It’s interesting, and a sign of the times, that even though Florida State and Duke are in the same conference, they share only 4 common opponents: Miami, Wake Forest, Pittsburgh, and NC State. The transitive property of games should not be relied on greatly, but it can be valuable in noticing trends in the quality of play. So, we’ll take a look at those games here.
| Florida St Score | Florida St/Opp YPP | Duke Score | Duke/Opp YPP | |
| Wake Forest | W, 59-3 | 4.05 / 2.55 | W, 28-21 | 5.64 / 3.70 |
| Miami | W, 41-14 | 7.08 / 4.82 | W, 48-30 | 7.14 / 7.24 |
| Pittsburgh | W, 41-13 | 8.46 / 5.40 | L, 55-58 | 7.71 / 7.57 |
| NC State | W, 49-17 | 8.32 / 4.21 | W, 38-20 | 4.94 / 5.09 |
One thing to keep in mind when looking at these stats is that in 2 of the 4 games, FSU built huge early leads and played back ups almost a full half of those games. Duke, on the other hand had outcomes in doubt late into all 4 of these games. For instance, in the NC State game, the Wolfpack had the ball down just 24-20 with 3:31 left in the game before throwing back-to-back interceptions for TDs to give the lopsided 38-20 score.
The bottom line is Duke has a good offense that averages 5.88 yards per play and has eclipsed 7 yards per play 3 times. However, when it faced a good defense like Florida State, they were held to 3.67 yards per play against Virginia Tech. On defense, Duke is improved, but still pretty average, giving up 5.33 yards per play. Duke has been outgained on a per play basis in 5 of their 12 games this year and won 5 one-score games.