bstrickland@heraldsun.com; 419-6671
DURHAM -- Saturday presented Duke with an opportunity to win back-to-back ACC football games for the first time in 15 years, but the Blue Devils kept getting in their own way.
Penalties piled up. Turnovers turned them away. And then, a big play out of the blue by Maryland put Duke's hopes in jeopardy.
Still, in a game where rain clouds circled literally and figuratively, something was different -- the only thing that really matters at the end of the day.
"It's good for Duke to win ugly. Is that a change or what?" Coach David Cutcliffe said after his Blue Devils came away a soggy, sloppy victory but a victory nonetheless, 17-13 at Wallace Wade Stadium. "It certainly was far from being our best-played ballgame, but I'm really proud of my team.
"With a little over seven minutes on the clock, I looked at our team, I looked at their eyes, and I felt the energy of our staff. Everybody there knew we were going to win the football game."
The Blue Devils (4-3, 2-1 ACC) never trailed but never were able to relax against a Maryland team (2-6, 1-3) that had been the mistake-prone bunch before Saturday.
Duke entered the game with an ACC-low six turnovers, but the Blue Devils turned it over a season-high three times. They led the ACC with fewer than 40 yards of penalties per game, but Saturday they were whistled for 101 yards worth on 12 flags.
But with quarterback Thad Lewis clicking for the second consecutive game -- outside of his first interception in 130 throws and a lost fumble -- Duke overcame its errors to build some breathing room when tight end Danny Parker made an acrobatic catch on third down from the 1 to push the lead to 17-6 late in the third quarter.
Momentum appeared to be building toward a knockout punch, but Maryland hit back. Duke stymied the Terrapins' two subsequent plays to force a third-and-19, but that's when Maryland quarterback Chris Turner flicked a seemingly innocent screen pass to Davin Meggett, who picked up a couple of blocks and then picked up steam, weaving his way 67 yards for a touchdown to make it 17-13.
"It was kind of a punch in the face," Duke linebacker Vincent Rey said. "It was a shock."
It was, however, the last time either team would score. The Blue Devils almost scored again, only to have Lewis lose a fumble at the goal line with 9:40 to play, but Duke's defense never allowed Maryland to get close again.
The Terrapins' final three drives produced a total of 37 yards, capped by a Rey interception with 4:09 left. Then what would have been one final chance for Maryland never got off the ground when Tony Logan fumbled a punt and Duke tight end Brandon King -- who had lost a fumble on an early drive -- corralled it in the mud with 1:42 to play.
"Without that screen, they hold them to under 200 yards," Cutcliffe said of his defense. "It was a heck of a game. They tackled well and rallied to the ball well, and the coverage was outstanding.
"Our defense really grew today against a group that knows what it's doing on offense."
Early, Lewis looked like he might match his five-touchdown, 459-yard performance in Duke's most recent game two weeks ago at N.C. State. The Blue Devils threw on every play on their first two drives -- they rushed for just 23 yards all day -- as Lewis hit on 7 of 12 passes for 81 yards to start.
Duke's first drive ended abruptly on a dropped pass by Donovan Varner, but its second drive ended when Varner snared a pass over the middle and sped 24 yards for a 7-0 lead.
"Don is one of those scrappy guys. Once you get the ball in his hands, he's going to make a play," Lewis said of Varner, who finished with eight catches for 120 yards. "After he dropped that first one, he came back and told me, 'I'm not going to drop any more.'
"He bounced back, and he made plays."
A relentless rain sent many among the announced crowd of 24,650 scrambling soon after, yet the Blue Devils still had more storms to weather, many of them self-inflicted.
But unlike so many other similar games over the years, Duke was good enough to overcome its shortcomings.
"We didn't let anything get us down as far as the turnovers and things of that nature," Lewis said. "We had a mentality that we were going to go out there and make a play, no matter what.
"We always say, 'Surge.' Forget about the last play and move on."
