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Remember, for just $8.33 a month, YOU CAN BE A TAR HEELS INSIDER, TOO!!!

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SAN DIEGO – North Carolina lost a game it should have won Wednesday night.

Some might even say the Tar Heels blew a game they should have won. And in some respects, they’d be right.

When a team leads by 10 points with seven minutes remaining, it should win. But that didn’t happen. Instead, No. 15 Oregon scored touchdowns on its last two possessions, the killer with 19 seconds left to play, to win the Holiday Bowl at Petco Park.

So, the scoreboard says UNC lost, and the scoreboard never, ever lies. Most fans saw a loss, and the anti-Mack brigade erupted in full force. But that isn’t the take here, and I’ll tell you why.

The UNC team that took the soggy, poorly constructed field here in the home of the San Diego Padres was a different club than the one that played most of the season. There was something much grittier about these Heels.

They were physical. They were quick to the ball. They had company at the ball often; when one Heel hit a Duck, there were often multiple other dudes in blue right there with him.