Coach David Cutcliffe's faith in Duke football hasn't been shaken, despite a loss last Saturday in its season-opening game.
Cutcliffe said he's confident that his second Duke team has the qualities necessary to rebound from a 24-16 loss to Richmond, an NCAA Football Championship Subdivision team, and finish with the program's first winning record since the 1994 season.
"I'm very sure," Cutcliffe said. "You've got to hear what I said. I said this team has capabilities to be a bowl team. It should be a bowl team. There's no ifs, ands or buts about it.
"Obviously the mountain gets a little higher when you lose. We've got to turn around and go win seven games now. You've got to love challenges. You've got to love the opportunity."
Duke will play its next two games on the road, starting on Saturday at Army and then at Kansas on Sept. 19. Cutcliffe said he thought the recovery was under way yesterday after a spirited morning practice when, he said, his players were eager to eliminate the problems that arose against Richmond.
Quarterback Thad Lewis gave several teammates a pep talk after the game, telling them to put the loss behind them and to look ahead to the season's final 11 games.
"I talked to some of the guys and said, ‘I don't want to see your heads hanging low. I don't want you to pout about it. It's a long season.' Nobody said it was going to be easy, and nobody said it was going to be easy to go undefeated," Lewis said.
Cutcliffe identified four areas which must be improved: the kicking game, physical play on defense and offense, consistency on offense in third-down conversions, and consistency in all phases of execution.
The kicking game broke down again. The Blue Devils' first punt was blocked and returned for a touchdown that gave the Spiders a 7-0 lead. Specialist Nick Maggio missed his two field-goal attempts, from 38 and 36 yards.
Lewis passed for 350 yards and two touchdowns. He completed 34 of 55 passes, wasn't intercepted and was sacked only once. The Blue Devils rushed for 19 yards in 16 carries.
Tight end Brandon King said that every offensive player bore responsibility for the shortcomings in the rushing game by not blocking better or running more precise pass routes.
Lewis put together a statistical performance that would usually lead a team to victory, but Cutcliffe said he wasn't satisfied with his effort.
"He can play better," Cutcliffe said. "Some of the run-game responsibility falls on him. When you're a quarterback in our system and you're spreading the field, you've got to make run-game decisions. You've got to do your part to help us."
Cutcliffe said he thought Richmond's defense was designed to stop Duke's rushing. He said that if Duke had played better in its passing game, starting with Lewis and including the linemen and the receivers, that it could have won.
"I'm not being disrespectful to Richmond, but we should have thrown for over 500 yards and scored enough points to win the game," Cutcliffe said.
"We should have. So was I pleased with the way we played? No, not at all."
Cutcliffe said he hasn't decided if Maggio or Will Snyderwine will kick at Army. No wholesale changes are planned, but Kinney Rucker's unexpected return at defensive tackle will allow Brandon Harper to return to the offensive line. Harper had moved to the defensive line to make up for Rucker's absence.
At least a handful of freshmen defensive players could play more on Saturday in an effort to stop Army's option offense.
"We've got to have people out there who know what they're doing," Cutcliffe said. "You may see John Drew (a lineman) a little bit more, maybe Augie Campbell and Tyree Glover (both linebackers) and a few others."
■ Bill Cole can be reached at bcole@wsjournal.com.
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