a lot of people are asking myself included what are the biggest things that we actually learned from Duke's season opening win over Elon how does that apply to tomorrow's game against Northwestern and what else is going on with Manny Diaz program let's discuss here today unlock on Blue [Music] Devils you are locked on Blue Devils your daily podcast on the Duke Blue Devil part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day hello everybody and welcome into another episode of the lockdown Blue Devils podcast my name is JJ Jackson it is so great to have you here with us on Thursday September 5th 2024 lockdown Blue Devils is your One-Stop shop where we discuss everything going on in the life of Duke Athletics and this time of year it's football season we're off and running and this Duke football team is getting set for a big game tomorrow against Northwestern we still have to unpack some things that we learned from the win against Elon to get the season started and we'll do that on today's show with our goodp Connor O'Neal from Devils Illustrated when he joins us on the show if you have not done so already please be sure to follow And subscribe to lockdown Blue Devils for free wherever it is that you get your podcasts also leave us a festar rating and written review we encourage you to watch the show each and every day on YouTube Hello to our visual audience there watching the show each and every day subscribe to to our Channel like this video share it with your friends and let us know in the comments down below if you're an everyday or I love seeing this community build each and every week and as we get closer to basketball season I know a lot more engagement will be taking place here on lockdown Blue Devils we're on X at lore bluedevils and I'm there as well atore JJ orjon uncore all right without further Ado here he is my good pal Connor O'Neal back with us and we were just talking Connor here we are a little bit of routine now that we're jumping back into game week coaches are having weekly press conferences to meet with the media they're on League teleconferences to let you know what's happening with their program and around the league it's just good to have football back in our lives the NFL season gets started a little bit later tonight with the fun one between the Chiefs and Ravens I'm doing well and I hope that you are too yeah it's uh I've told a couple people this the like three weeks of fall camp and all preseason football fields like a dead Sprint to the opener and then I'm always kind of remind I I get this annual reminder I guess I forget it every year too but then when the season starts you kind of fall into you almost have more free time than when the games weren't going on because when you're covering x amount of practices uh you feel like it's almost a game every day um now it's just one game and then you you write some stuff about it and then you write some stuff about the next game coming up so it's good to have routine every once in a while without a doubt it is and and what people are writing about right now is a one and0 Duke football team a team that took care of business against an FCS opponent and Elon and picked up the first win for Manny Diaz as the head coach of the Duke Blue Devils uh I think it's difficult maybe to leave an imprint on a team on a program after just one single game that was there but after a long off season of wondering what exactly this Manny Diaz era would look like we got to see it this past week uh in that win over Elon where do you sit on that like truly uh identifying what exactly Manny Diaz Duke football sort of looks like I think I found out more about my alma mater there than I did about Duke in that game um hopefully the Phoenix can make the FCS playoffs this year they had a good Conference record last year they just weren't good in the non-conference um my biggest takeaway was we spent eight to nine months of Manny and defensive coordinator John and py telling us how they were going to be an attacking aggressive style of Defense they wanted to play in the opponent's backfield they wanted to create tfls and get opposing offenses behind the line behind the chains um all those kind of buzz words and Buzz phrases that go along with get piling up sacks and tfls and it all sounds good you want to see it come together when it's actually another opponent lined up from you instead of your own offense and I mean I I don't know how much more you want than eight sacks and 16 tfls uh the tfls number was a first time since 2007 stat I think the sacks were first time since 2009 if I if I have that correct um first time in a while so it it was impressive um and and this is where I've I've had to write around this a little bit you can caveat and asterisk every FCS game you want that it's it's a different level of competition especially when you're talking about FC s versus Power four Conference team but they're still scholarship guys they're still like division one college football players and you have an FCS game every year and Duke hasn't reached those numbers of sacks and tfls like other teams in the country don't have those numbers Duke is the only team in the country with eight sacks through through one or two games some some of the ones with two games played haven't gotten there yet there you go it it was everything that was the defense was build to be it was and that's not saying it's going to be that for the next 11 games but it's it's one for one on capitalizing on what we were told they would be and what they were yeah you you deliver a mission statement so to speak like this is what we're going to be on the defensive side of the ball and within one game it's very clear that yeah that's going to be a point of emphasis now people start to say well it was Elon it was an FCS opponent and fair this is just a better conversation to have than oh wow look how many yards Elon was able to pile up against the stuk defense or something like that yeah it's it's a lot it's a lot easier of a conversation to have um I look I think that eight sacks and 16 tfls are not going to be repeated this year in any game uh but I do think they they gave you to to use the word you just use they gave you a blueprint of what they want to do like that's that's what it's going to look like no matter who the opponent is if it goes to plan it's going to be you know a big third down sack to erase any chance that you're giving up a third like a long pass play um the interesting part to see if it'll play out against better competition is if if some of these high reward plays all of a sudden turn into high risk plays and that was one of the things we talked to Manny about this week in his press conference on Monday was you know you would think that a defense as aggressive as Dukes was in game one and uh as aggressive as the defenses at Penn State and Texas is it Texas Southern yep um or Texas I get Texas Southern and Texas State Texas State yeah yeah Texas um those two they didn't give up all those explosive plays that you think they would have um now Texas state did give up like I know Jordan knows the number off the top of his head and I forget it from time to time uh Texas State gave up a lot of points Penn State did not Penn State was I think two or three in the country in scoring defense last year but what we're gonna have to see over the over the rest of the season is whether they do start giving up the chunk plays because they're going to be playing a quarterback who's maybe more mobile than Matthew Downing was of Elon they're going to be playing some receivers that are a little more explosive and can create separation quicker in routes and so the ball's going to be coming out of there before duk defensive lineman can get home for a sack that kind of thing is I mean that's that's what we're going to have to watch and that's kind of the fun of seeing a football season develop is you know you have this Baseline of what you did against the FCS team now what does it look like against a big 10 team that's the big question that we get to have answered tomorrow for the duuk football team we got to talk a little bit about the offense as well what did we learn what can improve for this Duke football team in particular and we'll answer those questions with Conor O'Neal after we take break number one here on today's show lockon Blue Devils here today is brought to you by our friends over at FanDuel the NFL season is here it's back tonight the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs host the Baltimore Ravens a Super Bowl celebration and then a kickoff of the new season remember this time last year Kansas City dropped a game against the Detroit Lions and their Super Bowl Victor or Victory first game last season and still were able to turn it into a Super Bowl season can they do that again tonight Kansas City right now on FanDuel favored by three you've heard us talk so much about America's number one sports book we've got something awesome for you now through September 22nd all FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV if that's not enough FanDuel also has something special for our listeners this weekend be sure to check out fanduel's profit boost in the app and use it for fanduels double your winnings for all Sunday September 8th pregame moneyline bets profit boost will be live starting tomorrow view your account page now to learn more about your Boost a lot of awesome things happening over at FanDuel so just visit fanduel.com and go ahead and download America's number one sports book Conor O'Neal's here with us we're moving forward today with this program we're talking about Duke's win against Elon what it says for the rest of the season uh what it says that going into the game against Northwestern been positive throughout the week have pointed out some areas of improvement as well let's start with the lad right there you look at Duke's offense against Elon simple question why couldn't they run the ball why was the ground game not able to get going so it's something I was joking with um with Jim summer um do do a substack Jim summer on Duke um look I I I think I know a lot about football I don't know enough about football to sit there after a game and tell you Elon was stacking the box and what their defensive alignment was doing to Duke's Run game and where the matchups were that Duke was taking advantage of so I'm going to take Manny Diaz at his word I I didn't get a chance to go back and reatch Duke's game but I'm going to take many at his word when he tells us that the looks that Elan was giving Duke were tough run boxes like they were just basically trying to trying to jam that thing in there like they were trying to get two or three yards at the time where they could but a lot more of the matchup advantages and a lot more of where the defense was telling you where to go with the football was through the air and that was through screen passes that's part of why Malik Murphy was 23 of 23 which is an insane number no matter no matter the provision like he was 23 of 23 throwing behind the line of scrimmage or less than 10 yards down the field so everything short was a completion which is great if you if you incomplete those then you're all of a sudden behind the chains because you're you're losing yardage basically on a on an incompletion where you have that little uh that little of a downfield throw the challenge with Northwestern is they don't do what Elon does they will kind of parachute out the defense they will make it so that you want to run against their defensive look that they're giving you because they have confidence in their defensive lineman and linebackers that they can shed blocks quickly and get off of those and still make a tackle when you know the running back is is within a couple yards of the line of scrimmage or even behind the line of scrimmage so that's that's kind of what I wrote my preview about a devil's Illustrated today is Duke is going to get some of those looks to where they can run the ball like the everything about offensive football these days is read um read options but it's also pre- snap reads where quarterback is looking at a safety or a linebacker or nickel determining where he is in the formation so I I think Duke can have more success I don't think it's you know you take game one against the FCS team and say oh we only ran for 59 yards we're going to be an awful rushing offense all year um you know Malik Murphy's gonna have to throw for 300 plus every game for us to win I don't think it's that yet it might be like it maybe but let's hold off on that for now let's let the offensive line come together a little bit more um and let's see how they can attack Northwestern yeah I mean a one game sample size isn't fair to kind of jump to Major conclusions but look we're we're filling time here we want to give people kind of content and thoughts to have in regards to this Duke football team and so that angle that perspective and how Elon was defending sort of the Duke offensive attack from offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer is certainly interesting like if these things are open if Malik Murphy is in a rhythm why run the ball when we're able to kind of move it effectively that way um forget how ineffective he or may not have been kind of beyond the 10 yards yeah and it's it's interesting to hear Duke talk about the way they they count those short passes because and and this is kind of a air raid spread offense principle sometimes a running play is when the ball comes out of Malik Murphy's hand and it goes to Quon brown or Jordan Moore somebody that can make things happen in space Samir hains and if they pick up three to five yards on a first and 10 that's as good as a run in almost every situation like there there is you have a little bit more of an explosive play Factor if you get the ball on the outside and you have a receiver who's maybe a little more elusive than running backs I I feel like it's not disrespectful to say those guys I mentioned at receiver are a little they've got a little more Sizzle and Jukes in their game than jaquez Moore does and star Thomas all all due respect to those guys but that's a running play it just goes in the stat book as a pass and that's why I I kind of I shiver when when uh in the Monday presser when when Manny and Jonathan Brewer asked about the Run pass discrepancy and it's kind of like what what you look at the stat sheet and I'm just grabbing numbers off the top of my head you look at the stat sheet and you see Malik Murphy through what 40 passes yep and Duke had maybe 24 or 26 rushing attemp Ms maybe it got up to 30 with that last Drive they had but they don't look at it as that kind of split they look at it maybe as Malik Murphy threw the ball 33 times actually like called pass plays and then seven of them were these screens that are just in that run Department yeah yeah so it it's it all it all ties into the bigger conversation of how we talk about modern day football and and how different it is and how it's an evolving game and the way we track stats and traditional stats is not caught up to where the game is it's just something that we kind of have to we have to change the way we talk about it and the way we the way we track these things but yeah I mean it's it's a little it's a little more finicky and there's a lot more Nuance to Stats than than what Duke showed keep talking quarterback with me here Malik Murphy debuts as the DU quarterback he's a guy we talked about all off season after he makes the big decision to leave Texas a team that was set to compete in the college football playoff and comes to Durham within the last 48 hours Duke has released a miked up video of Malik Murphy from his debut there and got to see a little bit of his personality and how excited he was having on the field the few times you've already gotten the opportunity to be around him to interview him and that sort of thing Connor tell us about the guy what what has stood out to you about Duke's new quarterback I very much enjoyed the behind the mic thing and it was very evident I thought to see why he's he's played one game at Duke he's been there nine months he was voted a captain and and I think you can see why where he's encouraging guys constantly you know in a in a three minute miked up clip you're not getting everything obviously but every snippet you saw not everyone but most of those were were positive encouragement it it was reinforcement um the the best thing I saw was him looking at the iPad on the sideline and telling Henry Bean you know hey look at this safety look where he is he's dropping here this is why we went here like that I mean that's invaluable stuff he just he kind of exudes qb1 Vibes for lack of a better term I it's we didn't get to talk to him in the spring until after the spring game so I had a larger first impression of him as a quarterback than I did as a person in initially and then that first time we talked to him he just kind of you got the sense that you were talking to a guy who's very very comfortable in his own skin and it it should go without saying like that's what you kind of need out of a quarterback you don't need a guy who's in a shell you don't need a guy who's gonna kind of turtle up um there's all kinds of different leadership styles and and they work for different guys they work for different personalities but I'm a pretty firm believer if you're playing quarterback for a power Conference football team you need to have some vo vocality about you I don't know if that's a that's a word I might have just made that up you're on a roll here yeah yeah I mean you you've just gotta you gotta get the the confidence uh one of my dad's favorite terms is athletic arrogance you've got to have that to an extent and and he has it uh and then some I think and look it it might get him burned he might we we might have a game in a month or two where we're talking about he has way too much faith in his arm and that's why he threw three interceptions and cost Duke a game um that's that's the double-edged sword of it real yeah but right now we can talk about how much of a leader he is how much confidence he exudes and how much of a positive that is for Duke yeah a lot it's now going in my vocabulary now Connor that I don't want a quarterback who Turtles up I love love that don't want a turtled up quarterback that's perfect it makes sense though we're going to run with that for sure all right it don't just don't take it as a shot at Maryland because I did grow up a Maryland fan yeah I'll stay away from that that's for sure all right let's take one more timeout when we come back Northwestern is the next opponent for the Duke Blue Devils what do they look like what can we expect that's next lockdown Blue Devils here today brought to you by our 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their first victory of the Season our friends at FanDuel right now have Northwestern favored by two uh so you look at this game what do you think tell us a little bit about this Northwestern Squad Connor well the first thing my mind goes to is this is probably the most unique college football viewing experience there is yeah in the country this year um I watched a decent portion of of the game against Miami Ohio I think it was in the same window as Miami Florida and we know that that one wasn't worth watching after a certain point yep um it's it's a temporary Stadium they they knocked down the stadium where Duke won two years ago and and I think had won a couple other times before then and they're building a new stadium on that same spot so they need can't play in the middle of a construction zone with hard hats on so they've they've got a temporary setup uh I think the attendance last week was like 12,000 but there might have been several hundred others out on boats on Lake Michigan watching because that it was that close to the lake there um I do maybe you know I've only been to Chicago twice and once was just to fly in and drive to Southbend and cover a football game and then drive back and fly out of Chicago and the other time I was in Chicago I it was when I was like 12 but I might be prison I might be prisoner a little bit of not being all that familiar and having a just this kind of idea that it's never not windy in Chicago I just go by the name of the city right City yep um I just think that a a nighttime game even though it's it like I think the forecast calls for only like 15 M hour wins just feels like the wind is going to whip off that Lake and the it's going to swirl and I always think that wind is more damaging to football scorers than rain is because if you want to throw the ball downfield we know Duke wants to get the ball vertical and get the ball in the air for a long time that tells me that a lot of balls are going to be hanging in the air for longer than you think they should be and they're going to be going in places that are not necessarily where they're supposed to go um that's why I kind of think it's so imperative for Duke to run the ball well in this game uh they've they've kind of they've got a sustain drives because of the win factor and because it's it's kind of what Northwestern makes you do like they are not going to give up 40 and 50 yard plays like Duke was able to hit a couple of those against Elon um I think against Northwestern and like The Stereotype goes for most Big 10 teams you're going to have to work your way down the field like they're not going to they're not going to let you hit them for any three-play touchdown drives or they're not they're at least not going to do it consistently so this is going to be a game that Dukas you know sometimes sometimes cliches are cliches because they're true like this is going to be a hard-nosed big 10 grinded out type of game where I I don't think the I don't think the winning score is going to be in the 30s I'm ready to see it all unfold I think it's going to be a great game between the two teams Friday Night Football once again and then we'll get a little bit more uh to that traditional Saturday Affairs for Duke on the grid iron starting next week with Yukon Connor you've got a preview up right now on your website about this Duke and Northwestern game how could people access that how can we best support the work that you do at Devil's Illustrated yeah go sign up duke. rivals.com um I mean sometimes when I when when you ask me about this over the summer I'm kind of struggling to to tell you when new content is coming or what fresh content is up but it's not going to be the case for the next several months I mean we've got basketball recruiting Duke is still yet without a commitment we'll have basketball preseason and then football's rolling right along uh I think I've got four or five fresh stories up a Q&A with with a Northwestern beat reporter to fill you in on all the gaps about them I mean there's there's a ton of content there Devil's Illustrated go check it all out really excited to uh see this game unfold and support Connor with the work that he does good to see you again on the show today man thanks for stopping by awesome thanks JJ all right that's Connor O'Neal he's joining us on the program go support his work once again duke. ral.com that's going to do it for today's show subscribe to our YouTube channel subscribe to the podcast feed and leave us a festar rating and review as always go duke I'll talk to you tomorrow my name is JJ Jackson thank you and good day you