A preseason No. 10 ranking feels very far away for UNC football. The No. 21 Tar Heels suffered their second loss in ACC play Saturday night, as unranked Georgia Tech ran Carolina into the Mercedes-Benz Stadium turf in a 45-22 rout.
It marks UNC’s fifth loss in its last eight games away from Kenan Stadium after a season-opening loss in Blacksburg to Virginia Tech.
“I’m disappointed,” head coach Mack Brown told reporters after the game. “I’m embarrassed by our play, by our coaching, by me. I hate it for our fans, because the fans have been so good since I’ve been back. And this is not who we want to be, or who we are.”
The game started well enough for Carolina, as Sam Howell bounced off multiple Yellow Jacket defenders for a 23-yard touchdown run. But numerous mistakes in the ensuing game action prevented Carolina from building on its advantage.
Two fumbles from Howell in the second quarter and a missed field goal from Grayson Atkins allowed the Yellow Jackets to turn their deficit into a 13-7 lead, with Georgia Tech backup quarterback Jeff Sims running in a touchdown from 11 yards out at the end of the second quarter. Atkins’ miss came after a false start negated a make on the previous snap. As in the Virginia game in Week 3, the second quarter proved disastrous for Carolina, as Georgia Tech outscored UNC 13-0 in the period. For the season, the Tar Heels have now been outscored 48-13 in the second quarter.
“All around, we just have stuff we can clean up,” said Howell. “Just credit [Georgia Tech], they played hard. They had a good plan for us. We still should’ve been able to move the ball better than we did, but there’s just so many things that we can do better on the offensive side of the ball, and it starts with me.”
Carolina couldn’t cash in its first possession of the second half, turning the ball over on downs after getting stopped on 2nd-and-1, 3rd-and-1 and 4th-and-1. Sims and the Yellow Jackets turned the mistakes into points, with a 1-yard Sims touchdown run extending the Georgia Tech lead to 20-7.
Howell and the offense couldn’t get anything started when they got the ball back. The red-hot Yellow Jackets could, with running back Jahmyr Gibbs powering in for yet another touchdown. His score marked 27 unanswered points from Georgia Tech.
A Howell touchdown pass to Kamari Morales finally got UNC off the mat, but the defense simply couldn’t stop Sims and the Jackets. Multiple third down conversions on their ensuing drives put away any thoughts of a Tar Heels rally. Before running the clock out in the fourth quarter, Georgia Tech scored on five straight drives in the second half, including four touchdowns. The Yellow Jackets finished with 261 rushing yards, compared to just 63 from the Tar Heels.
“We thought [starting quarterback Jordan] Yates was gonna be the guy throughout the game,” linebacker Jeremiah Gemmel said. “So we really didn’t gameplan too much for both quarterbacks. We had some stuff for him, but we didn’t think he was gonna play the whole second half.”
“It’s hard to show [Sims’] speed in practice,” Brown said. “He looks like [former Texas quarterback] Vince Young. When I saw him as a freshman, I said, ‘Oh my gosh, that guy’s gonna be really good.’ He’s gonna give Georgia Tech a chance each week.”
Yet another Howell fumble late in the fourth quarter truly slammed the door on the game and, in all likelihood, UNC’s hopes of a Coastal Division championship. The loss sends them to 1-2 in conference play and 2-2 overall. Howell’s three fumbles on the evening gave him four on the year to go along with his four interceptions.
“We work really, really hard to put a great product on the field for our institution, for our fans and for each other,” Brown said. “And we didn’t do that tonight.”
Fortunately for UNC fans, Howell and the Tar Heels won’t have to worry about their road woes for the next few weeks, as Carolina plays three consecutive games at home in October, starting with Duke at noon on Saturday, October 2.
Featured image via Associated Press
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