Tar Heels packed in

Defensive end E.J. Wilson could offer no explanation. He had none for the way his North Carolina team had just gotten outplayed, out-hustled — out-everythinged, really — by a supposedly inferior N.C. State team.

I really thought against our rivals that we'd come out a lot more enthused and we'd play a lot harder than we did" he said.

From the looks of it" it seemed like they wanted it a lot more than we did.""

In truth"" there are a lot of possible explanations for the 41-10 drubbing that the Wolfpack put on the Tar Heels Saturday — a game that ended UNC's hopes for the ACC Coastal Division title and prompted N.C. State coach Tom O'Brien to declare his program ""the best football program in the state"" without question.""

There was the poor play of UNC's quarterbacks.

And the secondary was frequently caught napping on key plays.

And there was the ease with which N.C. State (5-6" 3-4 ACC) controlled the line of scrimmage.

But according to UNC coach Butch Davis" none of those reasons mattered in comparison to the one telling stat from Saturday's stunner: six Tar Heel turnovers.

""You can almost totally disregard all of the other stats"" he said.

In North Carolina's three prior defeats this season, it lost the turnover battle by a combined six giveaways. But the Tar Heels (7-4, 3-4 ACC) coughed it up early and often Saturday with three interceptions and three lost fumbles — UNC's most total turnovers since 2002.

There will never be a football game ever played that you can lose the turnover ratio as dramatically poorly as we did today and give yourself any chance to win"" Davis said.

The turnover problems started right away, with two Shaun Draughn fumbles on the first two Tar Heel possessions.

I have no clue what it was"" Draughn said. We try to hold onto it. It wasn't that I was careless with it; they just stripped the ball.""

On the other end" the defense was unable to force any turnovers from the Wolfpack led by redshirt freshman quarterback Russell Wilson.

Wilson was efficient with a career-high 279 passing yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed for 50 yards.

N.C. State's compiled season highs in total yards (466)" passing yards (279) and rushing yards (187).

""We knew he had a cannon and that he's an intelligent kid" defensive tackle Marvin Austin said of Wilson. So we knew he can be a nightmare" and he definitely became it — he was the grim reaper today.""

North Carolina's offensive output of 203 total yards was the worst this season and the second-worst in Davis' time as head coach.

""Nothing was in rhythm" nobody was in sync" said quarterback T.J. Yates, who was ineffective in his first start since fracturing his ankle in the third game of the season.

For the first time this season, North Carolina lost back-to-back games. Just as troubling are the back-to-back defeats in the rivalry.

If you play poorly" you're going to get beat Davis said. And if you turn it over six times" you're going to get beat badly.""

And UNC got beat very badly. The margin of victory was N.C. State's largest against the Tar Heels since a 40-6 blowout in 1989.

The Tar Heels will have to regroup quickly" though" as another rivalry contest is on the horizon.

""We can't throw away everything we've done this season and end the season with three losses in a row; we just can't do that" E.J. Wilson said.

We've got to dig down deep inside" and we need to take this next 10 to 12 hours and do some real soul-searching.""



Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.