Duke Football: 3 takeaways from win over NIU in Quick Lane Bowl

3. NIU wasn’t very tricky as all of their fourth-down tries failed

In the first quarter, NIU found itself going nowhere on offense. The Huskies had gone three-and-out on each of its first two drives. After Duke scored its first touchdown, the Blue Devils defense held Northern Illinois to another three-and-out situation. Instead of punting from deep inside its own territory, though, NIU instead gambled and tried a fake punt out of its own endzone.

The gamble failed, as Matt Ference lofted an errant throw, and Duke shortly thereafter scored another touchdown. It was one of several questionable decisions on special teams by a Northern Illinois team that acted as though they were playing with house money in the Quick Lane Bowl.

Northern Illinois also went for a fake field goal down in Duke territory. Just like the fake punt, that attempt also failed as Duke quickly snuffed out the scramble. About the only thing that was working for NIU on Tuesday night were downfield shots by Childers to his receivers. And even that stopped working as well as the game progressed in the second half.

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Ultimately, NIU tried for it on a half-dozen different fourth downs. All six times, the Huskies came up short. It didn’t matter whether they called runs or passes or exotic fakes. Nothing was working against Duke, as the Blue Devils proved superior in clutch situations on Tuesday night in Detroit.