Huskies are held up at The Rent

The defense was swarming all over the field, swallowing up ball-carriers and receivers alike and giving North Carolina quarterback T.J. Yates that deer in the headlights sort of look.

Yep, the University of Connecticut was well on its way to an impressive victory over a top-25 opponent for just the second time in 14 chances as an appreciative crowd of 38,087 fans at Rentschler Field roared with approval, punctuating every sack, batted-down pass or stand-up hit at the line of scrimmage with throaty cheers.

But there were signs that perhaps UConn’s dominance would not last.

The Tar Heels converted on a long third-and-20 play, reaching the first-down marker with a 20-yard gain even though the Huskies recovered moments later to force a punt.

When starting Husky quarterback Zach Frazer went down on UConn’s next possession, limping back to the huddle after getting his legs rolled up on after a 5-yard scramble, there might have been a murmur or two or several thousand in the stands.

Could the Huskies hang on?……

It turns out that UConn did, indeed, hang on, but at the most inopportune of times.

Stymied by UConn’s defense throughout 3-plus quarters, North Carolina’s offense clicked to the tune of a pair of long, sustained scoring drives to knot matters at 10-all before the Huskies gift-wrapped the eventual winning points for the Tar Heels when senior left tackle Dan Ryan locked up with UNC’s Robert

Quinn and pulled the sophomore defensive end to the turf in the end zone.

The resulting holding call with 1:32 remaining wiped out a 16-yard completion from sophomore quarterback Cody Endres to senior tailback Andre Dixon and, more importantly, awarded the Tar Heels a safety and their winning 2-point edge in a 12-10 victory over the Huskies.

Even though the Huskies (1-1) recovered the ensuing onside kick and advanced to midfield on two straight completions by Endres, two straight incompletions and North Carolina’s fourth sack of the game sealed the deal on one of the most frustrating losses in UConn football history.

“It’s a disappointing loss and I don’t know if I’ve ever been involved in a game that ended that way,” said Husky coach Randy Edsall. “Our guys fought to the end and it’s got to be wrenching, gut-wrenching.

“It’s great to give effort, we slugged it out to the end, but we just couldn’t get that one play when we needed it at the end. It never should have come down to that.”

But it did come down to that because UConn’s defense, so stingy throughout three quarters while allowing the Tar Heels to gain just eight first downs and 134 total yards on 45 snaps from scrimmage, including minus-2 yards on 24 rush attempts, fell back on its heels a bit as North Carolina sustained a pair of game-changing drives.

Set up by an interception by sophomore defensive tackle Twyon Martin, the Huskies needed just four plays to cover 26 yards, the final four on sophomore tailback Jordan Todman’s bull run off right tackle for a touchdown that staked UConn to a 10-zip lead with 55 ticks left in the third quarter.

Trailing by those 10 points when they began a drive from their own 17 with 47 seconds left in the quarter, the Tar Heels marched 78 yards on 13 plays before settling for a 22-yard field goal by place kicker Casey Barth at the 4:04 mark of the final quarter.

Following a 3-and-out by UConn’s no-huddle offense, the Tar Heels went right back to work and covered 76 yards on 13 plays once again, this time knotting matters at 10-all when junior tight end Zack Pianalto (7 catches, 87 yards), who would injure himself while celebrating, sat back and calmly collected a 2-yard TD toss from Yates (23-of-32, 233 yards) with 2:36 remaining.

Looking for a key play on that drive? Look no further than a 21-yard pass from Yates to wideout Erik Highsmith (4 catches, 59 yards) on third-and-17 from UNC’s 16-yard line.

“They started to go to a couple of misdirection plays that hurt us,” Edsall admitted, commenting on UNC’s ability to double their yardage (134) through three quarters in the fourth quarter alone.

“The rollouts, they came at us a little bit more and we weren’t getting off our blocks as well as we did earlier. We played zone and sometimes we didn’t execute the way we wanted to.”

The lack of execution on defense may have been the direct result of UConn’s inability to sustain offense in the decisive fourth quarter.

Following the game-tying TD pass by Yates, the Huskies started their next drive on their own 20.

Endres (3-of-7, 30 yards) missed Dixon coming out of the backfield and the next snap from sophomore center Moe Petrus sailed well over his quarterback’s head as the Tar Heels swallowed up Endres for a 12-yard loss back to the eight.

On the next play, Endres threw from the end zone and hooked up with Dixon on a 16-yard gain that would have given punter Desi Cullen some valuable breathing room on fourth down, but the officials flagged Ryan for holding Quinn in the end zone.

“There’s a problem there,” Edsall said of the high snap. “Moe thought he heard something that wasn’t there. It’s something that can’t happen.

“As far as the safety, I’ve got to look at that and some of those pass plays [on UConn's final possession that might have been flagged for pass interference] at the end. The bottom line is we gave ourselves an opportunity to win the ballgame. Things are magnified when you don’t.”

UConn’s defense limited North Carolina to just 65 total yards (including minus-6 on the ground) in the first half and the Huskies took a 3-0 lead into the halftime break when sophomore kicker David Teggart nailed a 47-yard field goal through the uprights with no time left.

That boot that would have been good from 57 yards capped an impressive 11-play march that covered 41 yards and ate up 3:29 with Frazer (11-of-19, 94 yards) completing 4-of-5 passes for 15 yards and Todman (18 carries, 66 yards) lugging the ball twice for 11 yards.

But UConn’s offense would sputter thereafter as the Huskies, who gained 129 total yards in the first half, produced just 67 yards over the final two quarters.