DURHAM
The rigors of ACC road play will fall upon Duke's shoulders this week, but Coach David Cutcliffe is confident that his team is growing capable of carrying a heavy load.
A short bus trip on Saturday will take Duke to Raleigh for a game against N.C. State at 4 p.m. Duke has split its past two games, both at home, defeating N.C. Central and losing to Virginia Tech, but Cutcliffe is seeing progress.
And the key is that the progress is the type that he wants to see, the kind that turns struggling teams into competitive teams.
"I thought we've played the last six quarters like I expect us to be able to play," Cutcliffe said. "We have got to improve, though. We're far from satisfied with effort alone. The focus is taking that effort and putting it into outstanding execution."
The game at Carter-Finley Stadium will thrust Duke into conditions that have been demanding for its teams. Duke has lost its past 20 ACC road games, since a 30-22 win at North Carolina on Nov. 22, 2003.
Duke has also lost its past 11 games to N.C. State, although five were decided by four points or less and two others were decided by seven points. Cutcliffe said that yesterday was too early in the week to mention the losing streak, but that the subject will likely come up on Friday or game day.
Cutcliffe said he respects the threat posed by Russell Wilson, the Wolfpack's crafty quarterback, for the lighting-quick manner that he can evade pass rushes and fire passes, but the Blue Devils players are confident that they can escape with a win after battling the Hokies to the end last week before losing 34-26.
Cutcliffe told his players to not accept the Virginia Tech outcome as a ‘moral victory,' and found a solid supporter in tight end Brandon King.
"I've heard that before, but it really hit home last week," King said. "We could have easily come out of that game thinking, ‘We only lost by eight points to Virginia Tech,' but he hit it on the head. There are no moral victories.
"Either you win or you lose. We're a good-enough team to where we need to win. We can't lose and feel good about it. When we lose we need to figure out what we did wrong and get better. And, as Coach said, we need to explode."
Many points will be covered in practice this week, and one will receive special emphasis. Cutcliffe wants his defensive players to stay calm when the slippery Wilson scampers past the rush for a big gain or connects on a long pass.
Cutcliffe wants the defense to not surrender big plays, but he understands that, with a quarterback possessing the talents of Wilson, something significant is going to break at some point.
"He's going to make some plays; the best thing you can do is not let make two or three in a row," Cutcliffe said. "Once he makes a play on you, you can't hang your head.
"On a couple of occasions the other day, we came back and played strong after giving up big plays. What happens with a guy like Russell Wilson, you know he's going to make his plays, so as much as we're coaching the physical parts of it, you've got to coach the mental parts of playing against a guy that good."
bcole@wsjournal.com.
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