GoHeels Exclusive: The Hurt

By Pat James, GoHeels.com

Throughout this week they talked about it, the North Carolina coaching staff of the football team's fourth-quarter struggles, and made finishing an emphasis.

And when the final quarter began in Saturday's Victory Bell matchup against Duke at Kenan Stadium, the Tar Heels found themselves in the same position – clinging to a lead – they'd been in through their first three games. But this felt different than the losses to California and Louisville.

Despite the mounting injuries, the offense's third-down inefficiency and the defense's inconsistencies getting off the field on third and fourth down, UNC seemed in control, with the defense playing its best game of the season.

Then, in a matter of minutes, the Blue Devils pulled away.

Duke's Shaun Wilson scored a go-ahead touchdown midway through the fourth quarter, and Bryon Fields returned an interception 61 yards for the game-clinching score moments later. And in the aftermath of a 27-17 loss, players returned to the UNC locker room with a 1-3 record and experiencing an all-too-familiar feeling.

"It hurts," said Donnie Miles of the defeat. "If you look at every game we've played in, we've been up in the fourth quarter and we just haven't found a way to finish. We finish, I think we're undefeated right now. It hurts, it definitely does."

And perhaps this loss hurts more than the others, not because it came against a rival, but because of how close the Tar Heels appeared to exorcising their fourth-quarter demons.

UNC opened the final period with a 17-13 lead, thanks to Chazz Surratt's 56-yard rushing touchdown with about 5 1/2 minutes left in the third quarter. The touchdown scamper, the longest by a Tar Heel quarterback since Darian Durant's 63-yarder against Clemson in 2003, elicited the loudest reaction from the Kenan Stadium crowd this season.

The defense was also giving fans plenty to cheer about. After the Blue Devils completed a three-play, 75-yard touchdown drive near the end of the first quarter, the unit held Duke to just six points on two field goals between the second and third, despite three trips into the red zone.

"Just bowing up and stopping them," said M.J. Stewart of the defense's success in the red zone. "That's one of our goals every week – red zone defense. We stop them in the red zone, we hold them to three points instead of seven, it's huge."

Because of its momentum, there was reason to believe the UNC defense could make another stand after Duke completed a 45-yard pass into Tar Heel territory with about nine minutes remaining. But it didn't.

UNC forced the Blue Devils into a fourth-and-5, which they converted on a 12-yard completion. Wilson scored the go-ahead touchdown three plays later.

Then, after the Tar Heels moved the ball to Duke's 42-yard line on the ensuing possession, Fields intercepted Surratt's third-and-12 pass and sprinted into the end zone. In about two minutes, UNC went from leading by four points to down 10.

"We're in position to win a football game in the fourth quarter and we didn't finish," head coach Larry Fedora said. "And that's happened to us three times. Everybody understands that's my responsibility. We're up in the fourth, I've got to find a way to get this team to finish."

The Tar Heels have been outscored 54-20 in the fourth quarter this season. And as losers of three of their first four games, the road doesn't become any easier with games at Georgia Tech and against Notre Dame over the next two weeks.

"Things happen," Miles said. "We're sad that it happened, we're mad that it happened. We've got a really bad feeling in our mouths and in our stomachs. But there's nothing else we can do. We can't hang our heads. Today is going to hurt, tomorrow is going to hurt. But tomorrow we've got to come back and go to work."

And work until they hurt no more.

University of North Carolina Athletics

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Donnie Miles

M.J. Stewart

Chazz Surratt

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