North Carolina bobbles then buckles down, showing resolve at the very last moment
In the blink of an eye — or the wave of yet another yellow penalty flag — it was like North Carolina had gone back in time. In the first season of Mack Mk II plus one game, the Tar Heels didn’t win every close game, but they rarely threw them away. At least not at the same preposterous rate as before.
So it was more than a little jarring to see North Carolina hanging on with both hands — literally, in the case of a key pass interference penalty that gave Boston College new life — in the final minute in Chestnut Hill, at sincere and severe risk of throwing away a game that should have been won long ago.
Out with the old, in with the new, and this kind of thing was definitely supposed to be out.
It took just one play to flip the calendar back forward, a visible reminder of the resolve this team has shown since Mack Brown’s return. With Boston College quarterback Phil Jurkovec scrambling and looking for a receiver on a two-point conversion that would have tied the score in the final minute, North Carolina defensive back Trey Morrison not only jumped in front of the belated receiver, he took off down the sideline to turn a two-point lead into a four-point lead.
Onside kick safely recovered, overtime avoided, the Tar Heels moved to 2-0 with a 26-22 win over BC.
But even the mere spectre of overtime was on Brown’s mind. The Tar Heels were 0-2 in overtime on the road a year ago. They may have been outscored in the fourth Saturday, but at least they managed to avoid playing a fifth.
“We lost this game at Virginia Tech last year,” Brown said. “We lost this game at Pittsburgh last year. The guys found a way to win it tonight. That’s progress.”
This was never pretty, and the way North Carolina ran the ball seemingly at will, it never should have come down to the fourth quarter. But there were enough errors — penalties, mostly, but other critical mistakes as well, thanks in part to 21 days of rust — to give Boston College hope.
The final drive was full of that. It started after a missed field goal that would have made it a two-score game. The Eagles worked methodically down the field, bleeding the clock. The Tar Heels nearly had Boston College stopped, until a pass interference penalty on 3rd-and-goal from the 32 gave the Eagles a new set of downs. It took Boston College five more plays to get the ball into the end zone, but the Eagles had their chance to tie. They had, in a game they never led, hope. Just enough of it.
And then the Tar Heels took it away. Morrison did, anyway.
It was, at the last possible moment, more of what we’ve started to expect from North Carolina: A team that locks games down in the fourth quarter instead of finding ways to give them away.
This was far from a perfect performance. Many of the wounds were self-inflicted. Impatience, Brown said, was a problem.
The Tar Heels were sloppy in the first half in their opener against Syracuse, almost a month ago now, but pulled away in the second. This was the opposite, a strong start that tapered to leave the outcome in doubt, until the last possible moment. The result was the same. The Tar Heels march on regardless.
