Sept. 3, 2008

By Turner Walston

At the time, it might have seemed like a consolation prize. Since the nearly two-hour weather delay, Carolina had given up three unanswered touchdowns to McNeese State, and watched a 14-point lead turn quickly into a six-point deficit. Placekicker Blake Bercegeay was set to cap a 53-yard Cowboy scoring drive with an extra point, but Marvin Austin got a piece of the ball. It was just one point denied, but the play seemed to spark the Tar Heel defense.

Austin and Darrius Massenburg had beaten their blocker on a previous point-after attempt, and Austin knew he could get through given another chance. "I knew I could get him back, and get him on different levels. I remember Coach (John) Blake telling me, `Get your hand up, get your hand up.'" Austin said after the game. "I went and made a rip, and got my hand up, and the next thing I know, it hit my hand, and it felt like my fingers were about to break."

The blocked kick was the result of a commitment to special teams. "It just happened from working and doing it every day," Austin said. "Coach Davis always talks about how the field goal team has got to be tenacious out there, and that's the mark of a defense. You get scored on, you've got to go out there on the field goal team and just sell out. That's what we wanted to do."

After that blocked kick, Blake sensed he needed to put some fire into the Tar Heel defense. "We had a defensive meeting, and Coach Blake got on us," Kendric Burney said. "Aleric Mullins stood up, and he definitely put it to our defense, telling us there's no off-plays. He got into each and every one of us, and we got that swagger back to us and started performing well."

"He was just trying to get us focused in on what really mattered," Austin said, "and that's just doing your technique and playing fast and physical."

It was a harsh lesson. Austin said he flashed back to training camp, when trailing an FCS team in the third quarter didn't seem possible. "It definitely crosses your mind," he said. "You go out there and you work hard, you run, you do everything asked of you and you feel like you want to come out here and perform. You've seen it in practice, and it's tough when a team gets up on you."

The next four McNeese State drives ended in punts, and the Cowboys got just one first down. Meanwhile, the Tar Heel offense put 21 points on the board, taking back the lead and control of the game. "We just wanted to go out there and put a fire out," Austin said. "We wanted to try to get the ball back for our offense, because we know we have some playmakers and some guys that can get the ball in the end zone."

Playmakers on both sides of the ball - save perhaps Brandon Tate - seemed to be a bit deflated coming out of the delay. "We had a little 14-point lead. We had a little momentum," Quan Sturdivant said. "After the intermission, everybody got flat."

Mindful that both teams had to handle the interruption, no Tar Heel would blame the weather for the inconsistent play. But Burney said the Tar Heels didn't handle the break as well as the Cowboys. "They came out and weren't scared," he said. "That's the biggest thing, when you're the underdog and you've got nothing to lose. They came out and showed that they're ready to play football just like we are. Give credit to them for coming out and putting it to us the way they did."

"They took advantage of the delay and came out with their ducks in a row," Austin said. "We're very fortunate right now."

Burney said the gut-check from Blake and his teammates pumped some life back into the defense - something that seemed missing when the team returned from the weather delay. "When the defense is jumping around, pushing each other, running mouths a little bit to each other, it gets us into a whole different mentality. When we're in that mentality, we're a whole different defense."

Burney said the game still did not finish the way he would have liked. McNeese State scored a late touchdown to pull within eight points, which would prove to be the final margin. "We still didn't close out the way we needed to close out," he said. "We're going to get in and make some corrections."

With 12 days between games, the Tar Heels will have time to make adjustments before traveling to Rutgers on Thursday, Sept. 11. "We're trying to get better next week," Sturdivant said. "We've got a long way to go before we get there, though."