UNC Football Drops Dead at NC State in Regular-Season Finale

From the start, it was one-way traffic in Carter-Finley Stadium.

NC State roared out to a 23-0 lead in the first half and never looked back, sending Carolina to a humbling 39-20 defeat in the regular-season finale. It’s UNC’s third straight loss to the Wolfpack.

“I did a very poor job preparing our team,” said head coach Mack Brown. “We were awful the first half. It was as bad as I’ve ever seen us… it’s on me completely. You can’t play as bad as we did in the first half without the head coach doing a poor job.”

Carolina’s offense was stuck in neutral for much of the first half, as Drake Maye threw for exactly zero yards in the opening quarter. Once Maye found John Copenhaver over the middle for UNC’s first touchdown late in the second quarter, it was already too little, too late.

NC State freshman receiver K.C. Concepcion dominated any defender he matched up against, racking up 186 all-purpose yards and a pair of touchdowns. He finished the night as the Wolfpack’s leading receiver and rusher. On the other side, Maye finished as Carolina’s leading rusher with 106 yards on the ground. No other Tar Heel finished with more than 28 rushing yards.

“A lot of things weren’t clicking,” Maye said. “It starts with me. I’ve gotta do a better job. You just can’t start off bad in a tough environment on the road in a big ACC rivalry game. You can’t do that if you want to win games.”

UNC trailed 26-7 at the half and 33-7 after the first possession of the third quarter, which ended in another NC State touchdown. That 26-point deficit is the largest of Brown’s second tenure in Chapel Hill. Carolina simply had no answer for Concepcion, quarterback Brennan Armstrong and the Wolfpack offense. NC State averaged 6.9 yards per play and 15.2 yards per completion while scoring its most points in an ACC game in the last two seasons.

“We played a good team tonight,” Brown said. “They’re hard to beat over here, and they played better than we did.”

With the loss, Carolina ends the regular season 8-4 and 4-4 in ACC play. The Tar Heels have dropped four of their last six games after starting the season 6-0. Their bowl bid will be announced next weekend, following the conclusion of conference championship games.

“I’ve had a lot of disappointments, so it’d be hard to sit here and rate them,” Brown said. “But [Saturday’s loss] is in the group… it was bad.”

Featured image via The News & Observer/Robert Willett

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UNC Football Drops Dead at NC State in Regular-Season Finale

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