With a forecast of “persistent rain,” Saturday afternoon in Durham, the Tech-Duke game figured to have sloppy play and special teams is usually an easy target for it. Georgia Tech did its best to make matters even worse. Consecutive mishaps on punt plays at the end of the first quarter had the Yellow Jackets staring up at an ugly scoreboard and a 19-3 deficit.
Then after Tech had worked back into the game in the second half, down 19-13, the Yellow Jackets let Duke’s Devon Edwards slip through the cracks. The Alcovy High School product from Covington broke loose for a 100-yard kickoff return to put Duke up 26-13 with 6:54 left in the third quarter.
Edwards got his second kickoff return for a touchdown this season, his record fifth in his Duke career, and Tech had given up its first kickoff return for a touchdown since Virginia Tech’s David Wilson in 2010.
“First off, I wasn’t trying to kick it to that guy,” said Tech’s Harrison Butker. “It’s unfortunate that he caught the ball and that’s on me….I’ll have to look at it, but when I put my head down he wasn’t over there.”
In the first half, a bad snap by senior long snapper Sean Tobin on a punt play over Ryan Rodwell’s head resulted in a short field for Duke and the Blue Devils’ second touchdown drive of the game. Duke quarterback Thomas Sirk hit T.J. Rahming on a quick inside slant for a 11-yard score. Then a classic case of poor punt coverage on a soggy field set Duke up for its second touchdown in a matter of two minutes and 27 seconds.
Duke punt returner Ryan Smith didn’t have to do so much juking after he caught the ball as waiting out some running lanes. Georgia Tech’s Terrell Lewis had the first crack at him but slipped and then missed his recovery attempt.
Smith was on his way up the middle of the field, where he cut right forcing Lawrence Austin to miss him. Tyler Marcordes took another swipe down the right sideline but came up empty. The first Tech player who got a big enough piece of him to bring him off his feet was Step Durham, and by the time he brought him down it was 69 yards later and Duke had first and goal at the 1.
Shaquille Powell got the score after Smith had done all the work on the ensuing play and Duke was up 19-3.
“It’s hard (to know where breakdowns were) until you look at the tape,” Tech coach Paul Johnson said. “I think guys just got blocked, couldn’t get off blocks, and missed tackles. I think we missed two tackles on the punt return. The kickoff return I’m sure somebody was out of their lane.”
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