At least basketball season starts soon

For three quarters I was seduced into thinking that Carolina's football season could be salvaged. The Heels were up 18 points, FSU was stopping themselves with penalties and turnovers, and Carolina was driving.

But just like that, after a terrible decision by T.J. Yates turned into an FSU interception at the Carolina 2-yard line, the Heels imploded. On the next play the Noles scored on a 98-yard touchdown pass, and Carolina lost their confidence. It was as if after that score the Heels collectively thought - 'oh no, this is national power FSU we're playing - and we're a BASKETBALL school' forgetting that they were playing a mediocre Seminole team, a team the Heels should have put away.

Quarterback Yates had a terrible second half, but despite his interception on the Heels' ensuing possession they quickly marched down the field into the red zone. Carolina had efficiently gained large gobs of yardage by running outside. But as soon as they got into scoring position the Heels ran two inside running plays and one pass play that led to another Yates incompletion. So instead of getting seven the Heels had to settle for three points and a slight 4-point lead, one FSU quickly erased when Christian Ponder found a wide-open receiver in the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown.

It was a total meltdown by the Heels. The secondary gave up big plays (Ponder completed his last 16 passes), the defensive line had a good first quarter of pressure but took the last 3 quarters off, Yates was terrible in the second half, and the offensive play calling and decision making yo-yoed from aggressive and exciting to stupid and mystifying.

Just a terrible loss and a terrible second-half performance. But as bad as losing is, it was made worse by losing THAT particular game: a nationally-televised Thursday night contest, Lawrence Taylor's return to Chapel Hill after a 29-year absence, a win over a respected opponent to reenergize the team. All those factors made the second-half collapse all that much worse.

I hope this team can recover, but they next play at Virginia Tech before taking on Duke for homecoming on November 7th.

At least the Yankees lost last night. And the first basketball game is in 17 days, on November 6th!