In the Battle of the Brains, Duke and Northwestern defenses dominated

In a classic college football after dark matchup, the Duke Blue Devils and Northwestern Wildcats met on a stormy night in the Windy City.

No, neither team is projected to stand atop their conferences by the end of the regular season and neither offense was particularly impressive throughout the Week 2 game. However, both defenses had the games of their lives.

Each team had an interception, each team had a fumble recovery, and each team only scored 10 points through the first three quarters of the game.

Just a few minutes into the first quarter, Northwestern's quarterback Mike Wright had his pass picked off by Duke's Terry Moore. While the remainder of the first half was relatively uneventful, the two teams had nine total punts by halftime.

The start of the second half was, quite simply, a disaster.

Duke's first drive of the half ended in yet another punt for the Blue Devils, which was blocked and fielded at 9-yard line by Northwestern who failed to convert all three touchdown attempts and then missed the 29-yard field goal.

Two plays later, the Blue Devils had another lapse in their game play as quarterback Maalik Murphy threw an interception.

However, the Wildcats failed to do anything with the ball, once again. On the third play of Northwestern's next possession, running back Caleb Komolafe fumbled the ball and it was recovered by Duke's Ozzie Nicholas.

Duke was only able to turn the interception into a successful 49-yard field goal attempt but it tied the game at 10 points apiece.

While all of the disastrous offensive play was taking place, the Northwestern mascot was busy chasing a bunny off the field. Yes, you read that right, there was a rabbit on the football field.

On Northwestern's third drive of the second half, the Wildcats only gained 7 yards and had to punt for the fifth time of the evening.

Following the punt return, Duke's offense seemed to be firing on all cylinders until Murphy's pass attempt on 4th & 2 went incomplete, bouncing off the hands of tight end Nicky Dalmolin and leading to a turnover on downs.

The bunny became a feature of everyone's reviews about the game, especially since there weren't many offensive highlights to feature.

After the two-minute timeout towards the end of the game, Duke had its chance to take the lead, trailing Northwestern 13-10. Murphy had found his footing and the Blue Devils were seemingly marching down the field.

However, on a quarterback keeper, Murphy was taken down and right before he hit the ground, the ball came out, Northwestern recovered it, and the Wildcats secured their victory.

Then? The initial call of a fumble was overturned. Duke marched on. Todd Pelino, Duke's kicker who had missed a field goal attempt earlier in the game, booted the ball through the uprights to tie the game once again.

At the end of the fourth quarter, the Wildcats had just 241 total yards, 2 field goals, and 1 touchdown while the Blue Devils only had 293 yards, 2 field goals, and 1 touchdown. The game headed into overtime with the teams tied at 13.

Overtime seemed to be exactly what Northwestern needed to kick itself into gear. It took just four plays for the Wildcats' running back Cam Porter to find the end zone and make the game 20-13. Unfortunately for the Cats, Duke had an even easier time scoring a TD.

Murphy threw a dart to wideout Jordan Moore for a 25-yard touchdown, Duke's biggest play of the entire game and the Blue Devils' first play in OT. Just two plays later, Murphy did it again and found Eli Pancol for another touchdown. Duke led 26-20 after an unsuccessful 2-point attempt.

The game came down to a fourth down play. The Wildcats were on the 11-yard line after Wright was sacked for a loss of 8 yards.

And he missed. Wright overthrew a cramped end zone and the Duke Blue Devils walked away victorious.

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