Duke Football Beats Northwestern

This past Saturday night the Duke Football team halted the nation’s longest losing streak at 22 games by taking down Northwestern 20-14. Did you read that? We actually WON A GAME!

But it almost didn’t happen at all.

As is becoming habit for this Duke football team (as well as for the basketball team and their four corner/stall/hold the ball until the shot clock expires offense they always seem to play with 5 minutes left in close games), Duke took a sizeable lead early on only to nearly throw the game away in the closing moments. Northwestern had four chances to score from deep inside Duke territory, but the defense brought the blitz all four downs and four incomplete passes later, Duke eked out its first victory over a Division 1-A football team since my freshman year (and I’m a senior now).

What happened next was entirely unpredicted. You’d think when a college football team goes on the road to win a game against an unranked, mediocre opponent the winning team’s fans would be calmly satisfied about winning the game. After notching a win after 22 games of pent up anticipation, I guess you could have expected Duke fans to be just a bit more excited.

But what happened at Duke on Saturday night was sheer madness. Hundreds of students marched over to Wallace Wade Stadium, tore down a goal post, and carried it all the way back to the Chapel on West Campus. Students then tried to re-erect the statue in front of the Chapel (I’m still trying to figure out why we wanted to do that) but the goal post fell and struck a Duke student (who’s doing ok now). Check out the video clip below to see the goal post being erected and the loud thumping sound of it hitting the student.



The win has pumped up the Duke Football fan base (or what’s remaining of it) and sparked dreams about bowl games. But let’s be realistic about the team’s chances and take a quick look at the remaining schedule:

9/22- @ Navy
9/29- @ Miami
10/6- Wake Forest
10/13- Virginia Tech
10/27- @ Florida State
11/3- Clemson
11/10- Georgia Tech
11/17- @ Notre Dame
11/24- @ UNC

I’d say the Navy, Wake Forest, and UNC games are all winnable games. I can’t believe I’m actually saying this (and this might sound kind of out there), but I think we actually have a chance to go into Notre Dame and steal a win from the Fighting Irish. Yeah, you read correctly, Duke has a chance to beat Notre Dame in football.

If you watched any part of Michigan’s 38-0 drubbing over Notre Dame, you know that Duke really could compete against a young, uninspired, and error-prone Notre Dame team. Only if we could find a field goal kicker now and we’d be set to go.

What a great weekend for Duke Football. You know what pumps me up the most? Comparing these records:

Notre Dame: 0-3
Michigan: 1-2
Duke: 1-2