UNC falls to Duke 27-25 on Senior Day

The Victory Bell was waiting — and so was Quinshad Davis, just on the cusp of field-goal range, ready to gather the football in his arms and position North Carolina for a Tobacco Road victory.

But the ball never arrived. A last-second hit on quarterback Marquise Williams altered its trajectory and sent it arcing wildly into the arms of DeVon Edwards at Duke’s 29-yard line.

Thirteen seconds, two points, a catch and a kick — in the end, that’s all that kept the Tar Heels (6-6, 4-4) from repainting the bell Carolina blue on Saturday, and it’s the differential that allowed the Blue Devils (10-2, 6-2) to walk off the Kenan Stadium field 27-25 winners and Coastal Division champions.

“(I’m) disappointed for our seniors that played in Kenan and the Tar Pit for the last time,” coach Larry Fedora said. “We didn’t get to send them out the right way, but we didn’t play well enough to win a football game.

“There’s a lot of things you can look at in this game that we didn’t do and we didn’t accomplish, and that’s the reason you don’t win a football game.”

The lack of execution didn’t start in that final UNC drive — it began well before that, and the missed opportunities piled on throughout the course of the game.

UNC’s drives were consistently stalled by penalties, nine for 85 yards, three of which came on kickoff returns, saddling the Tar Heels with poor field position each time. The costliest flag came halfway through the fourth quarter when an unsportsmanlike conduct call on center Russell Bodine sent UNC from third and 2 on Duke’s 9-yard line to third and 17.

“We think we beat ourselves,” senior left tackle James Hurst said. “They obviously played a great game, did a lot of good stuff, but we had some really timely penalties, and that really hurt us. Special teams, starting on a long field, that’s discouraging a lot of times.

“It’s not what we wanted. It’s good to keep fighting, stay in the game, but we’d like to get a few of those back.”

It didn’t help that UNC struggled to convert on third downs, going 2-for-12 in those opportunities and 0-for-8 in the first half.

Penalties, which kept resulting in third-and-longs, were partly to blame. But Williams said the failed conversions mainly came down to a lack of execution.

Both the redshirt sophomore and Fedora said Williams was simply off on Saturday. He started 8-for-12 but then went through a 0-for-9 stretch before finishing 17-for-36 with two interceptions. In one series early in third quarter, he overthrew three receivers streaking toward the end zone, and when he did connect with T.J. Logan just inside the 10-yard line, Logan dropped it.

“I just didn’t look it in,” Logan said. “Hit me right in the hands.”

The Blue Devils played an entirely opposite game, converting eight of 15 third-down chances and dominating possession as they charged methodically down the field.

Duke ran 82 plays against UNC, second to only Georgia Tech this season, and senior defensive end Kareem Martin said the Blue Devils excelled at setting up third-and-short situations. They excelled in special teams as well, as Edwards returned a kickoff 99 yards for his second touchdown return of the season

Edwards was also the man who picked off Williams with 13 seconds left in the game, setting up the Duke victory.

“(I) tried to make a play, but I got hit as I was throwing the ball and that ain’t going to turn out too pretty,” Williams said. “A lot of people didn’t see that I got hit. Give them credit, they did what they had to do.”

And UNC just couldn’t do enough.