Georgia Tech coach Brent Key was proud of his team’s effort, but he wasn’t interested in any moral victories on Saturday night after a 31-23 loss to No. 1 Georgia.

The Yellow Jackets entered the night as three-touchdown underdogs, but the game did not play out that way, as Georgia Tech gave the Bulldogs all they wanted in this in-state rivalry game.

“They played four quarters of football, and they have a mentality of playing that way,” Key said after his team outscored Georgia 10-0 in the fourth quarter to make it a one-score game.

“But at the end of the day we’re not coming here to play a good game, we’re not coming here to play well. There’s no moral victories.”

Georgia (12-0) entered the night riding a 28-game win streak, which now at 29 sets a new SEC record and ties the CFP Era record set by Clemson (2018-19) and Florida State (2012-14). The Bulldogs will next play Alabama at 4 p.m. next Saturday in the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta.

The Yellow Jackets (6-6), meanwhile, had become bowl eligible for the first time in five years the week before with their 31-22 win over Syracuse.

But as Key pointed out, and has continued to insist, his job goes beyond improving Georgia Tech to respectability.

“I said the day I was hired our goal is to beat the team in the state, and that’s still the goal, and that’s what we’ll work to do every day,” said Key, who took over a program at the end of last season that has no beaten Georgia since 2016, Kirby Smart’s first year leading the UGA program.

“And we came up short today, (but) that will not stop the work or us continuing to make progress to get that done.”

UGA out-gained Georgia Tech 437-363, but the Yellow Jackets held a 2-0 edge in the turnover battle and struck for five explosive plays of 15 yards or more, including a 52-yard pass from Haynes King to Eric Singleton.

The Bulldogs, playing without All-American Brock Bowers, receivers Ladd McConkey and Rara Thomas, and offensive guard Tate Ratledge -- all sidelined by injuries -- did not have a play of 30 yards or longer.

Still, Key acknowledged that despite his team’s effort, there were chances to pull the upset.

“Yeah there were missed opportunities, we were 2 of 11 on third down …. those are big,” Key said. “And then we scored in the red area but came away with a lot of field goals as opposed to touchdowns.

Key said there would be more time to reflect on the season later but the progress has been evident.

“It’s a credit to these kids, we talk about growing as a football team, and you see where these guys have gone from early in the season, with some ebbs and flows in games and week to week,” Key said.

“If you take the scoreboard out of it and look at how a team plays the entirety of the game, that’s what you coach off and use to correct and build on, and I think we made a lot of progress in that area.”