LOOK: North Carolina celebrates win over Duke in style
The North Carolina Tar Heels dropped this picture of them enjoying Saturday’s win over rival Duke. The Tar Heels will hang onto the Victory Bell Trophy for another year, after defeating the Blue Devils 38-7.
Tar Heels offensive firepower
The Tar Heels showed up with their high-powered offense ready to go. Quarterback Sam Howell put together another solid game with 321 yards through the air. He completed 18 of his 32 pass attempts for a completion percentage of 56.3, and Saturday was his second straight game without an interception. Since their opening loss, Howell has only thrown one interception in the past four games. His favorite target was yet again sophomore receiver Josh Downs. He caught eight passes for 168 yards and one touchdown. For Downs this was his third game of the season with at least eight receptions over 100 yards receiving, and at least one touchdown.
Although these two schools are on opposite sides of the ACC football food chain, North Carolina savored every moment of this game.
The defense showed up to play
The Tar Heel defense showed up in a big way. The seven points they gave up are the fewest points allowed by the defense this season. They held the Blue Devils to 314 yards of total offense, and they were effective at getting the Duke offense off the field on 3rd downs, as they allowed just two conversions out of 15. The North Carolina defense forced two turnovers on the day, one fumble and one interception. And for good measure returned the fumble 63 yards for a defensive touchdown. The defense may not have pitched a shutout, but washed away the Blue Devils’ only touchdown with one of their own.
With this win, North Carolina now sits at 3-2 on the season and is now 2-2 in conference play. For Duke, they drop to 3-2 on the season and have suffered their first loss in the conference. The Blue Devils’ next game will be against a hot and cold Georgia Tech team, who in the last two weeks have a dominant win against North Carolina followed by a blowout loss to Pitt this week. The Tar Heels next match-up will be against the struggling Florida State Seminoles. Florida State is off to one of their worst starts in the program’s history, but a win against Syracuse this weekend could help right the ship.
The two schools are known for their epic showdown known as the tobacco road rivalry. But as you can see from the picture Tar Heels are thrilled to get the win.