University of North Carolina Athletics
Extra Points: The Stress Bowl
November 21, 2005 | Football
Nov. 21, 2005
By Lee Pace
The good thing about a Carolina-Duke basketball game is that the Tar Heels and their legions of fans want to win the game as much as the Blue Devils.
The bad thing about a Carolina-Duke football game is that 14 wins over 15 years for the Heels and a 9-58 Blue Devil won-loss record in the current century makes for a lopsided arrangement of the gray matter approaching kick-off.
The Tar Heels want to win.
The Blue Devils are obsessed with winning.
And it's gotten so that TV doesn't care, as another battle of the blues was left untouched for the 92nd renewal of one of the ACC's oldest rivalries. It's just as well; you had to tune into "The Jerry Springer Show" for highlights of Saturday's game.
Carolina's Ronnie McGill was stopped on one of the game's early snaps and was picking himself off the ground to the jabbering and jawing of Duke linebacker Jeramy Edwards. It was downhill from there. A couple of snaps later, Matt Baker unleashed a pass to Jarwarski Pollock, then took a blatant and vicious head-butt from Edwards that resulted in a penalty flag. On the next play, Baker scored a touchdown on a quarterback sneak and had his helmet knocked off by Alex Williams after the whistle.
"That set the tone for a scrappy game and that's what it was," Baker said.
Duke received the kick-off and, on third down, Larry Edwards missed what should have been a routine tackle, springing the tight end for a 54-yard gain down to the Tar Heel 11 yard-line. After the defense stiffened on third down, forcing an apparent Duke field-goal attempt, Kentwan Balmer landed an aggressive blow with his right arm to the helmet of a Duke tackle, resulting in a personal foul and ejection from the game. That gave Duke new life and allowed the Blue Devils to turn three points into a touchdown. The Tar Heel sideline after that series of events was not a place for the faint of heart.
John Bunting quickly addressed the defense.
"Are you through being STUPID?" he yelled.
When Bunting was finished, defensive coordinator Marvin Sanders stepped in and delivered a fiery tongue-lashing.
"WE DO NOT PLAY FOOTBALL LIKE THAT!!!" Sanders screamed, presumably addressing Edwards' missed tackle, Balmer's loss of control and assorted other miscues under one umbrella.
It would be a long, difficult, pressure-packed afternoon for the Tar Heels. "The stress bowl," is how Rick Steinbacher described it on the Tar Heel Sports Network.
The Tar Heels escaped with a 27-24 victory, evening their record at 5-5 entering the season finale next Saturday at Virginia Tech. They needed a couple of inches here - Durell Mapp nailed a Duke runner within a whisker of the goal on fourth down with seven minutes to play. And they need a couple of inches there - McGill converted on fourth-down at the Duke 31 to keep Carolina's game-winning drive alive.
Carolina led in first downs, 26 to 11, and in total yards, 401 to 244. The Tar Heels entered the game with wins over N.C. State, Utah, Virginia and Boston College. Duke had beaten only VMI, a team that finished with a 3-8 record. But the Blue Devils made judicious use of their emotion, a fiery blitz package and an array of gadget plays to make this one a horror flick for the Heels and their fans.
"We made this game harder than it needed to be to win," linebacker Tommy Richardson said.
"It was a tougher game than I thought and a tougher game than it should be," Baker added. "We have more talent than that."
That edge in pure ability took a hit over the last two weeks as the Carolina defensive front has been whittled to bare bones with an assortment of injury problems. Brian Rackley suffered a concussion against Boston College and has not returned. Hilee Taylor injured his foot against Maryland and is still sidelined. Shelton Bynum sprained an ankle against Maryland and was severely limited versus Duke. So when Balmer was sent to the sideline early in the game, Carolina was down to senior Tommy Davis and third-team end Melik Brown, who's had injury problems of his own since the Miami game. The Heels were forced to insert walk-on Bowen Chapman when Davis suffered a slight knee sprain.
"I was real disappointed in our losing some poise and losing some discipline," Bunting said Saturday of Balmer's infraction. "You are never going to be able to respond after a play in an illegal way to make it right. You can make it right in a legal way on the next play. That's the way I always played football and the way I've coached it."
He elaborated Sunday, saying he saw Balmer's infraction and terming it "selfish and stupid" but adding that he did not see what precipitated the sophomore's outburst. Bunting also said he was sending a file of selected plays to the ACC's supervisor of officials that included pushing, shoving, talking and late hits. On those, he would not elaborate.
What does warrant more discussion is the toughness and guts exhibited by the skeleton defensive front. Brown played 62 snaps and, though he gave up some yards on bootlegs to his side, was lauded by Bunting for his effort. Davis asked ends coach Brad Lawing before the game if he could play every snap, and he would have, too, if not for the knee injury in second half that sidelined him for one play. Page played only at tackle this week given Bynum's limited availability and had one sack.
"Chase goes down, but he comes back and plays," Bunting said.
"Tommy goes down, comes back and plays.
"Those kids really, really toughed it out. They deserve a lot of credit for their courage."
One of Duke's scores was set up by Edwards' missed tackle. The Blue Devils drove six yards for a second TD after recovering a fumble. And they added a 24-yard score on a reverse on a drive that began at the Tar Heel 41 after a punt. Beyond those events, it was a reasonably solid defensive performance that included safety Kareen Taylor's best-ever performance and continued improvement from middle linebacker Mapp. Richardson ended his home career with an interception with a minute to play to end Duke's final threat.
"The defense did a great job getting pressure with four men," Richardson said. "The quarterback was getting the ball off just before he got pounded. In the first half, we held them to 80 yards, but we let them get 14 points. In the second half, they hurt us with a couple of trick plays and we missed a few tackles. It was their Super Bowl, and they came out and played like it."
Duke pressured and blitzed on defense throughout the afternoon, coming frequently with some moves it had not shown in previous games. That disrupted the Tar Heels' running game and led to five sacks (plus two roughing penalties), but Bunting was aggravated his team could not adjust better as the game developed. Field position was an issue as well. Carolina intercepted two passes with its back to the goal, taking possession at the 1 yard-line, and it started yet another drive from a foot away from the goal after the fourth-quarter goal-line stand.
"They were bringing the house, trying to blow up the run, slanting things toward our tight end," Bunting said. "They were bringing people to one edge. Then we started going in the other direction, away from where we thought pressure would be. When somebody brings pressure consistently over and over again, and we know where it's coming from, we should be able to get it blocked up, make the throw and make the catch. You need to hurt them and hurt them bad. I am really disappointed we didn't do a better job of that."
What the offense did do, however, for the second week running, was strike quickly near the end of the first half for a field goal and then drive the length of the field late in the game for crucial points. McGill ran for a season-high 146 yards and Baker threw for 238, giving him a season total of 2,285 yards. That ranks as the fifth best single-season passing performance in Carolina history - not bad for a first-year starter.
Bunting was hopeful on Sunday that Rackley would return this week and believed that Davis would be ready by Tuesday. He said Balmer would certainly play Saturday at Virginia Tech, dispelling some talk over the weekend that Balmer's ejection Saturday would carry over to the next game. Bynum should be close to full speed, though Hilee Taylor remains questionable. Senior receiver and special-teams captain Wallace Wright is out with a broken foot.
"Virginia Tech has taken some good teams and dismantled them," Bunting said. "We've got to go up there and put it all on the line. It'll take our best game of the year, and it's the perfect time to do so."
Virginia Tech is playing for a BCS bowl berth. The Tar Heels are playing for a winning season and any bowl berth. It should be straight-up, clean football on a frigid fall night in front of a national TV audience. That could be a lot of fun, and not nearly as much stress as Saturday afternoon's ordeal with Duke.
Send your questions about Tar Heel football to Lee Pace at leepace@nc.rr.com . Questions may be used either in Friday's TarHeelBlue.com mailbag or in a special pregame segment on the Tar Heel Sports Network on Saturday. Please include your first and last names and hometown. Individual replies are not possible because of volume of mail received, and names of recruiting prospects and commitments cannot be published on a school-sponsored site until the national signing day in February. The Q&A column will appear each Friday during the season.
