After the Dust has Settled, Reaction and Reliving UNC vs. Duke

An appropriate start to the article…

Welcome home, Victory Bell! Tar Heel fans hope that you will stay in the right shade of blue for a while now. The picture I took of the post game paint session…

The Tar Heels won back the Victory Bell on Thursday Night in front of a national audience watching on ESPN. The best part of the night was the way the Heels won the bell back, however, as they did so in convincing fashion, winning by a final score of 45-20. UNC jumped off to a 14-0 lead and never let Duke have any hope of climbing back into the ballgame. You could argue that as wide as the margin of victory was, it should have been higher — UNC had some turnovers in the redzone in the second quarter, but that ended up as an afterthought on a night all about winning back the Bell.

I was there in the bleachers, so I will share my experiences from the stadium and share some thoughts on the game at the end.

-I had been to the Duke Kansas game at Wallace Wade earlier in the season, and this UNC Duke game had a completely different feel to it. At kickoff, the stadium was packed with Duke Blue and sections of Carolina fans that would grow louder throughout the night. The energy was there from the Duke fans early, but after UNC jumped out to a 14-0 lead, the air was taken out of the stadium and Duke never got to use the advantage of the home crowd.

-The energy the Tar Heels displayed on the field started with the new “Carolina Chrome” helmets that were unleashed before kickoff to the players. UNC wore chrome helmets when they played on Thursday night in 2012 against Virginia, so chrome and Thursday night football is a combination that seems to be working for the Tar Heels.

– I tweeted about this, but the Duke fans had a really poor showing for a nationally televised game. Here is the tweet I sent out about the Duke student section…

And here is a better view of the whole stadium emptying out around 45 minutes later…

Compare that to the crowd right at kickoff, and Coach Cut can’t be pleased with the crowd. I understand it is a Thursday night and that people have to get home, and that Duke was playing poorly and nobody wants to watch that, but you have to stick around. If I’m a 17-year-old four star football recruit, I don’t like seeing the stadium empty out like that.

– Best part of the night for UNC fans who stuck around was the end of the game. By then, the stadium was emptied out and a lot of Tar Heel fans all collected in the corner of the stadium where the band was. The Tar Heel players painted the bell blue and paraded it around the field, stopping at midfield and then bringing it back to the locker room for the trip home. You could tell from the bleachers that the win meant a lot to the Carolina players and that the win vindicated all the hard work the team put in this season.

I also went back and watched the game, so some thoughts about the football side of things…

– UNC won the game by dominating the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. I criticized UNC’s offensive line after the Miami game, but I give them all the credit in the world after their performance on Thursday night. They did an excellent job blocking in the run game and in the screen game and did a good job keeping Marquise upright. By far the best game of the season from that unit.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Heels outplayed the Duke offensive line. Some name drops all along the defense… Naz Jones (1.5 TFL, .5 a sack) was all over the place on Thursday night. Jeff Schoettmer (5 tackles, 1 FR) played well at linebacker. Tim Scott (5 tackles, 1 FR) had an excellent game at safety. Malik Simmons (1 TFL) played well. M.J. Stewart (3 tackles) had an excellent interception and good game. Des Lawrence (.5 sack, 1 FF, 1 TFL, 3 tackles) was flying to the ball.

Overall, the defense was attacking Duke, flying to the football and playing really solid defense all up and down the board. There were a couple missed tackles, but overall, excellent defensive performance.

– UNC couldn’t have started off the game better than a 14-0 lead off of a defensive touchdown. As I said earlier, that 14-0 start took the air out of the crowd for the rest of the game and gave all the momentum to UNC. Finally a fast start for a North Carolina team accustomed to coming from behind and winning or losing close games.

– Was this the easiest win of the season for Carolina? Running through the six wins, Liberty was close until UNC broke the game open in the third quarter, SDSU was a nail biter, as was GT, Virginia and Pitt… yep, this was the easiest win of the season. There, I said it. That brings me to my next point, which is…

– Oh, what could have been. Read Andrew Carter’s column about this subject for a more eloquent and in-depth look at the issue, but boy, if UNC played like this the entire season, who knows where they would be now. This wasn’t even UNC’s best offensive game, because of the three turnovers. At least the defense came around in time for the last three games of the season, including the bowl game.

– Excellent job running the football on Thursday night. T.J. Logan was explosive, Romar Morris was powerful, the offensive line was aggressive and moving the line of scrimmage.

– Overall, it was a great night to be a Tar Heel fan. Next up, N.C. State. UNC should have no trouble getting up for that game.