Duke Head Coach Manny Diaz speak to media after 26-3 win over Elon

I was very excited to u to get a opening night um I think the story of the game was certainly our front on defense 16 tar for loss eight sacks um you know we felt like watching us in training camp that we'd have some guys that could have big performances you don't never know in that opening game in a new scheme is it really going to come to fruition and um I mean it was aight to see I mean it it was it was it was uh tough on those guys to get the ball back back to L scrimmage the quarterback was under pressure all night um did a really good job of limiting explosive plays on defense and what that allowed is that allowed our offense to get into a rhythm you certainly we had a really good first drive of the game which n us three points um and what I liked is that when we when we you know kind of hit a ww from a scoring standpoint nobody panicked uh we knew the plays would be there you have to give credit to Elon I thought they played us very well they put a lot of guys around the the Box made it very difficult to run the football and when people do that you have to you have to attack from down the field and I think when we watched the film I think the story of our game was the shots we hit and then also the shots that we were probably an inch or two away from hitting and um that will give our players I think some confidence to realize how close they were from a truly dominating performance um in terms of attacking the coverages that that Elon was playing against us and then I'm proud of again of of the offensive line in our backs I thought the running game as time went on got better and better you know the last kind of big Drive in the fourth quarter we were able to you know to break some type of runs that was very encouraging Especial team standpoint topino you know making the field goals was really big um I just generally we did not have a a penalty and forced against us tonight which in an opener is really good I thought from as a new staff organ I think we had to burn one timeout in the first half other than that you know procedurally we were pretty clean and sound things that you worry about in an opener so you make a big jump between week one and week two and we need to make a big jump you know we're going on the road to a big 10 opponent um but it's nice to do that with the the first one under our belt questions what did you like most of what your defensive line show you with winning the one-onone battles that the main thing or is there something they just went and I know that sounds so silly but but they just they just attacked you know the way that this defense is really designed to um and then once they got the nose for it they didn't stop they were just Relentless and you know you you never felt the law always felt like that the quarterback was under duress and you know they tried different things they tried to move the pocket they tried chipping they tried you know some Maximum protection and it didn't seem like it mattered um which was a credit to our guys so I I I do feel like the depth the numbers that we have you know we rolled through a lot of guys at the D tackle position we rolled through a lot of guys at defensive end position I think that was a big help as well to help us stay fresh and and really be in that attack mode what was that schematic on your end or was that individual effort what would you attribute that to well both I mean you have to give the individuals the credit they're the ones that make the plays but you know as I we mentioned all offseason you know our goal is to be one of the top teams in the country and talk for loss um so 16 for us in the scheme is it's a lot but it's not like that's not happened before you just don't normally expect that to happen in in week one game one um so I think we'll get a lot of confidence from that um in terms of how we play our front how we play our linebackers but to see a guy like Camp berson um you know making the plays he made I think the two and a half tackle for losses BJ Anthony there's just a lot of guys that that you know I thought showed up tonight man how much did that touchdown in the first half change the narrative going had that I think it did you know there there's no way that you know that 3-0 you just you feel it's tight and and Elon was doing a really good job on offense of just slowing the game down trying to take the error out of the out of the game and and shorten the game