4 frustrating observations as Duke drops a heartbreaker at Georgia Tech for 1st loss

Duke's perfect season is over. Coming out of the bye week, the Blue Devils fell to Georgia Tech 28-25 in Atlanta on Saturday afternoon to fall to 4-1.

The injury to starting kicker Cosme Salas proved costly. Freshman Gavin Strange stepped in, and after hitting his first kick of the day, he badly hooked the one with just a few seconds remaining to the left that would have tied the game.

It's hard to blame the young kicker, as Duke had chances to win the game and couldn't get it done.

Let's talk about the biggest observations from the Blue Devils' first loss of 2026:

1. The garbage roughing the passer on Tyshon Reed in the 2nd quarter proved costly

Duke could have - and should have - won the game anyway, but when you lose by three points, it's hard not to go back to the horrendous roughing the passer call on Tyshon Reed in the second quarter as a play that swung the result.

On a 3rd-and-8 from their own 10-yard line, Georgia Tech QB Alberto Mendoza threw an incomplete pass that should have gotten the Duke defense off the field. Instead, Reed was flagged for roughing the passer, which breathed new life into the Yellow Jackets' possession. They would score a touchdown on the drive.

In a three-point game, that call certainly made a major difference. You be the judge:

2. Duke's defense couldn't get the stop it needed to when it mattered most

More so than the penalty on Reed, Manny Diaz will be more frustrated with his defense's inability to get the stop it needed at the end of the game. Walker Eget and the offense went down the field on a 12-play, 70-yard drive to score a touchdown with 2:32 to play in the game to give Duke a 25-21 advantage. That should have won the game.

That's the exact spot Diaz wanted his defense in. With how well they've played up to this point this year, there was some confidence from the fans that the defense would step up and get the stop it needed to win the game. Instead, Georgia Tech went 61 yards in eight plays in just 1:38, with Trelain Maddox punching in a touchdown to give the Jackets the lead.

3. Duke made two costly errors on their final offensive possession

Duke got the ball back with under a minute to go, but two short passes to Nate Sheppard from Eget turned into 52 yards. Sheppard took the second short reception 42 yards down to the Georgia Tech 23.

With two timeouts remaining and 31 seconds to play, Duke was in good shape. But then Eget and the offense couldn't get set in time, and looking to avoid a 5-yard delay-of-game penalty, Diaz was forced to take one of his final two timeouts while the clock was stopped anyway.

On the next snap, Eget checked the ball down to CJ Campbell, who, instead of getting out of bounds quickly to preserve clock, turned upfield and was ultimately tackled in bounds. Diaz wanted to preserve the last timeout to ensure they could get a field goal opportunity, so Duke chose to spike the ball with just 11 seconds to play, bringing up a 3rd-and-3.

Eget's pass to Jeremiah Hasley was incomplete, leaving Diaz with one unused timeout and putting the game on the leg of a freshman kicker, who missed badly to the left.

4. Duke's offense didn't have enough firepower with Nate Sheppard contained on the ground

Nobody has had any defense for Nate Sheppard so far this season, but Georgia Tech was up for the task. Duke struggled to get much going on the ground, and with Sheppard hurting his ankle early in the game, he was far from 100% the rest of the game.

Sheppard was held under 100 yards rushing for the first time this season, finishing with 99 and two touchdowns on 27 attempts.

Eget was solid, but Duke needed more. He attempted 41 passes to get to 259 yards through the air, with 15 of his 26 completions going to running backs or TE Jeremiah Hasley. Duke was unable to challenge Georgia Tech down the field, and the Yellow Jackets clearly didn't fear it. They stacked the box and dared Eget to win the game with his arm.

He couldn't quite get it done. Expect every other team on Duke's schedule to bring the same game plan.

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