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COLLAPSE: UNC headed downhill
AP Photo
Christian Ponder of FSU completed 33 of 40 passes for 395 yards.
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Published: October 24, 2009
CHAPEL HILL
North Carolina can forget about playing in this season's ACC championship game.
And in a few weeks, it might say goodbye to a winning record and a bowl berth.
Thursday's stunning collapse in a 30-27 loss to Florida State kept UNC winless in conference play. A 24-6 lead in the third quarter wasn't enough to withstand Christian Ponder's precision passes, which carved up what had been the nation's No. 3-ranked defense.
Coach Butch Davis of UNC said that the outcome was tough to accept, but he's hoping it will help for the rest of this season and for the future as he keeps building his program.
"A lot of these lessons that you learn are bitter,' he said. "They're painful, and they're not fun to go through, but sometimes you have to go through (them)."
It was the second time this season that a struggling team defeated UNC at Kenan Stadium. Virginia, winless at the time, won 16-3 there Oct. 3.
FSU limped in with records of 2-4 overall and 0-3 in the ACC, but embattled Coach Bobby Bowden watched his team do what UNC couldn't as the game progressed. He said that FSU's first-half performance was the worst he could remember in 55 years of coaching.
"You have to win close games to have a good year," Bowden said. "We finally won the fourth quarter. We've lost four fourth quarters. We finally won one."
UNC (4-3, 0-3 ACC) has two wins against Football Championship Subdivision teams so will need a total of seven victories, not the normal six, to qualify for bowl eligibility. That will require three wins in the last five games, and three of those will be on the road, including Thursday night against Virginia Tech.
Junior cornerback Kendric Burney vowed to fight on, saying: "It's either you stand up to the challenge or you back down. I definitely know that me and my teammates are going to stand up to the challenge.
"I refuse to lose. I hate losing. Everybody hates losing. But I will never let anybody on this team quit, and I definitely am looking to next week."
UNC built its lead behind tailback Shaun Draughn (season-best 126 yards) and the crafty play calling of offensive coordinator John Shoop, scoring 24 points in the first 33:22, using reverses and deceptive formations to keep FSU off balance. Shoop's calls became more conservative after that, and the Tar Heels scored three points in the final 26:38.
Davis bemoaned penalties and mistakes for contributing to the loss. A holding penalty on Christian Wilson wiped out what would have been an 81-yard touchdown pass from T.J. Yates to Jheranie Boyd late in the second quarter. UNC punted instead and settled for a 17-6 lead at halftime.
Boos filled the stadium late in the fourth quarter when Davis chose to punt on fourth and 5 at the FSU 44, and Yates was sacked on the game's last play.
And then there was Ponder. He completed his last 16 passes for 236 yards and three touchdowns. He finished with a career-high 395 yards passing and completed 21 of 25 passes in the second half.
"They really didn't change," defensive end E.J. Wilson of UNC said. "They ran the same things that they were running the first half. They just came out and knew they couldn't run the ball, so they started passing the ball and finding gaps in the secondary."
Wilson left the field frustrated. He, too, tried to look ahead and find comfort in the possibility of enough wins in the next five weeks to keep the season going.
"We looked at this game as though it could have been the turning point in our season," he said. "We lost, and we're not going to let it ruin our season. It's one loss. We're just going to move on and learn from the game."
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