Heel Tough Blog: Duke Recap

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The Tar Heels had a chance to get the Victory Bell back on Saturday afternoon when they hosted the Duke Blue Devils for Senior Day in Kenan Stadium. After trailing by as many as 14 in the second half, the Tar Heels rallied to take a 25-24 lead. Unfortunately, the Blue Devils would mount a 11-play, 67-yard drive that featured two 4th down conversions, including a fake field goal that set the Blue Devils up at the UNC 1 before they would punch it in and convert the 2-point conversion to take a 32-25 lead. The Tar Heels would get the ball back but turned it over on downs after just four plays as they fell to 4-7 on the season. Here is a look at our takeaways from another heartbreaking loss for this year’s team.

Inability to Get Off the Field on Important Downs Did This Team In

The inability to get off the field on important downs has been a problem in many of the team’s losses this season and it cropped up again on Saturday. The defense allowed some important conversions on third down, but the back breakers were the fourth down conversions. Duke converted five of their sixth fourth down attempts, including two on the final scoring drive that were simply unacceptable. If this team is going to find a way to upset NC State, they must find a way to get off the field on these important downs.

Discipline Issues Crop Up for First Time This Year

The Tar Heels have been a much more disciplined team this season than it was in previous seasons under Mack Brown, but that wasn’t the case on Saturday. Against one of the least disciplined teams in the conference, the team took 12 penalties for 103 yards. Duke on the other hand took just three for 27 yards. Now, don’t get it wrong, it was another rough day for the officiating, but when you take three unsportsmanlike penalties and a personal foul, it’s hard to place the blame on them. I love the fact that the team was fired up and a little chippy in this game, but they simply have to be smarter in the game next week in Raleigh.

Opportunities Were There to Seal the Victory

Prior to Duke scoring the game winning touchdown, the Tar Heels had two golden opportunities to seal the victory. On the 4th and 7 play, Thaddeus Dixon stepped in front of a pass from Duke quarterback Darian Mensah and had a chance to intercept the ball and end the game right there. Instead, the ball would go through his hands and land in the hands of Sahmir Hagans for a first down. Later in the drive, the defensive line would get to Mensah, leading to a batted ball that Greg Smith would have a diving chance at. Unfortunately, he was unable to pull it in and the drive would continue, eventually resulting in the game-winning touchdown. Those are plays that good football teams end up making and bad football teams don’t. At this point, we know what this Tar Heel team is.

Defensive Line Pushed Around Again

After a rough showing a week ago in Winston-Salem, the defensive line had the chance to bounce back on Saturday against a struggling offensive line for Duke, but failed to do that. For a second straight week, the interior defensive line was pushed around, leading to a successful day inside the tackles for the Duke running game, especially when Anderson Castle was on the field. The edge rushers weren’t much better in run defense on a day where Duke ran for 175 yards and three touchdowns on 43 carries. Meanwhile, the pass rush got some decent pressure on Mensah, but simply could not finish, registering just one sack on the day against the struggling Duke pass protection unit. This is a second straight rough showing for this position group and it is the main reason the defense has taken a step back these last two weeks. If this team is going to find a way to beat NC State, this unit has to return to the form that they were in during that successful four games stretch for the team earlier this season.

Jordan Shipp Needs to Be The Priority Offensively for This Staff This Offseason

We have been focusing a lot on the reasons that the Tar Heels lost this game, but one of the main reasons that they were in the game was because of the play of wide receiver Jordan Shipp. Shipp was targeted eight times on Saturday and caught all eight passes for 83 yards and a touchdown. His best play of the night, though, came on a play that doesn’t count in the stats when he high-pointed the football on the two-point conversion that cut the lead to six. Shipp has proven throughout the year that he is a dynamic receiver that can make just about any play that this offense needs him and that in any other offense, he would be having an all-conference caliber season. The team needs to make sure that he is towards the top of the list in terms of guys that they need to retain this offseason.

This Loss Officially Sealed The Fact That This Season Is a Major Failure

We said coming into the season that the floor for this year's team should have been to make a bowl game and with the loss on Saturday to Duke, the team has fallen short of that expectation. While some of our preseason predictions may have been asking too much of this team in Year 1 of this experiment, making a bowl game was not. No matter what happens next week, it’s hard not to feel like this first season under Belichick is anything but a failure. Let’s hope this group can ease the pain of this season, where they haven’t really accomplished anything except beating the teams that they were supposed to, by beating NC State and sending themselves into the offseason with momentum.