Will Duke Johnson finally overcome the BIG GAME hurdle?

[dannymac___]

Love the young man...my favorite player on the team, but I have yet to really see him break out against the big time teams. I mean the big stage last year was FSU/KSU and ND...even though every game is a big game for us. If I recall correctly, it seems the Duke effect was neutralized. Now, a lot of it is with the O line, it just didn't fit in the title. If Duke is going to be a legitimate heisman contender and we start comparing him to the great UM running backs, I believe he has to do it in the big time games. Just my humble opinion. GO CANES!

How dare you ever QUESTION DUKE... You should be banned from this site!!

 

[jed2410]

Find out Next time on Dragon Ball Z

 

[Gatorhater]

Lots of great points here. My apologies to anyone that was offended by my question, and I didn't expect some folks to take it as a personal attack. Duke played awesome, and I hope he has a great game against UF so everyone will know about how great he is.

And I am still waiting for Vinny Testaverte to show up for a big game, but of all the players we have today, Duke is the one to not worry about. IF there is a hole, he will SEE it, hit it and be heading for the house. Duke carried us in several games last year. Against two teams, ND and KS, that would have been in the NC had not one choke in one game, he could not carry the team by himself. Against the team the one that was in the NC game, a WR catches a couple early td passes and game changes, and Duke might run for a ton. But instead we play catch up all game. KS kicked every Cane rear it saw and some it did not. Without Duke will lose 2 or 3 more games last year. That said, of course he needs to come up big Saturday. Without him we have little chance. But if they stack the box, then WRs need to get open, pass needs to get to them, and they need to catch it. If Coley and Dorset burn them for two long scores, then the safties come out of box and we will see if they need ankle braces a little later.

 

[drifters1234]

Many of our failed running plays are due to a break-down or missed block by one guy. I don't think our OL as a unit is bad.

That's exactly the point. There are a bunch of talented individuals on that OLine and they cannot consistently get collective results. The sum of those guys has not yet produced to the level of what could be 2 first rounders and 2 mid rounders on the same line.

This. Many were claiming that we would manhandle the lowly FAU defensive line. But we again could not consistently push back a borderline FCS DL in short yardage situations.

That is a glaring concern for Saturday, where we will face the best defensive front of our season. Hopefully, it was a function of the Kehoe Shuffle nonsense, and we stick w/ the best five.

Bottom line, if we can't establish the run then it plays right into UF's hands and will be a long afternoon.

 

[BrianF]

I dont think its talent its blocking

GIFSoup

 

[252cane]

Why dont ******* check the facts and stop going by what ***** *** gator fans and **** are saying. Ksu 7 carries,fsu 9 carries,nd 8 carries so how the **** is he going to do anything with that ****. And he was dealing with turf toe vs fsu and he got more carries maybe he would made plays **** some people think.

 

[terdferguson]

Love the young man...my favorite player on the team, but I have yet to really see him break out against the big time teams. I mean the big stage last year was FSU/KSU and ND...even though every game is a big game for us. If I recall correctly, it seems the Duke effect was neutralized. Now, a lot of it is with the O line, it just didn't fit in the title. If Duke is going to be a legitimate heisman contender and we start comparing him to the great UM running backs, I believe he has to do it in the big time games. Just my humble opinion. GO CANES!

Before saying he doesn't show up for big games, maybe look and see how many carries he got in those big games. Not many at all, as we got behind early and abandoned the running game.

This.

 

[killa1storm]

Chris Rainey, huh? GTFOOH. Chris Rainey weighed 180 pounds going into the NFL. He almost always bounced things to the outside and rarely sought contact. That is a seriously offensive comparison, and I love it. Muschamp is that short-sighted, I guess.

In his only year with over 100 carries, he only averaged 5 yards a carry and got a whopping 2 TDs.
Duke's frosh season ****es on Chris Rainey's career.

I think you're sort of looking for an insult where there is none. Read the full quote and context of the statement. The reporter asked him who Duke reminded him of so he mentioned Rainey and said Duke was bigger and also implied Duke was more explosive. He also goes on to mention Duke's pass catching and return abilities which is where Rainey excelled. Duke can kill you in all 3 ways similarly, he wasn't talking about how good either was in comparison to each other. Rainey is only the really back he's had that had the ability to go the distance on any given touch, he was comparing Duke in the same vein.

 

[ECC609]

Love the young man...my favorite player on the team, but I have yet to really see him break out against the big time teams. I mean the big stage last year was FSU/KSU and ND...even though every game is a big game for us. If I recall correctly, it seems the Duke effect was neutralized. Now, a lot of it is with the O line, it just didn't fit in the title. If Duke is going to be a legitimate heisman contender and we start comparing him to the great UM running backs, I believe he has to do it in the big time games. Just my humble opinion. GO CANES!

 

[bomb]

wow

 

[Sandman211]

The stats for the 3 games you call "the big teams" are below and should not be too hard to read. He didn't exactly have a lot of touches to put up great #'s. But forget those 3 games. He didn't exactly kill it against UNC, NCSU, USF either. Not sure why you wouldn't bring those games up as well. Do you expect him to have a 50yd run every time he touches the ball. It should be even tougher for him now that everyone knows how good he is. I think he'll do just fine.

DATE OPP ATT YDS AVG LNG TD REC YDS AVG LNG TD

9/8 @Kansas State 6 19 3.2 9 0 2 18 9.0 15 0

10/6 @Notre Dame 8 22 2.8 7 0 3 35 11.7 26 0

10/20 Florida State 9 27 3.0 4 0 3 19 6.3 19 0