Wow what a fun game to watch! That was the most complete and dominant performance in recent memory and we did it on a big stage against a top 10 team The last time we beat a top 10 team… when we beat Miami in 2004. Pretty fitting right? It makes you wonder where that has been all season. It was nice to watch a game where we finally put 60 minutes of great football together. I will admit I was a little worried when Miami marched down the field on their first drive, but our defense held them to a field goal. It seemed like a small victory at the time. Then Carter had a 12 yard run and Howell dropped his first deep ball into Brown. At that point, you knew our offense was going to be on. What I wasn’t expecting was a combined 544 rushing yards between Carter and Williams. They are just the 7th pair of teammates in college football history to both surpass the 200 yard mark in one game and the first ACC pair to do it. Carter had 308 while averaging 12.8 a carry and Williams had 236 while averaging 10.3 a carry. Those numbers are insane. Carter racked up more yards than some offenses do for an entire game. Our offensive line deserves a lot of credit. There were holes big enough to drive Eagle Rock Concrete trucks through (you’re welcome pops). I thought we would have trouble running to the outside because Miami’s strength were their edge rushers. Nope. Carter and Williams went wherever they wanted whenever they wanted. Yards after contact were huge too. I woke up and turned on Sportscenter this morning and one of Williams’ runs was on the top 10 plays. He hurdled a defender, completely ran over another, bounced off a couple, and then was eventually brought down. Carter’s spin move was also on display all game. The offensive line deserves free Mama dips for a year. Our offense racked up 778 total yards, a school record. Again we are doing this all against a top 10 team. Brown had 4 catches for 167 yards and Howell went 13-18 for 213. It’s a darn good night when you can say Howell had a quiet night with a running, throwing and receiving touchdown. Howell had a nice move to slip past a defender and did a nice job adjusting his arm angle on his throwing touchdown.
The second half we started off a little sloppy with penalties and ended up in long distance situations. But on a 2nd and 26 we handed the ball off to Carter and he got a first down and then on a 1st and 20 we handed it to Williams and he got close to the sticks. How demoralizing for a defense. Miami had no answers. The only drive we didn’t score on was a missed field goal. 62 points against Miami is un-freaking real. Also congrats to Williams beating Don Mccauley’s single season touchdown record.
Our defense was also outstanding. Surratt and Gemmel put together their best games. One was blitzing and the other was spying king all night. They combined for 18 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, 2 pass break ups, and half a sack. Both looked good when they dropped in to pass coverage, something that has been severely lacking especially for Gemmel. They didn’t overrun King or miss tackles. Conely also had a big game with 6 tackles. Two of them were for a loss. Conley is a true freshman and he performed on the biggest stage. Grimes had a hell of an interception in the second half. Miami’s offense was rolling a little bit and it kind of felt like we needed something to happen on defense. Enter Grimes. He didn’t give up on the play, and took the ball away from the receiver as they went to the ground. All of this was part of a great defensive showing that held King to 239 passing yards and 53 rushing yards. Grimes is also a true freshman. What a big recruiting win per say when your freshman go out and perform in those types of games. It shows that if you can make plays, you will play no matter what year you are.
I must admit when I said this wasn’t an Orange Bowl play in game I didn’t consider the point spread. Let me take that back and apologize. We may have just played ourselves into the Orange Bowl. We have one of the most dynamic offensives in the country and we beat the brakes off of Miami. Their credibility is shot after that game. We now just have to wait and see what the CFP rankings are. We have already jumped them in the AP Poll.
Let me just end this with the lengthy list of historic accomplishments from yesterday’s beat down:
The 544 rushing yards were the most by teammates in a game in NCAA history
Both Carter and Williams went over 1,000 yards and are just the 5th pair of UNC RBs to do that in the same season
3rd pair of RBs in FBS history to each record 200 rushing yards against an AP-ranked opponent
2nd highest rushing total in school history
Williams broke the UNC’s single season TD record with 22
Dynami Brown became the 1st receiver in UNC history with two 1,000 yard seasons
Carters 308 rushing yards were 2nd in school history and 12.8 yards per carry is now the single game record
778 yards were the most ever by any team against Miami *turns U hand sign upside down*
Also if you didn't get the word play in the title... Shame on you :)
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