Despite missing four top players in Saturday night’s Orange Bowl in Miami, the 13th-ranked UNC football team put forth a valiant effort in a 41-27 loss to No. 5 Texas A&M that was much closer than the final score suggests.
The Tar Heels (8-4) took a 27-20 lead early in the fourth quarter on a 75-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Sam Howell to freshman Josh Downs, who had a team-high 91 receiving yards and two scores in place of All-American Dyami Brown.
From that point on, though, the Aggies (9-1) shifted into overdrive behind quarterback Kellen Mond and freshman running back Devon Achane. Mond tied the game with a rushing touchdown from four yards out on Texas A&M’s very next drive, while Achane broke free for a 76-yard touchdown to take the lead after the defense forced the UNC offense to go three-and-out.
After stopping the Tar Heels’ potential game-tying drive on fourth down, the Aggies got another touchdown run from Achane with less than two minutes remaining to seal the win away.
“I think they wore us down,” head coach Mack Brown told reporters afterwards. “I mean, we hung in there. But you miss tackles. We had a lot of young guys in there. It was a hot night.
“Same players for them, same players for us,” the coach added. “And we had trouble moving it in the fourth quarter, and we had trouble stopping them. So give them credit.”
While Downs did a phenomenal job filling in for Brown at the receiver position, so too did sophomore linebacker Eugene Asante in his job replacing departed star Chazz Surratt.
With Asante flashing similar speed and athleticism as Surratt, the young Tar Heel defense was extremely impressive until the final three drives.
Freshman defensive backs Tony Grimes and Ja’Qurious Conley also made big plays in a game where the Tar Heels racked up three sacks against a team which had allowed just four all season.
“You start looking at Eugene Asante, I thought he did a good job tonight,” Brown said. “Did he mess some things up? Of course he did. Because he hasn’t played. But he showed that he has a chance to be a really good player.
“I asked the players to be physical, and they were, against a very tough SEC team that’s the No. 5 team in the country,” he continued. “I asked the guys to play with confidence, and they did.”
There were plenty of questions about whether the short-handed Tar Heels would be able to compete with a team of Texas A&M’s caliber, but they proved they were more than up to the task for much of the night.
Running backs British Brooks and Josh Henderson failed to provide the type of explosiveness offered by Javonte Williams and Michael Carter, which may have been the only area where the team was severely hampered by the four opt-outs.
Howell led the way offensively with 234 passing yards and three touchdowns, while senior Dazz Newsome closed out his great career with six catches for 62 yards and a highlight-reel touchdown catch.
Even without the win, this young group of Tar Heels showed the future looks very bright in Chapel Hill.
“You don’t want to talk a lot about what we didn’t play with tonight, but we lost 4,000 yards coming into the game and still had a chance against the No. 5 team to win,” Brown said. “This is going to be a special team.”
Game Notes:
- Sam Howell’s first-half touchdown pass was the 66th of his career, tying Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence for the most in ACC history through a player’s first two seasons. He later surpassed that number and tied Darian Durant for the all-time UNC record at 68.
- Eugene Asante had a team-high 10 tackles in his first career start on defense.
- British Brooks and Josh Henderson combined to carry the ball 21 times for just 68 yards–well below the average of eight yards per carry put forth by Javonte Williams and Michael Carter all season long.
Photo via Lynne Sladsky (Associated Press)
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