Duke’s upset win against North Carolina likely cost the Tar Heels a chance at the ACC Coastal Division. (Getty) North Carolina’s dream of playing in the ACC title game has died.
Duke mostly ended the Tar Heels’ chances of winning the ACC Coastal Division with a 28-27 victory Thursday night. If Virginia Tech beats Georgia Tech on Saturday, the Hokies will play in the ACC title game.
The two teams traded touchdowns through the first half, but North Carolina took a 24-21 lead early in the second half. Duke answered with a Daniel Jones jump pass to Davis Koppenhaver for the 28-24 lead. The Tar Heels kicked another field goal to cut the lead to one and then got the ball back with just under two minutes remaining.
However, the Duke defense got in the face of quarterback Mitch Trubisky and forced an errant pass to Alonzo Saxton for the game-clinching interception.
Trubisky, who is being hailed by some as the possible top quarterback in the upcoming NFL draft, threw two interceptions in the game; he came into the contest with just two interceptions on the year.
North Carolina’s only loss was to Virginia Tech in a game that was played in a hurricane. The Tar Heels were holding out hope that the Hokies, who lost to Syracuse a few weeks ago, would lose again and open the door for a North Carolina Coastal win. However, after this loss, the Tar Heels would need Virginia Tech to lose its final two conference games against Georgia Tech and Virginia, two teams that are a combined 3-8 in conference play.
For Duke, the win was a measure of validation. It was the first conference win of the year after four losses by 10 or fewer points. The Blue Devils had no turnovers on Thursday and while a bowl game might be a stretch at 4-6 with games against Pitt and Miami remaining, Duke did avoid its first winless ACC season since 2007.

More college football from Yahoo Sports:

– – – – – – –
Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter! Follow @YahooDrSaturday