This always had the feel of a get-right game for North Carolina's beleaguered defense, which despite all the awkward miscues on special teams was always the primary reason why the Tar Heels fell from their lofty perch earlier this season.
Was it ever.
Duke's equally beleaguered offense was no match for the Tar Heels, who showed no mercy on offense and should take ample confidence into their next game, against Wake Forest, on the other side of the ball. The Tar Heels held Duke to one score in the first half while scoring touchdowns on all six of their possessions, then the first of the second half. It was a runaway from the start and it only got worse, North Carolina scoring the first 28 points on its way to a 34-point halftime lead and a 56-24 win.
They could have used a running clock in the second half and no one would have noticed. The Victory Bell never threatened to change sidelines.
Now, can this serve as a springboard for the Tar Heels to get back to being the team they thought they were? That question loomed even before halftime, the result not in question at that point. Defense has been the persistent sticking point, going as far back as the Boston College win, but certainly an issue in the nigh-inexplicable losses to Florida State and Virginia.
The Tar Heels seem eager to tee off on overmatched offenses like N.C. State without Devin Leary and Duke with poor Chase Brice — the Stilman White of ACC quarterbacks, pressed into responsibility beyond his capability to respond — but they have been less ruthless when their superiority is less obviously affirmed, especially when a mobile quarterback is involved, which wasn't the case in either rivalry game.
The offense was, and remains, combustible, even with the drops at the end in Tallahassee. Javonte Williams continues to rumble toward the school touchdown record held by Don McCauley, and when you're messing with names on the marquee you're doing something right.
There's not much left to say about Duke, now 2-6. In the past, the Blue Devils would probably have padded their record with a few more nonconference wins and sit one win away from spending the holidays in Detroit or Shreveport — Birmingham or Tampa in the ACC's new bowl tie-ins — instead of spiraling into oblivion. It took a pandemic to expose how endemic win inflation in college football really is.
With the exception of 2013, when Duke more than earned a spot in the ACC title game and what should still be referred to as the Peach Bowl (and the almost-as-good 2014 team) bowl eligibility has generally been the bar for the Blue Devils. Take out the easy wins, and funny how that bar feels a little higher now.
It's too late for the Blue Devils to salvage anything from this season — although anyone can go to a meaningless bowl in this upended year — but the question is whether the Tar Heels can put the entire package together before it's too late for them. Saturday was a step in the right direction, but now North Carolina has to show it can play this kind of defense at a higher degree of difficulty.
With games left against Wake, Notre Dame and Miami (and Western Carolina), the Tar Heels still have a shot at a spot in Charlotte, and would be in full control of their destiny if Clemson beats Notre Dame later Saturday. But they have to be able to do what they did defensively against Duke against those more talented opponents, or at least close enough, to it to give that explosive offense a chance.
Whether the Tar Heels can get the job done during this pivotal final stretch is an uncertainty; that they will at least carry confidence into it after this is not.
