Michael Carter II: "We're looking forward to UNC and showing what we're really about"

Duke secondary moving on from UVa loss

Duke safety Michael Carter II had six tackles against Virginia, his most since getting nine in the season opener against Alabama. He also had his third pass breakup of the season.

Still, with Duke losing 48-14 in the game, he’s ready to move on.

“After the game, that’s really the only time we needed to reflect on what we did,” he said. “Sunday is a new day, the start of a new week. You’ve got to put that behind you. We’re looking forward to UNC and putting our best foot forward and showing people what we’re really about.”

Carter said the mood of the team is, “Okay, this happened. We’ll improve and get better.”

The defense needs to focus on cleaning up its tackling.

“We need to tackle better, just like we emphasize every week,” he said. “We try to miss less than seven tackles per game. We need to communicate between the back end and front end, getting our checks, getting aligned fast, flying to the ball.”

Coach David Cutcliffe criticized the tackling a week ago.

“We definitely got better this week from Georgia Tech week,” Carter said. “We missed a lot less, but we still missed more tackles than we’d like to. It’s always an area of emphasis.”

Carter knows that the secondary will be challenged by UNC freshman quarterback Sam Howell.

“We’re prepared for it,” he said. “They have a dynamic receiving corps. We’re prepared for the ball to be in the air a lot, for the ball to come our way a lot.”