Wel, the bright side is UNC managed amost twice as mny points against the Pirates than Virginia Tech did last week. I wuldn't have thought the argument could be made that Heels' offensive line was better than the Hokies', but Yates had tme to pass, and even the nascent running game was given a chance to take hold at the end before the drives started ending in hapless fashion - one to a Hakeem Nicks fumble, another to multiple botched snaps.

Unfortunately, ECU decided to display a passing offense, as a former third-string quarterback lit up the secondary for 406 yards. It'll be a long season if that doesn't improve - Matt Ryan must be cursing even as I type the scheduling gods that kept UNC off of Boston College's slate. Yes, the special teams errors are frustrating, but the flip side of that coin is the three field goals ECU missed before nailing the game-ending one; the game coud have slipped out of the Heels' hands much sooner.

The end result is further indication that the young team holds promise. True, the expectations are pretty low (Find me another year where I'd be so blase about losing to a coach named Skip) but there hasn't been a shameful performance out of this team yet, and I'm looking forward to the Virginia matchup next week.

I'm less enthused about the week after that.