By Doc Kennedy
Twenty years ago, the last time a ranked Virginia team faced an unranked North Carolina squad, the result was a 7–5 rock fight that ranks among the worst games in ACC football history. History did not quite repeat itself as the rock fight between the Tar Heels and Cavaliers did not rise (or sink) to the level of the 2005 tilt in Kenan Stadium; it was far from a thing of beauty.
Also, unlike two decades ago, Carolina did not scratch out a victory, falling to UVA 17–16 in overtime. History did repeat itself, however, in UNC suffering back-breaking mistakes and bookend plays of pain in a teeth-grinding defeat.
Last week in Berkeley, the Tar Heels suffered a 21–18 loss after fumbling on the first and last offensive plays of the game. On Saturday, the pylon was the source of pain as Kobe Paysour fumbled trying to reach the pylon in the first quarter, and Benjamin Hall was unable to reach the pylon, falling just inches short, on a two-point conversion in overtime.
Once again, it was Carolina’s defense that put the Tar Heels in a position to win. Virginia, ranked 17th in the country, came into the game averaging nearly 500 yards and over 43 points per game. UNC held the Hoos to 225 total yards and only 10 points in regulation.
Meanwhile, Carolina had its best offensive outing of the year against FBS competition, chalking up 328 yards in regulation, including a season high 199 yards and a touchdown in regulation for Gio Lopez.
But three turnovers, all in the red zone, plus a missed field-goal attempt, kept Virginia in the game and ultimately allowed the Cavaliers to pull out the win after stopping Carolina inches short of the game-winning two-point conversion.
To be fair, Virginia has been living a charmed life this season. The Hoos are 7–1 and atop the ACC. They are 3–0 in overtime, beat Washington State last week on a game-winning safety, and have fumbled nine times this season and recovered all nine, including twice against the Tar Heels. Meanwhile, UNC is doing what bad teams do — find ways to lose, unfortunately.
With that in mind, here is the inches-short edition of the Good, Bad, and Ugly Report:
Good
Defense
Carolina literally could not ask any more of the defense than they put on the field on Saturday. They recorded six sacks, held the second-best rushing attack in the league coming into the game to 59 yards, and it took overtime to get that total. For the second straight game, Carolina held its opponent to under 300 total yards. The defense got stop after stop, begging the offense to get just one score. Unfortunately, the offense could not and finished literally inches short of an upset.
Rushing
Once again, the UNC stable of running backs is getting the job done, as the RBs collected 133 yards on 26 carries, for a crisp 5.1 yards per carry. Being good in the running game at least gives the option to throw the ball, even if the passing side isn’t always great.
Bad
Fundamentals
For all the improvement there’s been since the second open date, Carolina continues to struggle in some basic fundamentals. Plays like Kobe Paysour’s fumble that cost a score, Marcus Allen’s missed tackle that led to UVa’s only touchdown in regulation, and Melkart Abou-Jaoude trying to pick up a fumble rather than just falling on it and giving UNC a short field late in a tied game, all hurt the Tar Heels when they cannot afford crushing mistakes.
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Ugly
‘Bad things, man’
If you remember the commercial with Dennis Hopper holding Bruce Smith’s cleats, saying “bad things, man!”, you’re my kind of person, and also, it’s time to schedule your colonoscopy. In this case, the bad things are what are standing between UNC and a conference win. Bad teams find ways to lose games like the past two weeks. Today, it was things like Paysour’s fumble and Allen’s blown tackle that represented a 14-point swing in a one-point game. But it’s also things like Rece Verhoff nailing a 50-yard field goal, but Virginia being granted a timeout so he had to kick it again, and he missed. Carolina’s margin for error is razor-thin, and the bad things all seemed to be killers.
If you want to walk on the sunny side of the street, there has been a definite improvement in this Tar Heels squad since the Clemson game. The defense is playing markedly better, and the offense out-gained Virginia in both passing and rushing, and won the time of possession. The O-line’s run blocking is improving, and many of the sacks today were because Gio Lopez made bad decisions.
Unfortunately, the distance between improvement and actually winning a football game can be as vast as an African savanna. Carolina will have the chance to try again on a Halloween night at Syracuse and hope the tricks of the four-game losing streak turn into a treat.
Doc Kennedy is an alum, longtime UNC fan, and former high school and college basketball coach who wrote this report for years on Tar Heel Blog.
Photos by Joshua Lawton
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