Florida State @ Duke preview

Last Meeting ( Dec 7, 2013 ) Duke 7, Florida State 45

Florida State needs a win when it travels to Duke on Saturday to snap out of what has become an historical drought. The Seminoles are 1-3 for the first time since 1976, which was Bobby Bowden's first season, and have lost consecutive home games for the first time since 2009, including their first 0-2 start at home since 1974.

“We’ve got to continue to coach and find a way,” coach Jimbo Fisher said on Monday. “We play good football teams, but we’re a good football team. We should be making that one other play in those games. We’ve got to find a way to that.” Duke seems to be the perfect foe for Florida State, which is 19-0 all-time against the Blue Devils, winning by at least 19 points in every contest and scoring at least 40 points in all seven games played at Duke in the series. The Seminoles were looking at a victory against then-No. 12 Miami last week after James Blackman’s 20-yard touchdown pass with 1:24 left, but Hurricanes quarterback Malik Rosier drove the Hurricanes 75 yards and threw a 23-yard TD with six seconds left to pull out a 24-20 victory and end a seven-game losing streak in the series. The Blue Devils opened the season with four consecutive wins by a combined 101 points but have stumbled through consecutive losses - 31-6 to Miami on Sept. 29 and 28-21 at Virginia last weekend.

TV: Noon ET, ESPN2. LINE: Florida State -7.

ABOUT FLORIDA STATE (1-3, 1-2 ACC): Blackman finished 17-of-28 for 203 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions against Miami, while fellow freshman Cam Akers had his first 100-yard rushing game with 121 yards on 20 carries. Blackman was 9-of-10 for 142 yards and two touchdowns in the final quarter against Miami, but the true freshman threw for just 59 yards combined in the first halves against the Hurricanes and Wake Forest. The Florida State defense remains stingy, ranking ninth in FBS in opponent red zone touchdown conversion rate (40 percent) and 29th in third-down conversion rate (32 percent).

ABOUT DUKE (4-2, 1-2): Duke was held to 255 yards against Virginia as sophomore quarterback Daniel Jones completed just a third of his 42 pass attempts for 124 yards and two interceptions - giving him seven picks in two games against Virginia in his career compared to just seven interceptions in his other 16 games combined. Jones is completing 54.5 percent of his passes for the season - 45.3 percent in his last three games - but has thrown only six touchdowns and is averaging less than 10 yards per completion. "The story was pretty simple, we have issues in the passing game," Duke coach David Cutcliffe said. "It has somewhat disappeared. When we are open, we are missing them. When we hit them, there are some dropped. It's just malfunctioning."

EXTRA POINTS

1. Florida State is 8-7 in conference games since 2016 after winning 28 straight over the previous four seasons.

2. Duke registered just one sack against the Cavaliers after recording 18 in its first five games - second in the ACC.

3. Seminoles RB Jacques Patrick ranks sixth in rushing in league play with 249 yards on 38 carries through three games, and his 6.6 average per carry sits fourth among qualified rushers.

PREDICTION: Florida State 27, Duke 10