UNC's Mack Brown on the Recipe For Beating Duke's Pass Rush

Tar Heels were able to protect Sam Howell

Duke entered the game against North Carolina with the nation’s top two sack leaders. Chris Rumph II and Victor Dimukeje each had 7.5 sacks on the year to lead the country. Both were shut out against the Tar Heels, who allowed quarterback Sam Howell to get sacked just once.

“I think the biggest thing is first, the emphasis,” Mack Brown said. “A lot of times when people see a record that’s not as good, like Duke’s record, our players might not understand how good some of their players are. So our coaches did a tremendous job of showing breakdowns of these guys getting their 7.5 sacks each side and how good they are. We went over it and over it and over it and really challenged the offensive line.”

Still, Brown and the coaches decided to give the offensive line some help.

“Second, we kept the tight end in some. Garrett Walston really helped us. That’s why he wasn’t involved (in the passing game) as much,” Brown said. “That was a factor, and then in some cases, we would chip with our running backs. I’m really proud of our offensive line to give up the number of sacks (5) we did last week. As good as this bunch (at Duke) is at what they do, I thought our guys protected really well.”

Carolina also flipped the script on offense. Instead of running to set up the pass, the Tar Heels went in the opposite direction.

“It’s also interesting, we started the game passing the ball and then came back and ran the ball,” Brown said. “Normally, we’ve been running to get in and start throwing it. I applaud (offensive coordinator) Phil Longo for saying, Okay, they’re stacking the box. Those guys are really tough in there. Let’s spread them out and make sure they understand we’re going to throw it.’ Then we were able to have a great mixture throughout the day.”