The North Carolina Tar Heels officially brought the Victory Bell back to Chapel Hill this weekend, beating Duke for Bill Belichick's first win in the rivalry. After UNC jumped out to a 17-0 lead, they saw that evaporate as Duke rallied off 20 unanswered points for a 20-17 lead.
But with UNC having one chance at the end, Billy Edwards and the offense delivered.
The Tar Heels scored late on a 24-yard touchdown run and took the 24-20 lead with just 1:53 left in the game. On Duke's final drive, the Tar Heels picked off quarterback Walker Eget to seal the deal and end a two-game losing streak to the Blue Devils.
Following the game, North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick met the media to talk about his first win in this rivalry and what he saw out there.
All quotes via Inside Carolina.
Opening statement
“Heck of a football game. Give a lot of credit to Duke. It’s a good football team. They’re well coached, and they battled hard. Fortunately, we were able to make a couple more plays than they did. But really happy for our team. They worked extremely hard. Especially our seniors, it meant a lot to them to, to ring the bell. So happy for them and proud of them.”
On red zone being so effective
“They’re tough, and they got a great running back so certainly tackling him is a problem. But they bring Mahan in there, and they had some tough passes down there. They caught us on that one crossing pick pattern. They tried some other ones, but they have a good scheme down there. They’re well coached, and they present a lot of problems. But luckily, we were able to get enough guys around the ball and keep them from getting in. It wasn’t easy.”
On going for it on fourth down on final drive
“I wasn’t punting again. It hadn’t gone well for us, and so unless it was like fourth and 30 or something, I didn’t want to give the ball back. I thought we’d go down and take our best shot, and we hit a lot of quick timing passes. I thought that Billy did a good job of distributing the ball. It’s a battle. They’re a good pass-rushing team. It’s a battle to keep them off the quarterback. I thought he did a really good job of stepping up in the pocket and taking the ends out of the rush. Our tackles were able to ride them by. But I mean, it wasn’t easy. But yeah, we weren’t going to punt that last series.”
On offense slowing down and any patterns?
“They’re one of the best defenses in the country. It’s not like they’re a bad defensive team. They’ve got good defensive players and a damn good coach. You think we can go out there and score 58 points against these guys? They’re a good defense.”
On Greg Smith
“He really stepped up. It was a game-time decision, and when Peyton went out a little bit earlier in the game, Greg really stepped up and made a lot of critical plays as you said — tackling and run-forcing, and also in coverage, and so you know, he had another big game for us. He’s just getting better and better every week.”
On Kenton Dopson having his moment
“Hopefully that’ll be a big confidence moment for him. He’s played pretty well for us. They had a couple of outs on him, but again, that’s going to happen in some of those coverages. I thought he overall has done a good job for a freshman. He stepped in there, and not every play is great, but there’s more good ones than there are bad ones, and hopefully we can keep that trend in that way.”
On Billy Edwards Jr. and his game
“I thought he did a really good job of pocket presence. Again, Duke’s a good pass rushing team. He stepped up in the pocket, he slid in there. He he ran once or twice, but he made a number of completions when he he slid up in the pocket and got some extra time and hit those guys over the middle, so you know it’s his poise and moving in the pocket helped us help the passing game a lot. So that’s sometimes a little underrated for a quarterback, but I thought he did a did a nice job of that.”
On Nate Sheppard
“We hung in there. He’s tough. He’s a really good back. He got outside a couple of times. You know, they got him out there on that swing screen with with Halsey in front of him, and they got a couple of good gains on that, which we kind of expected. And then we missed a tackle on him another time. He’s tough in space.”
“He’s the best back in the country, so proud of our guys for standing up to this offensive line and their running game. It wasn’t easy.”
On ringing the victory bell
“Absolutely. I’m sure it’ll be out there on MyFace or whatever.”
This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: What Bill Belichick said after UNC's win over Duke
