04 November 2007

DUKE RECAP

Hey there Rendrick, where ya been buddy? (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

Clemson 47, Duke 10

Saturday, 12:18 pm, and my stomach is doing barrel rolls. That little lump was growing in my throat. Duke goes up by seven and I'm thinking "Here we go again." Three hours and a few beers later, well, you know what happened. The most interesting thing about us finally being able to take care of business in Durham is that now we might have an outside shot at the ACC Championship Game.

UVA was able to inch out Wake Forest by a score of 17 - 16. That dropped Wake to 4-2 in the conference, tied with us for the Atlantic Division right behind Boston College. I'd say that this weeks game against Wake Forest might be the most important game of the entire year. Keeping with our "Finish the Job" mantra or slogan for this year, this will be the first crucial step in doing just that. We need to beat Wake to take sole control over second place and put them out of the ACCCG hunt.

Of course, FSU decides to get good when it matters and beats Boston College in Chestnut Hill. If we beat Wake, there is a good chance we maintain that momentum and beat Boston College the following week for the following reasons:

- BC hasn't played anyone that good besides VT up until last night (and they got lucky against VT).

- We would have momentum as well as home field advantage.

- We have an excellent defense and if we can just figure out a good blitzing scheme we'll be able to get into and stay in Matt Ryan's head.

- They have a mediocre at best defense with a terrible pass defense.

Beating Boston College would make us first in the ACC (granted BC wins at Maryland this week, which they will more than likely do). Even though we would both have two losses, we would have the head to head match up win against BC and that would put us in the championship game against probably the winner of the UVA/VT game.

There, that's my half-cracked out, caffeine fueled, fingers crossed, little coin of hope that I'm throwing in the ACC wishing well.