University of North Carolina Athletics
RAMblings - 8-4 In the Mirror - Rams Club
RAMblings 12.2.09 - 8-4 In the Mirror
by Lee Pace
It still stings. It still stinks. The Tar Heels' one-point loss to N.C. State Saturday continues to fester. One less fumble that wipes a touchdown off the board ... one or two fewer mental errors that lead to debilitating penalty flags ... a whisker more killer instinct and the clearly superior Tar Heels could have dispatched the plucky Wolfpack by halftime and been on their merry way to a five-game victory streak in wrapping up the 2009 season.
I like playing the Wolfpack the last game of the year, on the same weekend of other traditional rivalries across college football. But the downside is if you lose, the defeat lingers-particularly if it's loss No. 3 running to State.
"This is real tough, it's hard to swallow," tailback Ryan Houston said. "I've not beaten State since I put this uniform on. It eats me up inside. But all you can do is go back to the drawing board and keep working."
The words from offensive coordinator John Shoop leading into the final stretch of the season turned prophetic: "If we hang onto the ball, if there are no unforced errors, no charity, we should win games going away. If there's no charity, everything takes care of itself. Our defense isn't going to let one get out of hand."
Indeed, the Tar Heels were simply too charitable in Carter-Finley Stadium with 10 penalties worth 122 yards, two turnovers and a handful of other unforced errors that don't show up on the box score.
"A lot of things that prevented us from scoring were self-inflicted," Butch Davis said. "On defense, we had some breakdowns and gave up some big plays. That's been very uncharacteristic in 12 games."
Still, an 8-4 season in year No. 3 of the Davis regime has to be viewed as a success given the enormous challenges that faced Carolina on one side of the ball. The Tar Heels were destroyed along the blocking front by graduation, attrition and injuries in September and early October, and Davis and his coaching staff haven't had the requisite time to recruit and develop the full complement of 17-18 scholarship offensive linemen needed to stock a quality program. Their abysmal offensive performance in a home loss to Virginia in early October-174 total yards and three points-prompted Davis to reach deep into his reservoir of coaching experience and cite a similar team and circumstances from the NFL.
The Baltimore Ravens went the entire month of October 2000 without scoring an offensive touchdown. Matt Stover kicked 14 field goals to account for the Ravens' only offensive points over five games and they even won two games, by a 12-0 margin over Cleveland and 15-10 tally over Jacksonville.
The Ravens, incidentally, happened to win the Super Bowl that year.
"I admire that," Davis said. "Sometimes you just have to find a way to win ugly. Sometimes the shoe is on the other foot from a team perspective. There were times last year when we'd score 45 and 38 points and it was not enough. It's a team game."
After the trough of the losses to Georgia Tech and Virginia, the Tar Heels began to get healthy and got two of their best blockers on the field, guard Jonathan Cooper and tight end Zack Pianalto. They used an efficient tailback tandem of Shaun Draughn and Houston (until Draughn was felled by injury in week nine) and a variety of gadgets and end-arounds to receivers to generate yards. It wasn't always pretty, but Carolina vaulted from a 3-2 start to a 5-2 finish based on reasonably competent offense, big-play defense and 16 straight field goal connections from Casey Barth.
"The longer you play college football, the more you realize that it's hard to win," Pianalto says. "You see it in the NFL every week. There are no guarantees. Sometimes you have to win ugly, win a close game. As coach Davis says, 'A win is a win.' We're never apologizing for winning a game. Boston College was an ugly day for the offense, but we got the win. That's all that matters."
It bodes well for the future to consider what has happened on defense over two years and extrapolate that to offense as Davis's program continues to evolve. Carolina was young on defense in 2007 and got battered about the head frequently. Two years ago in Carter-Finley Stadium, the Tar Heels started five freshmen and two sophomores on defense. They did not start the same lineup in consecutive weeks all year. They allowed 350 yards a game. Meanwhile, the offense generated some big plays on the backs of receivers like Hakeem Nicks, Brandon Tate and Brooks Foster.
Since then, the defense has matured and graduated into the top 10 nationally. Check out the NCAA statistics and you'll see Florida, TCU, Alabama, Ohio State and Texas ahead of the Tar Heels, who finished the regular season sixth in total defense with 268 yards a game allowed. That looks like the BCS standings. The Tar Heels are athletic and smart at every position and are two-deep along the defensive front. Their thousands of collective reps in tape study, practice and games allows them to anticipate what's coming and have the cavalry in position early-ergo a dramatic run of 11 interceptions over three games in November.
"We have this thing in our meeting room, 'In search of ....,'" defensive coordinator Everett Withers says. "We're in search of the perfect game. We'll never reach it, but guys are at least saying, 'We can play better. We have to play better.'
"We've had a good run this year in part because there's not been a lot of guessing and jumping routes," Withers continues. "It's been guys doing what they're supposed to do and making plays. When we get in trouble, it's guys saying, 'I thought he was doing this, so I left my assignment to make a play.' They might make one play but they miss three with that mindset. Guys for the most part have been doing what they're supposed to do."
The Tar Heels have recruited well on offense, and there are plenty of talented young players on the line and at receiver who will grow into solid players. There's no reason to think they can't make the same strides on that side of the ball in future as they have on defense. Just think how much better 8-4 can be when both offense and defense are in the high-rent district at the same time.