UNC loses to GaTech 24 to 7
UNC vs GaTech: Dodd never filled up (Picture By: Jason Peck)
The sounds you are hearing are the people jumping off the UNC bandwagon after #22 North Carolina (3-1, 0-1 in ACC) lost in a pretty bad way to Georgia Tech (3-1, 2-1 in ACC) by the final of 24 to 7. Sure, don’t get me wrong, I was unpleasently surprised watching the game. I kept thinking to myself “this is the drive we see T.J. Yates get the team back on track” or “this is the drive that the UNC D makes one of their stops or better yet a turnover”. However, as the first, second, third and fourth quarters came and went my thoughts never turned into reality. Actually, the dreams turned into nightmares, 24 of them! And let’s face it, 24 was a gift, this could have been a lot more, and that is not being negative, it’s being realistic. When it was all said and done Carolina has now lost nine straight ACC openers, something that I am hoping will change, but will have to wait until 2010.
If there is one positive I can see out of this game is that next week’s opponent, Virginia, is going to get one angry Carolina squad at Kenan Stadium. I say this because this week’s practices are probably going to be something that the team won’t forget for a while. As far as the game goes, let’s be honest, on both sides of the ball it just seemed that if UNC had intesity at level 6, Ga Tech had it at 7 or above. If North Carolina wanted it bad, Georgia Tech wanted it worst. In other words, this was not UNC’s highlight of the season. It’s been since `97 that UNC hasn’t beaten Ga Tech at home, if they play like this it’s going to be a long time before they do.
In this game the tailgaters were prepared, the team not so much (Picture By: Jason Peck)
Yes, all in all the defense held up, allowing GA Tech just ten points in the first three quarters, but also allowed the Yellow Jackets way too many first downs. Having played defense for a long time I can tell you that while giving up the big play may be bend you hard, you break over a period of time, where the opponent can not be stopped. It becomes like a disease, knowing you can not cure it and every third down you are trying to fight not just the opposing team but the fact that in the back of your mind you are thinking “oh no, they are going to get this once again”. The way the UNC offense could not move the ball, the way the UNC D could not stop the opposition’s drive, made it so that sooner or later (and this time it was the fourth quarter) the other team would finally overwhelm Carolina.
As I said in my piece on Raycom blog site, in this game UNC was beaten by the Triple T. But the question now is: did this team make a move back or not? I would have to say that the offense surely did, and this is the same offense that could have lost their first road game against UConn, making UNC 2 and 2 and not 3 and 1. I don’t think the defense took a step back, but they have work to do on 3rd downs. The kicking game is definitely going backwards and needs a spark, because the field position game is key in college football and the Heels are losing that war on a weekly basis.
And what else does this loss do for me. Well, the one thing it does is turn my attention a lot more towards the Virginia game (which I will be live blogging for The Score this Saturday). I went from thinking about the FSU match up to the Virginia one, wanting to see how this squad reacts to the loss, or should I say it, the bad loss. Let’s face the sad facts here, as far as football goes, the analysts have moved us from “contenders” or “dark horse” to “pretenders”. The coaching staff and the team itself have to work hard now to be able to move back into the other categories, and they will have to do so with FSU coming to Kenan in a couple of weeks looking to make statements as well.
From the quotes after the game come two very different points of view. Junior QB T.J. Yates said of the performance:
“Embarrassing,” said Yates, who grew up in nearby Marietta. “That’s all it is. Embarrassing.”
And I guess I have to live with that, because Yates just didn’t seem to be on top of his game from the get go. Passes that I seen our QB hit pretty easily just didn’t have the same speed, the same accuracy, the same “snap” to them. And while we can focus on the quarterback, all of the team just didn’t have the same look/play as they have in the other games.
But head coach Butch Davis had a different opinion about all of this, saying:
“I didn’t notice a lack of intensity,” he said. “I only noticed a lack of execution.”
I think the lack of execution makes sense, but don’t you need intesity in order to play up to level and execute properly? I am not sure if this answer was more “coach’s speak” than anything else. On the other hand I have trusted Butch Davis from the minute he walked on the Carolina campus, I am not going to change my ways now. Now we are all going to have to see if this team, who many (including myself) believed to be able to go 6 and 0 going into the Florida State game, can get back on track and meet up with the `Noles as a 5 and 1 squad. It will all start this weekend, when they face UVa, and that my friends is going to be a key game for this season.
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