UNC survives Duke in overtime. Three takeaways as Tar Heels retain the Victory Bell
In the third-highest scoring game in the Duke-North Carolina football rivalry, the No. 24 Tar Heels escaped with a 47-45 double-overtime win over the Blue Devils at Kenan Stadium on Saturday night.
Kicker Noah Burnette tied a UNC record with six field goals, including one in the first overtime that send it to a second overtime.
Drake Maye’s 5-yard touchdown run and his two-point conversion pass to John Copenhaver in the second overtime gave the Tar Heels enough to win.
Here are three takeaways from the Tar Heels’ win:
One for Maye to remember
If it was Maye’s last game at Kenan Stadium, it’s one the sophomore quarterback will remember for both his good moments and bad.
The best: winning the game 47-45, running in for a touchdown in the second OT, then scrambling to complete a 2-point pass to tight end John Copenhaver.
Before that, Maye twice took UNC down the field on two fourth-quarter drives after Duke had twice taken the lead .On the first, he converted one third-down play with a run. He converted another with a 15-yard pass to tight end Bryson Nesbit, then found Nesbit for a TD with 1:55 left in the game.
After Duke took a 36-33 lead with 41 seconds left, Maye got the Heels in position for Burnette’s 43-yard field goal — his fifth of the game — to send it to overtime.
For Maye, more of the good came on some sparkling pass completions to Tez Walker and J.J. Jones, getting yardage in big chunks. Or Maye’s quickly improvised, two-hand basketball-pass lateral to Omarion Hampton that picked up 16 yards. Or him attempting to hurdle a Duke tackler trying to score late in the third quarter.
The bad?
After UNC muffed a Duke kickoff in the second quarter, the Heels taking over at their 1, Maye got off one of his worst passes of the season. Duke’s Jaylen Stinson got the pick at the UNC 26, setting up a go-ahead score for the Devils.
Big game for Big O
One of UNC’s football mantras this season has been to “Run the (Darn) Ball” and Hampton has run the darn ball darn well.
Maye provided the flash to the UNC offense and Walker came up with some scintillating catches Saturday, but the bullish runs of Hampton again gave UNC’s offense balance.
Loftis with a gutsy fourth quarter for Duke
Duke once again played without their top two quarterbacks on the depth chart as Riley Leonard (toe) and Henry Belin IV (shoulder) were not available.
Freshman Grayson Loftis started for the second game in a row and, after struggling over the first three quarters, made plenty of big plays in the final period.
He had only completed four passes over the first three quarters. But Loftis completed nine in the fourth quarter. That included the biggest pass, a 30-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Moore with 41 seconds to play that gave Duke a 36-33 lead.
That was the third touchdown of the fourth quarter for the Blue Devils, who trailed 26-14.
Loftis finished 16 of 28 for 189 yards with three touchdown passes. His 3-yard touchdown run with 2:07 left in the first half gave Duke a 14-13 lead. That lead didn’t last long as UNC kicked a late field goal to lead 16-14 at halftime.
After that touchdown run, Loftis didn’t complete another pass until the fourth quarter. By that time, the Tar Heels had boosted their lead to 26-14.
But he found rhythm in the fourth quarter when he completed four consecutive passes on a touchdown drive that ended with Jordan Waters’ 13-yard scoring run. A 14-yard pass to Nicky Dalmolin on 2nd-and-13 got the drive going. He later completed a 23-yard pass to Jalon Calhoun to the UNC 13.
After UNC took a 33-29 lead on Maye’s 15-yard touchdown pass to Nesbitt with 1:55 to play, Duke took over at its 25 with a chance to take the lead.
He completed a pair of 11-yard passes, one to Jordan Moore and the other to Jaylen Coleman to reach the Duke 47.
Duke faced fourth-and-7 from the UNC 30 when Loftis spotted Moore wide open behind the UNC defense for the touchdown that gave Duke a late lead.
In Duke’s first overtime possession, though, the Blue Devils lost six yards on three plays, including a Graham Barton holding penalty, before Todd Pelino kicked a 49-yard field goal to put Duke up 39-36.
In the second overtime, Loftis completed a 10-yard pass to Moore on fourth-and-1 from the UNC 16 to temporarily keep the Tar Heels from winning. He then fired a 6-yard touchdown pass to Moore to cut UNC’s lead to 47-45.
But his final pass, to Calhoun in the end zone, zipped to the ground incomplete to end the game.
This story was originally published November 11, 2023 at 7:16 PM.
