Georgia Tech rallies in the rain

ATLANTA — Entering Saturday’s game, North Carolina football coach Larry Fedora said he wanted his offense to sustain drives to keep Georgia Tech’s triple-option offense off the field as much as possible.

The Yellow Jackets ran the ball 71 times for 324 yards, including 212 yards in the second half, wearing down UNC’s defense, and keeping its offense off the field. Georgia Tech maintained possession for more than 40 of the game’s 60 minutes in a 28-20 win.

The last time an opponent held the ball for more than 40 minutes against UNC was Georgia Tech’s 2009 24-7 win in Atlanta.

“When you get (Georgia Tech) in a situation like that, that’s what they’re best at, getting three yards, four yards, and moving the chains,” Fedora said. “You’ve got to give them credit there. I thought our defense played extremely hard throughout the game. Late in the game, we started missing tackles, and that hurt us.”

The cracks in UNC’s defense started to show on Georgia Tech’s last drive of the first half, when the Yellow Jackets ate up nearly five minutes on a 12-play, 80-yard touchdown drive. Georgia Tech quarterback Vad Lee found 6-foot-5, 225-pound wide receiver Darren Waller over the middle in between two defenders to cut UNC’s lead, 20-14 heading into halftime.

That score was the first of three unanswered touchdowns for the Yellow Jackets.

The second half didn’t always look bleak for the Tar Heels.

UNC forced a Georgia Tech three-and-out drive to begin the second half, and two plays into its own drive UNC senior quarterback Bryn Renner hit freshman wide receiver Ryan Switzer over the middle and Switzer found open field for an 82-yard touchdown — until it was called back.

Tar Heel redshirt freshman right tackle Jon Heck was called for holding, and UNC’s touchdown turned into a 3-play drive that lost eight yards before a punt.

After that play UNC’s offense saw the field for just 5 minutes 50 seconds of the game’s remaining 25:22.

The Tar Heel defense was often on the verge of game-changing plays, but recovered only one of four forced fumbles, excluding a strip of running back David Sims at the goal line, which was upheld as a touchdown because Sims had crossed the plane with the ball.

Defensive end Kareem Martin, who matched linebacker Jeff Schoettmer with a team-high 10 tackles, said the missed opportunities weighed on the Tar Heel defense.

Junior cornerback Tim Scott said it felt as if Georgia Tech game-planned better than UNC when the Yellow Jackets picked up first down after first down late in the second half.

“When you congratulate your teammates after plays, it doesn’t make you think about how tired you are but when we came out in the third quarter we weren’t tapping hats, flying around and having fun, and it makes you think about it,” Scott said. “We weren’t playing with energy at all.”

UNC’s defense failed to stall the Yellow Jackets on their final drive, when they ran 13 consecutive running plays for 5 first downs on a 6:27 drive.

Fedora felt differently than Scott and said the defensive game plan put players in position to make stops.

“It’s not like we didn’t have answers to what they were doing,” Fedora said. “I thought we had guys where they were supposed to be, and then you just have to make the tackle.”

Georgia Tech running backs Robert Godhigh and David Sims finished with 100 and 99 rushing yards, respectively. Several times the two running backs broke through as many as four missed tackles from UNC defenders on a single play.

Scott said Sims, at 6-foot, 225 pounds, and Godhigh, at 5-foot-7, 190 pounds, have the type of frames that are hard to take down.

“We weren’t wrapping them up when we were trying to tackle them we were just trying to go for the kill shot,” Scott said. “With those types of running backs that are shifty and powerful, it can hurt you.”

Martin said holding Georgia Tech to 40 fewer points than last year’s 68-50 loss was no consolation.

“A moral victory isn’t going to get you to the ACC Championship,” Martin said. “We’ve got to make these ACC games count.