This won't take long because there is not much you can say. Doc can cover most of the important points in the GBU Report.
You know it started off well enough. Heels got an INT then Gio Bernard had a first down run followed by a first down catch by Dwight Jones. Then John Shoop took over by calling an end around which was snuffed out and a pass play that was incomplete setting up a 3rd down play where Renner was hit in the backfield, fumbled the ball and recovered it somewhere on Wade Ave setting up 3rd and 38.
It went downhill from there though not because of the defense which mostly did its job. I wrote in the preview that the defense would give up points so it was on the offense to score enough to win. As it turns out the defense did a really good job bottling up NCSU and forcing Wolfpack QB Mike Glennon into a really bad passing day. However the Tar Heel offense was just bad. Some of that was NCSU's defense which is perplexing since NCSU's defense has mostly average to below average all season. Shoop will get plenty of grief but ultimately it was piss poor execution on almost everything. Renner was off. Bernard could't get free. Receivers dropped passes. You have a TD pass to Jones that comes back on a hold. UNC drives deep into NCSU territory and Renner throws into double coverage for an INT. Then Renner gets hurt, mainly because the offensive line was manhandled all day which is why Bernard found zero running room for the duration of the game. Every opportunity UNC had on offense was squandered despite numerous solid stands by the defense to keep the Heels in the game. The only thing the defense didn't do was score points which was the only way UNC would win the game.
People are going to talk about the things Withers said this week or the team not being up, prepared, etc, etc, etc. At this point all I can do is throw my hands up in frustration. If I live to be 99 I will never be able to figure out this losing streak versus NC State. It seems like the longer it goes on the stranger and more creative UNC gets in finding ways to lose to the Pack. It is not simply an issue of players not "being up" for the game or even preparation. When UNC plays NCSU everything that could go wrong for the Heels does and everything that could go right for NCSU follows like clockwork. It is maddeningly bizarre and the only hope we have left is Bubba Cunningham can find a coach who can has the answer for this half decade of torture at the hands of NC State.
Side note: Gio Bernard did go over the 1000-yard mark for the season becoming the first Tar Heel to do so since 1997. Congratulations to him, based on the offensive line play this season, he has earned every bit of it.