UNC upset by Georgia Tech, 21-17. Maye has worst showing of season in first ACC loss
No. 13 North Carolina played Georgia Tech exactly the way coach Mack Brown was afraid of with the way the game was situated on the schedule.
The Tar Heels had already won the ACC Coastal Division and secured their spot in the league’s championship game on Dec. 3 in Charlotte. They have rival N.C. State, with the motivating thought of last season’s late collapse in a loss, to close out the regular season.
There didn’t seem to be much inspiration left over to face the Yellow Jackets. Georgia Tech rumbled into Kenan Stadium with an interim coach — it fired head coach Geoff Collins in September. And it was down to its third-string quarterback, Zach Collins, after both the starter, Jeff Sims, and his replacement, Zach Pyron, were ruled out due to injuries.
Carolina (9-2, 6-1 ACC) had dropped passes, untimely penalties and just played flat at times in falling to the Yellow Jackets 21-17.
“I thought we were mature enough to play in what would be called a trap game,” Brown said. “I thought we were beyond that after Virginia, but we obviously weren’t. So I thought we did a poor job preparing them and didn’t play well enough to win.”
As poorly as they played offensively at times, they were in a position to re-take the lead late in the fourth quarter.
But sure-handed receiver Josh Downs had just two catches until his 25-yard reception set the Heels up at the GT 18. On fourth down from the 19, Downs beat Jackets safety LaMiles Brooks to the ball and just had to haul it in, turn and he’d be in the end zone untouched. But Downs may have been thinking about scoring and he dropped the ball with 4:10 left in the game.
The Heels did not get the ball back again.
“One play is not going to define him,” UNC quarterback Drake Maye said. “How many plays he’s made, versus that one. He’s gonna be down on himself — that’s the type of guy he is — and I told him if we got the ball back, I was going to come right back to him. He’s the best player we got and I love that kid.”
It was one play of several that seemed to indicate Carolina wasn’t going to overcome its mistakes as it has so many times this season.
Running back Elijah Green had a 68-yard touchdown called back in the third quarter when tight end Bryson Nesbit was called for holding. Brown intimated that he didn’t agree with the call because the flag came late and Nesbit got pancaked on the play.
Maye had his worst outing of the season, completing just 16 of 30 passes for a season-low 202 yards. It was the only game this season he didn’t throw a touchdown pass and he threw just his fourth interception of the season.
Senior receiver Antoine Green, the Heels’ deep threat, missed the game with an upper body injury. With him out of the lineup it allowed Georgia Tech to keep Downs in double coverage most of the game.
Downs, who leads the ACC in receiving yards per game, was also held to a season-low 31 yards on three catches.
“We get a first down run where there’s a fumble and we lose 13 yards,” Brown said. “I mean, there’s so many uncharacteristic things that happened tonight. It was a really, really awful night offensively.”
While the defense played well overall, it did allow a Georgia Tech team with a 28.9 third down conversion percentage — fourth worst among 131 Football Bowl Subdivison teams — to convert 8 of 15 third downs.
That included the game’s final drive when Hassan Hall ran off tackle to make good on a third-and-9 that helped the Jackets run out the clock.
“(Coach Brown) felt that we kind of coasted at times,” said linebacker Cedric Gray, describing why Brown called them an immature team. “We kind of took them not seriously and maybe got a little bit overconfident. All season long we’ve been in close games and we won them so I think that’s what he’s kind of alluding to, everybody’s just like, ‘Whatever, we’re just gonna win.’ And it caught up to us.”
It appeared Carolina would put the game away early, even while the offense was out of sync.
Green popped an 80-yard touchdown run up the middle on the Heels’ first play from scrimmage.
And leading 10-0 in the second quarter, Storm Duck’s third interception of the season set up UNC at the Tech 39. But on a fourth-and-2 from the Tech 6, the Jackets’ pressure forced Maye to tuck the ball and run and he was stopped after a 1-yard gain. UNC could have used the points.
The Heels grabbed a 17-0 lead on their fifth drive of the game when Nesbit caught two passes for 54 yards to set up Green’s second touchdown on a 1-yard run.
“It was a night where not one thing happened for us good offensively,” Brown said. “I always get afraid when you score on the first play of the game. Everybody relaxes and thinks, ‘We got this,’ and I hate it. It sounds foolish, but I hate it because for an immature team, a young team like ours, you can get complacent fast, and I thought that’s what happened.”
The Jackets’ offense gained some momentum with a two-minute drill to score right before halftime. Gibson, who shared time with sophomore Taisun Phommachanh, directed a nine-play, 84-yard touchdown drive.
Carolina fizzled when it tried to respond with 44 seconds left in the half. Center Corey Gaynor got an unnecessary roughness penalty that wiped out a J.J. Jones reception that would have moved UNC into Tech territory at the 45.
Instead, the drive went backward as Garner native Keion White recorded one of his three sacks on Maye, and the Heels were forced to punt.
That became a theme of the second half for Carolina’s offense. Maye got sacked a season-high six times. Ben Kiernan punted three times in the second half and also tied a season-high for the game with five overall.
Carolina had two second-half drives end inside the Tech 25. Maye had not thrown an interception since the win at Miami on Oct. 8. But in the third quarter, he was picked off by Brooks at the GT 23.
It was Maye’s first interception in 195 passing attempts.
“I had Bryson kind of on an out route,” Maye said. “It’s one of those balls that didn’t come out of my hand well, it kind of leaned to the right more than I wanted. So you know, those things happen but definitely that was a critical point in the game.”
The Jackets marched 81 yards after the interception to score the go-ahead touchdown on Hassan Hall’s 6-yard run.
This story was originally published November 19, 2022 at 9:04 PM.