Was Larry Fedora’s gadget play a good call or bad call?

I spent much of late Saturday afternoon debating with colleagues and friends the pass Anthony Ratliff-Williams threw from the Wildcat formation with 2:17 left in regulation against Syracuse. The pass was thrown low to tight end Car Tucker, all alone in the right flat, and Tucker could not catch it.

On fourth down, the Tar Heels punted to the Orange, whose second-string quarterback Tommy DeVito threw a 42-yard touchdown pass to tie the game and send it into overtime, where Syracuse prevailed 40-37, dropping UNC’s record to 1-5 after a second straight gut-wrenching loss.

Considering how hard the Syracuse defense was making it on Nathan Elliott to find an open receiver, I thought the wildcat pass was a great call. If Ratliff-Williams, a star quarterback in high school, had thrown it a little higher or if Tucker had gone to his knees and caught the ball for a first down, Fedora would be hailed today for his brilliant maneuver.

The Orange were out of time outs and one more first down would have allowed the Tar Heels to run out the clock and win 27-20. I was in the minority with those I debated. One colleague said it was a bad call for a 12-year-old playing Madden football. I still think: good call, poor execution.

First of all, Fedora didn’t draw up that play in the dirt on the sideline. It was obviously something they had practiced just for the right moment — and this was it. Nothing else was working and all the Heels needed was one more first down. Like most arguable plays, it came down to execution.

In my opinion, worse calls were being too conservative in the red zone a few minutes earlier and settling for a field goal that still left it a one-score game. And with Syracuse’s ability to hit the long ball, especially with DeVito in there, UNC needed to get into the end zone go up by 11 points.

Just look at how close the Tar Heels are to being 3-1 in the ACC instead of 1-3 and 3-3 overall. Two games they had in hand in the closing minutes were given away by poor execution – the fumble by Michael Carter and inability of the defense to keep Virginia Tech out of the end zone on the last drive, and then this one.

Football, they say, is a game of inches, and Carolina is inches away from still being in reasonable bowl contention.

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