Duke's running game began to hit its stride last week. Deon Jackson discusses the importance of running the ball and the team's improvement
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00:00 I feel very confident that for the most part, I just feel like we just have to lock in and
00:05 just focus a little bit more.
00:06 And I feel like today we've made a huge step toward that.
00:11 I feel like as we ease more and more into the season, I feel like me and Mateo are going
00:17 to be able to get into a much better groove than we have been before.
00:21 And as you can see from this past game, once we get going, it's really hard to stop us
00:28 and it opens up a lot of things.
00:30 Being able to run the ball definitely opens up the passing game a lot more and it allows
00:33 teams to be able to play things a lot more honest.
00:38 I see once we got the running game going a lot, we start moving the ball down the field
00:42 a lot more.
00:43 So definitely us being able to get into a groove together is definitely going to be
00:47 a challenge for teams.
00:48 And I feel like as long as we keep that up and establish that running game, I feel like
00:53 we'll be in a good spot this year.
00:55 That's definitely huge.
00:56 It's something that we've talked about, especially after the first few games.
01:03 We've noticed we'll drive down the field, get to the red zone, stall out, settle for
01:08 three and everything like that.
01:09 And that's just something that we've been putting a big emphasis on.
01:11 We need points, we need touchdowns once we get that far.
01:15 So yeah, that's definitely something that we've been focusing on.
01:18 It's definitely something that I'm glad we improved on last week.
01:21 Yes, I've definitely seen that.
01:25 Going into the season, I just told him, I told him it's his team, he's a starting quarterback,
01:29 I told him just take command.
01:31 You don't have to worry about people falling in line or people not so much buying in to
01:40 whatever he's saying or whatever like that.
01:41 I told him everybody respects him, everybody loves him.
01:45 And I feel like he's definitely stepped up in that role.
01:47 He's definitely become a lot more of a leader and he's definitely taking command of this
01:50 team.
01:51 So that's something that I'm really proud of him about.
01:53 I'm looking forward to just seeing that grow a little bit more.