University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Game Speed
September 10, 2005 | Football
Sept. 10, 2005
By Adam Lucas
ATLANTA--Matt Baker walked gingerly into the weight room deep inside Bobby Dodd Stadium where Tar Heel players would meet the media. His right elbow was wrapped, his ankle braces were unstrapped, and his hair was matted with sweat.
He looked, for maybe the first time in his Carolina career, like a quarterback who'd just completed four quarters of major college football. And he sounded like a quarterback.
"We shot ourselves in the foot," he said. "We had penalties and we had dropped balls. And we had bad throws."
John Bunting calls them M.O.'s, missed opportunities. That's what the Tar Heels left Atlanta with Saturday night after a four-hour game. Some questions were answered, mostly about Baker, who proved to be a capable quarterback and manager of the game. Others will linger into next week, especially about the running game--which was hampered by seemingly constant second- and third-and-long situations--and the front four.
Earlier this week, Bunting said the biggest unknown going into an opener is dealing with game speed. He emphasizes practicing fast and numerous practice periods are devoted to simulating game action. But it was evident by the way the Tar Heels spent much of the first half pointing and gesturing on both offense and defense--trying to make their reads, trying to get in the right spot to fit the play--that no coach can fully reproduce game action.
That's even true for Baker, who spent the preseason wearing a red non-contact jersey. The hands-off policy ended on Saturday, and it impacted the biggest play of the game. With the Tar Heels holding the ball and trailing 27-21 with two minutes left, it looked like a storybook finish. This was the two-minute drill Baker spent all summer perfecting in WTA's, this was the two-minute drill Carolina simulates in almost every practice. This could be the two-minute drill that makes everyone forget Darian Durant.
Except it wasn't just a skeleton drill. It was full-speed, and when Gary Tranquill decided to play for the home run, Mike Mason zipped past his Yellow Jacket defender and was headed towards the end zone. The play unfolded perfectly. Until...
"Someone got in there and hit my left leg," Baker said. "That opened up my hips and the ball tailed and was a duck. I wasn't hit hard, but it's those little things."
Mason, meanwhile, wasn't looking at the duck.
"I was behind my guy, and he had inside coverage," Mason said. "So I didn't see the ball."
That's the kind of day it was for the Tar Heels. It was the kind of day when Georgia Tech could almost completely forget about P.J. Daniels, who got just four carries in the fourth quarter despite the Jackets needing to squeeze the clock. It was the kind of day when Tech could depend almost entirely on the arm of Reggie Ball, a heretofore unsteady decision. Ball's two most wobbly incompletions came on Tech's penultimate drive, when a pair of consecutive high passes allowed the Tar Heels yet another opportunity.
But those ill-directed passes were not forced because of significant Carolina pressure. For the most part, Ball spent the day resting comfortably between the tackles. He wasn't sacked and rushed just 7 times for 31 yards, primarily because he was rarely flushed out of the pocket. The relaxed rush enabled Ball to demonstrate his progression as a quarterback.
"I wasn't expecting all the passes," Jacoby Watkins said. "I figured they'd throw it up to Calvin Johnson but not as much as they did. I was impressed with Reggie Ball. He looks you off now. Last year he would drop back and throw it straight to the receiver. Now he's looking at his slot receivers and running backs."
Throughout the preseason, Bunting emphasized the need for the Tar Heels to make defensive stops on third down. The Jackets converted 10 of 20 third downs, but the 10 conversions happened early and came in important situations. Carolina eventually corrected the problem, holding Tech without a first down over the final 13 minutes, but by then they were staring at a 27-14 deficit.
"We have to execute," Chase Page said. "We have to be disciplined enough to say, `This is my assignment,' and then go out and do it. That wasn't the case today."
That wasn't the case. So Carolina didn't get third down stops.
But they did get a missed opportunity.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. He is the coauthor of the official book of the 2005 championship season, Led By Their Dreams, and his book on Roy Williams's first season at Carolina, Going Home Again, is now available in bookstores. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly or learn more about Going Home Again, click here.
