Never Say Never

Lawrence Jordan: I was wrong...and I'm happy about it. I said the Heels could not win in Blacksburg last night. I said the Heels' offense could not move the ball. I said the special teams would have a breakdown. I looked at the statistics and said winning was an impossibility. But...the cliche rings true...it's all determined on the field.

The Tar Heels used a mixture of strong defense and timely offense to pull out a win in Lane Stadium last night, their first win over VT since they joined the ACC and the first win over a ranked road opponent since 2001. As critical as I've been about the play calling, the personnel decisions, the quarterbacking, and the rushing attack...they all deserve their due credit.

The defense looked as strong as it's looked all season. VT was held under 300 yards and could only manage 95 yards on the ground. Bruce Carter and the boys held their ground and punished the VT offense all night. The defense stayed aggressive and played a complete game.

The offense used a mixture of misdirection, powerful running, and efficient passing to sustain three scoring drives of 78 yards or more. Draughn, Houston and Little put together 181 yards rushing thanks to John Shoop's inventive play calling. The offensive line was undoubtedly bolstered by the returning injured players, and appeared to have a spark it was missing in the first half of the season.

Yates managed a good game at quarterback connecting on 62% of his passes with two touchdowns. He connected on some big 3rd and 4th down plays to extend scoring drives, throws he had not been making in previous games. The coaching staff deserves credit for making some aggressive play calls on 4th down, after being so widely criticized for playing so conservatively against FSU the week prior.

Yates blind throw directly to a VT player in the backfield on UNC's 10 yard line must be mentioned, one of his worst throws this season, because it put the defense on a very short field and eventually led to VT's go ahead touchdown. BUT...Yates was able to dust himself off and lead UNC to two more scoring drives that won the game.

To say that I was surprised is an understatement. Shocked is probably a better word. The Tar Heel players and coaches put together their biggest win of the season last night. Can the Tar Heels carry this momentum into the second half of league play? I have a lot more hope now than I did before the game last night.