MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — North Carolina came up short of a signature way to sign out of its college football season.
The 14th-ranked Tar Heels, shorthanded with the recent NFL exits of four stars, proved resourceful enough to be in position to pull off a meaningful victory in the Orange Bowl, before succumbing to No. 5 Texas A&M 41-27 on Saturday night at Hard Rock Stadium.
North Carolina twice held leads in the second half — the last time at 27-20 in the fourth quarter on quarterback Sam Howell’s touchdown bomb to Josh Downs — and had possession with less than six minutes remaining and the score tied 27-27.
“We were so close,” Howell said. “I think we played a heck of a game out there. The guys that had to step up and play, I thought they played well. Our guys played well enough to win, we just came up short at the end.”
Texas A&M finished in winning form, riding the fresh legs of backup running back Devon Achane, the freshman who emerged as the difference-maker on this night here in South Florida, where rows of tall palm trees line the grounds outside the stadium.
Achane’s pair of touchdowns during the game’s final four minutes delivered the victory. He ripped off a 76-yard scoring burst along the sideline, after plowing over Tar Heels defensive back Don Chapman, lifting the Aggies ahead to stay at 34-27 with 3:44 left.
“You take that out there’s no telling,” North Carolina linebacker Jeremiah Gemmel said of Achane’s breakaway run. “It could’ve been different for us.”
Achane supplied all of his 140 rushing yards in the second half. He didn’t have a touch in the first half, no carries or catches, and yet earned the game’s Most Outstanding Player honor, as Texas A&M (9-1), defeated by only Alabama this season, closed out its eighth straight victory.
North Carolina led 20-17 at the end of the third quarter. The Aggies proceeded to produce 24 points and 204 total yards on offense in the fourth quarter.
“I think they wore us down,” Tar Heels coach Mack Brown said. “We hung in there, but you miss tackles. We had a lot of young guys out there and it was a hot night. Same players for them, same players for us. We had trouble moving it in the fourth quarter and we had trouble stopping them.”
North Carolina (8-4) concluded Brown’s second season in his second stint on the job, with this first-ever Orange Bowl berth and first appearance in a major bowl in 70 years perhaps providing a preview of the trajectory to come for the ascending program.
Particularly given the substantial firepower that was missing due to the four departures, who decided during the days before and after Christmas to opt out of participating in the game and instead turn their attention toward the NFL Draft.
The Tar Heels lost a pair of 1,000-yard rushers and 33 total touchdowns on the season in the form of superb running backs Michael Carter and Javonte Williams, a 1,000-yard receiver two times over in deep threat Dyami Brown, and a first-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference linebacker in Chazz Surratt, the standout on defense who led the team in tackles last season and again this season.
That left Howell navigating Saturday night with a reshuffled cast around him and lesser-used pieces elevated into larger roles, all while combating a top-five opponent whose defensive front sacked him four times. Still, Howell threw for 234 yards and three touchdowns, and connected with the speedy freshman Downs on his two scoring strikes in the second half.
“Sam’s the reason we were in the game,” Mack Brown said. “He had a bunch of new players out there. He didn’t have his normal running game, and he still gave us a chance to win.”
Brown pointed to North Carolina’s total of 90 rushing yards, and the tough sledding that met its reconfigured backfield of British Brooks and Josh Henderson as a telltale indicator. Carter and Williams averaged a combined 216.8 rushing yards per game during the course of the season.
Howell’s 10-yard touchdown toss to Downs moved the Tar Heels ahead 20-17 in the third quarter. The two hooked up for an explosive score early in the fourth quarter, Howell scrambling out of the pocket and motioning for Downs to turn his deep route toward the sideline, as he separated from Texas A&M’s Leon O’Neal Jr. and Buddy Johnson. That 75-touchdown bomb gave North Carolina a 27-20 lead.
“I thought the young guys played really good,” Gemmel said, “and I think that shows something we can look forward to next season.”
Aggies quarterback Kellen Mond outraced North Carolina linebacker Eugene Asante to the end zone on a 4-yard touchdown run, tying it 27-27 with 10:11 remaining. Later, Asante, the last Tar Heels defender with a shot, dived in a futile attempt to clip Achane from behind as he accelerated on the go-ahead touchdown.
Mond threw for 232 yards. He connected with Ainias Smith on six catches for 125 yards.
“We’ve just got to get better,” Howell said. “Everyone in the program just has to get better. I just told our guys in the locker room to remember this feeling, and everyone that’s coming back use this feeling to motivate you, because we can get so much better.”
Texas A&M led 17-13 at halftime, after Isaiah Spiller scored from 3 yards out to cap a drive in response to the highlight of the first half for North Carolina — Dazz Newsome’s high-degree-of-difficulty catch that required considerable concentration in the end zone.
Newsome, one of the few proven weapons on offense remaining for the Tar Heels, reeled in a 28-yard touchdown pass from Howell fractions of a second after Aggies defensive back Antonio Johnson deflected it. Newsome was able to secure the catch while falling in the corner of the end zone, and North Carolina vaulted ahead 13-10 with 4:56 left in the first half.
“I knew I caught it,” Newsome said. “I just was wondering was I in bounds or not.”
It was the sort of exceptional playmaking the Tar Heels figured to need from whatever sources they could find without Carter, Williams and Dyami Brown to deploy. Howell hit Newsome for 10 yards on third-and-9 and 12 yards on third-and-4 to keep that touchdown drive moving.
North Carolina entered Saturday night ranked fourth nationally and first in the ACC in total offense with 556.6 yards per game — and on pace to shatter the school record for a season by a wide margin in that department — while scoring 43 points per game, the sixth-highest output in the country.
The first half didn’t become a high-powered display. The Tar Heels had just 150 total yards by halftime. Their first trip of the night into the red zone ended with Grayson Atkins’ short field goal, after three rushes for negative yardage and a Howell incomplete pass, a moment that made the absences of Carter and Williams all the more glaring.
“I thought our coaches did an outstanding job of trying to take what we had and figure out how we can get the ball in other people’s hands,” Mack Brown said.
This article originally appeared on Times-News: UNC falls short of signature finish to season as Texas A&M takes Orange Bowl
