As the Duke Football team got over their loss to Stanford last weekend with a 54-17  win over North Carolina Central University, the team is averaging an astounding 38 points per game this season. In the friendly confines of Wallace Wade, that number is an even more impressive 50 points per game. Considering that the Blue Devils’ lone output under 40 points so far this season came against Stanford, who is giving up the NCAA’s 25th lowest amount of points at 14.7/game, there shouldn’t be much negativity surrounding the Duke offense after three games.

Still, not unlike the perception that Duke’s offense is unbalanced and concentrates too much on perimeter scoring, the media and fanbase continue to harp on the fact that the Blue Devils are more prone to pass the ball than hand it off. There is certainly some merit to this sentiment, as Duke ranks second to last in the ACC in rushing offense and second in passing offense. But just like with the criticism of Duke Basketball, does the nation’s 19th most prolific passing offense really deserve the knocks for playing to their strengths?

Looking at the ACC stats leaders, Duke has 132 passes on the season, which leads the conference. At 313 yards per game, 2nd-most only to Boston College with 317, I’m actually surprised they don’t pass more. Half of those 132 passes came in their blowout loss to the Cardinal, were the Blue Devils fell behind 23-0 early in the 2nd quarter. It would have been foolish to run passing plays in a game when they were coming from behind nearly the entire contest.

Duke has run 214 offensive plays so far this year. 38% of those plays have been rushes and the other 62% have been passes. Let’s look at that ratio compared to the other ACC teams:

So, Duke certainly has the highest percentage of pass plays among teams in the ACC. Not all of that can be attributed to playing from behind against Stanford — they’ve been on the other side of the blowout coin in their other two games. Why is it that the Blue Devils pass so much when they have their deepest stable of running backs since Cutcliffe has been here. There are a few different reasons that we can turn to.

1) David Cutcliffe is a quarterbacks guru. Simply put, a Cutcliffe offense is a passing offense. He recruits for the position both at the skill positions and on the line (Duke’s offensive line is one of the smallest in the ACC, but also one of the quickest — better for pass protection that run blocking.) That leads into #2:

2) Duke is playing to its strengths. The line is built to pass protect, and they’re used to it. Not even considering Duke’s tight ends, both of the top two TE still playing this year – David Reeves and Erich Schneider — are much better receivers than blockers. This is not a new concept for Duke under Cutcliffe. These guys don’t give up many sacks, why run when your QB is protected?

3) It’s working. Why fix what ain’t broke? Duke is averaging 313 yards/game (2nd in ACC/16th in NCAA) through the air and completing 68% of its passes. If the offense is able to gain yards by the pass, don’t stop passing the ball just for the sake of running it.