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DURHAM -- Duke football coach Ted Roof sat down at his weekly news conference and got right to the point.

"All right, let's talk about Navy," he said Tuesday.

The comment drew chuckles from the gathered media, because naturally all the talk about the Blue Devils since Saturday night had centered on their upset of Northwestern, which snapped Duke's 22-game losing streak.

How had Duke finally managed to win a close game?

What was going through the players' minds on the last play?

How many congratulatory calls and text messages had the players received?

What did the Blue Devils think of the campus celebration late Saturday/early Sunday in which students tore down one of the goal posts at Wallace Wade Stadium?

These were the questions people wanted to ask. But Roof wanted to talk about Navy's triple option, about getting Duke's running game going and just generally about "moving on."

"We have to keep it in proper perspective," Roof said of the victory. "It was one football game, and right now it was the previous football game."

Roof wasn't trying to rain on his team's parade after Duke ended the longest losing streak in major college football. Rather, he was seeking to make sure the victory parade wasn't a one-time thing. And judging from the players' comments, it was that approach -- putting last week behind and moving on to the next game -- that played a critical role in the Blue Devils' first victory since Sept. 17, 2005, against VMI.

Consider what quarterback Thaddeus Lewis was thinking as he watched the defense try to stop Northwestern inside the Blue Devils' 10-yard line in the final seconds with Duke clinging to a 20-14 lead.

"We had a great deal of confidence in them," Lewis said.

Consider what was going through the mind of nose guard Ayanga Okpokowuruk during that final defensive stand.

"This is what we want; we want the game in our hands," he said. "The fourth quarter, the game's on the line and we've got to go get them."

Despite all hard evidence to the contrary, Roof and his staff have managed to instill confidence in the Blue Devils, which helped carry them through the white-knuckled final minutes against the Wildcats. Despite being routed by Connecticut and missing numerous opportunities against Virginia, the Blue Devils continued to believe they were making progress and that their record did not match their abilities. The victory at Evanston, Ill., wasn't a shock to them -- as it was to everyone else. It was a confirmation.

"You feel like you got a reward for your hard work, but that's what we expected," said junior offensive tackle Cameron Goldberg. "Every single game we've played, we've expected that win. We knew how to handle it when we got it."

Actually, the last part of Goldberg's statement has yet to be proven. If Duke truly knows how to handle its newfound success, it will build on the Northwestern game and continue to improve across the board. It will need to do that if it wants to knock off Navy, which clubbed the Blue Devils 38-13 last season.

That means cutting short the celebration and getting back to business.

"You'd better believe I've done some things to make sure we're not still focused on" the Northwestern game, Roof said. "The real proof was when we turned on the tape on Sunday. There were a lot of mistakes. It was not like we played excellent."

So with much to do between now and Saturday, the talk on the practice fields in Durham has turned to Navy, just as Roof wants it. Still, the players have noticed a few of the perks that come with winning -- like coming home to a field that is missing one set of goal posts.

"I hope there's a lot more tearing down of goal posts this year," Goldberg said.

Contact Jim Young at 373-7016 or jyoung @news-record.com