MIAMI GARDENS, FL – North Carolina entered the fourth quarter leading No. 5 Texas A&M, but the Tar Heels couldn’t close the deal in falling 41-27 in the Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium.

After surrendering just 253 yards through the first three quarters, the Tar Heels allowed 204 in the final period and 24 points.

Carolina also led 27-20 after Sam Howell hit Josh Downs for a 75-yard touchdown with 13:51 left to play, but that’s when the defense crumbled and the offense couldn’t put anything together.

Howell completed 18 of 31 passes for 234 yards and three touchdowns. UNC’s running game minus-Javonte Williams and Michael Carter managed just 107 yards 33 attempts, and 38 of those yards were by Howell.

UNC closes the season 8-4 and A&M finishes at 9-1.

Here are 5 Takeaways from UNC’s loss to Texas A&M:

One of the big questions coming in was what would UNC’s ground game look like without opt outs Javonte Williams and Michael Carter, each of whom ran for more than 1,000 yards this season.

UNC ran the ball for just 90 yards on 34 attempts, an average of 2.6 per run. That obviously wasn’t enough, but was most evident on UNC’s first scoring drive. The Tar Heels had plays of 17, 14 and 13 yards getting to the Aggies’ 9-yard-line, but UNC couldn’t get into the end zone and settled for a field goal.

In fact, Carolina had three plays of negative yardage after getting inside the 10: British Brooks lost a yard on a run; Howell lost three yards on a run and was sacked for a two-yard loss.

Overall, Brooks led the Heels with 53 yards on 15 attempts and Josh Henderson had 15 yards on six runs. Howell, by the way, was credited with 25 yards on 12 runs, but four of those runs were actually sacks by A&M for a loss of 13 yards. So in more traditional run plays, Howell had eight attempts for 38 yards.

"They rushed for 225 because they ended up beating us down there at the end of the game," UNC Coach Mack Brown said. " We missed a couple of tackles. We rushed for 90 yards, so that usually tells the story of the game right there. We knew we were going to have trouble rushing, we were just hoping we could throw it well enough to have a chance to still win the game."

Carolina’s problem allowing score late in the first half continued here, though it appeared a couple of times the Heels were going to get off the field.

They got to A&M quarterback Kellen Mond twice on the possession of the half, but couldn’t cash in on it. Tomon Fox pulled him down for four-yard sack and two plays later, Trey Morrison got him on a blitz for an eight-yard loss. But the Heels also gave up plays of 27. 14 and 13 yards on the drive, with Isaiah Spiller scoring from three yards out. It gave A&M a 17-13 halftime lead.

Seven times this season did UNC’s opponents score inside the final 1:28 of first halves. Boston College and Notre Dame kicked field goals as time expired, Duke booted one with one second left, and Florida State (:17 left), NC State (:54 left), Virginia (1:14 remaining), and Wake Forest (1:28 left) all scored touchdowns.

Not only was the last drive of the first half a negative for UNC’s defense, but the entire fourth quarter was, too.

A&M went into the period with just 17 points and 253 total yards, but it scored 24 points and amassed 204 yards in the quarter. As well as UNC’s defense played at times on the night, including getting five three-and-outs versus a team that had just two on offense all season, the final period was an enormous negative. What was the problem?

"I think they wore us down," Brown said. "I mean, 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 and we had trouble moving it in the fourth quarter. And we had trouble stopping them. So I think, again, give them credit."

Another thing that went wrong for UNC was that it didn’t handle A&M’s I-formation well. Jeremiah Gemmel said the Heels hadn’t seen it other than in goal line situations, and after Isaiah Spiller went out, the Aggies used it a lot with freshman Devon Achane backing up Spiller in the fourth quarter.

Achane ran eight times for 118 yards with two scores, including the backbreaking 76-yarder with 3:44 remaining.

"They always ran their counter into the boundary but then they started running some g-lead, one-gap, one-pulling schemes into the boundary," Gemmel said. "They really haven't done that a lot this year, usually it's like countering the boundary, but then they switched it up.

"They ran g-lead into the boundary and that's something we haven't really seen since like week one or two that we thought they threw out of their package."

Another question was which wide receiver would step up with the absence of multi-1,000 yard receiver Dyami Brown out, and the answer turned out to be Josh Downs. UNC offensive coordinator Phil Longo and head coach Mack Brown spoke a lot about Downs back in August assuring he would eventually get on the field and could make big plays. That didn’t really happen in the regular season, but it did here tonight.

Downs came in with three receptions for 28 yards and a score on the season, but the true freshman caught four passes for 91 yards, including touchdowns of 10 and 75 yards, the latter put UNC ahead 27-20 in the fourth quarter. Downs was also targeted just four times, so he made something happen each time UNC went to him.

Downs has been compared to Dazz Newsome, so what does Newsome think of Downs and what kind of player will people see on a regular basis from Downs next season and beyond?

"He's a player similar to me," Newsome said. "He's very good with the ball in his hands. He's very quick, fast, twitchy, can get in and out of his cuts real fast. He's definitely a good baller."

Sam Howell wasn’t as sharp Saturday night as he normally is, but he still made some big plays happen and also threw three scoring passes tying the program’s all-time career mark with 68, equaling Darian Durant’s record that had stood for 16 years.

Howell gave a gritty performance because it was needed. A&M was physical early, aided by UNC’s conservative approach trying to feel things out with its ground game and what might eventually be there in the passing game. But the Aggies remained physical so Howell had to grind this one out and he did.

He was sacked four times but also ran the ball eight other times for 38 yards aside from the sacks. He was popped quite a few times and even stretched one run trying to get a few more yards taking a few big hits.

In the passing game, Howell was 18-for-31 with 234 yards, three scores and an interception, which came on his second throw and ended a streak of 89 consecutive pass attempts without being picked, going back to the first half versus Wake Forest.

"I thought Sam played great," Brown said. "We didn't get off to a good start with the interception and then they made two 4th-and-ones to go ahead and score up early. But, we had to get that out of the way because we're a new game plan, we've got new players against, not a good defense, a great defense that's really well coached.

"And I thought, after that, we settled down and played really well throughout the night when we didn't have our same running game so, when we got behind, it was harder to protect. But, when we had chances, Sam's the reason we were in the game.