A Statement Win

If the North Carolina Tarheels were looking to make a statement against Duke and their fourth ranked defense, they had accomplished that goal by the end of the first quarter when they held a 21-3 lead. The Tarheels showed from the very first play that they were going to do whatever they had to do to win the game and conservative play calling was not an option.

When the Tarheels ran a flea flicker from their own 11 yard line on their first play from scrimmage, that told me they were all in. When running back Elijah Hood took the handoff from quarterback Marquise Williams, and pitched it back to Williams, there was no pressure from the Duke defense at all. Wide receiver Ryan Switzer hid among the Duke linebackers until the fake was sold and then Switzer was streaking down the field all by himself where Williams hit him with a perfect pass for an 89 yard touchdown and North Carolina's offense was just getting started.

Williams had thrown for 404 yards and three touchdown's by halftime, had ran one in, and UNC held a 38-10 lead. The Tarheels scored two touchdowns with under two minutes to go on long passes from Williams to wide receiver's Bug Howard and Mack Hollins and North Carolina's receivers continually got behind Duke's defensive backs and ended up with nine plays of over twenty yards.

Could it really have been that simple? Duke's safeties play near the line of scrimmage and they were willing to let Williams try to beat them through the air. North Carolina took advantage of their aggressiveness and just through over the top to their wide receivers. Giving up two long touchdown passes with under two minutes to go in the first half really surprised me. Duke did not appear to have anyone in deep coverage in either one of these plays as Hollins and Howard just streaked right by them untouched.

What has been lost in the shuffle of North Carolina's 66-31 win and 704 yards of total offense is the fact that Duke had 543 yards of offense of their own. The Tarheels defense did have three takeaways (two interceptions and a fumble recovery) but that is the most yards a Gene Chizik defense had given up all year long. I don't know if the lopsided score had anything to do with it but the announcer had no problems making up excuses for Duke's poor performance, basing it on the ending of last week's Miami-Duke game.