What we learned from Duke football’s near upset of Georgia Tech
Mataeo Durant ran the ball more than any other Duke player has in a game on Saturday.
It still wasn’t enough to get the Blue Devils a much-needed win.
On a day Durant set the school record with 43 rushing attempts, Georgia Tech’s touchdown with 51 seconds left gave the Yellow Jackets a 31-27 ACC win at Wallace Wade Stadium.
A senior running back, Durant gained 152 yards on his 43 rushing attempts. That surpassed a record that stood at Duke for 51 years.
But Georgia Tech (3-3, 2-2 ACC) walked off the field a winner thanks to quarterback Jeff Sims completing a 36-yard touchdown pass to Adonicas Sanders in the final minute. That play completed an 88-yard drive after Georgia Tech took over with 1:30 to play.
Duke’s final attempt to win the game ended when a Holmberg pass was intercepted by Juanyeh Thomas with 15 seconds left at the Georgia Tech 20.
The Blue Devils (3-3, 0-2) dropped their second consecutive ACC game.
Here’s what we learned about the Blue Devils on Saturday:
Duke decided to lean on Durant even more
Durant entered the game with 106 carries, second only to Syracuse’s Sean Tucker (107) among ACC running backs. So he has been busy this season.
But Duke opted to use him even more against Georgia Tech. Rather than give back up Jordan Waters the carries he usually receives on every third possession or so, Durant was the only Duke running back to attempt a rush in the first half. He carried 24 times for 83 first-half yards.
He followed that up with five carries on Duke’s first possession of the second half before freshman back Jaylen Coleman got two carries on the Blue Devils’ second drive of the quarter.
Holmberg’s accuracy rate is strong
Duke starting quarterback Gunnar Holmberg completed 22-of-29 passes for 292 yards with two touchdowns in a solid day of play.
He showed clutch play with a 7-yard touchdown pass to Nicky Dalmolin on a fourth-and-2 play that tied the score at 24.
Holmberg entered the game having completed an impressive 71.9 percent of his passes this season and added to that on Saturday.
Duke came up empty on two early fourth-down plays
Duke coach David Cutcliffe is a big believer in analytics, which often leads him to eschew kicking and punting in favor of running a play to keep possession of the ball.
But two decisions, on opposite ends of that spectrum, left Duke with no points on two drives deep into Georgia Tech territory in the first half.
Down 14-7 late in the first quarter, Duke took over at the Georgia Tech 29 following an interception. Facing third-and-1 from the 20, Durant was stopped for no gain. On fourth-and-1, rather than attempting a field goal, Duke had Holmberg attempt a rush up the middle. But he was stopped short and Georgia Tech took over.
On Duke’s final possession of the first half, trailing 17-14, the Blue Devils took over at the Georgia Tech 34 following another interception. With two timeouts available, Duke ran a running play to Durant that lost a yard. Holmberg threw a pass to Durant to gain 8 yards and Durant gained a yard on third down.
On fourth-and-1 from the Georgia Tech 25 with 55 seconds left in the half, Cutcliffe called a timeout. Charlie Ham attempted a 42-yard field goal that would have tied the score, but he missed wide left and Georgia Tech took a 17-14 halftime lead.
However, in the third quarter, faced with another fourth-and-1 inside the red zone, Cutcliffe called on Ham again. This time, Ham successfully kicked a 35-yard field goal that tied the score at 17.
Kicking is becoming a problem
Ham missed two field goals and also had a missed extra-point kick that, thankfully for Duke, was wiped out by Georgia Tech being offsides.
He did make a 35-yard field goal against Georgia Tech and booted a 22-yarder in the fourth quarter. But the redshirt sophomore is now 7 of 11 kicking field goals on the season.
He showed leg strength by knocking in a 50-yarder earlier this season. He was 13 of 15 on field goals last season so accuracy wasn’t a big issue in 2020.
But it’s getting to be that way now.
This story was originally published October 9, 2021 at 4:06 PM with the headline "What we learned from Duke football’s near upset of Georgia Tech."