The Tar Heels played their best game of the season, but it wasn’t enough to avoid three straight losses for the first time since Mack Brown returned to Carolina in 2019, when they suffered consecutive one-possession defeats at Wake Forest (24-18), App State (34-31) and Clemson (21-20) at home and went on to finish 7-6 after a 55-13 blowout of Temple in the Military Bowl.