Extra Points: Due Respect

By Lee Pace

The last 24 months of Carolina vs. Virginia Tech football have left a bitter taste, a rancid smell and a chilling memory bank for the Tar Heels. The Hokies pummeled the Tar Heels 34-3 two years ago in Kenan Stadium, then loaded up their ark and floated back to Blacksburg in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew. Then one year ago, Tech scored on a fumble, interception and punt return and had blown the Heels out of Lane Stadium in the blink of an eye on the way to a 59-7 win.

So the natural motivational gambit for the Tar Heel coaching staff to play during the advance week to Tech coming to Chapel Hill Saturday for a nighttime showdown was the dignity card.

"If someone takes you to the shed twice in a row, there's a pride factor," Tar Heel defensive coordinator John Papuchis said last week. "I have played on that all week. At some point, you have to punch them back or can't be disappointed when they don't respect you. If you don't punch them in the face, they're going to keep bullying you around."

Suffice it to say there was nothing meek or shameful or timid about the Tar Heels' plans or execution Saturday night in front of a spirited crowd of 50,500 in Kenan Stadium. For the want of a little better ball protection here, a better aimed pass there, a dollop of better luck there (how do you lose a starting QB when his own teammate falls on his knee, knocking him from the game?), the Tar Heels would have emerged with a monumental shocker. As it was, the Hokies had the wherewithal and skill to make enough plays and escape with a 22-19 victory.

"I'm frustrated," Tar Heel coach Larry Fedora said 30 minutes after the game, being pressed by a reporter for the state of his emotions after such a gut-wrenching loss. He held his thumb forefinger half an inch apart.

"We're that far way," he said, nodding toward the modest but maddening gap. "We're so close, and I want it for these guys. You're around these guys and watch them in practice and in the meeting rooms and see how much they care about each other, and you can't help but want it for them. We just have to find a way to get over the hump and find a way for a guy to make a play in a certain situation."

Punch back and pride? Fortitude? They came in spades on both sides of the ball.

How about the Tar Heel defense going eight Tech possessions in succession and allowing no points, forcing six punts, snaring one interception and yielding only 72 yards of offense? How about linemen Malik Carney and Jason Strowbridge with two sacks each and the unit combined with nine tackles-for-loss, five pass breakups and three QB hurries?

"All week, this game was personal," said linebacker Cole Holcomb, who had nine tackles. "They treated us pretty bad last year, we felt like they didn't respect us. We had a little chip on our shoulder this game. Our team played very hard the whole game."

Sadly, it all went for naught for the Tar Heels. With cornerbacks K.J. Sails, C.J. Cotman and Corey Bell Jr. sidelined with injuries, Carolina was exploited on the corner opposite from the solid play from junior Patrice Rene. The defense was snookered at the bookends of the game on expert fakes by Tech QB Ryan Willis, allowing Willis in the second minute of play to scamper 33 yards for a touchdown and again with less than a minute in the game to throw one yard to Dalton Keene for the winning score.

"We were right there, but it's just about finishing the game," Holcomb continued. "We played 58 minutes of great football, but we just didn't finish. Going into halftime, we felt good. We felt like we had answers for everything they were trying to give us. At the end of the game, I think they made good calls against what we had, and their guys made plays and ours didn't. That's what it comes down to. But it hurts right now."

"We had a great game plan going in," added Rene, who played easily his best game in two-plus years after his inauspicious start as a freshman against Georgia in 2016. "Coach JP did a great job reading their offense. We kind of knew what to expect and what plays they were going to run. We were very cued in on tips and reminders which made the game slow down for us. It made it really easy and we were able to fly around and make plays."

On offense the coaches accepted that 10 turnovers in four games by two quarterbacks were unacceptable in a system predicated on the quarterback "distributing the ball to his playmakers and taking care of the ball," so true freshman Cade Fortin got the start and played with poise and precision. He completed 10 of 18 passes for 97 yards and added a 40-yard run. He showed good judgment and ball-security under duress.

That he had what would have been an 85-yard touchdown early in the second quarter dropped and was knocked from the game with an injury just as he just getting comfortable was the kind of misfortune that has hounded this program all year—well, for all of eternity, if you want to know the truth.

Afterward the "what-ifs" numbered nearly triple digits: What if Dazz Newsome doesn't drop that bomb early in the second quarter; if running backs Antonio Williams and Michael Carter don't lose possession and fumble the ball away; if Nathan Elliott can hit Anthony Ratliff-Williams alone in the end zone after a gargantuan assignment bust by Virginia Tech; if a Carolina touchdown is not nullified by holding call when Carter was well past the line scrimmage; if the uber-reliable Freeman Jones doesn't miss a chip shot from 32 yards; and if someone on defense could have made a play on Tech's agonizingly long and methodical drive of 18 plays the length of the field for the winning score?

"We've got a lot of guys that truly believe in everything that we're doing," Fedora said. "They believe in each other and they're doing the things that we ask them to do, and we will get there. We'll get there. Just takes one guy making one play in this game and it's a different ball game and we come in here and we're happy, but we didn't make that play tonight."

Carolina certainly has continued issues at quarterback with injuries dogging two players, Fortin and Chazz Surratt. But a 532-yard total offense output against Virginia Tech and the potential on defense that unfolded Saturday night allow a hint of what could be the second half of the year. Once again, you simply cannot give the ball away—four times to California, zero to Pittsburgh, six to Miami and two to Virginia Tech. There's an easily discernable pattern there.

It's one thing to not blink again in the eye of the bully. It's another just to hang on to the confounded football.

Carolina graduate Lee Pace (1979) has written "Extra Points" since 1990 and reported from the sidelines for the Tar Heel radio network since 2004. Reach him at leepace7@gmail.com and follow him @LeePaceTweet.

Players Mentioned

Corey Bell Jr.

Malik Carney

Michael Carter

C.J. Cotman

Nathan Elliott

Cole Holcomb

Freeman Jones

Dazz Newsome

Anthony Ratliff-Williams

Patrice Rene

K.J. Sails

Jason Strowbridge

Chazz Surratt

Antonio Williams

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