After losing 10 straight games against Georgia Tech from 2004 through 2013, Duke has won two straight in this series, thanks to an unlikely source.
Let’s be honest: when people think of a David Cutcliffe-coached team, the first thing that comes to mind is high-octane offenses. Whether it was with Peyton Manning at Tennessee, Eli Manning at Ole Miss, Brady Quinn at Notre Dame, or even this year’s Duke squad – which came into the game ranked 25th in yards per game — people always think of Cutcliffe’s teams as being all about offense.
Saturday’s game will change that narrative. Thanks to a smothering effort by its front seven, the Blue Devils defeated Georgia Tech.
Make no mistake about it: the Duke defense was facing a very dangerous offense. After all, the Yellow Jackets came into this contest with the second best rushing offense in the land, averaging 377 yards per game and an amazing 7.3 yards per carry. Considering that Georgia Tech was able to run the ball successfully against Notre Dame (216 yards, 4.6 yards per carry), many expected that trend to continue again this week.
It didn’t. In order to stop the Jacket ground game, the Blue Devils scrapped their base 4-2-5 defense, and switched to a 4-3 look. This alignment change put a few key players in different positions, most notably moving safety Jeremy Cash to outside linebacker and inserting Tinashe Bere into the lineup as the starting middle linebacker.
The new-look defense made the difference in this contest. The interior of the Duke defense dominated the line of scrimmage, never letting Georgia Tech establish the fullback dive, which is something it must do in order to be successful. This forced the Jackets to run the option outside, where the Devil linebackers were able to blow up plays. This was never more apparent than on a crucial forced fumble on third and five with 2:36 remaining, which ended any hope of a Tech comeback.
After Saturday’s performance, the Duke coaching staff might want to consider using the 4-3 defense permanently against run-based offenses. The Blue Devil front seven held the usually steady Tech offense to 173 yards rushing and a paltry 2.9 yards per carry – its lowest average since 2011. More impressively, it stopped the Jackets on crucial downs, allowing Tech to convert just 5 of 19 on third down and 1 of 5 on fourth down.
It’s tough to argue with those results.
So, what does the final outcome mean in the grand scheme of things?
Simply put: it makes Duke the favorite in the ACC Coastal Division. Even if – and it’s a big if – the offense should struggle, the defense is more than good enough to carry the load. While some people might have doubted the Devil defense’s impressive 2.69-yards-per-carry average coming into this contest, there’s no question how good it is now. That’s not exactly welcome news for some of the run-first offenses in the Coastal.
