What Did We Learn: Duke beats Georgia Tech 41-23 (NSFW)

For better or for worse, James Graham is the guy

Graham is a guy that can make just about any throw you could ask of a guy. He’s also the guy that you’ll watch play and turn your head and go, “huh.” Graham made some beautiful passes and also overthrew a handful of passes that resulted in Graham finishing 15-of-33 for 203 yards and a touchdown. He’s got a lot of potential, though, and as he continues to get consistent snaps, I think he’ll continue to improve.

The offensive line still has a ways to go

Oof. The offensive line caused a good deal of the problems that Graham faced today, as there were a number of plays where he just had no time to do anything. Left tackle Zach Quinney, in particular, had a rough afternoon. Losing Kenny Cooper and Jahaziel Lee has been a tough adjustment for Brent Key and the offensive line, but as they bring in depth through recruiting, it’ll get better.

I hate seeing Tech play against the flexbone

‘Nuff said.

Outside of the game against Georgia, it doesn’t really get harder from here

The ACC Coastal has been especially chaotic this season, with team after team showing off one week and then playing like [Styx] the next week. Honestly, though, I think Tech has now played the two best teams in the Coastal, following back-to-back games against North Carolina and Duke. Every other Coastal team has been completely hit or miss.

This team doesn’t quit

Georgia Tech was losing 38-14 at half time, and for all intents and purposes, the game might as well have been over, but Tech didn’t quit. They showed up in the couple drives of the third quarter and forced Duke’s first two punts of the game. Later in the game, the Yellow Jackets blocked a Duke punt and proceeded to engineer a touchdown drive. It’s a great attitude to see from the team, and I hope they keep that up.

Well I wrote this before Tech’s drive started at 4:44. Instead of calling anything remotely aggressive, the Yellow Jackets went three-and-out and showed no urgency, despite it being a three-possession game, running two minutes off the clock. This game wasn’t out of reach. It would have taken a whole lot of luck, but it feels like they just said, well, that’s it. I’m not a coach, so maybe there’s some sort of strategy or something I don’t know that was going on, but I was personally disappointed with how Tech handled the last few minutes of the game.

What did you learn from this game?