Duke Dominates Wake Forest with Strong Defensive Play

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00:00We'll start in the battle in Wake Forest.

00:03It was Wake Forest and Duke.

00:04Duke was a one-and-a-half point home favorite in that matchup.

00:08The Wake Forest Demon Deacons were playing with house money,

00:12playing very consistent under Dickett, their new head coach.

00:16They're going to a bowl this year.

00:18But this game was won early and often right here by the Duke Blue Devils.

00:22Physicality on the offensive line, Darian Mensah, coach,

00:26stepped up and they dominated this matchup.

00:28They won it by 17 points, put up only almost 50 on Wake Forest,

00:34a very solid effort entering their conference championship this Saturday night.

00:39Yeah, and the thing is, Duke won the turnover battle.

00:43It was 4-0 in the turnover battle, so Duke won it by that amount.

00:48Wake Forest played pretty well other than turning the ball over so much.

00:52Duke is a team that lives and dies by Darian Mensah.

00:55If he's hot, if he's doing well, they do well.

00:58They don't run the ball well enough.

01:00Their defense has been inconsistent.

01:02But really, when he does well, they do well.

01:04So it was a great win for Duke, won by a lot of points.

01:08But again, it was all about turnovers.

01:11Wake Forest, and I think their head coach did a great job.

01:14We didn't mention him for jobs other places.

01:18But I tell you, Wake Forest will have a hard time holding on to him if he keeps winning.

01:22But again, Duke played better, did not turn the ball over.

01:26And once you get to conference championship level or the end of the season,

01:30you better not turn the ball over or give up one-play explosive touchdowns.

01:36One-play drives are hard to make up, and turnovers are hard to make up.

01:41Yeah, Darian Mensah played very well.

01:43He completes 24 of 35 passes, 268 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions.

01:50On the flip side, Robbie Ashford put up 342 passing yards in that performance.

01:55Wake Forest finishes the year, coach, 4-4 in the conference, but 8-4 overall.

02:01This was a team with Jake Dickert that had a 4.5 preseason win total.

02:05They over-exceed expectations, and they're a team to keep an eye out on next season in 2026.

02:12The early game took place in Pittsburgh.

02:15We saw that Miami Open coach as a 6.5-point road favorite against Pittsburgh.

02:21Pittsburgh dominated Georgia Tech the week before as a 2.5-point underdog.

02:26Again, we've seen Pitt in back-to-back big games at home come out flat.

02:31They did yet again.

02:32Miami took it to them early.

02:34They built a first-half lead and never looked back.

02:37They had a 17-7 first-half lead.

02:39They win it by 31, and coach Mario Cristobal and the staff tacks a late touchdown on with just about a minute left.

02:48Thoughts about that and the overall performance by the Hurricanes in Pittsburgh?

02:53But the Hurricanes know the obstacles they've got to overcome.

02:58They put themselves behind the eight ball.

03:01They've won the last four games by an average of 27 points.

03:05They sacked Mason Hinchel the first play, and it was all downhill from there, and they took over.

03:12Carson Beck, I think he's now the number one percentage passer in the country at 74.9%.

03:18He's doing a great job.

03:20But Miami is a team that looks back on their season and says, what the heck happened?

03:25We were better than everybody.

03:26What were we doing losing?

03:29And now they're up there taking it serious.

03:31And the question is, with all this, as good as they're playing, is it enough to get them in the playoffs?

03:38I think some other things have to happen, Duke being one of them.

03:41But they're the better football team.

03:44Of all the teams in the ACC, they've got a heck of a lot of talent.

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