Chris Rumph II After the NC State Loss
Chris Rumph II met with the media after Duke’s 31-20 loss to NC State. He followed wide receiver Jake Bobo, who seemed upset after the Blue Devil’s fifth defeat in six games.
Rumph brushed off any negative feelings, saying, “First of all, Jake’s a very emotional guy in the first place. Don’t pay any attention to him.”
Rumph also denied that Duke’s defense wore down, after the Blue Devils were outscored 17-0 in the second half. On the season, opponents have scored 72 points in the first half and 112 in the second. Duke has allowed 61 points in fourth quarters this year, more than any other quarter, and the Blue Devils have second-half leads in each of their last three losses as coaches and players have been critical of the defense’s conditioning level since the first game.
“I feel like I had more energy in the second half than the first,” Rumph said. “But I don’t pay attention to that. Our job is to put pressure on the quarterback, make him feel uncomfortable. As long as I’m doing that, we always don’t have to make sacks to impact the game or impact the quarterback. Us being around him is hassling him. He’s always thinking about us. Obviously, we had three interceptions. We didn’t get five or six sack game, but the defensive backs did an incredible job this week, capitalizing on interception chances, getting the ball back to our offense.”
Rumph is looking forward to Duke’s off week.
“I don’t think there’s a wrong time for a bye week,” he said. “Any time you get a week off. Definitely, this week is going to be a time to take a deep breath, reset, figure out what we need to do better, fix those mistakes and continue to keep chopping at that tree. That tree’s going to come down soon.”
