No. 12 Georgia Tech downs Duke, 7-0 for the first time since 1966
DURHAM, N.C. — No. 12 Georgia Tech overcame another second-half road deficit and prevailed 27-18 at Duke on Saturday at Wallace Wade Stadium.
The Yellow Jackets (7-0, 4-0 ACC) went on a 20-0 run in the second half and are off to their best start since the 1966 team was 7-0 on its way to winning its first nine games. Tech is also 4-0 in ACC play for the first time since 1988.
“They gotta stop doing this to me, though,” Tech coach Brent Key said with a grin after another hard-fought, close battle. “That’s our MO, right? One-score games or something?”
Tech scored on its first four possessions of the second half to seize control of a contest that many times seemed like it may tilt in the other direction. But the Blue Devils (4-3, 3-1 ACC) made too many mistakes and didn’t take advantage of the breaks that went their way.
Haynes King threw for 205 yards on 14-of-21 passing and ran for 120 yards for the Jackets, who rushed for more than 140 yards against Duke for the 22nd consecutive game.
Darian Mensah threw for 273 yards and two touchdowns (one of which came with 73 seconds left) for the Blue Devils. Receiver Cooper Barkate had 13 receptions for 172 yards. The Blue Devils had only 68 yards rushing.
Tech returns home to host Syracuse (3-3, 1-2 ACC) at noon Saturday.
In a 10-10 game in the fourth quarter, Tech drove to the Duke 5 but stalled there. Aidan Birr kicked a 22-yard field goal, putting the Jackets up 13-10 with 11 minutes to play.
Tech got the ball back a minute later and put together a 72-yard drive that chewed up five more minutes. And on first down at the 10, Malachi Hosley took a handoff up the gut, spun away from a defender and scored to give the Jackets a 20-10 lead.
Duke got in position on the ensuing drive to try a field goal, but Todd Pelino’s 46-yard attempt sailed wide right, and the Blue Devils’ upset bid sailed out the window with it.
King ran in a 28-yard touchdown after that to begin the road celebration early.
But some three hours earlier, the Jackets were clearly in for a dogfight.
After Tech punted to end its opening possession, Duke was backed up on its own 3, but got a 35-yard completion down the right sideline to begin a possession that looked like a sure-fire drive. On second down at the Tech 1, Mensah and running back Anderson Castle fumbled a handoff exchange allowing the ball to fall to the grass.
Tech safety Omar Daniels arrived in the backfield and found the ball at the 5, picked it up and raced untouched 95 yards for the longest fumble return in Tech history.
“It was a great feeling, for sure,” Daniels said. “I heard everybody cheering, but I just kept running because I knew I had to get in the end zone, don’t do nothing crazy, get in the end zone first, then we celebrate after.”
The Jackets, who had the ball for only 5:17 of the game’s first 15 minutes, took that touchdown lead into the second quarter.
Duke had another apparent scoring drive in the works to start the second quarter. But on fourth down at the Tech 12, the Blue Devils opted to try a field goal and the snap was dropped by holder Kade Reynoldson. Tech’s Jy Gilmore wrapped up Reynoldson for a 13-yard loss.
But Tech’s offense could do little to nothing and gave the ball right back to the Devils with 4:26 left in the half. Duke finally found the end zone 10 plays later when Mensah threw a 20-yard jump ball into the end zone to tight end Landen King to tie the game at 7-7 with 27 seconds on the clock.
Tech had only 110 yards of offense in the first half. Duke held possession for a shade less than 18½ minutes, converted 4 of 7 third downs, gained 14 first downs and averaged 6 yards per play.
“If we get ourselves a chance of getting the play started, of doing the right thing, whether it’s blocking, putting our eyes in the right position, whether it’s quarterback, receiver, running back, stuff like that, when you get the play started, then we get guys in space 1-on-1, now we have a chance,” King said of the offensive issues in the first half. “When we don’t do that, like the first half, we struggle moving the ball. Now they’re rallying to the ball and have 2-3 guys to make the tackle. It’s hard to make 2-3 guys miss at the same time.”
The Devils began the second half with the ball and marched to the Tech 1. But the Jackets held on three run plays, and then Duke was called for an illegal substitution on fourth down, forcing a 23-yard field goal by Pelino that split the uprights with 6:10 left in the third quarter.
That gave the Devils their first lead in the game. That lead lasted a little more than 30 minutes as Birr answered with a 40-yard field goal knotting the score at 10-10 going into the final 15 minutes.
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