Miami Football: 3 bold predictions vs. Duke in Week 5
Miami football and the Duke Blue Devils face off in a rare Friday night meeting. Here are three bold predictions for their contest.
The Miami Hurricanes and Duke Blue Devils are both undefeated entering their ACC Coastal matchup. All good things must come to an end for one team in this week’s edition of bold predictions, however.
The Hurricanes have won 11 of the last 12 meetings, including four-straight meetings over Duke. This season, the Blue Devils seemed to have turned things around with their 4-0 start, but they still could hit a few snags against the Hurricanes in Week 5.
They do have more experience under their belts in terms of games played, but it may be tough for them to pull out a victory, even as the home team.
It will be close, but here’s a look at a few bold predictions for this week’s Miami vs. Duke game.
3. The Hurricanes’ defense solves secondary problem
The Miami Hurricanes defense got lit up last week by Toledo Rockets quarterback Logan Woodside for 342 passing yards and three passing touchdowns.
Fans can credit Woodside’s performance for a reason the score remained close in the fourth quarter. The score was 38-30 with 7:37 remaining in the game before Miami pulled away.
The biggest question mark of the season going in was how the secondary would perform after having to replace three starters in the secondary. The Hurricanes currently rank 13th in the ACC in passing yards allowed (286.0 ypg) through two games.
Their front seven has been their biggest strength as they’ve allowed just 103.0 rushing yards per game, ranking sixth in the conference in that category.
Their sample size is a bit small at the moment with games coming against Bethune-Cookman and Toledo. The advantage for Miami here is Duke’s lack of a big play receiver. Three different Blue Devils have a touchdown reception.
Wide receiver T.J. Rahming leads the team with 24 receptions for 248 receiving yards but has no touchdown receptions on the season. Tight end Davis Koppenhaver leads the team with two touchdown receptions, although he has just 45 receiving yards in 2017.
The Blue Devils spread the ball out on offense, but their bread and butter is on the ground. Granted, quarterback Daniel Jones threw for over 300 yards along with three touchdown passes in 2016 but experience should prevail for Miami in the end.