DALLAS — In the game's biggest moment, Duke went for the win and SMU's defense stepped up.
“If you’ve got a chance to win the game in the first inning, you do it,” Duke coach Manny Diaz said. “And we had missed three straight kicks.”
The gamble didn't pay off. The No. 22 Mustangs forced an incompletion on a potential winning two-point conversion attempt in overtime to seal a 28-27 road victory against the Blue Devils late Saturday night.
It's the fifth consecutive win for SMU (7-1, 4-0 ACC), which got 117 rushing yards and two touchdowns — including the winner in overtime — from Brashard Smith. Mustangs' quarterback Kevin Jennings had 299 yards of total offense, rushing for a score and throwing for another.
The Blue Devils (6-2, 2-2) lost despite winning the turnover battle 6-0.
“We should’ve lost that game five different times late," SMU coach Rhett Lashlee said. "We should have. And if we played it 100 times, we’re probably losing 99 of them the way the game unfolded. This just happened to be the one time. Our guys just kept playing, kept fighting.”
For Duke, Maalik Murphy completed 27-of-48 passes for 295 yards and three touchdowns, while Star Thomas rushed for 65 yards and a score.
The game started anew with nine minutes left to play in the fourth quarter when Duke capped off a 10-play, 64-yard yard drive with Thomas muscling his way into the end-zone for a touchdown.
Late in the fourth quarter, Jennings fumbled on a second-and-6 scramble, which was scooped up by Duke linebacker Ozzie Nicholas and returned 21 yards, putting the Blue Devils in the red zone. But Duke failed to take advantage of a possession gifted to them by SMU, and a walkoff 30-yard field goal by Todd Pelino was blocked by SMU’s Jahfari Harvey as time expired in regulation.
“We knew we had to step up, strain, give 110% effort,” said SMU's Isaiah Nwokobia, who recovered the blocked kick. “(Harvey) got through there and made a big-time play in a big-time game.”
In overtime, the Mustangs scored quickly on a 24-yard run from Smith, and Duke countered with a passing touchdown to Eli Pancol. On Duke's two-point conversion attempt for the win, Murphy scrambled out of the pocket to his right after feeling pressure and his pass attempt to Pancol missed the mark.
“For those guys in that locker room, there’s a lot of emotions,” Diaz said. “Sadness, anger, confusion. Whatever you can feel, they feel.”
SMU: The Mustangs entered this matchup with the 11th-best scoring offense in FBS, and gashed Duke's defense for 469 yards of total offense, the most the Blue Devils have allowed this season. Still, because of its turnovers, it needed some late-game magic to remain undefeated in conference play.
Duke: The Blue Devils failed to capitalize off turnovers. SMU fumbled three times and tossed three interceptions, but Duke never turned those giveaways into points.
According to the sports marketing and analytics company StatsPerform, FBS teams were 1-124 this century when losing the turnover battle by that margin. The other lone win came when Marshall defeated Memphis under similar circumstances in 2011.
“We’re just really humbled to get a win, and we probably put on a clinic on how to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat,” Lashlee said. “There’s four or five times probably in the last 10 minutes of that game that I just said, ‘You know, it’s not our night.’ … It’s pretty remarkable. That’s why you keep playing every play.”
For SMU, it was just the second time in its last 18 games that it didn't force a turnover.
SMU could find itself inside the top 20 in the latest AP Top 25 Poll and even higher if it wins again next week at home, another 8 p.m. ET kickoff on ACC Network. The highest the Mustangs have been ranked in the last 35 years is No. 15.
SMU hosts No. 19 Pittsburgh next Saturday, while Duke travels to No. 6 Miami next week.
