Sometimes it’s just not meant to be.
UNC played very well for most of the first three quarters, nursing a 9-point lead, and then it all fell apart. Carolina forced a 3rd-and-19 when Russell Jesus Obama Wilson lived up to his name by turning a busted play into a first down. Then the Pack faced 4th-and-goal from the 2 when Wilson was forced to scramble and throw a jump ball into the end zone, which was batted around and fell into Owen Spencer’s hands falling to the ground for a touchdown. After UNC punted on their next possession, T.J. Graham exploited Carolina’s horrid kick coverage for an 87-yard return for a touchdown that turned a 19-10 Tar Heel lead into a 24-19 deficit and Carolina was never the same.
T.J. Yates had his 3rd 400-yard passing effort of the season, going 33-44 for 411 yards and two touchdowns and no interceptions. Yates had to take the team on his back since Anthony Elzy and Shaun Draughn could only combine for 46 rushing yards. But Yates was sacked an incredible seven times, including the final ignominious sack for a safety that provided the final margin, and Carolina squandered too many scoring opportunities, coming up with only one touchdown on three 1st-and-goal chances.
The Tar Heels outgained the Wolfpack 403-268 and gave up only 20 points on defense to the ACC’s second-highest scoring offense. But State stepped up at crunch time and it seemed after the Graham punt return that UNC was done mentally. It didn’t help that UNC couldn’t catch a break, but good teams play through adversity and maybe all of UNC’s adversity, plus a brutal November stretch, has caught up to them.
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The safety would not have occured it it were not for the boneheaded play by Searcy on the punt before that….teams that are coached well don’t make mental mistakes like that. Notice how those errors were absent from the guys in white and red, but rampant from the guys in blue…..
If we take a step back, we have a better chance of catching the big picture. This is it as I see it:
For each loss, there has always been one more-or-less plausible reason or another. Bad luck, incompetent officiating, rotten special teams, disastrous kick coverage, lousy punting, weak offensive line, the scandals are taking a toll, Yates has reverted, injuries killed us, Davis is bad, the assistants are worse………and on and on.
What do they add up to?
That we’re not very good. Period. Indeed, we’re average, as our record shows. I just wish the preseason hype had been honest about it. But then it wouldn’t have been hype.
The big picture is that we’re a mediocre team playing an average schedule in a weak league. That is not a pretty picture. But you can’t fix reality until you face it. Pending that, our earned reward will be another humiliating trip to the Anonymous Bowl.
Is the basketball picture as bleak? Probably not. On the other hand, for those who saw last night’s game………
sometimes the bear makes the smart play and times his jump accordingly, and bats the ball out of the ez. who the f*** is coaching these db’s? turn in your pay check now.
Hey Rath Man,
It is only early in the probing phase of the basketball season.
If you would just go spend some time in Chapel Hill teaching those guys how to shoot free throws, the team would be all right.
On the other hand, Tyler Hansbrough is having a solid season.
Just got back from Chapel Hill. Ran the whole gamut on the ride back: anger, frustration, sadness, hope for the future, regret for what has happened. Sure, it’s 4 years in a row, but this year hurts more than the others. To have a game by the throat…..I dunno. I told someone on the way out how wierd it was that 18-20 year old kids can affect how I, a 35 year old with no control whatsover over what goes on, feels at any given time. Maybe that’s part of being a fan. All I know is, is that I feel like someone just punched me in the scrotum and I can’t do a damn thing about it. I hurt. It feels awful. But it is what it is.
AZACCFan –
After last night and now today, a certain sour attitude is inevitable. And it’s not as if it hasn’t been earned, either.
Still, I agree with your last two lines. I could shoot free throws as well as these guys (I know, Henson dragged down the average) when I was in the eighth grade. And that was 400 years ago.
Hansbrough may be having a solid season, but he’s having it for the wrong team. It’s time for someone to discover the little-noticed NCAA rule providing for post-grad, post-NBA, fifth year eligibility.
We need his strength and his guts, and we are in big-time trouble if we don’t get something like them. Kyrie Irving — no probing phase needed there — leads the arrogant, insufferable Dookies to victory while our supposedly bigger freshman star lays an historic egg. This is not happy-making.
Carolina fans have been led down the garden path for more than a year about both of the money sports. What we have gotten instead of success is a package of scandals in which, it comes out, we have players who think diamond jewelry is more important than staying clean. On the court, we have a veteran PG no realistic person thinks is going to lead us to authentic success at this level. Yes, there have been really good stories, such as Mr. Furr and (on the whole) Yates’s redeeming himself in his senior season. But looking at the overall picture, I expect much better, as we all should.
UNC’s football teams are never any better at the end of the season then they were at the beginning of the season. They always have the same weaknesses at the end of the season that they had at the beginning of the season. They never show any improvement throughout the season. That is a sign of mediocre coaching. We are right back where we were in the Torbush era… watching an NC State program that appears to be on the rise while we are stuck going nowhere… and its going to get worse – there are still NCAA sanctions to be handed down.
Four years of missed opportunities, hype but no substance, no bowl wins, no top 25 finishes, no ACC titles or title game appearances, no wins over NC State, $8M+ and the University’s reputation flushed down the toilet…
Somebody please explain to me why I should believe that Butch Davis is a great football coach (not an “average” coach, not a “better-then-John Bunting” coach…explain to me why I should believe that he is a great coach) and why we are paying him like he is a great coach.
Four years of missed opportunities, hype but no substance, no bowl wins, no top 25 finishes, no ACC titles or title game appearances, no wins over NC State, $8M+ and the University’s reputation flushed down the toilet…
Somebody please explain to me why I should believe that Butch Davis is a great football coach (not an “average” coach, not a “better-then-John Bunting” coach…explain to me why I should believe that he is a great coach) and why we are paying him like he is a great coach.
^ this.
to the this power.
exactly.
DaNoris Searcy should never had been back their returning punts, this is two weeks in a row that he cost Carolina a chance to win a football game because he won’t catch a punt in the air. That is your one F&cking job as a punt returner, catch the damn ball, since this is such an issue for Searcy why did the coaching staff not have 2 guys back there to field the punt like they did in the first quarter. Unacceptable and as Andy said good coaching staffs don’t let that happen, especially 2 weeks in a row.
And what a wonderful 2 point conversion play call by Shoop. Yeah let’s take the guy who runs with steal boats on his feet and roll him out and limit his options, so he can throw up a BS jump ball. Pathetic.
Did Shoop coach in the NFL? You would think after all those years in the “league” that he could coach a 5th year senior, 4 year starter quarterback to audible his protections so that he doesn’t get sacked 8 times in a half. Or at least learn how to audible or call a hot route. Again this is sh&t that happens over and over again, game after game, season after season. Oh I forgot Carolina is missing 3 starters on offense and defense, so it’s not the coaching staff’s fault.
They should have run the same exact play they ran for the touchdown. For some reason, 2 point conversion plays in general seems poorly thought out.
Why do you try an onsides kick and then a pooch kick when you could kick it deep, use your 3 TO’s, and get the ball around your own 40 with 45-50 sec left only needing 30 yds to kick the gamewinning field goal. Makes no sense!!!
^Yeah forgot that one too. Again not Butch’s fault, if he had his 6 missing starters we’d be planning trips to Miami for the Orange Bowl right now.
What a bunch of overhyped paper champions for 3 years running. Maybe Butch can win big in February again……….
No idea what Searcy was thinking on that. Run up and take it. Who knows what happens. Given the choice between a safety and Searcy trying to make a play. I’d take trying to make a play.
Well, at least I can get the Nebraska fans off my case for another day or so….thank the Lord at least SOMETHING went right this weekend.
There are no more excuses to make. Yates didn’t throw 18 picks today. There’s been way enough time for the team to gel since the suspensions ended. Dwight Jones has made us forget about Greg Little. White and Elzy have picked up the slack from Ryan Houston and Shaun Draughn. The defensive line has come a long way since week one and I can’t even remember the last time I thought about Marvin Austin and Robert Quinn, especially after the game Paige-Moss had today.
Think of it this way, and this may be a stretch. Assuming we win at Duke next week (which may be a HUGE assumption) and then lose in some obscure bowl game, UNC will have finished 7-6. Even if we beat Duke and win said obscure bowl game, UNC will be 8-5 again.
So, how can it be justified that we go (possibly) 8-5 in a year without some of our best players, yet have the same record when those players were still playing?
There are better coaches out there that can do less with more…it’s happening at Boise, TCU, and sadly, NC State. Any intellectually honest football fan can see that.
It’s time that UNC invests the money into a coach that can get us to the conference title game/BCS bowl contention. It’s not impossible, but the incompetence from Butch and co. is making it more and more difficult.
a State bud who was watching the game with me said the exact same thing william. I said before the game this was going to be won or lost in the defensive backfield, and I stand by that post-game. The long RW completion that led to the td right before halftime, and the hail-mary cluster-f*** are exhibits a & b.
I can’t say definitively whether BD should be retained, but it would be felonious of Thorpe & Baddour to retain him without restructuring his contract.
Being a huge NFL guy. I always say you play to lose, you lose.
It’s all about QB play; and that’s the only reason state is good right now. Just like PG in bball, when you have a great qb, it gives everyone hope I’m just tired of state always wanting it more, and our guys with the stupid after the play penalties. You are not MIAMI. just play football.
^Speaking of QB’s making their teams look better then they really are, ironically that happened this year in Chapel Hill too. The only reason we even won 6 games is because TJ Yates made himself an exponentially better player this year then he was last year (You paying attention Larry Drew?). Yates – not these coaches – is the reason we beat FSU. Yates’ solid play was the only thing that kept these sorry coaches (Withers in particular…) from losing to William & Mary. Take away his huge improvement year over year and we are a 4 win team this season. Give him better coaches and we beat State, LSU and Georgia Tech and have a 10 win season in our sites.
Same problem as every year – never a complete team. We have some really good players in certain spots but never a complete great team. Difference between top 10 teams and everyone else is being good at everything
Special teams are horrible. You cannot keep saying – they are inexperienced – as many punts /kickoffs -they have covered this season – staying in your lanes should not be a new concept
Butch decides that “containing” Tyler in the VT game is what kept us in the game but decide to blitz Wilson whom is a better runner. If we had blitzed in the VT game would have won by 2 touchdowns.