ATLANTA - The Blue Devils continued a streak Saturday against Georgia Tech.
It just wasn't the one they wanted.
Looking to build upon its first ACC win since 2004, Duke instead lost its 17th consecutive conference road game, falling 27-0 to the Yellow Jackets in Bobby Dodd Stadium. The Blue Devils struggled to move the ball all afternoon, and a second-half Georgia Tech scoring outburst made a Duke comeback all but impossible.
"They made more plays," defensive end Greg Akinbiyi said. "When it comes down to it, the team that makes the fewest mistakes will win, and they made fewer mistakes."
The Yellow Jackets (4-1, 1-1 in the ACC) made virtually no miscues in running head coach Paul Johnson's vaunted triple-option offense. Running back Jonathan Dwyer rushed for a career-best 159 yards on 23 carries, nearly doubling his average workload and propelling Georgia Tech to a 224-yard day on the ground.
And while Duke (3-2, 1-1) had already faced-and defeated-a triple-option team in Navy, the Yellow Jackets provided a stiffer test. Not only did they have better athletes than the Midshipmen, but Johnson threw in some wrinkles to keep the Blue Devils off balance.
One of those changes was having Dwyer run off tackle more than Duke anticipated, but the biggest surprise was the effectiveness of the passing game. Backup quarterback Jaybo Shaw threw for 230 yards, 135 more than Georgia Tech had averaged through its first four games. All nine of Shaw's completions, including an 88-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, went to wide receiver Demaryius Thomas.
"Duke was a good team, and they had practiced against the option for a while," said Thomas, whose 230-yard day was the second-best in Yellow Jacket history. "I guess I got tired of their coaches saying we didn't have a good receiver, so I had to show them we did have one."
He did just that. Thomas and Dwyer caught the eye of Duke head coach David Cutcliffe, who was left lamenting his offensive stars' unproductive afternoons. Quarterback Thaddeus Lewis finished 15-of-28 for 97 yards and an interception, wide receiver Eron Riley had 20 yards receiving and the rushing attack netted just 35 yards-all were, by far, season lows.
It added up to the Blue Devils only holding possession for just more than 21 minutes, keeping the Duke defense on the field for almost 39 minutes.
"We've got some people that can make some plays, and we're either not getting them in position to make plays often enough or they're not making plays often enough," Cutcliffe said. "That's kind of what offensive football is. It really does go back to matchups and people that can make plays.
"You saw it in reverse today-the exact opposite. Great credit to their big-time playmakers, [Dwyer] and [Thomas]. They made what percentage of the big plays? A hundred percent, maybe? They put their guys in a position to do it."
Part of the reason for the Blue Devils' offensive struggles was the play of the Georgia Tech defensive line. Lewis was sacked twice and pressured all afternoon, preventing him from ever settling into a rhythm. As a result, he was unable to take many shots downfield. Eight of his 15 completions went for six yards or less, and three of those were for negative yardage.
"We didn't have an answer for those [defensive] ends," Cutcliffe said. "They moved them around a bunch [and] gave us some fronts that we hadn't seen.... We just didn't respond very well to it."
Although the loss leaves Duke still waiting for its first ACC road win since 2003, these Blue Devils see themselves as different from squads of past years-and they want to make sure it stays that way.
"The No. 1 thing is never to get down on ourselves to the point where we're like, 'Oh, we're losing again,'" Akinbiyi said. "That is not the mentality we want to have. We're going to go in and work even harder than ever.... We'll come out [after the bye] and do what's necessary to win."
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