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Football
vs Tulane
Quotes: Miami 40, Duke 21
11/26/2016 9:35:00 PM | Football
Duke Head Coach David Cutcliffe
"The first emotion for me after this game, you may think a little odd, but it was one of gratitude. The game was painful in a lot of ways; we will get back to that. I am looking at our seniors and the body of work that they have done. The pain in their eyes knowing that it has come to an end. You can't get past that. The last games in the regular season, for seniors, are hard to prepare for. Certainly we were doing everything in our power to keep this from being their last game as a Duke football player. But that was the first thing we talked about. Gratitude was the appropriate emotion because of what they have accomplished. Their body of work on the football field, practice field, in the classroom, socially and from a leadership standpoint, they have done so much for this program.
“I hate that this year and this record gets wrapped up into that. Even with a 4-8 season, 31 wins in their four-year career. The ball game, I thought we fought ferociously. We again struggled offensively in the second half I know that is because we could not consistently run the ball. I still thought when it was 23 to 14, we had some decent drives there, that being one of them. At 23 to 14, we go down and missed a field goal and I felt like our team went flat. I felt like that was the most difficult point of the game emotionally and that is my job to make sure that we respond better. So when they scored at that point, the game takes on an entirely different light. Our guys, I think we still fought. You see the results of the second half to where we weren't the same team consistently, anywhere. The nemesis of the big plays.
“On defense, the nemesis has been not being able to finish drives on offense. The third quarter was awful in the conversion area. I don't know what it was, but we just couldn't convert. We would keep drives alive and our defense struggled as they stayed on the field. Miami is a very, very, very talented team, so I have to give them credit. But I also know that we have got to evaluate, which we now have some time, as a staff and a squad. To evaluate where we are and what we need to do moving forward.
“Once I finish wrapping up this press conference and this game, we will have a banquet to celebrate our seniors. We will then move forward and everything will be about the 2017 team at that point. That is kind of my synopsis of the game, a hard fought first half. Then again when it is 23-14, if we can get it to 23-17, we were playing better defensively at that point so you know you want to get it back to a one score. I thought about going for it on fourth down but it is not the thing to do when you are down two scores."
Duke WR T.J. Rahming
On Miami's screen defense:
“Yes. They definitely picked up on the screen. That's something we put in a lot of time in at practice to work on. They adjusted to the screens.”
On the adjustments Miami's defense made:
“They just made more plays than us that's all that happened.”
On Duke's offense:
“I feel like that just showed what our offense can do. We try to focus on starting out early but we just have to finish and that's what we didn't do.”
Duke QB Daniel Jones
On Miami's defensive adjustments:
“I'm not really sure they made an adjustment. You've got to give credit to them. They're a good defense. It's just on us to execute. We came out hot and it's important for us to keep the momentum and build off of what we did and we didn't do that.”
On Duke's reaction to Miami's defensive adjustments:
“I don't know. They started mixing in some pressures. They've done that and we'd seen that on tape so it's not nothing we weren't prepared for, so that's something we need to do a better job of going forward. I wouldn't say they really changed what they were doing. It was just a matter of us not executing on the same level.”
On Duke's offensive attack:
“A lot of that had to do with the fact that we got down. Probably midway through the third quarter we got down a good bit and we were trying to move the ball through the air, so I think that had something to do with it, but like I said you got to give credit to their defense. They did a good job.”
Duke C Austin Davis
On Miami's defensive pressure:
“Yes. They started to dial up the pressure. They did really well when it came to throwing all types of stunts at us. When it came to every passing down, I feel like they were blitzing all over the place. They did a really good job of disguising it and throwing a lot of stuff at us.”
On the year's successes:
“We had some great moments this year, but we also had to overcome a lot of adversity as a team. We lost three captains and a lot of seniors went down and it was tough. We're going to look back at this year as overcoming adversity and learn from it. I'm so thankful for these seniors and everything they've done for this program. They really set the standards high for us and now as someone as returning next year we have to continue to grow this program as they did because they put so much blood, sweat, and tears in to this program and we have to honor them and every person before them.”
"The first emotion for me after this game, you may think a little odd, but it was one of gratitude. The game was painful in a lot of ways; we will get back to that. I am looking at our seniors and the body of work that they have done. The pain in their eyes knowing that it has come to an end. You can't get past that. The last games in the regular season, for seniors, are hard to prepare for. Certainly we were doing everything in our power to keep this from being their last game as a Duke football player. But that was the first thing we talked about. Gratitude was the appropriate emotion because of what they have accomplished. Their body of work on the football field, practice field, in the classroom, socially and from a leadership standpoint, they have done so much for this program.
“I hate that this year and this record gets wrapped up into that. Even with a 4-8 season, 31 wins in their four-year career. The ball game, I thought we fought ferociously. We again struggled offensively in the second half I know that is because we could not consistently run the ball. I still thought when it was 23 to 14, we had some decent drives there, that being one of them. At 23 to 14, we go down and missed a field goal and I felt like our team went flat. I felt like that was the most difficult point of the game emotionally and that is my job to make sure that we respond better. So when they scored at that point, the game takes on an entirely different light. Our guys, I think we still fought. You see the results of the second half to where we weren't the same team consistently, anywhere. The nemesis of the big plays.
“On defense, the nemesis has been not being able to finish drives on offense. The third quarter was awful in the conversion area. I don't know what it was, but we just couldn't convert. We would keep drives alive and our defense struggled as they stayed on the field. Miami is a very, very, very talented team, so I have to give them credit. But I also know that we have got to evaluate, which we now have some time, as a staff and a squad. To evaluate where we are and what we need to do moving forward.
“Once I finish wrapping up this press conference and this game, we will have a banquet to celebrate our seniors. We will then move forward and everything will be about the 2017 team at that point. That is kind of my synopsis of the game, a hard fought first half. Then again when it is 23-14, if we can get it to 23-17, we were playing better defensively at that point so you know you want to get it back to a one score. I thought about going for it on fourth down but it is not the thing to do when you are down two scores."
Duke WR T.J. Rahming
On Miami's screen defense:
“Yes. They definitely picked up on the screen. That's something we put in a lot of time in at practice to work on. They adjusted to the screens.”
On the adjustments Miami's defense made:
“They just made more plays than us that's all that happened.”
On Duke's offense:
“I feel like that just showed what our offense can do. We try to focus on starting out early but we just have to finish and that's what we didn't do.”
Duke QB Daniel Jones
On Miami's defensive adjustments:
“I'm not really sure they made an adjustment. You've got to give credit to them. They're a good defense. It's just on us to execute. We came out hot and it's important for us to keep the momentum and build off of what we did and we didn't do that.”
On Duke's reaction to Miami's defensive adjustments:
“I don't know. They started mixing in some pressures. They've done that and we'd seen that on tape so it's not nothing we weren't prepared for, so that's something we need to do a better job of going forward. I wouldn't say they really changed what they were doing. It was just a matter of us not executing on the same level.”
On Duke's offensive attack:
“A lot of that had to do with the fact that we got down. Probably midway through the third quarter we got down a good bit and we were trying to move the ball through the air, so I think that had something to do with it, but like I said you got to give credit to their defense. They did a good job.”
Duke C Austin Davis
On Miami's defensive pressure:
“Yes. They started to dial up the pressure. They did really well when it came to throwing all types of stunts at us. When it came to every passing down, I feel like they were blitzing all over the place. They did a really good job of disguising it and throwing a lot of stuff at us.”
On the year's successes:
“We had some great moments this year, but we also had to overcome a lot of adversity as a team. We lost three captains and a lot of seniors went down and it was tough. We're going to look back at this year as overcoming adversity and learn from it. I'm so thankful for these seniors and everything they've done for this program. They really set the standards high for us and now as someone as returning next year we have to continue to grow this program as they did because they put so much blood, sweat, and tears in to this program and we have to honor them and every person before them.”
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