Duke Gets the Road Win Rout at UConn, 41-7

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On a rainy Saturday afternoon in East Hartford, CT, the UConn Huskies football team hoped to earn their first win of the season. They knew it wouldn’t be an easy feat, as undefeated and No. 18 ranked Duke was coming to town. Many people were high on UConn this year, given they had their best season in a while a year ago and even made it to a Bowl game, the Myrtle Beach Bowl. With Head Coach Jim Mora at the helm, the expectations were there that the Huskies would be competitive again this year.

So far, that hasn’t happened, and as each week passes and UConn’s 2022 season feels more and more like a fluke, the Duke Blue Devils only added to the fire as they dominated in every facet of the game to defeat UConn 41-7 and improve their record to 4-0.

The story of Saturday’s game was the standout performance by the Duke defense, holding the Huskies to just 203 total yards of offense, and allowing just 32 in the first half. The only score for UConn came with 12 seconds remaining in the contest.

Duke’s quarterback Riley Leonard impressed, throwing for 248 yards in the game and recording both a passing touchdown and a running score. He also led the team in total rushing yards, with 30, followed by teammate Jordan Waters, who had 18. Jodan Moore led the team in receiving yards with 86 and scored a touchdown himself.

To add to what was an outright painful game for UConn, Duke defensive tackle DeWayne Carter capitalized on it even further by picking up a Jalen Mitchell fumble and taking it 27 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter, after the Huskies had already lost top tackler Jackson Mitchell to an early targeting call that got him ejected from the game. No matter what aspect of the game it was, Duke was doing it better than UConn.

The Huskies were unable to get anything going offensively due to the constant defensive pressure, but they tried to heavily utilize and establish the run game early, to no luck. Standout running back Victor Rosa carried what little offense the Huskies displayed, rushing for 68 yards on 14 carries. Camryn Edwards also saw some touches, recording 43 yards on 12 carries. Brett Buckman led the team in receiving yards with 31, followed by Justin Joly with 26, who made a nice catch in traffic early on in the game, but it barely fell short of a first down.

The Blue Devils found a way to score on nearly every one of their offensive possessions, making it a near-impossible task for UConn to climb back in. At halftime, the score was 27-0 and Duke’s lead only continued to grow as they piled on scores in the second half. With a crowd hoping to see the Huskies turn things around in the second half, they grew disappointed as more and more damage occurred, so much so that groups of people started rushing for the exits in the third quarter to get out of the rain.

As we look back on what was an absolute slaughter-fest at Rentschler Field, the UConn Huskies have many holes, and they are just simply not on the same level as a Duke team that’s looked the best they’ve been since 2018. Offensively, UConn has to learn to buckle down more and figure out what works, as they’ve only averaged 13 points scored per game with new Penn State transfer quarterback Ta’Quan Roberson at the helm, not having scored more than 17 points in a contest as a squad this season.