Quotes: Duke 41, Navy 31

Duke Coach David Cutcliffe

“At halftime, I felt good. The players kind of had a little shocked look on their face. I think they really expected to play well. It wasn't our best half. We had played good, but we had three major errors in our kicking game ? we had a miscue in fielding a punt, missed field goal and then a penalty; a block in the back right there before the half. I am trying to conserve time. I have no doubt that they cannot stop us in the two-minute drill is why I conserved time ? here we start on the nine-yard line or whatever it was.”

“I am real proud of our staff for their plan. I had a good time congratulating everybody in the locker room ? there were a lot to congratulate. Most importantly congratulate our team for responding to a well-performed second half.”

On the field goal at the end of the half:
“I told them after the game, I kind of liked the 52-yard field goal. When you are ahead two scores instead of one there at the end. That was significant. We would have had to play the game differently had we just been up seven at that time. You never know. We try to tell them. You never know what play is going to win a football game. We had disappeared a little bit a week ago in the second quarter and that was a nice lift to get points at the end.”

On defense creating offense ? Vincent Rey getting the touchdown:
“Huge ? it was a pretty good athletic move there. Scooping and scoring is not as easy as everybody thinks it is. I thought it was very athletic. Defensively, I am sitting here looking at it. They had 207 yards rushing and one of those was a 73-yard run. We did a lot of good adjustments at halftime. I don't know what they got rushing in the second half, but one of the best performances I have seen in a defense. I have watched Navy offenses ? I have not seen any defense shut them down like ours did today in the second half.”

On the Riley/Lewis combination:
“They are pretty special friends. Eron ? he is kind of climbing the ladder. If we can get him completely healthy, he is pretty darn fast and strong. The guy power cleans over 300 pounds. He is an unusual receiver. If we can get him healthy, he could have a pretty special senior year.”

On the second half:
“We have a lot of corrections to make. We've got an open date now to get some people healthy. We are a lot more beat up than I like at this stage in the season. So hopefully we can get some people healthy. More importantly, we are going to use this open date to get better. If we will do that, we will go into the next little phase here hopefully a confident football team that if we play well we will have the opportunity to win.”

Senior Eron Riley

On becoming the most prolific quarterback/receiver combo at Duke:
“Off the record, I didn't know anything about it. I was just going out there; I was on a bumb ankle and was trying to make plays for my team. In the process of it we got a win ? that was the main goal as we got that. Hopefully there will be more to come.”

On closing out the second half:
“Closing out in the second half is a great thing. That would have helped us out a lot last year if we would have been able to do that in a couple games last year. As we come into this season, we were able to do it.”

On sustaining the success:
“This cannot be an in-and-out thing. We have to keep building on it, keep practicing hard and hopefully come out and do the same thing over and over again. So the younger guys can see that we are doing it and they can keep building on it. Even when I am gone ? keep making this a running program.”

Junior Thaddeus Lewis

“It feels good to come out here and get a big win. Last year, they got us at the end and we felt like we didn't finish the game. Last week, we felt like we didn't finish the game and we did it today.”

“Coach always stresses to be patient, be patient. When it is time to take a shot, take a shot. This week we did something we didn't do last week ? make plays. The wide receivers made good plays this week and that was great.”

On the week off and preparing for Virginia:
“We have to take advantage of this week ? many injuries, nicks and things like that we have to take care of. Enjoy this day and the days we have off, but we also have to stay focused because we have to play football. Get a jump start on Virginia on our days off ? get in here and watch film.”

Navy Coach Ken Niumatalolo

On Lewis to Riley Combination
“They did a nice job. They got things done when they needed to get them done. They're good players and Coach Cutcliffe is a good coach and got them into the position to make plays and they made those plays.”

On the offense's inability to get going in the second half
“It started off with field position, you get the ball on the one and your nine. That's first and foremost. The opening kickoff killed us. It was just a lack of communication that killed us, and then to get the ball on the one. It started off with bad field position, but you got to drive the ball. You've got to go 99 and 90 yards and find a way to get it going and we didn't.”

On Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada not returning in the game
“He couldn't go, heat exhaustion and he cramped up. We knew going into the week we wouldn't know how long he would last. This was his first action. He had basically two days of full work and he's been out for six weeks. To be out for six weeks and come play Division I football, I mean there are guys who are out for six weeks who can't even jog. I thought he did a good job in the first half. He does a great job of orchestrating our offense, but he just couldn't continue.”

On the loss of Eric Kettani and Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada
“Those are two guys we're counting on. Those are our two big guns. Eric's our leading rusher coming back and we lose him early in the game and then we lose Kaipo after the first half. The whole dynamics of our team changes. Other guys have to step up.”

On getting back into the game after the Tyree Barnes touchdown
“We think we're back in it, but you have to give Duke credit. They responded well and you have to credit Coach Cutcliffe. Those guys have obviously bought into what he's preaching and they continued to fight. You have to take your hats off to Duke. I can say all these things like Kaipo wasn't playing and we had injuries. They made plays and they won the game so you have to give them credit.”

On next week's game at Rutgers
“This one is a big game for us and it's going to be an even bigger game for us now. They're Rutgers, they've beaten us the last three or four times we played them. They're a good football team and Duke is a football team so we have to find a way to respond and bounce back from today.”

Players Mentioned

Thaddeus Lewis

Vincent Rey

Eron Riley

Duke information