Tech Trips Up Duke At The Wire, 31-27

The Yellow Jackets Snapped A Long Dry Spell At Durham With A Brilliant Finish To A Very Uneven Performance

In the cozy, uncrowded confines of Wallace Wade Stadium, Duke and Georgia Tech met for a pigskin rumble. It was a misty Saturday. The dreary weather and the small group of quiet onlookers (announced as 11,800, looked about half that number) fully set the vibe. In this setting a 2-3 Tech team came in as a 3 point favorite over the 3-2 hosts. The terms of this event added some drama, in that the loser is highly likely to be in the basement of the ACC Coastal Division at year’s end. So, in an odd way, the stakes were high. Some said later that the low energy set the stage for a “trap” game for Georgia Tech. Personally, I’ve always held to the notion that you don’t qualify to fall prey to a trap game if you are already struggling– say, under .500. Ahem. But the Jackets played well to start, and even better to finish. That they played fairly poorly in between did not prevent a Tech getting a “W”, and that is what matters most.

At the game’s start, quicker than you can say “Dookie”, the Blue Devils took the opening kickoff and went 3 and out. A nice 50 yard punt gave Tech the ball at their own 18. A handoff to Jahmyr Gibbs got 2 yards. A pass from Jeff Sims to Gibbs earned 3 more yards. And then….another pass in the left flat to Gibbs became a 77 yard touchdown when Duke’s defense somehow failed to cover him at all. He sprinted to the endzone untouched, seemingly almost unnoticed.  7-0 Georgia Tech.

Duke did gain a single first down in their next possession before punting again. This time it took the Jackets all of 8 plays and three minutes to cover the 77 yards to the endzone. Sims pushed it in from a yard out on a play where he recovered his own fumble. Fortuitous. This put Tech up 14-0 with 6 plus minutes left in the first quarter.

At this point, it occurs to the casual observer (me) that a similar scenario unfolded a week earlier in Atlanta. That day, Tech got “hit in the mouth”by Pitt with an early 14-0 deficit, from which they never recovered. By comparison, how would things play out here, with Tech up 14-0 early?

Well, differently is how. Duke answered with a score to narrow things to a 14-7 count. And from that point forward, Duke really controlled the contest. But Tech saved their very best for very last, covering 88 yards in 6 plays with no timeouts, using only 51 seconds to score on a 37 yard pass from Sims to Adonicus Sanders to retake the lead at 31-27 with under a minute to play.

And what of the Tech defense? They too saved a big moment for game’s end. Duke’s final possession was snuffed out early on an interception by S Juanyeh Thomas. But prior to that moment, Duke pushed the Jackets around. For the game, Duke outgained Tech 489-440, ran 91 plays to Tech’s 64, earned more first downs by a 27-17 count and won possession time by 10 minutes. Those are numbers that TGWUTCAT ( the guy who used to coach at Tech) would have loved for his team to achieve.

And yet…when the game was on the line, Sims and mates answered the challenge. On Duke’s penultimate possession, Cutcliffe and crew tried hard to run out the clock. They stayed on the ground and forced Tech to exhaust it’s timeouts prior to getting the ball on it’s own 12 yard line with under two minutes to play and down three points. Recall that on their prior possession, facing that new three point deficit, Tech went nowhere, and looked bad doing it. They went 3 and out, with Sims getting sacked and then missing his wide-open tight end on 3rd down. To make matters worse, they incurred a motion penalty on a punt. A motion penalty on a punt? Huh? Yes. And thus Duke began on their own 42. Two first downs would have secured the game for Duke– but they earned only one and then punted back to Tech.

It was here that Jeff Sims brought out his best Tom Brady imitation.

He drove the team 88 yards for the score. The drive featured 2 long passes (including the touchdown to Sanders). It also featured an awkward fumble from Gibbs that rolled slowly out of bounds before Duke could recover, thus maintaining possession for Tech. Given that 5 of the previous 6 possessions for Tech went nowhere, this game-winner was all the more improbable.

This turn of events set up the proverbial post-game discourse. Was Tech lucky? Or were they plucky? Or both?

Postgame, Geoff Collins was effusive in his praise of the Tech troops. He cited their persistence especially given the number of injured players who were at least momentarily unavailable for regular duty. And he noted that this game, odd as it was, was Tech’s first win at Duke since 2013. Noteworthy for sure.

Tech’s more “glass-half- empty” fans see turnovers, penalties at the most inopportune moments and a narrow escape win over a much less- talented team.

There are points to be made either way. What is not debatable is that at the season’s midpoint, Georgia Tech is 3-3, with an ACC record of 2-2. They are in position to finish the year much better than either of the prior two seasons under Collins.

Tech takes on Virginia on the road after a bye week. The 2nd half schedule features four league games plus Notre Dame and Georgia. Which version of the Yellow Jackets will show up and show out?

On to Charlottesville.

Patrick Conarro

RamblinSports

series of mess ups w duke 2nd pat– good but motion– misdef but gt offsidd– 3rd try, good again 17-+14

2nd half. Gt 6 and out

Hamm 35 yd fg17-17 at 9:10

Gt. 75 yd drive. Sims td pass to.___ 24-17

Ham misses fg 30 yarder.gt 3 and out..punt fumbled, rolls down to 1 yd line..duke gets a touchback

— end 3 gt 24 duke 17

4th

Duke 80 yd drive td pass to TE

D 24-gt 24 at 12:33

KO. Tech 3 and out

Punt Duke at 0 15

Drive inside tech 10. Stall

Ham 19 yd fg

Duke 27. Gt 24 at 5:06

Gt 3 and out misd open te by sims. Sack

And false start on.punt

Duke 0 42 at 3:50

Punt tech 80 yd td pass to ___

Gt 31-27 win

Thomas. Int at 015. Done