Disastrous third down defense hurts Duke

Anthony Elzy shredded Duke’s defense Saturday, rushing for 116 yards and several timely third downs conversions.
Anthony Elzy shredded Duke’s defense Saturday, rushing for 116 yards and several timely third downs conversions.

11-for-17. It’s tough to win a game when your opponent converts with that proficiency on third down.

“That was a really [the] key factor in the game,” junior safety Matt Daniels said. “Those are the times where we really have to get them off the field, and we weren’t able to do that.”

The ease with which North Carolina converted on third downs, including seven times in the second half when the Tar Heels held onto a dwindling lead, allowed North Carolina to hold onto the ball for almost 40 of the contest’s 60 minutes. It kept the Duke defense on the field until it was exhausted. And it psychologically beat down a tired Blue Devil team.

Perhaps the worst moment of Duke’s third down defense came relatively early in the game—with six minutes left in the first quarter. Sean Renfree had just led Duke down the field for a convincing drive ending with an Austin Kelly touchdown that sent Duke’s bench into a celebration seemingly more suitable for a fourth quarter score.

With a 7-0 lead, Will Snyderwine sent a booming shot into the North Carolina end zone. Tar Heel Matt Merletti could only run it back to the 11-yard line, and after a false start penalty, North Carolina began its drive from the 3-yard line.

On first-and-15, Elzy got the call, and Daniels flew through the line, slamming into the running back and holding him to a 2-yard gain. Then it was second-and-11, and Elzy was given the ball again. He could only make it two yards before being brought down by Abraham Kromah and Charlie Hatcher.

The Tar Heels—favorites in the game and playing in front of a crowd predominately in their favor—found themselves standing in the shadow of their goal posts, down 7-0 and in very real danger of seeing their next play develop into a safety.

Instead, T.J. Yates was given plenty of time to step back, find his target and hit tight end Ryan Taylor, who turned a long post pattern in the middle of the field into a 40-yard completion. A few Elzy rushes later, and North Carolina had tied the game.

The Chapel Hill denizens never looked back, and Duke never again had the lead. Despite how early that completion was in the contest, Daniels would call it one of the game’s “defining moments.” It set the tone for the rest of the game, and it showed that the Tar Heels were not to be counted out—ever—on their third down plays.

Head coach David Cutcliffe attributed the lack of a pass rush as one of the reasons why Yates and North Carolina were able to convert 64 percent of their third down attempts.

Over and over again Saturday, Yates was given upwards of seven seconds to find his receivers and complete a pass. North Carolina’s offensive line rarely collapsed, and any blitzes that Duke threw out simply failed to materialize. Damian Thornton recorded the Blue Devils’ only sack in the game, an inconsequential tackle coming late in the second quarter.

“One of the things we have to do, no question... is get to the quarterbacks better to play pass defense,” Cutcliffe said. “Everybody wants to talk about the secondary all the time, [but] that goes hand-in-hand [with the pass rush]. You can’t let the quarterback get comfortable on you, period. You’ve got to hit him more.”

Cutcliffe’s frustration with the team, easily seen in the postgame press conference Saturday, leaked out in his characterization of Yates’s performance. The senior quarterback, who went 28-for-35, had not played an exceptional game, Cutcliffe said. Duke just couldn’t get the job done.

“If we were in man-to-man, we tried to get to the quarterback. [But] we couldn’t get there, and when you don’t get there, their receivers found ways to get open and away from us,” he said. “Yates didn’t make any great throws—it was easy. He was just taking it and tossing it to a guy right in front of him.”

The coach’s frustration at a loss much more debilitating than the final score would indicate was understandable. North Carolina gave Duke plenty of chances to win its first game in seven years against the Tobacco Road rival. But when a team allows the opponent to go 11-for-17 on third down, the odds are most decidedly stacked against its favor.

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