By R.L. Bynum
CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina’s small margin of error to beat Duke got thrown away in the form of repeated damaging penalty flags.
Despite all that, the Tar Heels had a fourth-quarter lead and a shot at victory before the Blue Devils perfectly executed a fake field-goal attempt that led to the game-winning touchdown in a 32–25 victory Saturday at Kenan Stadium.
“We just made too many mistakes, too many bad plays, obviously too many penalties,” Coach Bill Belichick said after his team committed 12 penalties for 103 yards, both season-highs. “That’s about the story.”
The mistakes came in many forms, from personal fouls and illegal formations to holding penalties and drawing flags on special teams. They turned senior day into flag day.
Duke kicker Todd Pelino ran 26 yards to the UNC 1 before getting pushed out of bounds, making Duke 5 of 6 on fourth-down conversions. Running back Anderson Castle ran it in from there, and quarterback Darian Mensah passed to Nate Sheppard for the two-point conversion to give Duke its winning margin with 2:18 left.
There was frustration all around after Carolina (4–7, 2–5 ACC) clinched a losing record in yet another game that had been within reach, while Duke (6–5, 6–3) became bowl-eligible.
“It’s shooting yourself in the foot,” linebacker Andrew Simpson, who had six tackles and hurried Mensah three times, said of the penalties. “It’s hard to play good defense when you’re just penalizing yourself after a good play, or even a battle.”
The battle for the Victory Bell got heated at times, even on kickoffs with fair catches.
“It was getting chippy. It was going both ways. It just seemed like we were just getting all the calls on us,” Simpson said.
Wide receiver Jordan Shipp (above), who had eight catches for 83 yards and a touchdown, said emotions played a role.
“I wouldn’t say undisciplined,” he said. “I would just say emotions got the best of a couple of guys, even me. There was a play out there where the dude smacked Javarius [Green in the] face, and I was the first one over there. I could have got a penalty and hurt my team.”
The penalties weren’t just numbers — they were momentum killers.
UNC would have had a first-and-goal late in the first half if not for an ineligible-receiver-downfield penalty, settling for a 49-yard field goal instead. A roughing-the-kicker call extended a Duke drive that ended in a touchdown.
It ruined an impressive effort from quarterback Gio Lopez, who had one of his best games of the season. Lopez was 21 of 27 for 204 yards and a touchdown with a 153.5 passer rating, with no interceptions for the third straight game.
“I thought Gio played well tonight,” Belichick said “He took some hits. He showed a lot of toughness and showed a lot of accuracy throwing the ball, but he made some great decisions. In the end, a couple times they took some things away from us and there wasn’t much there. But, I thought he did an excellent job of managing the game and making positive plays. And as I said, he hung in there against one of the best defensive lines that we’re going to face.”
Shipp praised his quarterback.
“I feel like Gio has been turning up since the beginning of the season,” Shipp said. “It’s no surprise; he makes these throws in practice. I know Gio is a really good player, and he has a lot more in the tank.”
Lopez led UNC on a 91-yard drive — the longest of the season — to take a 25–24 lead early in the fourth quarter. That drive started with a 16-yard completion that he threw out of the end zone (top photo).
But two late sacks and a holding penalty killed their final chances after Duke’s final touchdown.
“There’s no satisfaction — we lost,” Shipp said. “Everybody’s like, you played a great game. Obviously, it wasn’t enough, because we went out there and lost.”
Duke ran 76 plays to UNC’s 52, had a 12-minute time-of-possession edge, and outgained the Tar Heels 352–305.
UNC held Mensah to a season-low 175 passing yards on 20 of 33 passing, but the Blue Devils converted repeatedly in key moments.
Mensah completed 20 of 33 passes with one touchdown as Duke found success on the ground and ran more often. The Blue Devils ran 43 rushing plays, only nine fewer than UNC’s play total. Jeremiah Hasley had 85 of Duke’s 177 rushing yards.
“You just got to be better on the big downs,” said Simpson, after Duke converted five of six fourth-down tries. “We play well on first, second down. Third, fourth down, we got to play better. They just won the bigger moments.”
The fake field-goal attempt was the dagger.
“We were trying our best to go get a block, be aggressive,” Simpson said. “Just not a good play by us. We’ve got to be more aware of the situation.”
Shipp called it “a great call … They played a very ballsy game and they just left it all out there.” Belichick lamented that the Tar Heels didn’t have the play covered.
The loss means UNC can’t go to a bowl unless they beat N.C. State. That would be the Tar Heels’ fifth win, making a bowl bid possible if not enough teams win six because of the program’s high APR.
“We wanted to be bowl eligible,” Simpson said. “We worked really hard all week. We practiced hard. We feel like we had a good game plan going in, but the chips didn’t fall for us.”
Shipp summed up the season bluntly.
“We lost seven games. We beat ourselves in seven games, and we didn’t play to our standard in seven games. That’s what it comes down to,” he said.
Both teams scored on their first drives. Lopez, on his third run of a 13-play, 75-yard opening drive, ran in from a yard out for a touchdown on a third-and-goal after completing all six passes for 65 yards.
Duke, which returned the kickoff 40 yards, converted twice on fourth down, and scored on running back Anderson Castle’s 1-yard run in a 10-play drive.
UNC defensive back Marcus Allen got called for roughing the kicker on a play in which Pelino missed a 46-yard field-goal attempt. Mensah connected with Jeremiah Hasley for a 14-yard touchdown pass on the next play.
Duke added a 33-yard Pelino field goal with 2:33 left to give the Blue Devils scores on all three first-half possessions (other than when they took a knee at the end of the first half).
Carolina would have had a first-and-goal if not for an ineligible receiver downfield penalty. The Tar Heels had to settle for a 49-yard Rece Verhoff field goal with seven seconds left to cut Duke’s halftime lead to 17–10.
UNC touched the ball one yard too soon on an onside kick to start the second half. Duke took advantage, going 44 yards in 11 plays for another Castle 1-yard TD run to go up by 14.
In one of Lopez’s best improvisational plays of the season, and with the help of a big block from Davion Gause, he extended the play long enough to find Shipp in the end zone for a 20-yard touchdown pass with 4:52 left in the third quarter.
The two then connected on a two-point conversion pass, with Shipp making a terrific catch in the corner of the end zone, trimming Duke’s lead to six.
In a drive that started with Lopez throwing a 16-yard completion from the end zone, UNC went 91 yards, the most in a drive all season, on nine plays. Gause covered the last 12 on a touchdown run to give UNC its first lead of the game at 25–24 with 13:13 left.
UNC’s defense made a huge play on Duke’s fourth-and-one. Wide receiver Que’Sean Brown took a pitch intending to pass, but instead, Isaiah Johnson sacked him for an 11-yard loss with 8:51 left.
After UNC went three-and-out, with Lopez sacked on consecutive plays, Duke scored when it faked what would have been a 44-yard Pelino field-goal attempt.
“In my mind, the key sequence in the game was when we got stopped on the fourth down,” Duke coach Manny Diaz said. “All the momentum was going their way, and we hadn’t played great on defense in the second half of the game and to go out there and get back-to-back sacks and get the three-and-out, it flipped the momentum.”
Hurt by yet another penalty, a hold, UNC couldn’t get a first down on its next possession, which ended with Lopez off target on a pass intended for Kobe Paysour. Duke then ran the clock out.
Notes
—Carolina finishes the season at 7:30 Saturday (ACC Network) at N.C. State (6–5, 3–4), which became bowl-eligible Friday night with a 21–11 home victory over Florida State.
—UNC was 3 for 3 in the red zone and 8 of 13 on third-down conversions.
—Will Hardy led UNC with eight tackles, with Simpson and Khmori House adding six. Johnson recorded the Tar Heels’ only sack.
—In his return to the UNC lineup, defensive back Thad Dixon had one tackle and broke up two passes.
—UNC’s previous high for penalties was 11 for 73 yards against Stanford.
—Representatives from the Sun Bowl, Gator Bowl, the New York Giants, the Baltimore Ravens and the Los Angeles Chargers were at the game.
—UNC freshman sensation Caleb Wilson got the crowd hyped up before the game.
—There were 22 Tar Heels who participated in pregame senior day ceremonies.
—Los Angeles Chargers rookie running back Omarion Hampton, who is on injured reserve, was on the UNC sideline.
—Duke cut UNC’s lead in the series to 66–42–4 with its first victory in Chapel Hill since a 21–17 win on Sept. 23, 2017.
Duke 32, UNC 25
| Team | ACC | All |
|---|---|---|
| No. 16 Virginia | 7–1 | 10–2 |
| No. 12 Miami | 6–2 | 10–2 |
| No. 25 SMU | 6–2 | 8–4 |
| No. 24 Georgia Tech | 6–2 | 9–3 |
| Pittsburgh | 6–2 | 8–4 |
| Duke | 6–2 | 7–5 |
| Louisville | 4–4 | 8–4 |
| Wake Forest | 4–4 | 8–4 |
| California | 4–4 | 7–5 |
| Clemson | 4–4 | 7–5 |
| N.C. State | 4–4 | 7–5 |
| Stanford | 3–5 | 4–8 |
| Florida State | 2–6 | 5–7 |
| North Carolina | 2–6 | 4–8 |
| Virginia Tech | 2–6 | 3–9 |
| Syracuse | 1–7 | 3–9 |
| Boston College | 1–7 | 2–10 |
Friday’s result
No. 4 Georgia 16, No. 24 Georgia Tech 9
Saturday’s results
N.C. State 42, North Carolina 19
No. 12 Miami 38, Pittsburgh 7
Louisville 41, Kentucky 0
Clemson 28, South Carolina 14
Boston College 34, Syracuse 12
Duke 49, Wake Forest 32
Florida 40, Florida State 21
No. 16 Virginia 27, Virginia Tech 7
California 38, No. 25 SMU 35
No. 9 Notre Dame 49, Stanford 20
Saturday’s ACC championship game
No. 16 Virginia vs. Duke in Charlotte, 8 p.m., ABC
| Month/ date | Score/ time | Opponent | Record/ TV |
|---|---|---|---|
| September | |||
| 1 | L, 48–14 | vs. TCU | 0–1 |
| 6 | W, 20–3 | at Charlotte | 1–1 |
| 13 | W, 41–6 | vs. Richmond | 2–1 |
| 20 | L, 34–9 | at UCF | 2–2 |
| October | |||
| 4 | L, 38–10 | vs. Clemson | 2–3, 0–1 ACC |
| 17 (Fri.) | L, 21–18 | at California | 2–4, 0–2 |
| 25 | L, 17–16, OT | vs. No. 16 Virginia | 2–5, 0–3 |
| 31 (Fri.) | W, 27–10 | at Syracuse | 3–5, 1–3 |
| November | |||
| 8 | W, 20–15 | vs. Stanford | 4–5, 2–3 |
| 15 | L, 28–12 | at Wake Forest | 4–6, 2–4 |
| 22 | L, 32–25 | vs. Duke | 4–7, 2–5 |
| 29 | L, 42–19 | at N.C. State | 4–8, 2–6 |
Photo by Smith Hardy
tarheeltribune.com 