AJ: Stunning and Sobering

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ATLANTA – Where to start with this?

Sitting here trying to find a diplomatic way of describing what transpired at Bobby Dodd Stadium on Saturday night is a task not worth its time because an impossible task. More important than that, however, is asking, and answering the question: What on earth does this mean?

Is North Carolina suddenly a bad football team?

Is that what 31-27 and 46-42 losses to Virginia last week and Georgia Tech on Saturday night mean?

It sure looks like it if the last eight quarters are any indication. You don’t lose at home to 2-6 Virginia allowing gobs of rushing yards, and a week later surrender 635 yards to a Georgia Tech club that lost by 11 in this same building to Bowling Green and call yourself a good team.

Since numbers do matter, let’s go back to the fourth quarter of the win over Miami, when the Tar Heels failed to stomp on the Hurricanes’ throat, allowing them to make that game interesting.

In the last nine quarters, Carolina defense has allowed 91 points, 1,248 yards – 580 rushing, 668 passing – and 65 first downs. That equates to 40.4 points and 554.8 yards per game.

UNC didn’t just fall over a cliff last week, it cashed to the surface breaking into pieces. Yet, the Heels crawled back up some tonight, scaling their way about halfway only to slip and plummet to the hardened bottom again.

Crash! Clank! Oof!

The defense was so rotten here at The Flats, it evoked clear memories of the historically bad performance at App State last year. And some scribes thought they’d never see that again.

“I haven’t thought about that but it really did, it was just awful,” Brown said, agreeing with the comparison. “It was awful. I’ve never seen anybody just take it and hand it off and run for 10 yards a crack.”

Okay, so now that we’ve established the gory details of this performance, and the stunning numbers connecting the last two, it’s time to hit on the sobering reality of what’s transpired.

Carolina isn’t the team we thought it was.

It’s not the team it thought it was, either.

We were told this was a different club. It was no longer soft, yet it was just that the last two games.

We were told it had great leadership, but that was clearly missing the last two games.

We were told this was a smart team that was excellent at making in-game adjustments. But none of that happened the last two weeks.

We were told this is the best staff Brown has put together. But it made numerous mistakes obvious to even casual football fans the last two weeks.

And we were told this team could play meaningful games in December, which no longer appears likely.

In fairness, this space pushed those narratives. We bought it hook, line, and sinker. There was no reason to believe otherwise. And that is what’s so puzzling about the sudden shift in direction Carolina football is headed.

The Mack naysayers that were loud and boastful last winter after the Heels lost their last four games, went silent until last weekend. Now, it’s impossible to avoid them.

This isn’t an attempt at offering a referendum on Brown, not even close, but this is his program and it’s his job to patch this group together and march forward. And to look in the mirror. There’s no point right now in listing all the things the Tar Heels can still play for, nobody wants to hear it because nobody will buy it.

In a span of nine days, UNC went from No. 10 in the nation and unbeaten, to perhaps the greatest fork in the road of the Brown part two era. Sam Howell’s last season resulted in a 6-7 mark. What will the program get out of Drake Maye in what is likely his final campaign?

So, I asked Brown as the clock had just scooted past midnight, if he’s stunned at how everything has flipped on its head since the Miami game.

“Yeah, and it's a roller coaster.,” he said. “You look at all the scores today, they might play great next week, or the next one. You can't tell anymore. You got to have a new game every week. That's why college football, everybody's become pretty good. This team beat Miami at Miami. So, give them credit.”

He didn’t know what to say, and who can blame him? It’s a lot to grasp, to be frank.

But this isn’t: UNC Football is remarkably suddenly at a cross roads. And that is a stunning and sobering reality.