Pitt lost their second game of the season last Saturday against the Miami Hurricanes. Pitt remains atop the ACC Coastal division. No need to rehash that maddening loss.

The Duke Blue Devils are up next. Last week, Duke lost to Wake Forest 7 – 45. After starting 3 – 1 in Out of Conference games, they have gone 0 – 4 in ACC competition with only the Georgia Tech loss being competitive.

As we know, Duke is a basketball school.

ACC standings and Duke and Pitt’s year to date schedules.

Only one common opponent – Georgia Tech. Duke was competitive in a loss to Georgia Tech.  Pitt won by 31.

Here are the NCAA stats for team and individual comparison. Those highlighted in yellow are Duke’s advantages.

The NCAA has updated team stats but not Pitt’s individual stats. The first time I looked at Pitt’s, they seemed wrong. They were. I have left off values. Only changes are John Petrishen Is tied with DeMamarri  Mathis for interceptions and SirVocea Dennis now leads in tackles.

Mataeo Durant is a stud running back. Jake Bobo seems to be the go to receiver but not a home run hitter like Jordan Addison.

On to the individual stats. Of course, starting with the QB’s I have shorted the list by only showing the individual game stats for the expected starters – Kenny Pickett and Gunner Holmberg. For all others,  I am using a summary line combining all the QB’s and trick play gunners.

I will be highlighting transfer portal entries in green and those who have entered the portal in light orange. Keyshon Camp  is the only injured player that I think may not play.

The NCAA has rectified their error in week #8 stats. The additional stats have been removed.

The ever popular running backs/receiver category. ESPN stats compared to NCAA totals.

Some defensive individual stats. From ESPN team stats and compared to NCAA statistics for accuracy.

I used the top 16 (tie) in tackles for Duke. Pitt has 17 (tie) for the coveted top 15 listing. In total, Pitt now has 41 and Duke 42 players who made at least one tackle (solo or assisted)/sack/pass defended (PD)/interception/forced fumble(FF)/ fumble recovered(FR).

I did add some stats to compare the “chosen fifteen” to Team totals.

Linebacker Shaka Hayward is the leader of the Duke defense. He leads Duke with 65 tackles, 20 more than SirVocea. Originally, I thought that stat is pretty impressive (and it is). But Duke has 69 more chances to make a tackle in the same number of games.

Games played and started for offensive linemen. Since the NCAA has Pitt only playing 7 games, I have left off Pitt’s Linemen. Instead, I am showing all the Duke offensive linemen who played in at least one game.

How are they protecting the QB and opening holes for the running backs?

We are almost done. Just turnovers, a prediction, and a notice.

Pitt breaks 40 – Duke breaks into the teens. Pitt 42 – Duke 17 I will be taking some me time into the mountains (my euphemism for going to a casino) and preparing for my brothers weekend visit. I will not have time to do a North Carolina review.