image via Associated Press/John Bzemore
If Mack Brown didn’t know what to say to his team afterward, what are we supposed to say about the dizzying 46-42 defeat at Georgia Tech?
Carolina’s third straight lead-blowing loss as a nationally ranked team to the unranked Yellow Jackets is, frankly, mind-boggling the way it unfolded in a sort of schizophrenic manner.
Tech had 625 total yards in the first, second and fourth quarters and just 10 yards in the third period, when the Tar Heels held their second double-digit lead of the game. The Jackets scored all of their points in the second and fourth quarters, when the UNC defense was either out of position or out of gas.
If you didn’t care who won, it was one of the most entertaining games of this, or any, season. The teams combined for 1,212 total yards on the way to the 88 points. At times, each seemed unstoppable, with Tech, now 4-4 on the season and 2-2 in the ACC, showing off more speed than even advertised.
By the numbers, the Yellow Jackets’ sophomore quarterback Haynes King, and UNC’s Drake Maye were locked in a high-speed video game with King completing 23 of 30 passes for 287 yards and four touchdowns and Maye hitting 17 of 25 for 310 yards and two scores. King ran for 90 yards, Maye for 57 and a touchdown.
Tech was more explosive with plays of 29, 35, 42, 43, 52 and 70 yards. On most of those, there wasn’t much resistance at the line of scrimmage and then a wide-open secondary after that. And it got worse as the game played out, with the Heels defense spending too much time on the field and not enough on the sideline between UNC possessions that struck quickly.
Yet, despite falling behind for the only time with less than five minutes to play, Carolina was right there on a 36-yard pass to Tez Walker at the Jackets’ 25-yard line with just under two minutes left. Walker was heading for the end zone and regaining the lead when blasted from behind and coughed up the Heels’ only turnover of the night. It was fatal as they never got the ball back again.
The Jackets kept it on the ground for their 28th and 29th first downs and forced Brown to use all three of his timeouts. The clock ran out, and the students at Bobby Dodd Stadium flooded the field to celebrate their school’s 11th win of the last 13 games against UNC in Atlanta, dating back to 1999 before most of those revelers were born. Ten of the victories were by Tech teams that finished with winning records, only one by a team that ended the season under .500.
And the 11th such loss was not one of experience over athleticism, as King is in his first season as a full-time starter and senior Dontae Smith came off a season-long injury to rush for 178 yards that included the longest run of 70 yards for a touchdown that trimmed the deficit to 42-39. True freshman water bug Eric Singleton, who is listed at 5-9 and 170 pounds, led all receivers with 117 yards for 14.6 per his eight catches.
image via Associated Press/John Bzemore
With Georgia Tech sporting the next-to-last rushing defense among 130 major college teams, Carolina ran the ball a lot more than the five carries by the ACC’s leading rusher Omarian Hampton in the second half of last week’s loss to Virginia. Hampton had 15 carries for 93 yards and two scores in the first half and finished with 153 yards. The Heels averaged almost 6 yards per carry and led 28-24 at halftime. King hit 20 of 24 for 268 yards and three touchdowns to keep it close.
In the hard-to-believe third quarter, Carolina kept the ball for 13 of the 15 minutes but only scored one touchdown on Maye’s 14-yard run and missed a chance to put the scoreless Jackets away. Don Chapman’s acrobatic interception off a pass deflected by Gio Biggers was part of the short-lived domination.
Tech came to life early in the fourth quarter to score twice in 82 seconds, converting a two-pointer to trail by only three points. The Jackets finally took the lead on King’s fourth touchdown pass with 4:28 remaining, a toe-touching catch by tight end Brett Seither in the end zone. Just before that, Noah Burnette missed his first field goal try of the season from 39 yards, which might have made a difference on how Carolina handled its final possession.
Red-shirt freshman “Doc” Chapman’s 52-yard kickoff return that led to his 35-yard touchdown catch from Maye was Carolina’s only score in the fourth quarter. Too little, too late.
“I thought we were in good shape going into the fourth quarter and then absolutely could not stop the run,” Brown said of the Jacket’s 246 yards over the final 15 minutes. Last week, offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey caught the heat for not giving Hampton the ball in the second half; this week, it will fall on D-coordinator Gene Chizik for the fourth-quarter meltdown.
For all of his fame and fortune, Brown has now lost two straight games to second-year coaches almost three decades younger, Virginia’s 43-year-old Tony Elliott and Georgia Tech alum Brent Key, 45, who was their interim coach last year when the Jackets began Carolina’s last four losses to nowhere.
“I didn’t know what to say,” Brown told Jones Angell of the Tar Heel Sports Network right after the game. “We played great in the first quarter as a team and in the second quarter gave up 24 points and looked awful. We’ve looked bad but never seen it that bad.
“I told them you played well enough offensively to win, but we still had too many penalties and we could have scored more. Defensively, it wasn’t good at all. It looked bad. It felt bad. We didn’t coach ’em good or play good. We’ll grade it and try to figure it out. We’ve got four great games left in November and we didn’t finish right last year and we got to go back to work and finish better.”
Thus, it was the second straight week Carolina’s quest to stay in the national conversation ended with a turnover, Maye’s pressured interception against Virginia and Walker’s fumble after the thunderous hit.
The Tar Heels fell to 3-2 in the ACC and are now a longshot to reach the conference championship game. They face what amounts to a practice game against Campbell this week, which should get them to 7-2 on the season and in the right frame of mind for the last three games against Duke and at Clemson and N.C. State – all winnable and all losable.
For Georgia Tech, it felt like start of something for the rest of this season and next year with its bevvy of young, speedy and talented athletes.
“This is only the beginning,” King said while being interviewed on national TV.
For the Tar Heels, it is the end of the biggest dreams they had just eight days ago.
Feature image via Associated Press/John Bzemore
Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees. You can support local journalism and our mission to serve the community. Contribute today – every single dollar matters.
