Art’s Angle: A Poor Response

I have never bought into the losing excuse that “we weren’t ready to play.”

After a week of practices, team meetings and other various organized preparation, of course major college football teams are “ready to play.” If they are not, their coaches are stealing their six- and seven-figure incomes.

What some teams don’t do as well as others is take the opponent’s first punch and respond in kind. That was obviously the case in UNC’s dismal 35-7 loss to N.C. State, which had a week off to prepare for the defining game of its season. The Wolfpack threw the first punch in the form of a 79-yard drive with the opening kickoff that turned out to be a haymaker from which the Tar Heels never recovered.

Just as Duke could not recover from Carolina’s first punch nine days earlier, this time the roles were reversed and it was almost as if the teams traded uniforms. The best quarterback on the field was No. 12 – but in white, not blue. The best running back was better than the bevy of celebrated backs on the Carolina sideline. And the result will surely take its toll on the off-the-field game of recruiting, where State and UNC compete head-to-head for high school players.

Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren, who rebounded from a 2-9 (winless in the ACC) first season in Raleigh with a 7-5 team that is going to a better bowl than the 6-6 Tar Heels, used his post-game press conference as a pitch to prep coaches and kids considering West Raleigh and Chapel Hill. I’m sure, like other rival recruiters, Doeren will have more than a sales proposal for his own school’s brand, facilities and opportunity to play, namely all the uncertainty surrounding Carolina’s athletic future — something Larry Fedora and his staff have dealt with for three years.

Why the Tar Heels could not take State’s best shot and hit back, just as Duke couldn’t against Carolina, is one of the mysteries of competitive sports. Surely, their coaches knew that State junior quarterback Jacoby Brissett was a threat to run with the ball. Yet Brissett ran well-executed quarterback draw plays and options all afternoon for 167 yards and a touchdown. He also completed 9 of his 11 passes, three for touchdowns past an oft-fooled Carolina secondary.

It is not as surprising that the UNC “D” could not stop Shadrach Thornton (161 yards in 28 carries), because the poor-tackling Tar Heels haven’t stopped most opponents on the ground this season. The 388 yards of rushing they allowed was the highest to date in 2014 and the most in 12 years.

However, it was shocking how anemic the Tar Heels looked on offense; so explosive for most of the first 11 games, they were held to a season-low of 207 yards and couldn’t find the end zone until less than two minutes remained in the game. Held scoreless in the first half for the first time in Fedora’s three years here, their seven points were also the fewest scored in The Hat’s tenure.

Carolina had less than half of State’s 454 total yards and ran for only a net 30, hindered by the ankle injury to center Lucas Crowley. Quarterbacks Marquise Williams and Mitch Trubisky combined to complete less than half of their passes, each throwing an interception.

Williams, who like Brissett wears No. 12, did not answer the pre-game accusation floating across the Triangle very well. One State player was quoted as saying Williams wasn’t tough, an audio clip that looped over the PA system in the Carolina locker room all week.

Doeren said he challenged Brissett to be the “best No. 12 on the field Saturday,” and the transfer from Florida certainly was. By the time the game was decided somewhere in the second half, Williams had been frustrated and knocked around by a Wolfpack defense that had given up 56 points twice this season but blanked the Tar Heels while building a 35-0 lead.

Both teams are young with most of their players returning in 2015, so it looks like the rivalry could become red hot again.

We shall see what happens in their respective bowl games, where they could finish with identical 7-6 records. But, for the time being, State looked the far better team Saturday in supposedly sold-out Kenan Stadium, which was half empty for much of the chilly afternoon.

An up-and-down regular season ended for Carolina against a similarly erratic team that the Tar heels allowed to look like champions. Were they ready to play? Sure they were. Did they respond correctly to the first punch thrown by State?

That would be a no, resoundingly so.