Tar Heels turning into road warriors after fourth straight win away from Kenan Stadium
Coach Mack Brown and the North Carolina road warriors added their fourth straight road win of the season in Saturday’s 38-35 win at Duke. No, the Tar Heels did not trade in their mascot, but they’ve definitely changed their mindset.
“Considering that we’ve been able to win close games and on the road, it definitely shows that we’re growing as a team,” linebacker Cedric Gray said.
Carolina (6-1, 3-0 ACC) went 0-for-5 last season in road games. Add on its bowl losses from the 2020 and 2021 seasons, it was 0-for its last seven away from Kenan Stadium.
“We’ve had four road wins this year, and all four of them, at some point, we were in trouble and stepped up and played well enough in the fourth quarter to win,” Brown said. “Good teams win on the road and good teams win close games. And we’ve been able to do that this year.”
Here are three things we learned from Carolina’s 38-35 win:
Carolina has got to stop making games close
The Heels have now proven on four occasions this season that they can win in close games. But probably three of them didn’t have to be so close.
Carolina was up 41-21 at Appalachian State before the Mountaineers rallied to tie it. It was up 21-3 at Georgia State before allowing 25 straight points and coughed up its lead. And Saturday the Tar Heels led Duke 31-21 when their defense came up with a fourth down stop at Duke’s own 30.
It marked the Heels’ third straight stop to conclude a scoreless third quarter for the Blue Devils.
Brown said after the game that he thought they had a chance to put the game away. A touchdown would have given them a 17-point lead, which, for Duke’s run-heavy offense, would have likely been too much to overcome in the fourth quarter.
But then Brown said “they got cute.” Brown said he jumped on offensive coordinator Phil Longo about the sequence of plays.
Carolina tried a flea flicker from the Duke 27 on second down, but Maye’s pass to tight end Komari Morales was incomplete.
“We make four or five yards on first down, we’re going to be four downs,” Brown said. “And we call a trick play. I said, ‘It’s not time for a trick play, it’s time to get tough and physical and run the ball.’ Or we throw it. We don’t have to use trick plays. We score enough just by being us. So yeah, I didn’t like that series at all.”
It became unreasonable when Maye got dropped for a seven-yard sack on third down. Facing fourth and 14 from the Duke 34, the Heels settled for a 52-yard attempt from Noah Burnette that he missed wide left.
“We have a horrible drive offensively and we missed a long field goal,” Brown said. “We just didn’t do anything right on those four plays or we could have been up by 17. And Duke’s not a team that likes to throw every time being behind and can do the one minute stuff as well as they like to keep the ball.”
Antoine Green is ‘quarterback friendly’
UNC senior receiver Antoine Green entered the game averaging 30 yards per reception. His game-winning 8-yard touchdown catch with 16 seconds remaining was the most meaningful reception he’s made this season.
Green broke off his route when he saw Maye scrambling and came back to the front corner of the end zone where he made the catch.
“Drake tagged me on a fade route and I seen him scramble and I didn’t want to be dead,” Green said. “I had to stay active. I just came back to him to be quarterback friendly and he threw me a good ball.”
Green said he had no doubt the play would stand when the game paused so it could be reviewed. When the replay was shown on the scoreboard video display Green’s left foot appeared to be close to stepping out before the catch.
Green joked, or maybe he was serious, that he spent the time officials were reviewing the play, “praying.” But all along, he said he felt comfortable that it would stand to the point where he didn’t look at the replays on the video board.
“It felt pretty close, but I knew I had enough space to get my feet down,” Green said.
Defense shines in third quarter
Carolina’s defense kept its opponent scoreless in the third quarter for the third straight game.
After it allowed Duke quarterback Riley Leonard to run for 106 net yards — including a 74-yard touchdown — in the first half, it clamped down for one of its best quarters of the season.
Carolina held Duke to just two yards rushing in the third quarter and 68 yards in total offense. By the time DeAndre Boykins and Gio Biggers dropped running back Jordan Waters for a four-yard loss on fourth-and-2 at their own 30, the defense was soaring with confidence.
“We definitely had a little bit of troubles stopping their offense,” Gray said. “But like I said before, this team is resilient. This team never gives up. This team always gives great effort and plays hard. When you do that, that sometimes kind of bails you out.”
The Heels gave up more than 500 yards in total offense for a second straight week, as Duke gained 542 yards.
“They took everything that Duke did the first half and made them do something different the second half and that’s what good coaches do,” Brown said of his defensive coordinator Gene Chizik. “They had to change the game plan completely and not let the guy (Leonard) that we were worried about beating us, beat us.”
This story was originally published October 16, 2022 at 8:40 AM with the headline "Tar Heels turning into road warriors after fourth straight win away from Kenan Stadium."