The North Carolina Tar Heels defense witnessed a performance for the ages as linebacker Peyton Seelmann recorded 16 total tackles against the Duke Blue Devils.

Without his heroic effort on the road, there's a chance Duke completes a 17-point comeback to win that game.

Thankfully for Bill Belichick and Co., Seelmann had other plans.

Officially, his 16 total tackles were the most by a Tar Heel since Nov. 25, 2023, when now Tennessee Titans linebacker Cedric Gray recorded 17 against NC State.

For reference, Drake May was still the Tar Heels quarterback when that happened.

The ACC announced on Monday, Oct. 19 that Seelmann was named the conference's Linebacker of the Week after his monstrous performance against the Blue Devils.

Seelmann started the year with a two-tackle game in Dublin against TCU, but the Richmond transfer quickly settled in here at UNC.

Seelmann's previous game-high this season was 10 tackles against East Tennessee State, but that's nowhere near as impressive as his 16 in conference play.

It's clear he was starting to settle into his own as he had 17 total tackles against No. 3 Notre Dame and No. 25 Pittsburgh, but he nearly had that many combined against the Blue Devils alone this past weekend.

If seven solo tackles and nine assisted in one game wasn't impressive enough, he also had 0.5 sacks which marked his first of the year.

The Virginia native finished with 2.5 sacks at Richmond, and his current tackle total of 52 still trails the 120 he finished with as a Spider.

Recording 16 total tackles in a game is one thing, but it should be noted that 13 of those came in the second half.

Duke kept doing everything in its power to climb back into this game, but time and time again Seelmann silenced the home crowd with big moments.

Of his 13 second-half tackles, seven of which came in the fourth quarter. Duke put themselves in an incredible position to complete the comeback and win this game, but in the end, Seelmann and the rest of this defense never broke.

His half-sack came on a crucial intentional grounding penalty, and that was only the second sack this Blue Devils offensive line allowed all season.

Seelmann could return to the Tar Heels in 2027 as he still has another year of eligibility, and that's music to this defense's ears, should he decide to stick around.