UNC defense rewrites narrative in win over Miami Hurricanes

North Carolina defensive tackle Naz Jones is a little sick of hearing about the offense. 

Don’t misunderstand him. He loves how his teammates on that side of the ball play, and how they help win football games.

But in a season in which the offense has often come through late to secure the win for the Tar Heels, Jones was ready for the story to be about the defense.

“We don’t want to always put the pressure on our offense,” Jones said. “We don’t want to have the media talking bad about our defense every week.”

From the first series of Saturday’s 20-13 win over then-No. 16 Miami, Jones and his teammates were inspired to rewrite the narrative.

And when it came down to the final two minutes — after the offense came up scoreless on six second-half drives — the defense was ready for its opportunity.

“We talked about it so much throughout the game,” Jones said. “It was just our turn to end the game.”

Miami had the ball on its 20-yard line with 1:45 remaining and two timeouts. The Tar Heels practice this scenario at the end of every practice, offense versus defense. On Wednesday, the defense won — foreshadowing what was to come.

On the second play of the drive, redshirt sophomore defensive end Malik Carney turned the corner against Miami left tackle Trevor Darling.

Carney slammed into quarterback Brad Kaaya from behind, dislodging the ball in the rain that began halfway through the fourth quarter.

Fellow redshirt sophomore defensive tackle Jeremiah Clarke — who has played with Carney since their years at T.C. Williams High School in Virginia — saw his chance.

With visions of dancing in the end zone, he tried to scoop up the ball, bobbled it in the rain and eventually corralled it as he was tackled. His teammates mobbed him, alternating congratulations with admonitions.

“I just told him to get the hell down,” Jones said. “But he did a great job of holding onto the ball, and that was all we really needed.”

Much of the Tar Heels’ defensive success on Saturday can be attributed to the outstanding play of UNC’s defensive line.

Maligned by injuries, North Carolina has forced a lot of young players into the rotation, including Clarke and Carney. Earlier in the year, they struggled with gap control and were shredded by the run.

But since then, the defense has improved each week. And each week, the coaches told the defense its moment was on the way.

“There was going to come a time where they’re going to be on the field in the final two minutes and they’re going to have to get it done,” Coach Larry Fedora said.

Many players thought it was going to be two weeks ago in a 37-35 win against Florida State. But UNC’s defense couldn’t prevent the Seminoles from coming back and retaking the lead, leaving the heroics to the offense again.

“We wished it would have been Florida State,” Clarke said. “But we needed that to learn for this game so that way we didn’t make the same mistakes that we made.”

And aside from a 42-yard scamper by Miami tailback Joe Yearby, UNC limited a dangerous Hurricane rushing attack to 3.4 yards per carry. Other than a few passes to the tight ends, Kaaya couldn’t find any space to throw against a stifling secondary.

Cornerbacks Des Lawrence and M.J. Stewart locked down Miami’s receivers, and first-year defensive back Myles Dorn played extensively at safety and excelled. He broke up a fourth-down pass deep in UNC territory, then chased down Yearby on his big run to save the touchdown and limit the Hurricanes to a field goal.

“I can’t say enough about the way these guys have persevered,” Fedora said. “We have a bunch of guys out there playing that aren’t starters at a lot of different positions. And they came through tonight.”

Jones dubbed the Tar Heels “Florida state champs” after beating both Miami and Florida State in the same season for the first time in school history. It was also the first time the Tar Heels have taken down two ranked teams on the road in the same season.

But with potentially one more game in Florida — the ACC Championship Game on Dec. 3 in Orlando — Jones and the defense know they have the potential to add a happy ending to their story.

“We’re all starting to come together and work better as a group,” Jones said. “If we play cohesively, man...”

“We can do anything.”

@loganulrich

sports@dailytarheel.com