The Syracuse Orange went down early, were shutout in the first half and had little answer after that to the UNC onslaught, as the Tar Heels rammed through them in a 40-7 beatdown. It was an ugly game all around, but still one with a few different levels of takeaways:
‘Cuse Couldn't Catch a Break Early
There’s no doubt that the entire sequence of Denis Jaquez blocking a punt, which was then recovered by UNC’s punter and ran towards the first down marker, was mishandled. Not only was the runner clearly a full yard short of the line to gain, Dino Babers had to burn a timeout to challenge the play - which it turns out didn’t even help.