On the surface, some might have been surprised to see a 5-0 undefeated Duke team coming in to Bobby Dodd Stadium as a 10 point underdog to the 3-2 Yellow Jackets.

   But, a bit of research might explain that those five wins were against a pretty soft schedule. The Blue Devils beat Elon and UConn at home, then went into double overtime to beat Northwestern.

   Their fourth win was against a 1-4 FCS team in Middle Tennessee followed by a 21-20 home ACC squeaker against Georgia Tech’s opponent next week, North Carolina.

   A win is a win, but nothing too impressive there. So, the 10-0 start of this game shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise.

   At the end of the first quarter, Tech dominated leading in total yards 108 to 10 and in time of possession 12:09 to 2:51.

   But, Duke was able to find some footing and got the score to 10-7 at the half.

    So, despite dominating the first half with just under 200 yards total offense to Duke’s 75, and doubling their time of possession, the Jackets found themselves leading by just 3.

   The third quarter carried over that momentum as Georgia Tech’s early success on offense began to falter.

   Duke had flipped the script outgaining Tech 158-92 and outscoring 7-0 in that quarter to take the lead for the first time, 14-7.

   The ebbs and flows of the game moved back in the Yellow Jackets’ favor as they found the dominance they had showed early in the game and tacked on 14 unanswered points with another pair of touchdowns to come away with a 24-14 win, handing the Blue Devils their first loss of the season. Strange how the oddsmakers figured out that 10 point win in advance.

   In the end, Tech outrushed Duke 245-75 with a 412-279 advantage in total yards. Jamal Haynes ran for 128 yards on his 22^nd birthday.

   “We came out and did what we have to do,” Haynes said. “We have a great mentality in our running back room and I have trust in all our backs. … A big shoutout to the offensive line.”

   The Yellow Jackets (4-2, 2-2 ACC) improved to 11-1 under Brent Key following a loss. They head back on the road next Saturday for a noon kickoff at North Carolina, who are 3-3 and will be coming off a 34-24 home loss to Pitt. The game will be televised on The CW.