Duke lost to NC State 31-20 Saturday in Carter-Finley Stadium despite having a 17-7 lead lead in the second quarter and 20-14 at halftime.

The Wolfpack (4-1, 4-1 ACC) committed eight first-half penalties for 106 yards compared to just one 10-yard penalty in the opening 30 minutes for the Blue Devils (1-5, 1-5 ACC).

Duke head coach David Cutcliffe admitted he was pleased with his team's performance and thought the final result was more about what the Pack did right as opposed to what the Blue Devils did wrong.

"We played a really good team in NC State," Cutcliffe said. "They are a good-looking football team. They're going win a lot of games."

Duke entered Saturday with 19 turnovers through five games this season, the most of any team at the FBS level.

While the turnover margin broke even Saturday, Blue Devils quarterback Chase Brice threw two costly interceptions in the second half, during which it was unable to score against the Wolfpack defense.

"The last two interceptions were certainly all me," Cutcliffe said. "I've got to put him in better positions. They did a good job with mixing coverages, and I just have to do a better job with that helping [Brice]."

Duke had an opportunity to take a two-possession lead into the locker room at halftime, but NC State redshirt junior linebacker Vi Jones blocked a punt which redshirt junior safety Max Fisher was able to recover and return for a touchdown with 50 seconds remaining in the second quarter.

"We went out with a fast cadence and a player needed to adjust to split, he knew it," Cutcliffe said. "They stemmed, they moved late and we weren't able to get it corrected, so it happens. We believe in our punt protection, and that kind of just bites you."

Fisher's touchdown return shrank Duke's lead to 17-14, but the Blue Devils were able to drive quickly to convert a 29-yard field goal, which gave them a 20-14 lead at the break.

For the third consecutive game, NC State's goal-line package was able to prevent an opposing offense from scoring at the one-yard line. In Duke's opening possession of the second half, the Blue Devils had two opportunities to punch it from there to give themselves a two-possession lead.

On third-and-goal, Duke running back Deon Jackson was stuffed at the line of scrimmage by junior nose tackle Alim McNeill and sophomore linebacker Drake Thomas. On the following play, Brice faced heavy pressure from Jones and was forced into an incomplete pass, causing a turnover on downs.

"Most of the time, first three quarters, the ball inside the two to three-yard line, I'm going to go for it," Cutcliffe said. "Statistically, everything I believe in is that you try to score a touchdown there. I know it would have put us up nine points [with a field goal], I didn't think that was enough, particularly at that stage of the game.

"If it's in the fourth quarter, then I'm going to go up to scores. But right there, I felt like we were going to score a touchdown, I just felt that I didn't sequence the plays the right way. Obviously, we didn't get it done, but you move forward. You learn and you move forward."

Saturday marked Cutcliffe's first loss in Carter-Finley Stadium during his tenure at Duke. The Blue Devils head coach is now 1-1 against NC State head coach Dave Doeren in head-to-head matchups against the Wolfpack.

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