Football: Trampled

ATLANTA — Offensive tackle Kyle Jolly summed it up: “It’s a tough loss, just because they beat our ass so well.”

He quickly apologized for his language, but Jolly’s comments were a succinct — and accurate — assessment of Georgia Tech’s 24-7 shellacking of North Carolina on Saturday.

On its first offensive possession, Ga. Tech (3-1, 2-1) rammed an 88-yard scoring drive down UNC’s throat for the first touchdown of the game.

“It’s nothing scheme-wise or anything like that,” linebacker Bruce Carter said. “They just came to play, and we didn’t.”

All told, the Yellow Jackets racked up 317 yards on the ground and three rushing touchdowns.

Coming off an impressive offensive performance against East Carolina, UNC’s attack stagnated in the face of Georgia Tech’s defense.

For the third straight game, the Tar Heels opened with a three-and-out possession, and T.J. Yates completed only one pass in the first quarter — a dump-off to Shaun Draughn.

Yates came into the game completing almost 70 percent of his passes but couldn’t find the mark in Atlanta. Yates went 11-of-26 with two interceptions. While freshman Erik Highsmith had another 100-yard receiving game with six catches, many of Yates’ throws were behind receivers or in the dirt.

“Certainly early, balls were behind guys or short of guys,” Davis said. “And then all of a sudden you start pressing a little bit, you try to make a throw.”

Yates couldn’t find anything close to a break Saturday. Under pressure in the second quarter, Yates lofted a pass toward open freshman wideout Jheranie Boyd, who could have easily corralled it.

But Boyd wasn’t aware that the pass was coming, and the ball fell just feet in front of him.

In the second quarter, with the Tar Heels driving into Georgia Tech territory for the first time all game, a miscommunication with center Cam Holland sent the snap past Yates when he wasn’t looking, and Georgia Tech recovered the loose ball.

And Yates got precious little help from the UNC running game. Draughn entered Saturday’s matchup as the No. 3 rusher in the ACC, but managed only 26 yards on seven carries. Ryan Houston gained 24 yards on six carries.

For the game, UNC had 18 rushes for 17 yards, and Davis only had to hear that statistic repeated to him once before interjecting.

“Our effectiveness on first-and-ten on offense was disastrous because on every single possession it seemed like it was second-and 10, second-and-nine, second-and 11,” Davis said. “That’s just no recipe to play well offensively.”

UNC’s first four possessions lasted only three plays, and three more had four or fewer plays.

“I’m behind the offense, but to be honest, they’ve got to help us some,” defensive end Robert Quinn said. “But if they couldn’t get it done, we should’ve put it on our shoulders and went out there and try to keep them from scoring so many.”

For much of the game, North Carolina’s defense did manage to keep Georgia Tech out of the endzone and off the scoreboard.

But the drastic difference in time of possession (42:06 for Ga. Tech, 17:54 for UNC) combined with UNC’s missed field goal at the end of the first half meant that any comeback attempt was too little, too late.

UNC also saw itself drift out of the AP top 25 for the first time this season. UNC opened the season at No. 18 and was No. 22 before facing Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets made the poll this week at No. 25.


Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.