Lucas: Wake Forest Rapid Reactions

By Adam Lucas

1. What a crazy, unforgettable, bonkers day at Kenan Stadium in a 59-53 Carolina win over Wake Forest. Fans in the seven percent attendance saw circus catches, some of the highest level quarterbacking and running back play that you'll ever see in college football, and a very occasional big defensive stop. The win matches the largest deficit the program has ever overcome to win a game, and was the biggest margin Carolina has ever overcome to win a game at Kenan Stadium. The Tar Heels set a school record with 742 yards of total offense.

2. You have to start with Sam Howell, who set a school record by passing for 550 yards. He completed 32 of 45 passes, and six of those completions went for touchdowns. Howell accounted for a seventh touchdown with his legs, as he had two key scrambles on Carolina's most important drive of the game when the Tar Heels took the lead late in the fourth quarter. What else can you say? He made every throw he needed to make, and when he couldn't make a throw, he ran for big plays. You are watching the best quarterback who has ever played at Carolina.

"Our offense has grown as Sam has grown," Mack Brown told Jones Angell on the Tar Heel Sports Network after the game. "He can do things now he couldn't do as well when he first got here and we weren't ready to do as well. You start looking at guys like Dazz Newsome (10 catches for 189 yards) and Dyami Brown (eight catches for 163 yards), it's hard to cover those guys one on one. We have an offensive line that continues to get better, and two of the best running backs in the country. We have a chance at every position, because every player on offense is one of the better around at his position."

3. Classy response from Marquise Williams while he watched Howell break his single game passing mark:

All records are meant to be broken Congrats my brother @Sam7Howell well deserve 7!!
— Marquise Williams (@1MjWilliams2) November 14, 2020

4. The amazing thing is that the Tar Heel offense is pairing that type of quarterback play with one of the best tailbacks who has ever worn Carolina blue. Javonte Williams got just five carries in the first half, but finished with 13 rushes for 101 yards. He also becomes perhaps the only tailback in football history to deliver such a crushing block that it was reviewed for targeting. Williams already has a chicken truck t-shirt; that block might have qualified for a chicken truck hoodie.

Another look. pic.twitter.com/HuBMTRUqZe
— Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) November 14, 2020

"I'm really proud of Coach Longo and the offensive staff and the players, because we weren't running it well at halftime," Brown said. "We ended up winning the rushing battle. We were able to stay on the field and wear Wake Forest down. As much publicity as we'll get for the deep passes, the rushing game was huge."

5. Carolina was down 45-24 midway through the third quarter. It's not as though the comeback was initiated immediately, as the Heels still trailed 45-31 at the end of the third quarter. But even with a late Wake touchdown, the fourth quarter was a complete domination, with Carolina outgaining the visitors, 227-79.

6. The Tar Heels also went 4-for-4 on third down in the fourth quarter. To that point in the game, the Heels were just 3-for-10 on third down, and had converted just one of their last seven opportunities. It felt like the physical pounding delivered by the offense started to accumulate in the final period, however, as the offense was almost perfectly balanced between the run and pass, and Wake was unable to get off the field.

7. Oh yeah, there was also some defense. The Tar Heels made a switch late in the third quarter, giving more snaps to freshmen Tony Grimes and Ja'Qurious Conley. Both youngsters produced, including Grimes blanketing Wake standout receiver Donovan Greene (eight catches for 170 yards) on a key third down pass in the fourth quarter. Old man Patrice Rene, a senior, also made some big plays in the secondary, and Chazz Surratt led the team in tackles with 14, including a huge sack late in the fourth quarter to snuff out the final Wake hope.

Carolina is so young on defense that it's unlikely the Tar Heels are just going to put 11 players out there and ride with it for the remainder of the season. There are going to be days they need Grimes and Conley, as they did today. And there will be day those two might struggle--as freshmen do--and Carolina will turn back to the players they replaced. It's going to be a group effort on defense. It would be a welcome boost for the secondary if Storm Duck, who was having a great start to the season, could get healthy and return at some point in the final three regular season games.

8. We can laugh about it now, but Howell's lone misstep--an interception at the end of the first half--felt at the time like it might be the biggest play of the game. With Wake set to receive the second half kickoff, the Deacons were awarded an interception on some clear indecision by the Atlantic Coast Conference officiating crew.

9. Nice job by the Tar Heel offensive line in providing the time and holes for the talented skill players to operate. Without center Brian Anderson, the Tar Heels moved Quiron Johnson to center, where he had an effective performance.

10. Carolina had every chance to give up. Wake, a team that has turned it over just once this entire season and was riding a four-game winning streak, narrowly missed throwing a couple of interceptions, and then seemed to have a permanent horseshoe when Sam Hartman recovered his own fumble in the end zone for a touchdown. It would've been easy to lose this game and say, "Well, the Deacs got all the breaks."

11. The Duke series gets most of the attention because of the dramatic way Mack Brown turned it around, but the Wake Forest series was also important in the way Brown's program developed the first time in Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels were blown out by the Deacs in 1988 and then lost a heartbreaker, 17-16, in 1989. After that game, Brown gave an emotional postgame interview to Woody Durham on the Tar Heel Sports Network in which he said he believed his program was very close to turning the corner. He was right, and Carolina beat Wake eight straight times over the remainder of Brown Era 1.0, with seven of those eight wins decided by at least two scores.

Will this game end up being a similar turning point? It could be. Carolina has now defeated all three in-state opponents in the same season for the first time since 2015 and just the second time since 2004.

12. Carolina has had periodic problems in special teams this year. Today, when they needed to make a big play, they did, as Javonte Williams secured an onside kick with less than a minute remaining to seal the win.

13. Credit to Jason Freeman, the equipment staff and everyone who helped pull off the throwback 1997-era uniforms, right down to the helmet stickers. They were spot on and looked terrific, and now that Carolina won the game the pictures from this game will have a happy memory.

14. It sounds crazy to say about a group of 3,535 in a stadium that seats over 50,000, but that was a lively, loud--as they could be--crowd at Kenan Stadium. Of course, it also made you look forward to the days when it can be a sold-out stadium again, because happy football Saturdays are here again in Chapel Hill.

15. Reminder: there's a Rapid Reaction Carolina Insider podcast coming up in an hour or so. If you subscribe now, it will be in your feed as soon as it's finished and you'll get a complete breakdown and discussion of a terrific afternoon at Kenan Stadium.

16. Give Mack Brown the last word. "This is part of the growth of our program," he said. "We're still very young in a transition program that has lost a bunch of games. This is a huge step forward for us. We've talked about comebacks, and we nearly got it done at Virginia and nearly got it done at Florida State. Well, today we got it done."

Scoreboard Slider

University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Brian Anderson

Dyami Brown

Ja'Qurious Conley

Storm Duck

Tony Grimes

Sam Howell

Quiron Johnson

Dazz Newsome

Patrice Rene

Chazz Surratt

Javonte Williams

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