Nov. 29, 2009
by Lee Pace
CHAPEL HILL - There are some bedrock truisms throughout the world of sports and life: You don't tug on Superman's cape. You don't make the first or third out at third base. You don't drink merlot with swordfish. You block out, block out, block out when an opponent launches the basketball. You don't hit a fade over water to a left-side pin placement. You don't put beans in chili--not real chili, anyway.
And you absolutely do not, under any circumstance, let a six-point underdog hang around. You bury them. You give them no reason for hope.
You do not let the home crowd get revved up in the second half. You send them out to the parking lot at halftime for chicken and Bloody Marys and you keep them there.
The Tar Heels violated that cardinal principle Saturday at N.C. State's Carter-Finley Stadium. They violated it with a rash of penalties--for holding, pass interference and personal fouls, a total of 10 flags for 122 painful yards. They violated it with a lack of execution--a receiver trying to back-track on a foiled end-around and losing 12 yards, for example, and a kicker getting a poor launch angle and having a potential game-winning field goal blocked. And they violated it with a costly turnover--a tailback fumbling one foot from the goal line and turning six points to squat.
All the above allowed the Wolfpack, decided underdogs in a 4-7 season marked by six losses in seven games, to gain some punch and spunk as the second half evolved. It gave an inch for doubt to take root in the minds of the Tar Heels and soon it took a mile. Carolina managed a mere three second-half points while allowing State and its deadly quarterback, Russell Wilson, to shred the its secondary with two big strikes and rally the Wolfpack to a 28-27 victory.
"Yeah, you could feel the momentum swinging their way," tailback Ryan Houston said. "You just have to keep your composure and put together a complete game. That's hard to do in this environment. It's tough--we shot ourselves in the foot with all those penalties and giving them field position. We made it easier for them."
"It was a total team effort of not playing smart," quarterback
T.J. Yates added. "The defense got a lot of penalties, the offense got a lot of penalties. Penalties just killed us all day long. You just have to play smarter."
The loss ends a four-game winning streak and leaves Carolina with an 8-4 record and its third straight loss to State. It knocks the Tar Heels down in the ACC's bowl pecking order and makes it less likely they could land one of two Florida destinations (Gator in Jacksonville or Champs in Orlando) and more likely that the Dec. 27 Music City Bowl in Nashville or the Dec. 26 Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte would be their destination. Carolina is 4-4 in the ACC, meaning it will be picked after the two ACC Championship Game participants (George Tech at 7-1 and Clemson at 6-2) and after Virginia Tech (6-2) according to league rules. And even though Florida State finished 4-4 and was hammered by Florida on Saturday, a strong homestate following and the chance of it being Bobby Bowden's last game as head coach give the Seminoles a decent shot at the Orlando game.
The Music City, Meineke and Emerald Bowl in San Francisco form a coalition of sorts at picks 5-7, but the Music City gets first dibs if the trio cannot reach a consensus. The Tar Heels would certainly bring more fans to Nashville than would Miami or Boston College, and speculation is strong that the Eagles are headed to San Francisco and the Emerald Bowl. The opponent in the Music City Bowl would likely be from among a cluster of SEC teams with 7-5 records: Auburn, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina or Tennessee.
Whenever and wherever the Tar Heels travel, they'll have a month to reflect on the game that got away. By any account, they should have had a 14-0 lead by midway through the first quarter. They drove efficiently downfield with the opening kickoff, with an end-around to Jheranie Boyd getting 13 to the right and a similar play to Greg Little back to left gaining another seven and putting the ball inside the Wolfpack five. But in an ominous portent of a day-long nemesis, Carolina was called for holding, pushing the ball back to the 22. Carolina settled for a 31-yard field goal from Casey Barth.
The defense delivered a quick three-and-out and the offense took possession at the Carolina 26. Yates, who had struggled to hit the deep ball all season, quickly nailed Little deep for 62 yards against a State secondary that starts two true freshmen and a red-shirt freshman. One play later from the 10, Johnny White appeared headed to a touchdown before losing the ball just shy of the goal line. That happened to be the Tar Heels' first and only fumble lost in 2009 by a tailback or fullback.
So instead of a two-touchdown advantage, the Heels were only up 3-0.
"We kind of let this one slip away from us," Yates admitted. "I thought we were in control on offense. We were moving the line of scrimmage, we were running the ball and throwing it well. We thought we could hit some deep balls against a young secondary. The offensive line did a good job protecting and we picked up big yards throwing the ball."
Another key juncture came in the second quarter when cornerbacks Charles Brown and Kendric Burney were flagged for pass interference and Michael McAdoo was hit for a personal foul at the end of a tackle. The three flags came in a span of five plays and gave State 45 yards on a scoring drive of 77 yards. There's no proof, certainly, but the suspicion is that the flurry of flags put the Tar Heels in a more tentative state of mind the rest of the day.
"One time CB should have gone for a pick, but he was playing a little conservatively and misjudged it," safety Deunta Williams said of Brown. "He went for the swipe and boom, a big play and they score. But they have scholarships too, that's the way I have to look at it. We were flustered on some of the calls on that one drive, everybody lost their composure and, boom, another touchdown."
"That's the way life is sometimes," Burney said. "When momentum hits you, it hits you hard. Some plays later in the game we didn't make because obviously something is going on in your head."
Still, Carolina appeared well in control at the half with a 10-point lead and 313-111 advantage in total yards. A 70-yard strike to Boyd for a touchdown just before intermission moved the Wolfpack faithful to take advantage of the school's liberal halftime pass-out policy, and the home side was dotted with empty seats as the third quarter opened with fans opting for an extended mid-game tailgate foray.
But the Tar Heels could not, would not, put the Wolfpack away. More penalties did mortal damage to two more potential touchdown drives, and the longer the Wolfpack hung around, the hungrier it got and the more rabid the State fans became. Wilson picked apart a normally efficient secondary for touchdown passes of 56 and 38 yards, and when the Tar Heels needed the fourth-quarter scoring drive their offense had produced regularly in crunch time the last month, they came up short.
"This is real tough, it's hard to swallow," Houston said. "I've not beaten State since I put this uniform on. It eats me up inside. But all you can do is go back to the drawing board and keep working."
"We're going to have to dig deeper and play our hearts out in whatever bowl game we go to," defensive tackle Marvin Austin added. "It's definitely tough to lose to State. I'd rather beat them than any other team."
Of course, there's one solution to Carolina's misery today: Get good enough that you can overcome the penalties, or, better yet, not make them in the first place. That is certainly the Tar Heels' primary goal as they work toward a bowl game and the 2010 season opener against LSU in Atlanta. And a secondary goal: Bury a team when you have the chance.
Lee Pace writes "Extra Points" twice weekly during the football season and reports from the sidelines for the Tar Heel Sports Network. Send your questions for the network pre-game show to asktheheels@gmail.com.
