The weekend started with three airballs by Cole Anthony and the Tar Heels’ only senior starter leaving the basketball court with a badly sprained ankle.
It continued with Virginia scoring the most points in regulation and gaining more yards than the football Tar Heels have allowed this season.
Who knows what will happen with UNC Wrestling, Fencing, Field Hockey and Volleyball in Sunday’s action?
This is a football column, so please bear with me.
Carolina and Virginia put on an offensive show at Kenan Stadium Saturday under the lights while both of their defenses were, in a word, defenseless. Total points were 69 and total yards 1,056. And neither team scored in a frustrating fourth quarter!
It was a weird and wild game. Nine touchdowns (and two field goals) that were notched against maybe the best effort of the defenses but hardly the best execution. The points came in bursts; Virginia scored 28 in just of 14 minutes of elapsed time; Carolina had three quick-strike TD drives of 75 yards.
Sam Howell threw four more touchdown passes (now 26 on the season) of 47, 34 and 42 yards to Dyami “Dynamite” Brown and one for 50 yards to Antoine Green. The Tar Heels reached the red zone three times and got only a Noah Ruggles field goal out of it.
Virginia was in the red zone four times and scored four times, all from short passes or runs by Bryce Perkins, the electric senior quarterback who was in on all five Cavaliers touchdowns. Perkins made his team’s longest explosive play when he ran one in from 65 yards after faking out a UNC defender who thought Perkins was gliding out of bounds.
Leading 17-10 late in the first half, Carolina gave up 21 unanswered points on three full-field drives by UVA in 22 snaps while running only seven plays itself. Essentially, that was the difference.
Virginia (6-3) qualified for a third-straight bowl by scoring to end the first half, scoring with the second-half kickoff on two plays from scrimmage and scoring again by the mid-way point of the third quarter.
That stretch of total domination saw the white-clad Cavaliers churn up 287 yards, which was more than half their 517 yards total offense, while Carolina was managing an anemic 27 yards. Fourth-year UVA coach Bronco Mendenhall and his team looked like the best of Bill Belichick and the Patriots in that 6½-minute run.
The Heels fought back twice from 14-point deficits and had two chances to tie or go ahead in the waning moments, but gave up ball up on downs both times when Howell got cold and completed only one of his last eight passes. Had they scored to make it 38-37, Mack Brown said he probably would not have gone for two to win the game.
“It would have depended on how much time was left but I would think you’re at home, you’re scoring, they’re scoring,” he said, “I think I would have kicked the extra point and gone for overtime. And we had momentum because we’ve just scored.”
When Howell overthrew his last pass and Carolina had no timeouts left, it sucked the remaining joy out of a stadium that was expecting another miracle finish after last week. Instead, 4-5 UNC must now steal a win at either Pitt or N.C. State to earn bowl eligibility (assuming a victory over Mercer on Senior Day November 23).
[How sweet would it be for the beleaguered senior class to clinch a post-season berth in its last home game? It would take first beating Pitt on ESPN Thursday night, November 14.]
UNC actually outgained Virginia by 22 total yards, thanks to the four long bombs by Howell on, appropriately, Military Appreciation Night in Kenan.
Dynamite Brown, who was getting back into shape after an injury at Virginia Tech, kept running past his defender as Howell laid the ball in there perfectly each time. When Virginia double-teamed Brown, back-up wide receiver Green beat everyone down the seam for his score.
Strong safety Myles Wolfolk saw his first action in a month, but it was short-lived after he lost his receiver on long, floating pass from Perkins. Obviously, it wasn’t a great night for Jay Bateman’s defense, except for Duke hero Chazz Surratt, who had 15 more tackles (13 solos), including UNC’s first six.
The Tar Heels did make enough plays to keep them in the game, especially long, slashing runs by Javonte Williams and Michael Carter, who each averaged more than six yards while combining for 185 on 30 carries.
It was a relatively clean game with only five penalties (and several controversial no-calls). The capacity crowd gets credit for Virginia’s only flag, a delay of game while Carolina was desperately trying to catch up.
But Perkins, who either ran or passed for all but 32 of UVA’s total yards and was sacked only three times, took advantage of UNC’s young man-to-man defense with quick shots to his wide receivers for drive-surviving first downs.
“He had not been as good a thrower as he was a runner,” Mack Brown said of Perkins afterward, “so we felt like we had to make him throw the ball to win the game, and he did.”
Virginia is now in the catbird seat for the ACC Coastal with a 4-2 record and home games against last-place Georgia Tech and rival Virginia Tech; the Hokies lost a heartbreaker at Notre Dame in the closing seconds. It looks like a trip to the ACC Championship game and the dubious distinction of playing undefeated and fourth-ranked Clemson will come down to that intra-state clash in Charlottesville two days after Thanksgiving.
The Tar Heels are left with getting that bowl bid, which could also come down to the game in Raleigh on November 30 against a State team that was blown out at No. 23 Wake Forest Saturday afternoon. The Wolfpack has lost three of its last four games, giving up 120 points in the defeats.
By then, we will be well into the basketball season, which opens against Notre Dame Wednesday night in the Smith Center. It doesn’t look like injured starter Brandon Robinson will be back by then, but maybe freshman star Anthony’s shooting touch will be.
“If I have to worry about Cole Anthony,” Roy Williams said after the 96-61 exhibition rout of Winston-Salem State Friday night, “I don’t have any worries.”
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