David Cutcliffe Discusses Duke's Up-Tempo Offense

First down is critical to success in high tempo

Duke moved to a more up-tempo offense against Virginia Tech, and the 31 points the Blue Devils scored indicated that it might be a good idea to continue with it going forward.

There are some concerns that David Cutcliffe has over the faster offense. One of them is the danger of losing the time of possession battle, which will wear out his defense. Against the Hokies, Duke’s defense was on the field for 34 of the 60 minutes.

The key to avoiding that is for the offense to stay on track for first downs while it’s on the field.

“It stays on my mind all the time,” Cutcliffe said. “Certainly, we prefer to make first downs and stay on the field. One of the things I felt like was key (against the Hokies) was to win the battle of first downs.”

Duke wasn’t able to accomplish that, getting 19 first downs to Tech’s 25.

A key to making first downs is performing well on first down. Duke didn’t accomplish that either. Duke averaged just 2.5 yards per play on first down, lesss than half of its 5.4 yards per play average for the game. On the first down of a new drive, the Blue Devils averaged just 2.7 yards.

Duke also had 20 penalty yards on first down, threw an interception and was sacked four times.

“Our offense, if we win first down, you’ve got a great opportunity to convert and stay on the field,” Cutcliffe said. “We didn’t do that enough. When we get going offensively, I think tempo can help us take it down the field and score. You can’t have penalties. You cant have lost yardage situations. If we can’t stay on the field, then you have to look at other methods as far as running clock.”