Duke Blue Devils at Virginia Tech Hokies Preview
The Duke Blue Devils get their annual helping of Beamerball this week. They are headed to Lane Stadium to take on the Virginia Tech Hokies to keep control of their spot in the ACC Coastal Division.
Duke has had some time to get healthy with their last game having been their victory over Army almost two weeks ago.
On the other side, the Hokies have been trying to return to normalcy all season. They have been thwarted at several turns, including against Pittsburgh and against East Carolina. They found enough to beat NC State last week.
Now they are getting quarterback Michael Brewer back for the first time since the Ohio State game. How important is Brewer? The Hokies were in the Ohio State game with him, but left in the dust without him.
Opponent: Virginia Tech Hokies (3-4, 1-2 ACC)
Date: October 24
Time: 3:30 PM
TV: ESPNU
Venue: Lane Stadium (Blacksburg, VA)
Beamerball. Run the ball, and cause havoc on special teams. Don’t beat yourself.
This is what Duke gets to look forward to, which will be a little different for them. Duke has been playing a bunch of close run games, so look for them to do what they normally do. Thomas Sirk will throw when he has to, but running comes first. Unfortunately this will keep the Hokies in the game. Duke needs to open things up and post a first half score that Virginia Tech cannot match.
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Otherwise this comes down to turnovers and big plays. The Hokies are the past masters of blocking kicks. They also have Isaiah Ford to run deep on the Duke coverage and hope to get lucky. Duke’s secondary should be better than that, but they need the offense to score so that a momentary mistake does not decide the entire game.
Prediction: 21-20 Duke