Turnover Turnaround
Blue Devils rise to second in nation in turnover margin
GoDuke The Magazine
This story originally appeared in the 14.3 Issue of GoDuke the Magazine – October 2022.
No Duke fan wants a reminder of the Blue Devils’ turnover woes over the past couple of seasons.
Two years ago Duke’s offense dubiously led the country in both fumbles lost (20) and passes intercepted (19) for a total of 39 giveaways in 11 games. The defense did not come close to neutralizing that figure with its 20 takeaways. About the best thing you could say of the situation is that with the covid pandemic in full swing, there were no witnesses in the stands for most of the games.
Duke’s -19 turnover margin of 2020 improved somewhat in 2021 when the Blue Devils were only -7. But no question ball security issues played a major role in the squad’s overall record of 5-18 (1-17 ACC) across David Cutcliffe’s last two seasons as the head coach. Turnovers by definition are never timely, but many of Duke’s invariably seemed to occur in the red zone, stifling offensive scoring opportunities or setting up opponents with short fields.
Mike Elko brought several priorities to his position as Duke’s new head coach — read the GRIND acronym — and one that he has emphasized from the beginning is turnover margin. Before every game his locker room talk to the team points out the necessity of wining the turnover battle. And with a month left to go in his initial campaign, his words have been heeded to the highest degree.
After a mammoth +6 turnover margin in the Oct. 22 victory at Miami, the Blue Devils were at the opposite end of the national statistics from their 2020 iteration. Through eight games Duke stands No. 4 nationally in turnovers gained with 20 (15 fumble recoveries and five interceptions). Only Louisville (24), Illinois (21) and Western Kentucky (21) has more.
The Blue Devils also ranked No. 2 in the FBS in turnover margin at +14, with 1.75 turnovers gained per game. Only Southern Cal is better at +16 and 2.00 per game.
And those numbers reflected intense focus on turnovers on both sides of the ball. The defense had created as many change-of-possessions in eight games this year as the team did in 12 contests last year, while turning two of them into scores — DeWayne Carter’s scoop-and-score of a sack fumble against North Carolina A&T and Brandon Johnson’s pick six against Miami.
The offense’s care of the ball could not be overlooked either. Despite having a new starting quarterback, the Blue Devils had only four passes intercepted in the first eight games. And they did not have a single lost fumble until the eighth game, when wide receivers gave up two after catches, on the second play of the first half and the first play of the second half at Miami.
Those giveaways were more than offset by eight takeways in the game. Duke scored 31 of its 45 points following turnovers. It marked the first time for a Power 5 team to force that many turnovers in one game since 2009, and there was a direct correlation to sending the Blue Devils into their bye week with a 5-3 record.
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