Ebron erupts in otherwise dark night

Junior tight end Eric Ebron rolled out to the right, looked to his quarterback and watched the ball streak into his hands. As he turned upfield, he braced for a hit. But it never came.

Time was quickly running out for North Carolina on Thursday night, and Ebron knew it. He swiftly made his way out of bounds.

The 32-yard catch would be his last of the game and put him one yard shy of 200 yards on the day.

After the next play — a 15-yard pass to senior A.J. Blue — UNC was only 28 yards from the end zone.

With 16 seconds left at the start of the drive, down 27-23, the Tar Heels’ chances of scoring a game-winning touchdown were minimal at best. A last-second heave fell short in the end zone, and with it, UNC’s chances for an upset of No. 10 Miami.

Those 16 seconds of UNC’s final push were a perfect parallel to the 60 minutes that the game spanned.

Just like the drive, UNC entered the game with the odds seemingly stacked against them. Just like the drive, UNC came up short in the end.

But in between, UNC played a level of football it hadn’t displayed all year.

“We showed people that we can play football and that our record speaks less than how we really can play,” Ebron said.

Ebron’s 199 yards broke the single-game UNC record for receiving yards by a tight end. They were enough for a career high for the junior, as were his eight catches that got him there.

Senior quarterback Bryn Renner completed 15 passes in a row for a new single-game UNC record.

The team’s 500 yards were the most Miami had given up all season.

It was one of UNC’s best offensive showings of the year, but it wasn’t enough for the team’s second win.

“We have a bunch of guys hurting in that locker room down there,” coach Larry Fedora said after the game. “… It’s a tough one to swallow.”

However, it was the small errors besmirching the Tar Heels’ otherwise stellar play that led to the loss.

There were the five trips to the end zone that yielded one touchdown and four field goal attempts for 16 points.

There was the interception thrown into the redzone with less than 10 minutes to play.

There was the botched 3rd and 1 that quickly became a 4th and 14 with under five minutes to play.

“Those small mistakes that people don’t see at home and stuff, they come back to bite you in the butt in the end,” senior Jabari Price said. “And tonight is a prime example.”

Ebron had no choice but to acknowledge his personal prowess during the bout, but still held responsibility for his team’s shortcomings.

“This is a family, and I feel like I played one of the best games a tight end could ever play,” Ebron said. “But for my family and for my teammates, I still feel like I could’ve done something better or I let them down.

“We came up short, and I don’t plan on doing that anymore.”

sports@dailytarheel.com