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| Photo by Darla S Tamuitis La Vita Loca Photography Copyright 2018 All Rights Reserved |
Copyright 2018 All Rights Reserved
SHREVEPORT, LOUISIANA (December 27, 2019) Duke quarterback Daniel Jones (shown right and below) continued his banner year and picked up his second consecutive bowl game Most Valuable Player award in leading the Blue Devils to a 56-27 win over the Temple Owls at the 2018 Walk-On's Independence Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana. The junior redshirt completed 30-of-41 passes for 423 yards and five touchdowns,. He carried the ball six times for one touchdown. His touchdowns established a new Independence Bowl record, breaking the record held by four others, the last being Florida State’s James Blackman in 2017. The five touchdown passes breaks the single-game Independence Bowl record set by Florida State’s James Blackman in 2017 against Southern Mississippi. His 30 completions are third-most in Independence Bowl history, trailing Oklahoma’s Josh Heupel (39, 1999 vs. Ole Miss) and Ole Miss’ Mark Young (31, 1986 vs. Texas Tech).
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| Photo by Darla S Tamuitis La Vita Loca Photography Copyright 2018 All Rights Reserved |
His 73.2 completion percentage (30-for-41) is third-best in Independence Bowl history behind Texas A&M’s Gary Kubiak (75 percent vs. Oklahoma State, 1981) and Oklahoma’s Josh Heupel (73.6 percent vs. Ole Miss, 1999) for passers with a minimum of 15 completions.
In addition, the 85-yard pass to T.J. Rahming in the third quarter is the longest in Duke’s bowl history (14 games). Previous long: Jones to Rahming for 62 yards in the first quarter. Prior to the game, Anthony Boone’s 59-yard pass to Jamison Crowder in the 2013 Chick-fil-A Bowl was the longest. Jones spoke to the press after the win, explaining what woke up the Duke offense as the game progressed.
“We had a lot of good stuff going into the game. We were prepared. We hit on that first drive then, like you said, we hit a lull. I don’t think we lost confidence. We knew we could catch a few breaks, catch some momentum and keep it rolling. What happened toward the end of the first half and in the second half was we caught our groove and had enough good stuff to keep it going. The big thing there was not losing our confidence.”
He went on to talk about the offense's second half performance.
“They’re primarily a man team, playing a lot of many coverage. We liked our matchups was one thing. I’m not sure it was necessarily what they were doing. We knew we had enough stuff and it would work against a whole lot of looks. We prepared to use what we had against any of their looks. It worked out for us.”
He also discussed about catching his own deflected pass.
“I guess so (feeling like it was his day). It was an interesting play, kinda fell right to me. We caught some breaks in the second half. That was a product of our momentum and our confidence and us doing a lot of things right.”
