North Carolina Tar Heels: Take Command in the Coastal
The North Carolina Tar Heels and Duke Blue Devils were supposed to play a close game with the winner in the thirties. One team got the memo but the other didn’t. The Tar Heels came out swinging early and piled the points on so that Duke could not come back later on in the game.
Duke had enjoyed defensive success by bringing extra blitzers for much of the season. Against Carolina that strategy backfired as breakdowns in man coverage were ruthlessly exploited. The best examples of this were the closing drives of the first half. Duke had closed the score to 24-10 and it looked as if the Tar Heels might have one chance before the half.
The Marquise Williams hit Mack Hollins for 74 yards and a score. When the defense delivered an interception, Williams struck again to Bug Howard on another long touchdown play. A 24-10 game now was a 38-10 game and was getting close to out of reach when the gun sounded for the first half.
Added to a 89 yard flea flicker to Ryan Switzer to open the Heels’ first possession, Williams had accumulated 404 yards of passing in the first half. He went on to collect 494 yards with four passing and one rushing touchdown before leaving the game in the third quarter for Mitch Trubisky to finish things off.
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That kind of success left Duke’s defense with few answers. Duke’s touchdown drives while the first team Tar Heel defense played were the results of single play breakdowns and big runs by Thomas Sirk and Jela Duncan. Those plays were reminiscent of the game against South Carolina. Duke got pulled out of their running attack by the margin and Sirk’s two interceptions did not aid the comeback.
Sirk did have two rushing touchdowns. Duncan had over a hundred yards rushing and the ability of the Tar Heel defense to stop running games remained an open question.
North Carolina even won the time of possession battle, which is rarity considering the nature of the Tar Heel offense and how teams try to combat it.
The Tar Heels are now primed for a run to the conference title game. They own a two game advantage over Duke and a tiebreaker over one conference loss Pitt. The remaining games are Miami, Virginia Tech, and NC State. Each represents a different challenge.
Miami has Brad Kaaya back and a two game win streak. North Carolina will be the final opponent to face Frank Beamer in Blacksburg. State beat Carolina comfortably last year. The challenges are definitely still there, but the possibility of Clemson in Charlotte is visible.