Special Teams Decline Crucial In Loss To Wolfpack
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RALEIGH – Mack Brown spent most of the regular season each week noting some positives about his squad on special teams.
Jovan DeWitt’s units hadn’t flipped around games with their play, but they weren’t exactly losing them, either. It was somewhat a wash through the first 11 contests.
But all that changed Friday night in game number twelve.
UNC had two punts blocked, allowed a long kickoff return, and failed to secure an onside kick in a crucial moment in the Tar Heels’ 34-30 loss at No. 20 NC State. Fingers can point in a lot of directions for why Carolina fell to its rivals, but it is difficult to begin anywhere other than special teams.
And the affliction essentially bookended the game.
UNC opened the contest with a three-and-out on offense, but the ensuing punt was blocked by the Wolfpack and recovered in the end zone for a touchdown a mere 83 seconds into the game.
“It was a person that just missed an assignment, like it was at Florida State last year, and we ended up taking the person out after the second one that Garrett Walston was so aware of, and made the play,” Brown said.
Then, after State cut the margin to 30-28, it recovered an onside kick with 1:33 to play. It scored the game-winning touchdown 29 seconds later.
“We work on that every day,” Brown said, alluding to the onside kick. “It was the perfect scenario for them to win the game. The kick was perfect, our guy was getting ready to field it, their kicker did an unbelievable job of being right there at the ten-yard mark and falling on it. Obviously, nothing was a surprise we just didn’t execute.”
As Brown noted, Carolina had another punt blocked in the second quarter, but Walston alertly picked up the ball and ran it 18 yards for a first down to extend the drive.
And when the bottom fell out in the fourth quarter for the Heels, it began on special teams.
Following a 50-yard field goal by Grayson Atkins that gave the Heels a 30-21 lead, State’s Jordan Huston returned a kickoff 37 yards to the 46-yard-line.
“That gave them really good field position,” Brown said, about the kickoff return. “(It) gave them an opportunity to get the ball toward midfield.”
Two plays later, Devin Leary found Emeka Emezie for a 64-yard touchdown cutting the margin to 30-28 with 1:35 remaining.
In six of Carolina’s final seven games, the Heels allowed either a long punt return or a long kickoff return.
Duke ran 35 yards on a kickoff return that could have gone for a touchdown if not for kicker Jonathan Kim making a tackle. The Blue Devils also had a 22-yard punt return. A week later, Florida State’s 41-yard kickoff return in the first half was also stopped by Kim, who was UNC’s last line of defense on the play.
Miami had a 22-yard punt return, Notre Dame returned a punt 47 yards setting up a touchdown, Pittsburgh had two punt returns of 22 and 25 yards setting up the Panthers’ first two touchdowns earlier this month. And then there was State’s big 37 yarder Friday night.
“You’ve gotta take great special teams on the road,” Brown said. “We had a punt issue at Notre Dame where they returned it to the 41, we had two short punts where they returned at Pittsburgh early in the game, and then the blocked punt tonight.
“I’m really, really disappointed. It hadn't been an issue, we’d been doing really, really well. We’re not punting very well, there were very short punts, so that put us in a bind throughout the night.”
Early and late, special teams mishaps were costly for the Tar Heels.