UNC vs. NC State - Player of the Game: Javonte Williams

Last week, Javonte Williams was great. He had over 100 yards rushing and another 67 receiving, scoring two touchdowns. However, he also dropped a fourth down pass, ending any chance North Carolina had at a win over Florida State. The Tar Heels wouldn’t have been in the game without him, but the lasting memory of the game was a negative one.

Cut to a week later, there are no need for “howevers” about this performance.

Williams smashed through the NC State defense all day, racking up 160 yards on 19 carries. He also got into the end zone three times, helping the Tar Heels to a dominant 48-21 win over State.

After the Tar Heels went into halftime up just 10, having missed some chances to take a bigger lead, they picked things up in the second half. A large part of that was Williams. In the final 30 minutes, the running back put up 95 yards on eight carries, with all three of his touchdowns coming in that time. In the second half, only three of his rushing attempts went for fewer than 10 yards. Two of those three couldn’t have gone 10 yards because they ended in touchdowns.

All three of his trips to the end zone came in a four minute stretch from the end of the third quarter and into the beginning of the fourth. In that time, the score went from 24-7 to 45-14. It wasn’t all Williams, but he was a large part in the Tar Heels putting the game away. After that, his and UNC starters’ days were over.

Other contenders include Williams’ backfield mate Michael Carter. The other Tar Heel running back went for 106 yards and a touchdown while also making two catches for 46 receiving yards.

Receiver Dyami Brown made seven catches for 105 yards, including two for third down pickups on UNC’s opening scoring drive.

In a game where they had 578 yards, it was always going to go to an offensive player. However, if you were to pick out a defensive player, you have to highlight Don Chapman mostly for this truly hilarious interception:

Chazz Surratt and Cameron Roseman-Sinclair also recorder interceptions, while Tomon Fox had two sacks.

After the disaster that was the Florida State loss, you couldn’t have asked for much more in the response. (I mean you could, but realistically, that was pretty close to perfect.) Javonte Williams continually pounding away was a large part of how the Heels were able to bounce back so well.