Duke wins 1st bowl since '61 on IU missed FG
Duke beat Indiana for its first bowl victory since 1961. (USATSI)Duke won a bowl game for the first time in more than 50 years, finally closing out a postseason game with a 44-41 overtime win against Indiana in the Pinstripe Bowl.
The Blue Devils broke through as a program under coach David Cutcliffe by getting to the bowl season, but close losses to Cincinnati, Texas A&M and Arizona State have gutted the players on these memorable teams in the final contest of the year. After plenty of turnovers and lead changes, Saturday’s game ultimately ended on a controversial missed field goal attempt from Indiana that was unable — by rule — to be reviewed.
But when the officials left the field, it did not matter how the game was won as long as it counted.
“Well, when you top it off it’s been since 1961 that Duke won a bowl game. I mean it’s amazing, I cannot tell you the emotions that — just watching our guys I’m almost speechless,” Cutcliffe told ESPN after the game.
“It wasn’t all perfect. It wasn’t all pretty. But you know what it was? A big, fat W.”
The day started with a focus on the stars sidelined by injury. All-American safety Jeremy Cash was already ruled out after undergoing wrist surgery on Dec. 16. Indiana running back Jordan Howard, who totaled more than 1,200 yards in nine games in his first year after transferring from UAB, was a officially game-time decision but did not play.
With the stars on the sideline, the big plays — I promised myself I wouldn’t lean on “home run” too much for the Yankee Stadium-based Pinstripe Bowl — took center stage.
Story of the game: Duke and Indiana combined for 1,203 yards of offense, 55 first downs, six turnovers (three each) and exchanged the lead seven times across the many ups and downs of this game.
For Duke, the key to hanging in the game was the big play: Shaun Wilson’s 85-yard touchdown run, Thomas Sirk’s 73-yard touchdown run and Wilson’s 98-yard kickoff return touchdown. The Blue Devils were stiff on defense and methodical early, but a few errors and some fast scoring from Indiana turned a 10-0 Duke lead into a 17-17 tie in the final seven minutes of the first half.
The story of the game is still Indiana’s final field goal attempt. The kick, which was well within Griffin Oakes’ range, went too high to get a good ruling and could not be reviewed since the ball was over the goal post.
Was Indiana’s FG try good? Hard to tell, went over the upright and is not reviewable pic.twitter.com/UDgJuayxhN
— The Cauldron (@TheCauldron) December 27, 2015
Highlight of the game: Duke’s offense didn’t put together a ton of long scoring drives, but didn’t have to because of the electric playmaking of Wilson, the sophomore running back. Wilson made a splash last year in a few games but actually stepped into the special teams role for the first time on Saturday. After seeing Wilson’s 98-yard kickoff return, I would guess he’ll probably be back there in 2016.
Shaun Wilson adds a 98yd kick return for a TD to make it 34-34, 10:55 4Q #PinstripeBowl pic.twitter.com/TLWBtI7Okv
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) December 26, 2015
Player of the game: Wilson not only had the highlight of the game but takes our player of the game honors with 282 all-purpose yards and two long touchdowns.
Tweets of the game: Before the Pinstripe Bowl turned into an instant classic, I was ready to make the argument that it was one of the “best dressed” bowls of the postseason since Duke and Indiana looked great on TV with their home blue and home red. Since that storyline was clearly superseded by more important football things, I have collected fun tweets to help support my claim.
The home jerseys do look nice at the #PinstripeBowl pic.twitter.com/l27M7UECdP
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) December 26, 2015
Knew the Duke-IU uniforms loosely reminded me of something pic.twitter.com/OwazqKkbuo
— Brooke Pryor (@bepryor) December 26, 2015
Grade: The Pinstripe Bowl provides competition for the Miami Beach Bowl as the best bowl game of the season so far, with the overtime result maybe pushing it to No. 1. Indiana was fighting for its first bowl win since 1991, so there was going to be some history made either way in overtime. A+
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