“Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory”?
Too cute?
How about “horseshoes and hand grenades”?
Still too cute?
Certainly “self-inflicted wounds” works.
As do “gut-wrenching,” “agonizing,” and well, if I got paid by the adjective, I could go on into Sunday afternoon.
Duke absolutely had North Carolina on the ropes Saturday night in Wade. Up 35-31 with just over two minutes left, Jordan Waters picked up an apparent first down at the Carolina five.
But wait. There’s a flag. Illegal shift. Needed to wait a split-second longer.
But Riley Leonard to Jalon Calhoun for a touchdown.
Game over.
But wait there’s another flag. Chop block. Mike Elko gave a very technical explanation of this call, which boiled down to maybe, maybe not.
“I don’t know if anyone did something we didn’t coach. It just happened and obviously happened at the worst time.”
“Got to figure out a way to be better in that situation” Elko acknowledged.
So, Riley Leonard runs and picks up enough on third down for a 43-yard field goal attempt by Charlie Ham to give Duke a seven-point lead.
A 43-yard field goal for a Power-Five kicker in his third year. Not a chip shot but very makeable.
He missed it.
Carolina got the ball back needing a TD and running out of time. Duke immediately gifted them an extra 15 yards with a face mask penalty.
After that you could see it coming a mile away. Drake Maye avoids a sack. Maybe his knee was on the ground. Maybe not.
Maye hits Antoine Green for the TD.
Maybe he went out of bounds and came back in, making him ineligible.
Maybe not. Call stands.
Duke gets the ball back with maybe enough time to get into field-goal range and give Ham a chance for redemption.
One completion, then Calhoun is tripped. Elko certainly thought it was pass interference and said so.
No flag. Leonard’s next pass is tipped and intercepted.
Coulda, woulda, shoulda. When the game ended the scoreboard read North Carolina 38 Duke 35.
Duke had a lot to be proud of. But the scoreboard is pretty binary and Duke couldn’t close the door when they had the chance.
How did it come to that?
The Tar Heels knocked Duke back early with a 53-yard pass from Maye to Antoine Green on the first play from scrimmage. But Duke’s defense held and forced a Noah Burnette field goal.
Duke answered with an eight-play, 75-yard drive, deftly mixing runs and passes, never once reaching third down.
Jordan Waters took it in from two yards out and Duke led 7-3.
The Tar Heels responded. We knew they would. Maye hit Komari Morales on third and seven from the 10 and it was 10-7.
In a crucial sequence Duke marched to the Carolina two only to come up empty on fourth and one when a pass from Leonard to Calhoun fell incomplete.
Why go for it?
“Just their offense,” Elko said. “We wanted to be aggressive. We knew we had to be aggressive in the red zone. We had a good play called. We just didn’t execute it.”
The Tar Heels moved into Duke territory but Duke got the third-down stop and forced a punt.
Duke took over at their 12 and picked up two first downs.
Then Leonard lost 14 yards on a sack. Then Leonard went 74 yards on a scramble and Duke was back on top, 14-10.
Just like Duke drew it up.
And yes, he looked just like Daniel Jones.
Then Maye lost the ball on a fumble that was totally unforced and accepted gratefully by Duke. The Blue Devils kept it on the ground in a seven-play drive that ended with a touchdown and it was 21-10.
Unfortunately Duke left 98 seconds on the clock.
Which was 98 seconds too many.
21-17 Duke at the half.
“I thought it was huge,” Elko said of that Tar Heel TD drive. “We knew that was going to be our challenge. Their skill kids are talented.”
Elko said Duke was trying to hold Carolina to a field goal but blew the coverage on a 35-yarder to Antoine Greene that set up the TD.
Still, a lead and the ball to start the second half. Could have been worse.
And it became worse.
After a single first down a penalty on Jacob Monk led to a punt.
Duke got a sack on Maye but a controversial late hit led to a Tar Heel first down.
Elko lamented the call noting that the 220-pound Maye isn’t easy to take to the ground.
“It’s getting hard. They say we slung him down. But we have to be able to tackle him. He’s not a little kid. You see it in the NFL. It’s getting really hard with the way they’re protecting the quarterback.”
What did the official tell Carter?
“You just got a 15-yard penalty.”
Two plays and a PAT later and Duke trailed 24-21.
Then 31-21.
Duke’s offense was toothless in the third quarter. Elko said Carolina made some adjustments on its defensive front and it took some time for Duke to re-adjust and Duke kept getting behind the chains.
“A little bit off-kilter” was the phrase he used.
But Duke hung there, a great defensive stop after Duke lost the ball on downs at their 30. Leonard hit Nicky Dalmolin and Shamir Hagans with deep shots, the latter a 20-yard TD and it was 31-28, with 14:12 left.
Duke recovered a Maye fumble, this one forced and took over at their 36 with 7:32 left, the whole game ready to be won.
Eight plays burn five minutes and Duke is on the door of a huge victory.
Until they aren’t.
“Couldn’t be more proud of the way we battled,” Elko said. “But we’ve got to figure out how to be better in that situation. We were there and had a chance to win. But we didn’t make a play at the end.”
The penalties are frustrating but we lost the game in the 3rd quarter when we abandoned the run game and allowed Carolina to outscore us 14-0. Add in the TD at end of 1st half and it’s a 21-0 run.