Duke at Miami Hurricanes Week 10: Five things to watch
Miami defense versus Duke offense
The Miami Hurricanes defense has played at a championship level this season. Boston College created a blueprint on how to expose Manny Diaz’s unit last week. An uptempo offense wore out the Hurricanes defensively on the first three drives last Friday.
Diaz knows that means he has to substitute liberally to keep the Miami defense fresh. Diaz spoke about what happened against Boston College and what he learned. The 27 points the Miami defense allowed against the Eagles were a season high.
LSU scored 33 on the Hurricanes but seven came on defense. Florida State equaled the Eagles 27 but seven of those came on a punt return for a touchdown.
"“Not to say we thought we were anything better, but it just shows that we’re the same as everyone else. We can get worn down, we can be shocked because that’s what it was. It was a shocker for us, so we just have tomake sure we do better and capitalize on that next time. They didn’t get big touchdowns on us, but we took a lot of snaps…We have to do a better job. Remember in the beginning of the year, [reporters asked], ‘Well, why are we playing our depth?’ We needed our depth at Boston College. We needed those first three drives because the tempo they were going at — I think we played 40 snaps the first three drives, which was our fault. But for us not to roll guys, that takes the bite out of your defense.”"
Diaz’s defense has been much better than Richt’s offense in their two and half years leading their hometown team. Diaz admitted he made a coaching error last weekend and expects Duke to try and duplicate what Boston College did against the Hurricanes.
"“That’s a coaching error to have those guys in on that play because our effectiveness is just going to be down because of our fatigue level … Make no mistake, Duke will do the same thing on Saturday. They’re not computer robots. These are guys that have gas tanks, and when those tanks are empty we’ve got to get those younger guys and push them into games.”"