Unbeaten no more. Three takeaways from Duke football’s 24-14 loss at Georgia Tech

Georgia Tech turned Duke’s fourth-quarter magic around on the Blue Devils on Saturday night.

The Yellow Jackets not only became the first team to score a fourth-quarter touchdown against Duke, but they scored a pair of touchdowns to win, 24-14, at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta and hand the Blue Devils their first loss.

“We just we were never able to answer, which was disappointing,” Duke coach Manny Diaz said. “We’ve always felt very confident about the way we play in the fourth quarter, and today, our guys didn’t have it. I don’t fault our effort, our want to, our desire. The guys gave everything.”

Duke (5-1, 1-1 ACC) took a 14-10 third-quarter lead when quarterback Maalik Murphy connected with wide receiver Sahmir Hagans on a 65-yard touchdown pass.

That lead lasted into the fourth quarter, which has meant good things for Duke previously this season. The Blue Devils entered the game having outscored opponents 40-6 in the fourth quarter, without allowing a touchdown.

But that changed at Georgia Tech (4-2, 2-2 ACC).

The Yellow Jackets drove 85 yards to take the lead when Haynes King tossed a 3-yard touchdown pass to Jamal Haynes that put Georgia Tech up 17-14 with 10:40 to play.

Georgia Tech added another touchdown when Eric Singleton caught a 9-yard pass from King with 6:36 remaining.

While saying Georgia Tech deserved to win because it made better plays, Diaz said the fatigue of starting the season with six games in six weeks before having an open week took a toll on his players. Duke is now off until facing Florida State on Oct. 18 at Wallace Wade Stadium.

“We had a lot of guys, not 100%, playing today,” Diaz said, “and they gave what they had. Proud of some of the non starters who came in and gave us valuable minutes today. I really thought they played their tails off as well.”

The Yellow Jackets started the game quickly, marching 60 yards on 12 plays on their opening possession to take a 7-0 lead when Zach Pyron scored on a 2-yard run. Aidan Birr’s 23-yard field goal capped a 62-yard Georgia Tech drive that put the Yellow Jackets up 10-0.

Meanwhile, Duke’s offense gained only 55 total yards over its first three drives, all of which ended with punts.

Finally, the Blue Devils scored just before halftime when Murphy fired a 20-yard touchdown pass to Eli Pancol, leaving Georgia Tech with a 10-7 halftime lead.

Hagans’ 65-yard catch and run for the touchdown with 2:53 left in the third quarter had given Duke its first lead of the night. That held until the fourth quarter, when the Yellow Jackets turned the game in their favor.

Here are three takeaways from the game:

Fourth-down failures haunt Duke

Twice in the third quarter, Duke opted against field goal kicks on fourth downs, only to see scoring chances disappear.

Duke’s Peyton Jones returned the second-half kickoff 67 yards to the Georgia Tech 33.

Duke reached the Georgia Tech 25 and faced fourth-and-3. Rather than attempt a field goal to tie the game, Diaz opted to keep the offense on the field.

The gambit appeared to pay off when Murphy lofted a pass to Jordan Moore, who made a strong, leaping catch at the Georgia Tech 8. But Moore was called for offensive pass interference for pushing a Yellow Jackets defender just after Murphy threw the pass.

“The explanation was, it was a push off right before the catch,” Diaz said. “I have to see that again. It’s a shame. It feels like on a critical play, it was one of the league’s top players making a play. But like I said, I can’t say anything more about it, without having seen the film. But I just felt like that was just two guys competing.”

The 15-yard penalty moved Duke back to the Georgia Tech 40 and the Blue Devils opted to punt.

Later in the third quarter, with the score still 10-7, Duke used a 20-yard Star Thomas run and Jones’ 17-yard scamper to move deep into Georgia Tech territory.

But on fourth-and-1 from the 10, on what Diaz called the game’s “critical play”, Thomas took a handoff and, with an open running lane, tripped and fell short of the first down.

“We had driven the ball 80 yards on that drive,” Diaz said. “We were rolling. And the sad part is, it’s self inflicted. We tripped over each other in the backfield, and that’s something that, it’s not unlucky, that’s execution. That’s on us to work through that better.”

Duke allowed long scoring drives

Georgia Tech put together four drives covering 60 yards or more to get points.

Duke had been a stingy defense this season, allowing only 16.8 points per game. The 4.07 yards Duke had allowed per play this season was No. 1 in the ACC entering Saturday night’s game.

But the Yellow Jackets averaged 5.3 yards per play, which helped them put together those extended scoring drives. Georgia Tech gained first downs on 7 of 16 third-down situations. Even when it failed, it was 3-for-3 on fourth downs.

Duke entered the game having only allowed successful third downs 26.51% of the time this season, No. 2 in the ACC.

Georgia Tech finished with 412 yards of total offense, the most that Duke has allowed in a game all season.

King threw two touchdown passes. Jamal Haynes led Georgia Tech with 128 rushing yards while fellow running back Chad Alexander added 59 yards on just 10 carries.

“The tailbacks going for as many yards as they did, I think, was ultimately the telling stat in the game,” Diaz said.

Georgia Tech stuffed Duke’s rushing offense

After averaging 150 yards rushing over the last three games, Duke saw its running game shut down by Georgia Tech.

The Blue Devils gained only 74 yards, which made sense because Georgia Tech entered the game No. 3 in the ACC in rushing defense by allowing 90 yards per game.

Duke had just 13 rushing yards in the first half on Saturday night.

Thomas was Duke’s rushing leader with just 48 yards.