Has Duke football ever had a better loss than it did on Saturday?
Giving up a late touchdown to lose a homecoming game by one point to your arch-rival on Senior Day is usually not a good thing. It happened to the Blue Devils in their 41-40 loss to North Carolina this weekend.
But oh, what a loss it was. In the end, Duke finished its regular season more in victory than in defeat.
"That was as good a college football game as you would ever want to see," said Mack Brown, head coach of the Tar Heels. "I want to give a lot of credit to Duke for a great comeback."
This was clearly the best game of the year in the Atlantic Coast Conference. There were two arch-rivals, facing each other with winning records on each side for the first time in 13 years. Both squads were shoe-ins for bowl games for the first time ever in the same season, but the stakes were for more than travel plans to Tampa, Gainesville or Atlanta for a particular postseason trip.
This was North Carolina, the best ACC team in recent years not indirectly sponsored by Foot Locker. Having established their program as a perennial top-20 team, the Tar Heels suffered several early injuries and stumbled a bit this season while trying to top the Seminoles.
"I've said all along that the University of North Carolina was the only one who had played with Florida State," Goldsmith said. "They came and played well today."
This was Duke, the comeback story of the year in college football, as its own Bobby Hurley has been in professional basketball. Both were in critical condition, and both have supplemented some good, old-fashioned luck with a large dose of good, old-fashioned hard work, to play again with new life.
Wallace Wade was packed. Baby and royal blue hues were everywhere. The Ram and Blue Devil mascots put on a good show during timeouts, perhaps inspired by the play on the field and the atmosphere of the entire day.
"This is what I came to Duke for," Duke redshirt freshman receiver Corey Thomas said. "When I came to Duke, there were a lot of empty seats. This was no miracle or anything. It was hard work. Now hopefully we can bring this university a bowl victory. I want to win this one. We lost the last two games, and I want to win a bowl."
To win a bowl, you must be in a bowl, and Duke will be headed to some postseason party this year. A Peach Bowl flyer at Saturday's game listed the preseason ACC standings. Duke stood dead last, in ninth place. Did anyone think before the season that the Blue Devils would be playing this winter?
"I don't think anybody -- you don't have one idea how far these kids have come this year," Goldsmith said. "And I told them that in [the locker room] after the game. They've come a long, long way. To compete with the best people in the league, we had to come a long way. We did that to a great extent."
Saturday was another chance for Duke to prove it had arrived. It moved the ball up and down the field on North Carolina in the first half, but a special teams breakdown and a late turnover kept UNC close. The Tar Heels assumed control of the game in the third quarter, grinding out two touchdowns on their way to a 10-point fourth quarter lead.
The game may have been over for past Duke teams at that point, but the Blue Devils battled back to retake the lead at 38-34. But just after an unthinkable Duke comeback victory seemed likely, a 71-yard touchdown pass from Mike Thomas to Octavus Barnes with 2:01 to go put UNC back ahead for good.
"I'm just disappointed that we didn't play defense, but I guess Carolina is too -- but not as disappointed as we are," Goldsmith said.
It was the second time in as many games that the Blue Devils allowed a Triangle opponent to comeback in the fourth quarter to beat them. North Carolina State rallied to nip Duke 24-23 last week in Raleigh, making it two might-have-beens too many for Spence Fischer, the Duke quarterback.
"It's a shame," Fischer said. "These two games just slipped away. I think we're a 10-1 caliber football team.
"We silenced a lot of critics. You have to respect Duke football now. I think Carolina does. They barely escaped today."
Bailey Luetgert started the Duke rally that almost crushed UNC. He blocked a Tar Heel punt with just over seven minutes left in the fourth quarter, giving the Blue Devils possession of the ball at the North Carolina 21-yard line. Two plays later, Corey Thomas' first catch of the day for a 12-yard touchdown brought Duke back to within three.
After forcing UNC to punt, a good return by Adam Geis set up the Duke offense for the go-ahead score. Receiver Jon Jensen accounted for 34 yards on the 48-yard drive, capped off by another Thomas TD catch. Duke couldn't answer the final UNC touchdown with so little time left, but Jensen's career day-- 14 catches, 174 yards -- shouldn't be overlooked.
"When it's your last shot, you just want to make it your best," Jensen said. "I don't think we have anything to be ashamed of. It's not like we beat ourselves. They made plays, and we made plays. Unfortunately, we didn't make the last play."
Or did they? Rewind to four weeks ago. Duke was 7-0, fresh off a 51-26 drubbing of Wake Forest. What was everyone talking about? Florida State, and how getting crushed by the Seminoles would send the Blue Devils reeling. Duke would lose its last four games and limp into a bowl. If it was lucky.
The prognosticators were very close. Duke went 1-3 those last four games. The prognosticators were also very far off.
"The first goal was to have a winning season," Goldsmith said. "We accomplished that early. Everybody said we'd lose the last four, and we did lose three out of the last four. But I don't think we did that quite the way anybody thought we would.
"I don't think anybody thought we'd beat Virginia. Nobody thought we'd be leading Carolina and leading State the way we did before losing at the wire. We put ourselves in position to win in November, and I'm proud of the football team that did that."
But for the players, it's still too soon after that second experience of losing at the wire to feel too good about the regular season.
"I'd rather get blown out than to lose by one point," Thomas said. "But then again, I think it showed the heart of both teams."
Duke has come a long way in a very short time, and it proved that once and for all with its play on Saturday. Duke lost the game, and that's what made it a sad day for the Blue Devils.
"This was a tough one, yet at the same time, I don't think anybody has anything to hold their heads down about," Abdul-Aleem said. "Who would have thought we would make it this far?"
Nobody. That's what made it so great.
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