Missed opportunities and untimely mistakes plagued Duke Saturday in a 38-14 loss to Georgia Tech, killing the Blue Devils’ hopes of starting the season 3-0 for the first time since 1994.
Penalties crippled Duke in the first period and allowed Georgia Tech to take a 24-7 lead going into the locker room at halftime. The Yellow Jackets' offense held the ball for the majority of the second half, stymying the Blue Devils' comeback effort.
"We took care of the ball pretty well, but we don't need penalties," Duke head coach David Cutcliffe said. "We just need to play clean, hard, solid football. We can win a lot of football games doing that here with the people we have now."
Georgia Tech held a 10-7 lead at the beginning of the second quarter and moved the ball deep into Blue Devil territory before Kelby Brown stuffed Yellow Jackets’ quarterback Vad Lee on a short third down attempt.
But on fourth-and-one at Duke's 27-yard line, Lee’s hard count drew nose tackle Jamal Bruce offsides and gave Georgia Tech a fresh set of downs. Three plays later, Lee connected with wideout DeAndre Smelter for a 24-yard touchdown pass to put the Yellow Jackets up 17-7.
A quick three-and-out for the Blue Devils on their ensuing possession gave Georgia Tech the ball back with 10 minutes remaining in the period.
After a pair of first down runs advanced the ball to midfield, the Yellow Jackets looked poised to score again. But an overthrown pass by Lee fell into the hands of a diving Ross Cockrell, and Duke took over inside its own 5-yard line following the interception.
After picking up one first down, a holding penalty by wide receiver Brandon Braxton set the Blue Devils up with a first-and-19 deep within their own territory. The penalty killed the drive, forcing the Blue Devils to punt three plays later.
Georgia Tech return man Jamal Golden took Monday’s punt to the Yellow Jackets' 46-yard line, where tight end Nick Sink made the tackle and dragged Golden down by his facemask, tacking on 15 yards to the end of the return and setting Georgia Tech up on the Blue Devils’ 39-yard line. The Yellow Jackets failed to convert despite great starting field possession, pushing a 39-yard field goal wide to the left.
Duke took the ball and started its final drive of the half with 3:03 left on the clock. Still down by ten points, a Blue Devil touchdown before halftime could have changed the momentum of the game and put Duke in a chance to make a second half comeback.
Instead the Blue Devils went three-and-out, punting the ball away and leaving less than two minutes on the clock for Paul Johnson and his spread option offense.
On the first play of the drive, sixth-year senior Kenny Anunike brought down Lee by his facemask on a quarterback keeper. The 15-yard penalty advanced the ball all the way to the Georgia Tech 49-yard line, and the Yellow Jackets utilized the remaining time on the clock to march down the field for their third touchdown of the day.
With just over 30 seconds left in the half, Duke could not muster a quick scoring drive and headed into the locker room down 24-7.
"The biggest challenge wasn't [physical]," Cutcliffe said. "We weren't as optimistic, we weren't as energized.... That's a test we didn't pass. And that's my responsibility, to make sure the team is resilient and can overcome those circumstances."
The Yellow Jackets’ 15-play touchdown drive to start the second period took almost eight minutes off the clock, effectively putting the game out of reach for Duke.
"They did what they had to do, and then they scored and we get it back and over half of the quarter is gone," Cutcliffe said. "They just out-executed us at that point.... We just didn't get the stop, and it could have been at any one time. It just didn't happen."
With a large halftime lead thanks in part to a series of Blue Devil penalties, all Georgia Tech had to do in the second period to secure the win was do what it does best—dominate time of possession. The Yellow Jackets successfully shortened the game with their patient offense attack, and Duke held the ball for just seven minutes in the second half.
"We had something similar to this a year ago on the West Coast," Cutcliffe said in reference to last year's 50-13 loss at Stanford. "The difference is we don't have to fly back across the country to look at it and regather."
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