UNC’s Howell breaks ACC record, but falls short of win with three stars sitting out game
Gifted North Carolina quarterback Sam Howell set the record Saturday night in the Capital One Orange Bowl for most career touchdown passes through a sophomore season in Atlantic Coast Conference history, with 68.
Howell tied the UNC record for most career passing touchdowns in history.
But he still lost the battle.
Down by a touchdown, the No. 13 Tar Heels took over with 3:44 left in the game, but after a 9-yard rush by British Brooks and incomplete pass by Howell, UNC couldn’t move the ball on third-and-1 and fourth-and-1. No. 5 Texas A&M took over on downs at the UNC 34-yard line with 2:24 left and went on to score their 24th fourthquarter point — the most in an Orange Bowl fourth quarter since 1958 — to seal an eventual 41-27 victory.
The Heels had one last shot at Hard Rock Stadium with 1:34 left from their own 25, but couldn’t convert a fourth-and-27 and watched Texas A&M run down the last several seconds.
“I’m really, really proud of the guys,’’ said North Carolina coach Mack Brown of his Tar Heels, who finished 8-4 overall and 7-3 in the ACC. “I’m proud of the turnaround in two years. I told them in the locker room a few minutes ago that I’m proud that they got us here, and now the next time we come we need to win, and that’s what it’s about.
“We’ve had wonderful learning experiences here at the end of the year with Notre Dame, with Miami
and with Texas A&M. No. 5, No. 2, and we were in a fight with both of them. And we’ve got a lot of people coming back, so I congratulated the seniors and thanked them for playing in the locker room, but there’s a bunch of young guys out there tonight that got a lot of experience and should gain some confidence watching this film because they can see how close we are to beating a top 5 team.”
Texas A&M finished 9-1 overall and 8-1 in the Southeastern Conference.
The UNC loss, in front of an announced crowd of 13,737, marked the sixth consecutive loss by an
ACC team this bowl season. The ACC has no teams left to play this postseason, and thus will go winless in bowl play.
Howell finished 18 of 31
for 234 yards and three touchdowns, with an interception in UNC’s opening drive. And he did it without the Tar Heels’ two top rushers, Michael Carter and Javonte Williams, and top receiver Dyami Brown, all of whom opted out of the game.
“We just gotta get better,’’ Howell said. “I told our guys in the locker room, ‘Remember this feeling,’ because we can get so much better. ... “We were so close. We played a heck of a game out there tonight. We just came up short.
“We’re going to work really hard this offseason [and] we’ll be back next year.”
UNC’s Josh Downs caught four passes for 91 yards and two touchdowns, including the 75yard sprint down the left
sideline that took 11 seconds to give the Tar Heels a 27-20 lead with 13:51 left. It was the third-longest touchdown pass in Orange Bowl history, and longest since 1959.
But that’s all the Heels could muster.
The Aggies came right back to mount three consecutive scores: a 7-play, 75-yard drive that culminated with a 4-yard touchdown run by quarterback Kellen Mond and tie it at 27-27, then the back-breaking 76-yard sprint down the left sideline by Orange Bowl Most Outstanding Player Devon Achane with 1:23 left. By Achane’s final 1-yard touchdown plunge with 50 seconds left it was all but over.
“I didn’t put any extra pressure on myself,’’ insisted Howell, when asked if he tried to overcompensate without UNC’s three stars. “I just tried to go out and be the player I am. I made a couple mistakes tonight — the interception early really hurt us.’’
Added Howell: “Josh Downs is a young guy who had a heck of a game today. We know how special he is and how special he’s going to be.”
UNC opened its scoring on back-to-back field goals by Grayson Atkins, the first a 29-yarder to culminate an 11-play, 63-yard drive in the first quarter and the next a 32-yarder at 11:09 in the second quarter to trail 7-6.
The Heels then scored their first touchdown after a 75-yard drive highlighted by Howell’s 28-yard scoring strike to Dazz Newsome, preceded by the quarterback’s 18-yard rush that set up the score. At that point Howell had thrown a touchdown in all 25 of his games at UNC, the longest active streak in the country.
At 4:56 of the second quarter, UNC, up 13-10, took its first lead of the game.
“When we had chances,’’ Brown said, “Sam is the reason we were in the game. He hit three touchdowns, and he avoided some sacks a couple of times to get outside the pocket, and the one he hit to Josh Downs down the field was a great picture of what next year could look like.
“And I thought Dazz Newsome competed his rear end off for a senior that could have not played, could have worried about getting hurt. He came and he competed really, really hard all night, and I’m really proud of him.”