Duke football comeback script comes up short against Georgia Tech

The Blue Devils took a second-half lead against Georgia Tech on Saturday, but a sixth straight win was not to be.

Duke football and head coach [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag] tried to find more second-half heroics in Atlanta on Saturday night, but the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets flipped the script in the fourth quarter for a 24-14 victory.

The Blue Devils ended Week 5 on an offensive tear, scoring three late touchdowns in their 21-20 comeback victory over the North Carolina Tar Heels, but Duke came out of the gates slow again on Saturday.

Georgia Tech’s Eric Singleton Jr. found a seam up the left side of the field on the opening kickoff, racing all the way to the 40-yard line before being forced out of bounds. The Yellow Jackets marched the ensuing 60 yards over the next 12 plays, including a pair of third-down conversions, for an opening touchdown.

Six players after a quick Blue Devils punt, Georgia Tech quarterback Haynes King found Singleton for a fourth-and-2 conversion to get the Yellow Jackets well into Duke territory again. The game seemed to be on the verge of getting out of hand.

Duke’s defense shored up from there, however. The Yellow Jackets didn’t move the chains again on that drive, and after a false start penalty moved them back to the 44-yard line, Georgia Tech decided to punt. King and his offense only scored three more points before the end of the first half.

The same resolve that helped Duke erase fourth-quarter leads against Northwestern, Connecticut, and the Tar Heels showed itself again. After a defensive pass interference call wiped an untimely interception off the board near the end of the first half, quarterback Maalik Murphy tossed the ball to senior wideout Eli Pancol on a short crossing route.

The fifth-year Blue Devil raced the remaining 20 yards to the end zone, narrowly beating the Yellow Jackets to the right pylon.

Despite being outgained 199-75 over the first 30 minutes, Duke only trailed 10-7 at the break.

At the start of the third quarter, it was Duke’s turn to explode on the opening kickoff. Peyton Jones raced all the way down the right side to the opposing 32-yard line. Less than a minute of game time after Murphy seemingly put up a backbreaking turnover, the Blue Devils had an ideal chance to take command.

Consecutive fourth-down failures stalled two drives deep in Georgia Tech territory, and it seemed like the close-game luck would finally turn for Diaz and his program. Instead, with three minutes left in the third quarter, Murphy found another dime.

The Yellow Jackets brought six rushers on a blitz, but rather than panicking or trying to evade, Murphy rifled the ball off his back foot and hit Sahmir Hagans in stride on a slant. With one less defender in the secondary, Hagans raced all the way to the end zone for a 65-yard score, giving Duke the 14-10 lead.

Right when it seemed like the Blue Devils would pull off another comeback, however, the Yellow Jackets’ offense got going again. After Duke hadn’t allowed a fourth-quarter touchdown in the first five games of the season, Georgia Tech scored two within four minutes to build a 10-point lead with 6:36 left to play.

The Yellow Jackets outgained Duke 122-46 over the final 15 minutes, and thanks to a missed 43-yard field goal from Todd Pelino, the Blue Devils didn’t score in the fourth quarter.

Duke now gets a bye week after its first loss of the season, not playing again until a Friday night game against the Florida State Seminoles on October 18.