Duke Dumps Yellow Jackets 28-14

A Flurry of Tech Turnovers in Third Quarter Sends Homecoming Crowd Home Early…..and Frustrated

It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood on North Avenue Saturday as the Yellow Jackets welcomed Duke to a noonish kickoff. Mother Nature saw fit to finally provide some real football weather. An energetic Georgia Tech Homecoming crowd settled in for a good , competitive game and that’s what they got …until an avalanche of Tech turnovers in the fading moments of the 3rd quarter decided the outcome with stunning suddenness. Watching the first 40 minutes, you saw a 7-7 struggle. If you took a 3 minute break at the precise moment, you would have rubbed your eyes upon returning. Like a watching a boxing match that borders on boring, if you looked away, you might miss the moment the knockout comes–only in this case, the loser presented his chin on a platter.

Simply put, Georgia Tech self-destructed. Jerry Howard, TaQuon Marshall and Juanyeh Thomas each lost the football on successive touches. In each case, Duke quickly converted the turnover to a touchdown . In a flash, the score went from 7-7 to 28-7, Duke.

On the game’s first possession Duke moved down the field with dispatch, scoring in only 4 plays. Deon Jackson took it in from 13 yards out for the score. It looked like it was going to be a long day for the Tech D. But from that point, the first half became an old-fashioned defensive struggle. Neither team could make a sustained drive and each team’s defense made a critical stop on a 4th and one situation.

Tech (3-4, 1-3) did not score until about a minute to go in the half, on a 32 yard pass to freshman Malachi Carter from TaQuon Marshall. That play followed a Lamont Siimmons interception of Daniel Jones at the Duke 32. Wesley Wells hit the PAT to knot it up at 7 all and that’s how it stayed…. until the 3 consecutive fumbles in the 2nd half gave the Blue Devils control of the game.

Jerry Howard lost a fumble at the Duke 43 with about 3 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. 3 plays later, Jones hit TJ Rahming on a 48-yard toss to give Duke the lead at 14-7.

On Tech’s first play from scrimmage after the ensuing Duke kickoff, Marshall lost the ball. 6 plays later, Jones hit Davis Koppenhaver on a short pass for another 6 points. Amazingly, the Yellow Jackets coughed it up again on the ensuing kickoff return. Jaunyeh Thomas bobbled it, then lost it and again Duke recovered, this time at the Tech 6 yard line . Jones needed only one play for the conversion, passing to Johnathan Lloyd for the touchdown.

In just under 3 minutes Duke had built a 3-touchdown lead. Paul Johnson would later say his Tech team plays "with a small margin of error". Those three big mistakes were well outside that margin, and the game was virtually decided–a fact not lost on the many Tech fans who began streaming for the exits at that point.

To their credit, the Jackets kept pushing. They opened the 4th quarter with a textbook option drive of 75 yards, using 15 plays. Unfortunately, they also used half of the remaining time , so when Duke recovered the Shawn Davis onside kick with 7:50 to go in the game, there was no real doubt left in the outcome.

On the day, Tech’s vaunted rushing offense was reasonably productive. They outgained Duke in total yards 354 to 304. But the numbers that mattered fell Duke’s way. And so for the 2nd year in a row, the Blue Devils pulled away from Tech in the 2nd half.

And that last fact sticks in the Jackets fans’ collective craw. Tech people believe they should usually beat Duke in football. As one fan put it"..We look at them somewhat like they look at us during basketball season– deserving of some respect ,yes, but not an actual threat to win very often."

That’s not been the case lately. Duke has now won 4 of the last 5 meetings. Before that, Tech had won 18 of the preceding 20 . Paul Johnson’s Georgia Tech teams beat Duke in each of his first 6 years at Tech. Put all that together and many Tech folks see it as more evidence of decline in the overall level of the football program.

On the bright side , Tech’s defense played fairly well overall, holding Duke to 304 total yards, only 98 of which came on the ground. And Tech forced 3 turnovers from Duke, the first of which was Lamont Simmons’ first interception as a Yellow Jacket. Those factors make the fumbles Tech lost all the more lamentable.
" We can be a pretty good football team if we don’t turn the ball over and don’t jump offsides", said Johnson. He continued," "We’ve got to do a better job of ball security".

Exactly how to make that happen remains uncertain. What is certain is that Tech now sits at the bottom of the Coastal division with a 1-3 record. There are 4 conference games still to play, vs Virginia Tech, North Carolina, Miami and Virginia. The Yellow Jackets are off next Saturday in preparation for the Virginia Tech game on Thursday night October 25 in Blacksburg.

Captions:

1) Tech Coach Paul Johnson spoke of the frustration that comes with turnovers and penalties "I thought we had cleaned that up".

2) Duke fans and players celebrate their ACC Coastal win over Tech

3) Tech QB Tobias Oliver(8) tries to lead the Jackets back in the 4th quarter.

4) By late 4th quarter, many of the Tech fans at Bobby Dodd for Homecoming had long departed.

5) Salt in the wound –at Tech’s home field