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Georgia Tech Football: Three quick hits following 28-14 loss to Duke

By Lee Cagle

ATLANTA, GA - OCTOBER 13: Head Coach David Cutcliffe of the Duke Blue Devils is congratulated after the game by Head Coach Paul Johnson of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on October 13, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA - OCTOBER 13: Head Coach David Cutcliffe of the Duke Blue Devils is congratulated after the game by Head Coach Paul Johnson of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on October 13, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images) /
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Three Quick observations after Georgia Tech fumbles away a shot at victory and has a bye week before now critical game at Virginia Tech.

The Offense Came Back to Earth,

The offense that in the past two weeks had rushed for historic numbers in both yards and scoring, came back to reality against the Duke defense today. Duke was committed to stopping the B-back dive and anything Marshall wanted to do in terms of the following play. Good thing Georgia Tech runs the Triple Option and not just the Double Option. The perimeter run game had a good bit of success as the timing of Marshall on his pitches was impeccable all day. One bright spot was the first career receiving touchdown for Malachi Carter for 32 yards.

The Defense has arrived?

The defense got absolutely torched on their first possession of the game with Duke doing whatever it wanted against them. During that first scoring drive, the Blue Devils did not see a second down at all. However, following that first possession the unit seemed to settle in forcing two turnovers by a fumble off a cornerback blitz and an interception from Lamont Simmons on a prayer pass. The defense also stopped Duke on two critical fourth-down situations in the first half making me think that this week was a huge step in the right direction for Coach Woody’s unit. The bad happened as the second half started and the offense coughed up the ball three straight times not really giving the defense any room to work with at all. While you need the defense to make stops late in the game, you can’t blame them for the second half entirely.

Turnovers, man…..

One of the major talking points for both coaches is probably going to be about taking care of the football. Neither team had a great day in terms of turnovers with fumbles and interceptions galore. The dagger to the whole day was the two third-quarter fumbles forced by Duke that were converted for points on short fields.

Who’s Next?

This was certainly a crushing loss for the team and it makes me especially excited to play the next game and see if the improvements we have been witnessing in fits and starts are for real or not. This team has yet to put together a full 60 minutes of a game in all facets of the game when it really matters. At this point in the season they all matter. Lucky enough, it’s a bye week this week before we go Blacksburg to face a Virginia Tech team that may have something to prove and a Georgia Tech team that may just simply be trying to find its way.