Florida State-Clemson and Virginia-BYU Highlight a Strong Slate in Vegas ACC Predictions Week 4
Saturday Blitz Vegas ACC Predictions Week 4
Tulane Green Wave at Duke Blue Devils
Line: Duke by 17
The Duke Blue Devils are 3-0 and looking as good as ever under David Cutcliffe so far despite playing a very soft schedule. Through three games, they have turned into a rush-heavy team with Shaun Wilson, but Anthony Boone has still been highly efficient, completing 64 percent of his passes for 7 touchdowns and no interceptions on the year. Against Tulane, which has a bad offense and a worse defense, they simply need to do more of the same. The Green Wave have shown their troubles defending the pass and the run in losses to Tulsa and Georgia Tech, so there’s really no reason for Cutcliffe and Duke to change anything. Simply keep the balanced attack with more of a focus on the running game, and this will turn into a pretty easy win as long as Duke doesn’t make too many mistakes.
Tulane, meanwhile, doesn’t have much of an offense to speak of, but if Duke does have any weakness it’s up front. The Green Wave should try to get Sherman Badie going early and often to pull out the win here. Their best chance is to use a lot of him to hopefully have some long drives that eat up the clock, and then they need to find a way to force Duke into making untimely turnovers. Those two things would give them a great chance to make this game interesting, but that’s a lot that has to go right. Badie, Badie, and more Badie is the key to a Green Wave upset, though. If they use him a lot, Duke could have some trouble.
Prediction
Duke will give up a couple of rush-heavy long drives to Tulane, but it won’t matter in the grand scheme of things. The Blue Devils are too efficient on offense to let that happen, and they’ll pull out another victory with a lot of points. Still, there will be some questions raised about their rush defense going into ACC play, but it won’t look like too much of a problem Saturday. Expect an easy Duke victory.
Duke: 41 Tulane: 14