Chase Brice: Duke Is Excited to Play Football Again

First win gives team an emotional lift

After four losses—some of them extremely frustrating—to open the season, Duke broke through with it’s first win of 2020, 38-24 over Syracuse on Saturday.

“It’s a great feeling,” starting quarterback Chase Brice said. Brice passed for 270 yards and two touchdowns in the win. “We’ve been close the other games. Finally, we get to go into the locker room. I see smiles. I see cheers, dancing, people excited that we won and excited to play football again.”

Duke had leads against Virginia and Virginia Tech before losing both games, which made the slump even tougher to endure.

“I think when you’re right there, you’re right there and you end up losing, it’s hard,” Brice said. “It’s not a good feeling. So to come back out tonight and finish the way we did was pretty awesome.”

Brice and the offense had to overcome some self-inflicted damage. The Blue Devils had four turnovers, including a fumble and an interception from Brice himself. Brice’s fumble was returned by Syracuse for a touchdown.

“The biggest thing we talked about was just protecting the ball,” Brice said of the halftime message from the coaches. “We’ve been careless with the ball. Whether it’s running, whether I’m throwing, mistakes like that you just can’t afford that to happen, especially when you’re dominating the game for the most part. We’re up so many more yards, and we’re driving all the way down. Then boom! We fumble. Boom! I throw a pick. That’s the biggest thing. We just have to protect the ball, and we’ll put points on the board.”


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Shawn Krest
SHAWN KREST

Shawn Krest has covered Duke for the last decade. His work has appeared in The Sporting News, USA Today, CBSSports.com, ESPN.com and dozens of other national and regional outlets. Shawn's work has won awards from the USBWA, PFWA, BWAA and NC Press Association.