CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — Miami kept finishing drives in the end zone, much as it had all season in riding a high-scoring attack to an unbeaten record and a No. 1 ranking.
The defense? It was a struggle, up until Marquise Lightfoot came up with the play that finally helped the Hurricanes avoid a seismic upset.
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“All night," quarterback Darian Mensah said, “they were just waiting for that play to happen.”
Mark Fletcher Jr. punched in the go-ahead 2-yard touchdown run on fourth down with 7:49 left, then Lightfoot forced a fumble on the ensuing possession that helped the Hurricanes finally shake free to beat North Carolina 38-35 on Saturday night.
That ultimately helped send the Hurricanes through to next week’s marquee road matchup with No. 5 Notre Dame, though only after seeing their defense struggle to get off the field the entire way.
The Hurricanes (8-0, 6-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) got their latest humming-along performance from the nation's best offense, from Fletcher accounting for three touchdowns to the Mensah-to-Malachi Toney connection striking twice for TDs. Miami needed that to surprisingly keep pace with the Tar Heels (4-4, 2-3), who kept moving the chains and sustaining drives to take a surprising 28-24 lead on Demon June's 1-yard rush with 11:46 to go.
But after Fletcher's go-ahead score, Lightfoot and Justin Scott teamed up for the critical stop, with Lightfoot stripping Billy Edwards Jr. from behind as he tried to throw, and Scott recovering the fumble with 5:33 left.
“He decided to take a second decision, bat the ball, hold the ball a little longer,” Lightfoot said, “so I was able to get there.”
That was part of what turned into a game-deciding sequence. Miami's offense followed by stretching the lead, getting a terrific individual effort on Elija Lofton’s leap over a would-be tackler on a catch to move the chains and ultimately set up Mensah’s 9-yard scoring strike to Toney to make it 38-28 with 2:33 left.
“In games like that, really important — like we tell our players — you just keep playing,” Miami coach Mario Cristobal said. “Because you don’t know what play is going to turn the whole thing around. And certainly the fumble was a massive turnaround that swung the momentum in the game.”
This one against the team led by NFL coaching icon Bill Belichick went to the final minute, with Miami having to recover an onside kick — coming after North Carolina had a pair of recoveries negated by penalties — before finally being able to kneel it out.
“We knew they were wheels-up for the challenge,” said Fletcher, whose two scores on the ground allowed him to tie the program's career rushing TD mark.
North Carolina fell to 0-12 against No. 1-ranked teams.
Edwards threw for a season-high 341 yards to go with four touchdowns for UNC, with two of those scores going to tight end Jelani Thurman. Edwards and the offense spent the entire evening on the move, with the line opening lanes and receivers finding wide gaps for Edwards to target.
As the game wore on, the Tar Heels continued to sustain drives, including a 16-play TD drive lasting nearly 8 1/2 minutes, that kept them hovering within range of an upset deep into the fourth quarter.
“Obviously with a team like Miami, it's going to come down to critical plays, critical moments,” Edwards said, who noted later: “This isn't the business for moral victories.”
Miami: The defensive showing was a concerning way to go into the tussle with the Fighting Irish, with Miami giving up its highest total in regulation this year.
“I thought there were some soft spots in our coverage where our zone drops weren't as good, as detailed,” Cristobal said.
“I didn't think we swarmed to the ball like we had been, we usually run to the football and get a lot of hats there. Didn't happen. We were very sporadic in the way we tackled. And then sometimes we just got beat in man coverage, that simple.”
UNC: The Tar Heels had squandered momentum from back-to-back wins at then-No. 25 Pitt and Duke by losing at home in overtime last week to a Syracuse team sitting at 0-4 in the ACC. The Tar Heels responded with a performance that few could’ve expected against the Hurricanes.
“Lot of effort, lot of toughness, lot of mental toughness, lot of competitiveness,” Belichick said. "Just disappointing to come up short here two weeks in a row.”
Miami: The Hurricanes’ game at Notre Dame next Saturday is a rematch of last year’s game that ultimately swung a College Football Playoff bid to the Hurricanes instead of the Irish.
UNC: The Tar Heels step out of ACC play to visit UConn next Saturday.
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