Well, now we know.
The quick take on this one is you cannot reasonably expect to win a game when the offense was as putrid as it was in this one. The Heels got a paltry 17 yards on the ground, only 137 yards in the air and turned it over three times. UNC was 1-11 on 3rd down and just never anything material going until the game was out of reach. UNC had trouble putting points on the board and because the time of possession was so out of whack, the opportunities were lacking. Not to mention yet another missed FG from Casey Barth, this one from a very makeable 32 yards out. It was a day full of missed chances for the offense plain and simple.
For their part, the Tar Heel defense was decent at times but there was a “bend but don’t break” mentality at work. Georgia Tech was fairly effective in getting something on every play even if it was a few yards then converting on 3rd down to a tune 10-19 versus a defense which came in with a 3rd down efficiency of 22%. Essentially UNC could have used a few crucial stops here and there to force Georgia Tech to punt and change the momentum of the game by putting the offense back on the field It never really materialized and the Jackets owned the 2nd half and the game for that matter with a time of possession north of 40 minutes. UNC no longer has the quick strike offense it had with Hakeem Nicks and Brandon Tate were receivers so only having the ball 17 minutes is not enough to score the necessary points or give the defense a rest.
The bottom line here is UNC did not perform well on both sides of the football. I think some will refrain from criticizing the defense in favor of blaming the offense but it is on defense to get Georgia Tech off the field. That did not happen in the 2nd half in one of the more egregious skewing of possession time I have seen. On the flip side, the offense needs to move the ball, chew up some clock and puts some points on the board to capture the momentum and put pressure on the opposing offense. In other words, this was a failure by the whole team. Yes, the offense probably will get more of the blame but both units needed to be better. That and I think UNC might need a new kicker.
The frustration here is that last season it seemed like the defense was one year away and the offense was in good shape. This season it looks like the defense is in good shape and the offense is a year(maybe more) away. Hopefully there will be a season very soon where both these units are ready to roll without the myriad of questions posed during the past two years.
Anyway, there is still plenty of football left to play. The Tar Heels need to pick themselves up and take care of business against UVa and Georgia Southern before hosting FSU. The Seminoles wet the bed versus South Florida today losing 17-7 which means the Heels have a shot at winning against the Noles in Chapel Hill. There is potential for this team to still improve and how you recover from a loss is just as important in the maturing of a program than winning a game like this one.
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Well said, THF. I think the best team won today. UNC was dominated on both sides of the ball by a team desperate for a win, and perhaps by coaching as well. Everyone knew that GT would come out fired up and ready, but somehow the Heels couldn’t match that intensity.
That said, UNC got thoroughly dominated and still trailed by only 10 after 3 quarters to a very good team on the road. This could have been a 42-7 ballgame, but it wasn’t. We’re at the corner. Now we just need to get around it somehow…
We have a Top 20 defense and a Top 90 offense. This is fine for the Citadel, and for lucky wins against so-so teams (e.g. UConn), but we simply lack the firepower or consistency to win against the kind of competition we’ll be seeing in the second half of the season.
We might make the CarQuest Meineke MicroDot Integrity Bowl, or whatever these money-driven minor bowls call themselves now, but that’s about it. Unfortunately, from what has shown up so far this season, that’s as much as we’re going to deserve.
We need a new kicker and a new QB. Yates was terrible today. The problem is, and I blame Butch for this one, is that we don’t have anyone else to put in for Yates. How can you let a decent QB leave your team for Catawba? I like Butch just fine, but he royally screwed up the Cam Sexton situation, and we could have certainly used him this year. If Yates doesn’t perform, where is the pressure from the sidelines going to come from? What, are we going to put in Paulus? Hanson? Yeah, right. Yates can stink it up, and there’s no one else to turn to.
I tend to be one that says you can’t expect your D to perform very well in a game where they’ve been on the field for ~43 minutes. That’s high school bad.
I call for a moratorium on the Casey Barth-bashing — let’s not forget that beloved Connor Barth also had a disappointing sophomore season filled with missed kicks at inopportune times (Maryland in OT, anyone?). In fact, the only difference between the two Barth brothers at this point in their careers is that Connor had the game-winner against Miami to fall back on (not that there weren’t a lot of fans calling for his head after his uneven sophomore season anyway), and I think we all realize that Connor turned out alright in the end. Fact of the matter is that Casey has been disappointing this season, but he hasn’t lost any games for us yet — we would’ve lost today even if he had made the field goal (and in fact, Casey was only the second-worst kicker in this game — Tech’s Scott Blair was worse, with two missed field goals and two kickoffs out of bounds).
I’d also like to caution against reading too much into this loss. Sure, the Heels played badly all-around (though it was mostly a function of the offensive line not giving Yates and co. enough time to copy what Miami did — get a lead and force GT to play catch-up, which their team isn’t built to do), but few people circled this game as a win for UNC prior to the season, and no one seriously expected UNC to go undefeated anyway. We lost a game we were supposed to lose, and that’s really just life on the road in the ACC (something that the Miami Hurricanes are busy finding out right now — Virginia Tech is beating the pants off the U, to the tune of 31-7, right as I write this).
^ i didnt circle it as a win, but i dont circle ANY games as wins, and i certainly didnt think of it as a game we were supposed to lose. why couldnt we win it? we won last year.
^We were also playing at home, had two weeks to prepare, were outgained in yardage, and got several gift-wrapped turnovers from Georgia Tech.
i still disagree with “a game we were supposed to lose”.
Giglio’s preseason breakdown of UNC’s schedule, the expert/user picks on Yahoo! Sports, and the Vegas betting lines (GT -2.5) all predicted a win by the Yellow Jackets.
I’m not saying that UNC never had a chance to win the game, but going back to before the season started, the general consensus was that the most probable outcome in this game is a Georgia Tech win. The only that’s changed since then is a Miami win over GT down in Miami, which made people think that GT’s offense isn’t all it’s cracked up to be (though it had the same time-of-possession problems in that game as ours did in today’s game). Alas, UNC’s offense wasn’t capable of doing what Miami did (get a lead and force GT to try to catch up), so the game just flowed to the usual outcome of a UNC-GT game in Atlanta (we have not won there since 1996, and there have been quite a few seasons in that 13-year span where our teams were comparable to GT’s in terms of talent).
And here’s the coda to a bad day for Tar Heel football fans — of all teams, NC State’s the one responsible for bringing in the ACC’s only “conference pride” victory this week with a win over Pitt. Our other three* squads playing non-conference games saw fit to lose to the likes of South Florida, TCU, and Rutgers, and all at home to boot.
Look for Giglio to crown the Wolfpack as the new “best team in North Carolina” this week.
*No, Duke-NCCU doesn’t count.
TCU is no joke…seriously they’re quite consistent at turning out 7-9 wins per season. I didn’t see the TCU/Clemson game however…
UNC needs a kicker, not a belly itcher…wrong sport, sorry.
It’s not just the loss, but how we lost. We had problems playing defense against a quarterback who put himself in a position on every play to pass, run, or pitchout. I hate those stinking plays where the quarterback hikes the ball 5 yards behind the line, acts like he is going to run it, and pitches it out to the side for at least a 5 yard pick up. — Every time he was successful at that play, and they ran it time after time after time…
The defense was over-matched early; then made some decent stops to give the offense chances. The defense is good (not great) but if I’m on the defensive side I know who failed in this game. Our offense is just flat bad! Ryan Houston needs to play more because he can create his own forward momentum behind a weak line. T J Yates continues the tradtion of mediocre (at best) quaterback play at UNC. GT was desperate for a win and our woes on the road continue to haunt us. We are not a top-twenty team and I can accept that. We are still getting out-coached on the offensive side of the ball. Our play calling early in games is atrocious. We continue to come-out of the gate slowly on offense and that is ALL on the coaching!
I didn’t necessarily expect us to win this game, but I did expect us to be competitive. We were not. 17 yards rushing. 17. That’s pitiful, and there is no excuse for it. We were thoroughly outplayed, and that’s not what we needed in this game.
As far as Barth, I guess I’m not ready to throw him under the bus yet. However I’m worried that if he’s missing 32 yarders when they aren’t very important, then what does he do with the game on the line?
Positives from this game? Our punting was better, and Highsmith is the real deal. Luckily we’ve got 2 games coming up that are very winnable. In fact, seeing how the other ACC teams fared, we may be OK. State looks tough though with Mr. “I don’t throw INTs” Wilson behind center. I wish we had him…
Ugly loss.
Pin this one on the offense. mainly the o-line. Terrible effort against a defense that this offense should have scored a lot more than seven points on.
Personally, I would like to see more of Ryan Houston. The offense seems to move a lot better with him running the ball. I would go so far as giving him the lion’s share of the carries, and using Draughn as a change of pace back. But that’s why I’m only a fan.
Yates has to utilize the TE’s and RB’s more. I understand that we’re down to using the trainers and water carriers on the TE depth chart right now, but the GT defenders were keying in on Highsmith late in the game. For all the hype around Greg Little being a playmaker, I’ve never seen a playmaker with hands as bad as his. I understand he’s been shuffeled around, but he had some early drivekilling drops today.
I’m confident (I think) about being able to take care of Virginia next week, and hopefully the coaching staff is able to use this humiliating performance in a positive manner. Maybe I was a little too optimistic about this game, but I think Butch was right about this team being a year off from its potential.
The problem with the offense yesterday was that the ground game was non-existent and Yates rarely had enough time to throw early (which led to him getting antsy and becoming scattershot late), and both of those problems go back to our thin and not very good offensive line. The knock on John Shoop is that while he can design some good plays, he will never go away from his bread n’ butter, which is play-action. Unfortunately for us, play-action requires a working running game — and by extension, a capable offensive line — that makes opposing defenses respect the threat of the run, and we just don’t have that with this year’s o-line. Right now, opposing defenses can pass rush with reckless abandon and trust that their d-line will stop the ball carrier if we do get a run going, and that makes our play-action stuff pretty ineffective.
Looking down the road, it’ll be interesting to see what happens if Bryn Renner develops and takes over at QB after Yates graduates. Renner’s skills and offensive profile point toward a potentially devastating playmaker if he’s allowed to operate out of a shotgun/pistol zone-read scheme, and you have to wonder when that time comes whether Shoop will be willing to scrap his favored pro-style sets in order to maximize the strengths of his quarterbook.
The kicking has disappointed me the most this season. At least Yates is hit or miss, Barth is just straight up miss. BMFD needs to take a page out of TOB’s book and hold campus wide open tryouts for a walk on kicker that can split the uprights.
I dig the new look THF. Again.
Sorry this has nothing to do with football but I have been following the Ginyard twitter page since it was shown here and has anyone noticed how much junk food he eats. That surprises me. I always thought the elite ate better than that. Just a regular college kid I guess.
Good comments, but I looked at the stats this morning. Yates was 11-26. Out of the 11 completions, only 2 or 3 were well thrown balls. We can discuss decision making as well. On the bad INT one can make the point that the reciever stopped running, however, on DVR Anthony Elzy was WIDE open right in front of Yates, and he had lots of running room. All it takes is one good play to change momemtum and with that play, GT assumed total control.
For most quarterbacks (not the great ones, but alas, we don’t have one of those yet), though, accuracy and decision-making ability goes out the window when he gets rattled by a persistent pass rush. That’s what happened to T.J. on Saturday afternoon, as his thin/inexperienced offensive line simply didn’t give him enough time to make the throws the game plan asked of him (and when he did get some time later on in the game, he was already feeling the effects of the earlier plays). Unlike in the ECU game, the game plan evidently didn’t include the short drops, designed rollouts, and shallow crosses/screens that are extremely effective at counteracting a strong pass rush, and this is most likely because Shoop and the offensive coaches looked at GT’s film and were not impressed by Tech’s front six (if they had been, they would probably have used a game plan that resembles the ECU game plan more closely). They’re right in theory — Derrick Morgan is the only legitimate player GT has on the d-line/linebackers, and it’s a terrible omen for us that such a nondescript defensive front was able to whip our woeful o-line so soundly. The coaches also didn’t properly account for Tech suddenly changing to a seven-man look in their defensive front (from a 4-2-5 to a 4-3-4) just for this game, and that was a mistake borne from subpar preparation (GT’s defensive coordinator admitted in interviews throughout the week that he was making the change, and our coaches seem not to have noticed).
Not at all surprisingly, we got booted from both polls. Unless we pull off a major upset (which we could do, given the startling inconsistency of, say, Miami and FSU), I don’t see how we get back in.
Coach Davis came in with rave reviews. He produced considerable improvement last year, but this year looks like it’s a step back. Right now I’d say the chances of finishing above .500 are dicey. Coach Davis is going to have to do better than that, and soon, if he expects to hold fan support.
rath,
It should be noted that Butch Davis went 5-6 in his 3rd season at Miami after going 8-3 and 9-3. After that Miami went 9-3, 9-4 and 11-1 finishing 2nd in the nation. At that point Davis left for the NFL and Miami won a BCS title and lost a BCS title in the two years that followed.
I believe/hope Butch can build a program in Chapel Hill, but his Miami stats have to be looked at with a grain of salt. Recruiting in Florida is like picking tobacco in VA or NC, the fields are full of premium crop. I hope he can continue to pick great product from less productive fields.
THF,
I doubt we have the talent to do for Coach Davis what his Miami teams did for him after his third year there. I sure hope he succeeds, because his success is Carolina football’s success, but from what I’ve seen thus far this season, I’m not optimistic. Overall, I’d say we have better than decent talent at most of the skill positions, but average talent along the offensive line. And the one skill position that matters most — quarterback — has to be a source of concern. Every now and again Yates looks sharp, but it never seems to last.
The long-term problem is that, after three or four years, when the coach has made the program his own, any deficiencies tend to land on his doorstep. I am a long, long way from thinking that a coaching change is in order, but some of my Carolina friends will be starting to grumble.
On a lighter note, however, any Carolina grumbling will pale by comparison to what is going on up here tonight near Washington, where the Deadskins just gave the Lions their first win in close to two years. This comes a week after the Deadskins squeaked by the even worse St. Louis Rams. Butch Davis might not be happy, but I’ll bet he’s happier than Jim Zorn.
My point is that a down 3rd year would not be unusual in a Butch Davis tenure. Where it goes from there is anyone’s guess but I am not alarmed by where the program is at right now.
Okay, as Tar Heel fans we need to step back and take a look at things as a whole before we write off the entire season.
Tar Heel fans, especially the football version, tend to upplay the positives too much and accentuate the negatives too much.
The game with Georgia Tech is an aberration. Meaning, there are no other squads the Heels will face this season that run the triple option.
I still think our defense is real good and will keep us in games the rest of the season.
Can the offense play better and be more consistent? Definitely. Does Casey Barth need competition? Absolutely. But do we need to write off this season? Definitely not.
The Heels should still be 5-1 heading into the game at home with Florida State, and with the way the Seminoles are playing this year, this is a very winnable game. The next two games with UVa and Georgia Southern are definitely winnable.
I think we need to step back from the gloom and doom comments. By the time the important games come, i.e. Florida State, Virginia Tech, Miami; we should have the full compliment of our players, the injured O-linemen and Dwight Jones.
I think Carolina still has a very good shot at a good season and I don’t think a 3-1 record is bad, especially considering the one loss came to a triple-option team.
I think the GT loss needs to be looked at in that light. And I’m surprised at you THF that you didn’t bring out that fact earlier…
these are all great comments, and i too came here ready to bash the offense for its paltry productivity and to reiterate that our D did not get GT off the field in the first half when it needed to, when they were still fresh. in the second half, that’s a lot to ask of these kids being on the field that much and allowing two of the scores by GT on extremely short fields because of turnovers.
However, it is necessary, at least in my opinion, to keep things in perspective. I’m not a stat guy in college FB, but GT was preseason in the top 15, the highest ranked ACC team in the polls, they were/are supposed to be that good. they stunk against miami, but that’s what happens, team lose games. this isn’t a loss against a shabby team, this is a good team. We, as carolina fans, know the struggles w/ Football at a big bball school. Butch Davis has helped to come in and change the attitude among fans and players alike. Will he win a national championship here? Honestly I think it’s possible, but personally as a carolina fan, that’s not my goal. my goal is to be a good, tough, competitive football team that competes to win and has the expectation of excellence every year. I do think we’re on track for that. look at how pissed off we all are about losing to a good georgia tech team when we have injuries to the o-line, a not so good kicking game, close to zero experience at WR, and a QB coming into a new season with all new faces after getting knocked out early last season for the entire year.
With time, we’ll develop the ‘little things’ like more depth, a more robust pipeline of players to fill roles, step in when their counterparts graduate, and better special teams. these won’t make us top 5 perenially like a USC or a Texas, but i’m happy being in the hunt for conference championships, big bowl games, and eventual bcs talk. let us not get our heads down too much as we keep our overall football program in perspective.
but yes, this loss sucked, we played right into their hands allowing them to rack up a lead, play with short fields on several occasions, and letting them eat up clock like it was starters vs. subs day at practice. but hey, it happens…