ACC Football Week 10 Roundup

NC State 38 Maryland 30: The Wolfpack are on the board collecting their first ACC win which prevents them from stumbling into territory traditionally reserved for Duke.  NCSU racked up 483 yards of total offense, 343 of it through the air as Russell Wilson threw for four TD passes.  The Pack won the game despite committing four turnovers which included three INTs from Wilson, formerly the patron saint of the zero INT game.  A win is a win, but the question begs to be asked: How bad is Maryland? Fourteen of the Terps’ points came from a pick six and kickoff return for a TD. Otherwise their offense was crap. Most teams when they finish the game with a +3 turnover margin are also celebrating a win.  Not the case here which leads to another question: How did Clemson lose to Maryland?

UNC 19 Duke 6: If the UNC football team were on a sinking ship, Butch Davis would put the defense, Ryan Houston and Casey Barth in the lifeboats first just in case it was a Titanic type situation and they ran out. The Tar Heel defense completely shutdown Duke’s 5th ranked passing offense holding them to 113 yards in the air and 125 yards total.  Duke was worthless running the football, which is not really news.  What was unexpected is how much trouble they had getting any semblance of their vaunted passing game going.  UNC did an effective job in coverage while putting enough pressure on Thaddeus Lewis to disrupt the rhythm of the Blue Devil offense.  UNC’s offense was its usual putrid self except for Ryan Houston who got 37 carries for 164 yards after Shaun Draughn was injured on the first play of the game. T.J. Yates overthrew so many wide open receivers the words “point shaving” come to mind.  In the end it was too much Houston and Casey Barth who booted four FGs to go along the Jhey Boyd touchdown late in the game. UNC is now 6-3 and needs only one win to become bowl eligible.  Duke still needs two wins and the schedule they have left is not all that conducive to realizing that goal.

Georgia Tech 30 Wake Forest 27(OT): With Wake Forest leading 27-24 in OT and Georgia Tech facing a 4th and 1 inside the five, Paul Johnson did the totally reasonable thing and went for it.  Wait…what? Needless to say Paul Johnson has a pair on him, a huge pair.  I cannot name any other coach in the ACC that would have gone for it there considering the implications if Wake Forest gets the stop.  It wasn’t just the game, it was potentially a trip to the ACC title game and the Orange Bowl at stake. Anyway, Josh Nesbitt got the first down and the Jackets went onto to score the winning TD.  Georgia Tech now sits alone atop the Coastal and needs only to beat Duke next week to punch their ticket for Tampa.  Wake Forest on the other hands continues to have a season that is a polar opposite of 2006.  Instead of winning all of the close games, the Deacs are losing then with clockwork regularity.  Someone get Jim Grobe some TUMS.

Clemson 40 FSU 24: It took three quarters before the Clemson offense really got rolling versus the much maligned FSU defense.  Either the Seminoles were playing inspired football on the defensive side as some sort of tribute to Mickey Andrews or Clemson was just inept for three quarters.  Maybe both. FSU staked an early 17-6 lead after a pick six and lead 24-21 after three quarters.  In the end it was just too much C.J. Spiller who had well over 200 all purpose yards and two TDs.  Clemson’s defense came up big against one of the more potent offenses in the conference intercepting Christian Ponder four times.  Clemson moved to 4-2 in the ACC and controls their own destiny in the Atlantic.

Miami 52 Virginia 17: Bad Virginia made an reappearance in this one after hanging in the game for one half.  Following the intermission Miami blanked the Cavs 28-0 in a rout that saw the Canes put up over 500 yards of total offense effectively balanced between both the pass and the run. In other words, UVa did not have a prayer when it came to trying to stop Miami. UVa’s offense was paltry to say the least with a meager 149 yards to show for itself but it was better than Duke did in Chapel Hill.  Miami moves to 7-2 and clings to the hope they can still sneak into a BCS bowl game, especially with Oregon and Notre Dame losing.  UVa is mathematically alive for a bowl but they would have to win out.  That won’t happen.

Virginia Tech 16 ECU 3: The only noteworthy aspect of this game was the fact ECU put a huge logo of the state of North Carolina on the field with a pirate skull filling most of it up.  ECU also has cool helmets.  Other than that, the ECU did not do much else content to persistently shoot themselves in their collective foots every chance they got. The Hokies relied on a steady diet of Ryan Williams rushing to quiet the Pirate crowd and methodically control the game.  Williams bounced back nicely after last being seen sitting on the sideline in Blacksburg following UNC’s 20-17 win over the Hokies facilitated in part by a Williams fumble deep in his own end.  And if you are Frank Beamer do you wake up in cold sweats at 2 AM thinking about the seat-of-your-pants way Tyrod Taylor manages a given play? Taylor’s athleticism is both a gift and a curse.  Sometimes he breaks the plane of the goal line and at other times he fumbles it through the end zone or scrambles around too long looking a receiver and gets sacked for a 10 yards loss. Taylor is good but the anxiety level watching him play for Hokie fans must be off the charts.

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