Blue Devils put away Navy

Staff photo by Chuck Liddy

• First Look: Navy at Duke

DURHAM — The 2007 Duke Blue Devils did not know how to put people away in games. The 2008 version might finally have learned how while beating Navy 41-31 at Wallace Wade Stadium on Saturday.

It takes big plays like Adrian Aye-Darko's interception of Navy QB Jarod Bryant with about seven minutes left in the game and Eron Riley's 49-yard catch-run-and-score minutes earlier to give Duke a 10-point lead in what had been a wild-and-woolly contest. 

It takes the ability to manage the clock, which Duke did in the final seven minutes of the game after Aye-Darko's interception. Though the Devils didn't run the ball that well in the game, it kept possession and gave Navy just 29 seconds at the end to try to make a run at them.

It takes great defense and field position. After giving up 171 yards on the ground in the first half, Duke allowed just 17 in the third quarter while doing good work on punt coverage to put the Midshipmen in some tough situations.

Navy already was stuck down in its own territory when it went for it on fourth-and-1 on its own 38 late in the third and Duke’s Charlie Hatcher and Michael Tauiliili stopped Navy QB Jarod Bryant short of the first down.

Duke sixth-year senior Tielor Robinson scored on a two-yard drive, his first rushing touchdown at Duke with 1:46 left in the third to give the Devils a 34-24 lead but Bryant hooked up with Tyree Barnes for a 68-yard score going the other way to close the gap.

But Duke stayed strong on defense against a Navy option offense that gives everyone problems and held the Middies off.

Navy led 24-20 at halftime but this game has the defense-is-on-vacation feel and back-and-forth taste of last season’s 89-point shootout in Annapolis, Md.

Just look at how the half ended. The score was tied at 17-17 late in the second quarter but Duke wasn't able to move the ball on its second-to-last possession and Navy made the Blue Devils pay three plays later when Bobby Doyle found paydirt from 17 yards out to give the Middies the halftime advantage.

Then there was a Joe Surgan sighting with a positive spin. Surgan, the much-maligned Duke kicker with the long leg but shaky accuracy the past two seasons, nailed a career-best 52-yarder as time expired. It tied the eighth longest field goal in Duke history.

Duke had trailed 14-10 in the second quarter after Nick Maggio missed a 33-yard field goal but regained the lead by making Navy pay for a big mistake. Navy QB Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada and RB Shun White flubbed a handoff on what looked like a wide open run play up the middle of the Duke defense.

Duke LB Vincent Rey jumped on it and ran it back 37 yards for Duke’s first defensive touchdown of the season with 8:09 left in the half but Navy answered with a 27-yard field goal to tie the score with 1:27 left.

Duke looked solid to open the game as QB Thaddeus Lewis led Duke on a 5-minute drive to open the game, hooking up with Eron Riley on a crossing pattern for a 27-yard touchdown. But White, the leading rusher in the nation, popped off a 73-yard jaunt for a score on Navy’s first possession to tie the score at 7-7.

Maggio then kicked a career-bet 46-yarder with 3:29 left in the half.

But after Tauiliili stopped White on a third-and-short, Duke punt returner Leon Wright lost the punt and Navy recovered at the Duke 10-yard line. Kaheaku-Enhada found Greg Shinego in the corner for the Middies’ second score two plays later to give Navy a 14-10 first-quarter lead.

Duke is 2-1 on the season going into its bye week.