Duke Dominates Tech in Durham
Blue Devils Trash Georgia Tech’s Defense, Along With Bowl Hopes
How do you explain Duke’s 43-20 trouncing of favored Georgia Tech on Saturday?
Start with a Tech opponent who has lost 6 straight games. Add a small, quiet crowd at pastoral Wallace Wade Stadium. Make it Senior Day. Now blend in a leaky defense (4 Duke possessions, 4 scores in the first half), plus a big turnover and a dash of seemingly inevitable weekly special teams blunders and voila!–you have a great recipe for an upset. That was the story on Saturday in Durham where Blue Devils used that recipe to cook up an emotional win on their final home date of 2017.
As the game wore on, Duke totally dominated line play, and generally had their way with the Yellow Jacket defense, racking up 410 yards through 3 quarters and ultimately scoring 30 unanswered points. The Blue Devils’ only pause was a missed extra point, a mere speed bump in the path of the home team’s relentless offensive surge.
In the third quarter alone, the Blue Devils outgained the Jackets by 193 yards, building a 10 point lead. Tech’s 3rd quarter offensive output was downright…offensive: 6 plays yielded 5 yards. Total. This from the team with the nation’s 4th most potent rushing attack.
On a day when their poor execution began melding with seeming defensive disinterest, Georgia Tech’s veritable last gasp yielded yet another misplay. Trailing 36-20 on 4th and 9 deep into the 4th quarter, Tech Punter Pres Harvin’s fake punt/attempted pass was incomplete, and a tentative interference penalty, with its faint promise of a first down, was called off after a zebra huddle.
On the next play, Duke QB Daniel Jones delivered the kill shot. Looking like a leaner local version of Tim Tebow, he skirted Tech’s left side for an easy 32-yard touchdown. In so doing, Jones joined Duke RB Brittain Brown in the hundred yard rushing club for the day, helping Duke to a season-high 319 yards on the ground.
Yellow Jacket boss Paul Johnson was at a loss to explain his defense’s listless performance. “They went through us like we weren’t even there,” he said, getting no disagreement. “We just couldn’t keep up with them.”
His counterpart, Duke head man David Cutcliffe, could not remember another game in his long career in which his team had scored on each of their first 7 possessions. Duke center Austin Davis joked postgame that his linemates were slightly disappointed that they hadn’t been able to keep their punter from even appearing in the game. Duke punted only once, that coming deep into the 4th stanza.
This contest began well enough for the Yellow Jackets. They took the opening kickoff and scored on a 12- play, 75-yard drive. Following a Duke field goal, they did it again, this time covering 79 yards on 10 plays with JJ Green scoring from 3 yards out.
But Duke’s defensive tackle Vic Dimukeje picked off TaQuon Marshall’s attempted screen on Tech’s next drive, sparking a momentum shift that began to turn the tide. Duke tallied another field goal and then scored again, with a touchdown just before the half on a 72-yard drive that took only 1:43 to complete. The halftime scoreboard said 20-all, but Duke had definitely gained command, and it showed.
From there, the Blue Devils outscored the visitors 23-0, adding some Senior Day antics (a halfback pass, appearances by back-up placekickers) to accentuate their dominance. Tech’s offense completely lost its first-half focus, falling prey to multiple desperate failed long pass attempts as the deficit grew and the clock ticked.
Georgia Tech now heads home to face archrival Georgia next week in what may well be the Jackets last game. Georgia will be a heavy favorite to avenge last year’s loss to Tech, and if the Bulldogs prevail Tech will finish at 5-6. If so, there would be only a small chance they could still get a bowl bid, based on a truncated schedule caused by a canceled game in September due to Hurricane Irma.
Duke now heads to Wake Forest for its 12th game, hoping to gain win number six in 2017.