Duke Edges Illinois 31-27 Despite Three Collin Dixon Touchdowns
Both teams finished with exactly 382 yards. Duke won 31-27, which tells you the game was decided somewhere other than the yardage column.
It was decided by who answered. Illinois led 7-0, 10-7 and 17-7, and Duke had a reply each time. Walker Eget hit Jonah Burton from 12 yards to tie it early, Nate Sheppard ran in from 2 yards to make it 17-14, and Illinois pushed it back to 24-14 on a Collin Dixon 2-yard touchdown with 1:48 left in the half. Duke needed 70 seconds: Eget threw a 7-yard touchdown to Sheppard with 38 seconds left, and it was 24-21 at the break.
Then Eget found Sheppard again, from 3 yards, midway through the third quarter, and Duke led 28-24 for the first time. Ethan Moczulski kicked a 47-yard field goal to cut it to 28-27, and Cosme Salas answered with a 39-yarder with 13:53 left in the fourth. That made it 31-27, and nobody scored again. Illinois spent the last 13 minutes and change without finding the end zone or the field goal range it needed.
Dixon scored all three Illinois touchdowns (13, 40 and 2 yards), and Sheppard accounted for three of the four Duke touchdowns (a run and two catches). Duke ran 33 times for 176 yards and threw for 206, with no turnovers. Illinois threw for 271 and ran for 111 on 32 carries, and threw one interception. Duke is 2-0 and Illinois is 1-1.
If you had either of those two, you had your week.