By Doc Kennedy
Death. Taxes. North Carolina spitting the bit in a meaningful football game.
In a vacuum, Saturday’s game between UNC and Syracuse didn’t really mean much. Two evenly matched teams (on paper, anyway) coming off disappointing seasons but trending in somewhat different directions this year. The Orange had significant injuries but were also riding an 11-game ACC losing streak. The Tar Heels finally seemed to put it all together last week in a win over Duke in Durham.
But in the macro, the Syracuse game grew to mean so much more. Proof of concept of year two of Bill Belichick. A touchdown-plus favorite at home. A visit from College Gameday likely on deck, especially with the rest of the results on Saturday. Now all of a sudden, a run-of-the-mill conference game becomes … (dun-dun-dun) a game of consequence. And, as has been the case for over 40 years, the result was exactly the same, the Tar Heels were once again not ready for prime time.
It was déjà vu all over again for UNC: jumping out to a double-digit first-half lead, then the offense doing its Homer Simpson disappearing-into-the-bushes impression while the defense slowly wilted in the second half. Mistakes, missed tackles, and missed opportunities to build the lead and stop the opponent’s onslaught.
There were two things that made this one particularly painful: First, Carolina did not have back-breaking turnovers or key penalties that altered the game (no fumbles, no interceptions, and only three penalties for 20 yards); and second, Syracuse did not lead until the final play of the game, winning on a two-point conversion by the nose of the football that withstood replay review because the ACC Network did not have a goal line camera to confirm or overturn the call.
It’s like the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, in that no matter how elaborate the Coyote’s traps and snares are, the Road Runner gets away and the Coyote suffers the pain of failure every time. Credit to the screenwriters for the twist in Wile E., I mean, UNC’s circumstances in this episode, but like always, the meaningful win gets away.
With that in mind, here is the same as ever was edition of the Good, Bad, and Ugly Report:
Good
Jordan Shipp
After spending much of the week on the injury report, Shipp had 8 receptions for 102 yards and a touchdown.
Derek McDonald
The Syracuse transfer had a day against his old team, with 16 stops and a key tackle for loss.
Running backs
Jaylen McGill gained 62 yards on 12 carries and caught two passes for 13 yards, while Demon June added 53 yards on 9 rushes and a touchdown, plus two receptions for 12 yards and another score.
Bad
Bad Billy
While the bad version of Billy Edwards Jr. wasn’t the worst Bad Billy that we’ve seen this season, it certainly wasn’t enough to win the game. His inability to throw the ball 5 yards to a wide-open Shamar Easter for a walk-in touchdown that would have put Carolina up two scores in the 4th quarter likely swung the ball game.
Second-half defense
UNC’s second-half defense in ACC games has been, well, bad. Much of it can be attributed to the Tar Heels’ magical disappearing offense, but the mistakes, blown coverages, and missed tackles that seem to happen as the game wears on cost Carolina dearly. Orange QB Steve Angeli roasted the UNC secondary for 186 yards after halftime, but more importantly, the defense could not get off the field. Syracuse converted 7 of its last 11 3rd downs (including a 3rd-and-11 in overtime), and was 4-for-7 on 4th down.
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Ugly
Play-calling
Bobby Petrino has rightfully been lauded for making UNC’s offense much more capable, and the 30 points scored Saturday are the most by a Belichick team against a Power Four opponent. But when the Carolina running backs were putting up a solid 5+ yards per rush, Petrino chose to run only 21 times, compared with 44 pass attempts by Edwards. A 2-to-1 pass-to-rush ratio doesn’t seem to add up, especially in a game the Tar Heels never trailed until the final play. Edwards hasn’t shown he can be the featured part of the offense, and relying on him calls the game plan into question.
Probably the most deflating part is, once again, all the positive buzz and momentum earned by the improvement shown this season has gone splat like Wile E. Coyote going over the cliff and landing on the desert floor. To be fair, a trip to Charlotte was never going to be in the cards, but a win at home when UNC is a solid favorite with College Gameday coming to town would have been another step forward for the program. But for many years, the answer to “Can UNC football handle success?” has been a solid no. And not even Bill Belichick can change that.
If you want to walk on the sunny side of the street, even with a loss to Miami, UNC enters November at 4–4 when many pundits (me included) were not sure the Tar Heels could find four wins on the schedule. All four of those games are winnable, but all four are loseable given the variability of this Carolina team. And so the roller coaster ride that is UNC football continues.
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.
Photo by Joshua Lawton
