – Stinson

We learned after this exchange from Elko that Lewis broke a thumb on Clemson’s second drive. He played through the injury, with the cast going onto his hand at halftime.

Opposing offensive player to watch: Running back Jamar Curtis (No. 22).

For reasons already highlighted in the 5 things to know about Lafayette, Curtis looks to be the star of Lafayette’s offense.

He’s coming off a 181-yard performance in the Leopards’ opener, with 19 additional yards on a couple of catches. The sophomore only needed 19 carries to put up a career-high.

At 5-8, 164, Curtis is hardly the biggest running back Duke will play this season (he might wind up being the smallest). But Curtis is bound to be the biggest key in stopping Lafayette’s offense.

Opposing defensive player to watch: Defensive end Michael Vaughn (No. 95).

Any time a player has two sacks in his collegiate debut, he needs some shine.

Vaughn accounted for two of Lafayette’s three sacks in the opener. The 6-4, 245-pounder is from Clinton, Md., and spent a post-graduate year at Wyoming Seminary.

That’s not out in the least-populated state, mind you; Wyoming Seminary is in Kingston, Penn.

Young Blue Devil to watch: Running back Peyton Jones (No. 10 or 21*).

Without Jaylen Coleman, Duke was down to Moore and Waters as the only running backs on the roster who have logged significant snaps.

And it meant Jones was that much closer to meaningful snaps.

Duke didn’t wind up needing Jones against Clemson. Moore’s 9-yard touchdown with 10½ minutes left afforded the Blue Devils’ a two-touchdown lead and was part of his 43-yard game; Waters’ 36-yarder with 3:15 left allowed the celebration to fully ignite and capped his 63-yard night.

That duo is likely to get early carries against Lafayette and if Coleman is healthy, maybe he’s due for some work. But if the game goes according to script, this should be the first action of Jones’ career.

And that’s something you should watch with eager anticipation, as he’s looked the part of a high-level running back since he arrived at Duke in January.

* Jones is on Duke’s roster as No. 10 but was wearing 21 for Monday night’s game. That probably there’s some possibility of him overlapping on a special teams unit with James Hopson II, the Blue Devils’ other No. 10, so Jones switched off of that number.

Don’t forget about: Defensive end Anthony Nelson (No. 93).

The Harvard transfer in his second season at Duke doesn’t have a sack with the Blue Devils.

But he manages to make plays when they count.

Nelson was credited with a tackle for loss against Cade Klubnik as he broke the pocket near Duke’s goal line on Clemson’s first drive of the second half — the one that ended with a blocked field goal.

And then Nelson created Duke’s biggest defensive play by penetrating the left side of Clemson’s line and had his helmet jar the ball loose from Phil Mafah, allowing Stinson the opportunity to return the ball deep into Clemson territory in the fourth quarter with the Blue Devils hanging on to a one-touchdown lead.

The 6-2, 258-pounder has started one of the 11 games he’s played for Duke — he missed three last season — and has 19 tackles, four TFLs, two fumbles forced and a fumble recovery.

Prediction: I mean … don’t freak out if Duke isn’t ahead 45-0 by halftime.

For all of the talk about how much Elko and the Blue Devils didn’t know heading into the season opener, there are still some unknowns here. They’re just results-based instead of conjecture.

As noted in the aftermath on Monday, Duke wasn’t on the national stage last season. It was a strong nine-win season easily dismissed by strength-of-schedule metrics and turnover-luck numbers.

Now Duke has slain the Tiger. Seven other ACC teams will get their cracks at Clemson this season and who knows, maybe Duke meets Clemson again in Charlotte — but Duke has the all-eyes-on-us win over Clemson on the first Monday night of football season in the bag.

With that comes the number beside Duke’s name along with scrutiny and more-pointed criticism when things go awry.

It’s a veteran team that isn’t going to overlook a lower-level team. But it’s also human nature to have some emotional hangover — made truer by the two fewer days between games.

(when they say TV runs everything, it means EV-RY-THING)

How Duke handles success and the spotlight becomes the interesting part of this week and the next two; but more on those later.