Chansky's Notebook: Disheartening

The Tar Heels aren’t snakebit. They just aren’t quite good enough.

Mother Nature didn’t stop Carolina’s dramatic comeback at Pitt Thursday night. It certainly played a part, but Mack Brown’s team makes too many Earthly mistakes to be a big winner in 2021.

While the Heels (5-5) can still finish 6-6 or 7-5 and go to a small bowl game, their hopes and dreams when the season began have been washed away by uneven play, untimely errors and bad breaks.

After the dramatic finish almost wiped out a dreadful start, Brown blamed himself for not going for fourth-and-goal to win the game; how was he to know that a steady rain would become a monsoon by the time they got their hands on the ball again?

So, the battle back from 17-0 ended when Sam Howell could barely hold the pigskin let alone pass it in a driving rainstorm after the Panthers had scored first in overtime. It should have ended earlier with all of Carolina celebrating a second straight miraculous comeback win.

As good over the last three quarters as they were bad in the first period, the Tar Heels shut out the top-ranked offense in the country and one of the best quarterbacks for the entire second half.

And yet they missed key fourth-down conversions and committed the last of 12 penalties after having the ball on the 2-yard line with four snaps to snatch victory and avoid a disheartening defeat.

Howell was overshadowed for most of the game by his opposing highly regarded quarterback Kenny Pickett, who started fast enough to become Pitt’s all-time leading passer. But as the Carolina defense began shutting down the Panthers, the offense started clicking.

Howell had his team positioned to stun the home students in the end zone seats after Ty Chandler carried the ball to the 2-yard line for a first down with 73 seconds left in regulation. Then came a bad snap that Howell picked up and heaved over the end zone followed by a critical false start penalty.

When Ty Chandler ran the ball back to the 2 on third down and it was go for the touchdown and victory or kick a field goal for overtime, Brown chose the latter. “It is easy to sit here and second guess myself,” he said. “If I had known it was going to pour, it would have been more fair to the kids to take one shot.”

Photo via AP Photo/Keith Srakocic.

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Chansky’s Notebook: Disheartening

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