The Yellow Jackets have won games in a number of ways this season. They have had the dismantling tour-de-force wins over Jacksonville State and Mississippi State and they’ve gutted out a nasty road win at Boston College. Tech’s 27-0 victory over Duke was more of the start-kinda-slow, have-an-inferior-team-catch-you-by-surprise-and-then-clean-up-mistakes-and-blow-by-them win. Very important in the maturation of the young Jackets.
The Yellow Jackets looked like the better team for the majority of the game but all they had to show for it was a 3-0 lead at the end of the first half. Tech had its opportunities. On the first drive of the game the Jackets got the ball to Duke’s 8-yard line before a Jaybo Shaw fumble ended the threat. Beyond that, Shaw and Jonathan Dwyer, who rushed for a career-high 159 yards, were able to move the ball well at times but were stymied by a Duke defense, which also got a big stop on a fourth-and-3 in Duke territory. “They play very hard. They fly around, after they make a tackle, they’re excited, and that’s why they beat Virginia last week and why they gave us a pretty tough game.” said Shaw.
However, football is a game of adjustments, and head coach Paul Johnson made his. Duke was effective in squelching the explosiveness of the triple option by bringing players up to the line of scrimmage. This left one–on-one matchups for Demaryius Thomas, which he exploited for nine catches, 230 yards, and a stunning 88-yard touchdown grab. “He’s a real easy target and he dominates a lot of the corners,” said Shaw of the matchup and the size advantage that the 6-foot-3 Thomas had over the Duke cornerbacks. “He bailed me out a lot today.”
Thomas’s 230 yards were the second-most receiving yards in Tech history behind Dez White’s 243-yard performance against Virginia in 1998. White happened to be an honorary captain for today’s game. “I guess I got tired of their coaches saying we didn’t have a good receiver. So I had to show them we did have one,” said Thomas.
While Thomas and Shaw’s performance will get the lion’s share of attention, the defense made a definitive statement. Against Mississippi State, the defense was knocking on the door of a shutout, but because the Jackets were up by so many points late in the game, the starters were relieved and the second-team players gave up the points. Today, the Jackets needed every minute of the defense’s first home shutout in eight years. The defense, led by ACC sack leader Derrick Morgan, kept Duke off the board when the Blue Devils had a rare sustained drive in the first half. Duke got three first downs after the Shaw fumble and was moving the ball well when Tech tightened up. From there, the game was a long series of three-and-outs for Duke, with Morgan getting his fourth sack of the season. “When you get a shutout as a defense it is always a big deal,” said Morgan. “Going into the half, that was stressed in the locker room: ‘keep them off the score board.’”
In the end, Tech’s win over Duke was important because it was not just a win, but an easy win. Tech had several reasons to not show up in this game: a freshman quarterback was getting his first start; it was game against a much-improved team looking to make a statement; and Tech missed opportunities in the first half. But the Yellow Jackets pulled it together, won the battle of field position, and made big plays. They showed that as a young team with many years ahead of them that they are closer to the top of the ACC pack than the bottom.
Crosskey can be reached at jcrosskey@aol.com.
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