Maybe now, Duke won’t turn its non-conference schedule over to the My Pillow guy.
After playing four games against soft-on-soft opponents, the Blue Devils came to Kenan Stadium with a 3-1 record and brimming with confidence. And they started off well, winning the field-position game by running it right up Carolina’s gut.
But once Jay Bateman’s defense figured out what Duke was doing, it was all over but the snoring. Except for a few Tar Heels starting the second half a minute after everyone else, Duke never reached the red zone or sniffed another score.
The Devils, now 0-1 in the ACC, got 117 of their total 314 total yards on the first snaps of each half. Potential All-ACC back Mateo Durant ran for 37 yards to put them into UNC territory, but the drive stalled like all their others this day.
Trailing 24-0 at the half, Duke went 80 yards on the first play of the third quarter. Quarterback Gunnar Holmberg hit Jalon Calhoun across the middle when a Tar Heel defender fell down and Calhoun beat everyone else to the house for the “7” in the 38-7 Carolina victory.
That was it. Finis on a steamy day at the Old Lady In The Pines. Duke’s second-best scoring opportunity came on the last play of the first half when kicker Charlie Ham’s 56-year field-goal attempt barely made it across the goal line.
After the Blue Devils’ quick strike, the Carolina defense completed perhaps its best game of the season by holding Durant to 20 more yards and Duke to seven first downs, all in the third quarter. One of Duke’s deepest drives ended with UNC’s Cam’Ron Kelly tipping and picking of a Holmberg pass for his first career interception on a day he also led the Tar Heels in tackles; another failed on 4th and 2 at the UNC 30, thanks to stuffs by Tomari Fox and Myles Murphy.
Bateman’s boys went from tentative to head-hunting after he called an early timeout on Duke’s first drive. Eventually, they stopped Durant by denying him runs up the middle and chasing him down from behind when he ran wide. And Holmberg’s not going to beat any decent team, finishing with a dismal 19.7 QB rating after getting sacked five times, one less than UNC’s season total coming in.
Sam Howell was way better but not his usual spectacular self. Similar to the “disasta in Atlanta” last week, Howell was constantly harassed and sacked five times, as Carolina has now allowed 22 on the season (it was 34 all of last year). Phil Longo’s offense had 456 total yards but not enough to beat a real good team.
Rotating linemen due to injuries and the heat, the Tar Heels need to protect Howell better and protect him from himself. Either on the run-pass option or scrambling for his life, Howell had the most carries on the team. And while he did have one 32-yarder to the end zone’s door, Howell won’t slide and was hit almost as hard and often as he was at Georgia Tech.
Howell doesn’t complete the long ball nearly as much these days, maybe because he is still calibrating his young receivers’ speed. But he did drop a perfect dime on a wheel route to tailback Ty Chandler, who completed the 75-yard touchdown play by breaking several tackles down the sideline for a 7-0 lead.
Defense made the score 14-0 when Kevin Hester hit Holmberg as he was letting a pass go and Trey Morrison had a scoop and score of 63 yards, his first career fumble recovery. The play was reviewed and the call stood.
Howell engineered the third scoring drive with his big run and tossed his second touchdown pass to sophomore tight end Kamari Morales, his third in the last three games. A Grayson Atkins chip shot field goal made it 24-0, and both teams exchanged awful clock management trying to score before halftime. Neither did.
Ending seven straight incompletions during Carolina’s scoreless third quarter, Howell hit Josh Downs with a big gainer across the middle that led to Chandler’s second touchdown on a 14-yard burst into the end zone, his first college game with both passing and rushing touchdowns.
After UNC forced Duke’s ninth punt of the game, born mostly from the Blue Devils going 2-for-15 on third down, Downs took another pass in the secondary, split two tacklers and outraced the rest for a 63-yard touchdown.
Downs caught eight passes and now begs comparison to four-year slot stars Dazz Newsome and Ryan Switzer, who was honored on the field as the Tar Heel Legend of the game. Downs had 168 yards and averaged 23 per catch, which comes with a lot of defensive attention.
Like Switzer, the ACC co-record holder with nine for touchdowns, Downs also returns punt and had one for 21 yards that he picked up at the goal line.
Howell’s 18-of-32 for 321 yards leaves him third on two UNC all-time lists: he passed T.J. Yates in total yards (9,394) and trails only four-year players Yates and Darian Durant in passing yards (8,721). He needs but 656 to catch Yates and will likely get that before October ends.
Besides going over 300 yards for a career-best fourth straight game, Howell also threw three more touchdown passes to give him 30 straight games with at least one, the longest active streak in the country.
Carolina, 3-2 overall, hosts Florida State (1-4) and Miami (2-3) the next two weeks and will be favored to beat the two overcasts from the Sunshine State. The Tar Heels could be 5-2 going to Notre Dame, which slipped off the Golden Dome with a home loss to No. 7 Cincinnati.
So, while unranked and likely not getting into the College Football Playoff poll when it comes out, Mack Brown’s 2-2 team could still contend for the ACC Championship game due to the Coastal Division chaos by going 6-2 in the league, the last two dates at Pitt and N.C. State.
The Tar Heels whipped Duke for the third straight time (by the same 31-point margin as last year), and Brown now has an 11-game winning streak over the Blue Devils dating back to 1990. Soft in football against hard competition, the Dukies are still much more of a basketball school.
Photo via AP Photo/Gerry Broome.
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