EL PASO, Texas— On the final day of the year, Duke’s storybook year got the perfect sunset.
In a record-setting offensive performance, Duke took home the 92nd annual Sun Bowl trophy in a 42-39 thriller. The two squads combined for a historic 1,158 yards of offense as they navigated opt-outs and injuries on defense in the final game of the season.
Both teams had early deep shots to set the tone on offense. After a three-and-out from Duke, Jeff Sims found Jalen Moss for 51 yards to set up a quarterback keeper for six. Not to be outdone, Mensah delivered a beauty to speedster Que’Sean Brown for a 69-yard score to knot the game at seven.
The one slow drive was seemingly all it took to knock off the rust of not playing for four weeks. Duke’s offense picked up at midfield after a failed tush push from Arizona State and found itself in the endzone just 43 seconds later. Mensah again hooked up with Brown, who battled the sun and two defenders for a 46-yard gain, and Cooper Barkate finished the job with a 3-yard snag to give the Blue Devils a one-score lead.
Both teams continued to employ a breakneck pace as they capitalized off the depleted defenses of their opponents. Much like Mensah and Brown, it was Sims and Moss who found their second big connection of the day. The redshirt junior hauled in a tough catch with Jaiden Francois in coverage before outrunning the rest of the Duke unit for the 44-yard tally.
If the first quarter was a sprint, most of the second could be described best as a crawl. Quick scores were traded out for punts, incompletions and deliberations about calls from the refs as both teams slowed down significantly on offense.
Despite the extra effort — a 5:22 drive was by far the longest for Duke in the first half — the Blue Devils were still able to provide some pizzazz. A fake reverse from Mensah turned into a bootleg right, and Jeremiah Hasley was able to catch a ball in stride and turn the corner for a 14-yard score. That throw seemed to reignite the offensive fire, as the Sun Devils quickly answered with a six-play, 75-yard drive capped off by a Sims rush. Head coach Kenny Dillingham elected for a sneaky onside kick, but a failed try out of bounds gave Duke a short field that turned into an Anderson Castle touchdown. An Arizona State field goal with 32 seconds remaining made it 28-24 in favor of the Blue Devils while simultaneously setting the Sun Bowl scoring record for a single half.
If you’ve been watching Duke all year, Mensah provided one of the more surprising outcomes with about seven minutes to go in the third quarter. After feeling pressure in the pocket, the San Luis Obispo, Calif., native rolled left and took off for a 34-yard gain, setting a new career-high for the quarterback. Facing a fourth down in the red zone, Mensah was able to draw Arizona State offsides for a free play that led to a fresh set of downs and an eventual Sheppard score.
Perhaps in an attempt to break the scoring record for the Sun Bowl, Arizona State came right back with a 68-yard gain off a Demarius Robinson screen. The freshman running back would have taken the play all the way to the house if it wasn’t for an extra-effort play from Weaver as the Sam Houston State transfer barely tripped him up at the 8-yard line. That was just delaying the inevitable, though; Sims found Khamari Anderson two plays later to make it 35-32 with 4:09 to go in the quarter after a two-point conversion.
Both teams utilized the screen game throughout the afternoon as they took advantage of inexperienced secondary play. As the Sun Devils got within striking distance of the lead once again, Sims found Derek Eusebio and Moss for 38- and 16-yard catch-and-runs to set the stage for a Malik McClain touchdown — the first lead for Arizona State since the first quarter.
The Blue Devils simply seemed unwilling to let any Sun Devil score go unanswered. Facing a four-point deficit, Mensah converted a fourth-and-5 with a strike to a diving Barkate, allowing Duke to move into enemy territory as it tried to reclaim the lost advantage. The Blue Devils were faced with another fourth down with 9:11 to go, but the Sun Devil pass rush stood strong. Mensah was corralled in the pocket and forced to make an off-balance throw that fell flat as Duke came up empty on a crucial possession.
The defense got the stop they needed with six minutes to go. And as he has done all year, Sheppard answered the bell. The Mandeville, La., native thrashed his way down the right sideline for a 60-yard gain, putting the Blue Devils at the 6-yard line with four downs to score. A botched snap sandwiched between two incompletions set up fourth down from the 8, and Cooper Barkate had the ball knocked away in the end zone to seal the deal for the Sun Devils.
Or so they thought. On a big run from Brown that would have moved the chains and kept the clock running, the freshman tailback coughed up a ball that ended up in the cradle of Ma’khi Jones. With 2:42 left in the contest, Duke had new life.
The aforementioned screen game was again the engine for the Blue Devils. Two plays into the drive, Brown caught a pass at the line of scrimmage, evaded a tackler, and scurried into the end zone as Duke reclaimed a 42-39 lead and Mensah tied the Sun Bowl record for touchdown tosses with four.
There were two Duke football games in December. Both of them were thrillers. Both of them also were sealed by Luke Mergott interceptions. The redshirt sophomore picked off Sims with 1:47 remaining to send the Blue Devil sideline and fanbase into a frenzy. It took two more fourth-down conversions, but the Duke offense did its job to play keepaway from the Sun Devils and end the game in victory formation.
All eyes turn toward the transfer portal, as Duke will look to retool ahead of its season opener in 2026.
No comments:
Post a Comment