Duke football stays unbeaten. Three takeaways from the Blue Devils’ fourth-quarter comeback

Duke rallied in the fourth quarter for the second consecutive week to stay undefeated while finding a new offensive weapon on Saturday night.

Trailing by four entering the final stanza, the Blue Devils took the lead on Maalik Murphy’s touchdown pass to freshman Que’Sean Brown and held on to beat Connecticut, 26-21, at Wallace Wade Stadium.

Having erased a fourth-quarter deficit to beat Northwestern, 26-20, in double overtime last week, Duke (3-0) has now started a season with three consecutive wins for the third year in a row.

Duke’s ability to regain its composure and respond with confidence in the fourth quarter after seeing its early 17-point lead disappear impressed its first-year coach, Manny Diaz.

“I thought they really seized control of the game,” Diaz said. “And that’s where we really had to dig down and believe in a way that, I don’t feel like Northwestern ever did that a week ago. So our guys, they took a proper punch tonight.”

Brown, a redshirt freshman, caught 11 passes for 87 yards, including a 20-yard touchdown catch from Murphy with 11:49 to play.

Murphy fired three touchdown passes while completing 28 of 43 passes for 267 yards.

Duke (3-0) scored the game’s first 17 points as Murphy threw for a pair of first-half touchdowns. Kicker Todd Pelino added a 53-yard field goal, his career longest.

After UConn scored the game’s next 21 points to lead 21-17, Pelino’s 47-yard field goal, followed by Brown’s touchdown catch, allowed Duke to escape with the win.

The Blue Devils, who started 4-0 last season, will attempt to achieve that feat again when they play at Middle Tennessee State at 4 p.m. Saturday.

Here are three takeaways from Duke’s win:

Big plays for Duke offense

Though the Blue Devils’ offense sputtered after building that 17-0 lead, it did show its ability to produce big plays against the Huskies as Murphy completed five passes covering 20 yards or more.

Two of Murphy’s touchdown passes were long throws — a 36-yard strike to Eli Pancol and the 20-yard scoring pass to Brown that put Duke in front in the fourth quarter.

In the first half, Murphy connected passes covering 25 and 20 yards to Jordan Moore. That’s in addition to a 7-yard touchdown strike to the senior wide receiver.

Brown was a key factor in the short passing game, allowing him to use his athleticism to extend plays. Of his 87 receiving yards, 71 of them were yards after the catch.

“We felt that was gonna be a key aspect of the game tonight,” Diaz said. “We felt getting the ball on the perimeter, which a lot of his throws were where we get the ball in space.”

Running game produces without starting RB

Duke played UConn without starting running back Jaquez Moore, who sustained a lower body injury early in last week’s 26-20 double-overtime win at Northwestern. Moore missed the final three quarters and overtime.

He was not in uniform Saturday night, although he was on the sidelines and not wearing a walking boot, which he used after the injury occurred at Northwestern.

Despite not having Moore, Duke rode a solid performance from Star Thomas. The Blue Devils had averaged 2.67 yards per carry over their first two games this season.

A graduate transfer from New Mexico State, Thomas gained 122 yards on 22 carries. It’s the fifth 100-yard rushing game of his career, including his games prior to Duke. It came less than a week after the 22-year-old Thomas became a father when his daughter was born on Monday.

Sophomore Peyton Jones carried 12 times to contribute 40 yards for the Blue Devils.

Though Duke was only credited with 142 rushing yards as a team because its yards lost on sacks count against rushing in college football, the Blue Devils’ running backs combined for 162 yards. Thomas and Jones combined to average 4.76 yards per carry.

Duke defense a bit leaky

For the first time this season, an opponent found a way to move the ball effectively against Duke’s defense.

UConn amassed 314 yards, more that Duke allowed to either of its first two opponents, Elon and Northwestern. The Blue Devils allowed an average of 214 total yards over the first two weeks, placing Duke No. 2 in the ACC in total defense.

But the Huskies utilized their outside zone rushing attack, as Diaz had warned, to run for 179 yards. Duke had allowed a combined 162 yards while beating Elon and Northwestern.

UConn broke free for eight rushing plays gaining more than 10 yards, including runs that gained 23 and 21 yards each.

The good news for Duke is that it held UConn to just 54 yards in the fourth quarter while shutting the Huskies out, setting the stage for the Blue Devils’ offense to erase the 21-17 lead the Huskies held entering the final quarter.

“Just settle down and not panic,” Duke safety Jaylen Stinson said. “Be resilient. On the tablets watching film, something we saw on film was we were starting to panic and not play like we were playing the first half. So when we were able to relax and just rely on each other and communicate on the field, that’s what got us through.”