But both his ability to put points on the board and his willingness to tackle underline what has gone right for the high-flying 11-2 Alouettes, and the nagging doubts about the league's first-place overall team.
He is 36-for-43 in field goals, but perhaps shouldn't have needed to make that many attempts had the offence not struggled at times to finish drives with touchdowns.
And a kicker making tackles means the first wave of the coverage team didn't bring down the returner, so if the kicker doesn't do it, it could go for a touchdown.
Coach Marc Trestman said he'd rather not have Duval make tackles, but sometimes there is no choice.
"It's not exciting to see him make those plays, but he's a football player, he's a highly competitive guy," said Trestman. "But hopefully we can make some corrections to take care of some of that."
They will be put to the test on Thanksgiving Day Monday, when the Alouettes play host to the defending Grey Cup champion Stampeders, the team they beat surprisingly handily in Calgary in the season opener back in July.
The Alouettes coverage team has had strong games but also a few where they've laboured to bring down the returners. Duval said that in this case, it was the presence of the Argos' first-rate returner Dominique Dorsey that caused the trouble.
"Early in the season, before they got Dorsey back, they had returns blocking up because they just didn't have a guy there to make it happen," he said. "Dorsey's been the top special teams player the last two years.
"He gets a little space and he'll make things happen."
But Duval is happy to do the job.
He was a safety as well as a kicker at Chattanooga Centre High School in Tennessee, where his coach Mike Collier stressed a tackling technique that he uses to this day. He later played at Auburn University and had looks from two NFL clubs before joining the Alouettes in 2005.
He has become a fixture on the Montreal roster, and it probably hasn't hurt that he is married to team president Larry Smith's daughter.
"I don't want anybody scoring on me no matter who it is, so I'm going to do everything in my ability to not allow that to happen," he said. "But so far, the coaches haven't said anything.
"We want to win and if I don't make it happen, maybe he takes it to the house. Over the last five years I think I've earned the respect of my teammates and coaches because they've seen I'm not just over there kicking balls and goofing off - the normal, what you may call, kicker mentality. I put a helmet and pads on and when I cross that line I'm a player like everybody else."
Duval has 167 points this season - a 27-point lead on Calgary kicker Sandro DeAngelis - and has five games left to challenge Terry Baker's team record of 220 points in 2000. The 29-year-old had a career-high 206 last season, which is second in team history.
He also leads the CFL with a 64-yard average on kickoffs and his 46.1-yard average is first among the league's regular punters, although he doesn't consider those statistics to be of much importance.
His percentage of successful field goals is only fourth in the league, but he also leads in attempts.
"I take what I get," he said. "Ideally if I go out and kick six or seven converts a game and seven or eight kickoffs, that's great, but that's not how this league works or how games go," he said. "Our offence and defence are doing a great job, but if our offence gets stalled, I have to go put the ball through the uprights.
"Hopefully, we'll put up touchdowns instead of field goals, but that's why we have kickers on the team."
His 53-yard effort, which cleared the bar by about 10 yards, was his longest since a 58-yard field goal he booted in high school. He made a 67-yard boot outdoors in practice last season.
Duval said the coaches were confident he would make it, even though in the CFL, missed field goals often produce long returns.
"Leg strength has never been the question," he said.
