Old demons came back to haunt the Duke football team in this weekend's disappointing 40-17 loss to North Carolina. In what the team hoped to be a strong season finale, the Blue Devils instead repeated mistakes they seemed to have corrected earlier in the year.
Duke ended last season optimistically with a celebratory 30-22 win in Chapel Hill. After Saturday's game, however, the Blue Devils head into the off-season without much positive momentum.
"We made a lot of strides this season," Duke head coach Ted Roof said. "We didn't finish the deal today."
Saturday Duke looked like the team that surrendered 348 rushing yards to Virginia in the Oct. 23 loss to the Cavaliers, not the team that upset Clemson 16-13 last week.
The Blue Devils allowed North Carolina, who entered the game averaging 172.4 rushing yards per contest, to run the ball for 285 yards. From the first Tar Heel possession--in which North Carolina tailback Chad Scott completed four successful rushing attempts in a 53-yard scoring drive in the first 1:43 of the game--it was clear that North Carolina intended to challenge the Duke rushing defense.
The Tar Heels continued to take advantage of holes in the Blue Devil defensive line to produce significant gains on the ground throughout the game.
The defense has struggled against the run all season, but Duke also had trouble Saturday in areas in which it has excelled in recent weeks. The Blue Devils allowed the Tar Heels to convert 9-of-16 third downs, after allowing Clemson to move the chains on 1-of-12 third down attempts last week and surrendering no third down conversions to Florida State during their Nov. 6 matchup in Tallahassee.
"We had our chances, but we didn't take advantage," Roof said. "We weren't very good on third down on either side of the ball, we made some poor decisions, and we just didn't execute. They just ended up winning the game in the second half."
Trailing by three at halftime, a tired Duke squad allowed North Carolina to score 20 unanswered points in the latter portion of the game. The defense was on the field for 42 snaps during the first half, and with an offense that had nine three-and-outs, the Blue Devils defense did not have much time to regroup. This contributed to Duke's lack of pressure on the quarterback and its difficulty resisting the run.
On the other side of the ball, poor pass protection continued to plague the Blue Devil offense. Quarterback Mike Schneider was sacked six times, often as a blitzing Tar Heel defender broke through the line and brought him to the ground. The constant pressure seemed to keep Schneider off balance, and the sophomore committed the Blue Devils' second turnover of the game when he threw into heavy coverage, allowing UNC strong safety Kareen Taylor to snag an interception and run the ball 67 yards into the end zone for the Tar Heels' final score of the day.
The Duke defense, which came into the game leading the ACC in takeaways, had no pickoffs for the first time since the Virginia game. UNC quarterback Darian Durant, however, played an accurate, intelligent game and kept stray passes from the hands of Duke defenders. The Blue Devils only forced the Tar Heels to turn the ball over once--trailing 33-17 in the fourth quarter just prior to the Taylor pickoff.
Special teams produced Duke's most significant plays Saturday. The team blocked two Connor Barth kicks, one of which senior Kenneth Stanford recovered for a 70-yard touchdown run. After his 53-yard, game-winning field goal last week, kicker Matt Brooks continued to excel, going 2-for-2 on extra points and scoring a 51-yard field goal.
This weekend's play was not indicative of the improvements Duke football made throughout the season. Going into the off-season, Roof said he is looking to work on conditioning by increasing players' time in the weight room and focusing on securing next year's recruiting class. After buttressing the underclassmen all season to turn Blue Devils into a competitive team, the seniors leave disappointed, and the Victory Bell has returned to Chapel Hill.
"We would have loved to have had more success this year, but I'm so proud of this group of guys," senior Giuseppe Aguanno said. "We weren't giving up. We never give up. That's what this program is about. We're never going to quit."
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