If you only pick up the box score or scan the results as they roll across the bottom of the screen, if you see North Carolina hung 56 points on Virginia Tech and won by 11, it would be entirely reasonable to say, "Yes, this is clearly and undeniably a top-10 team."
If you actually watched North Carolina let Virginia Tech come storming back into the game in the second half, you'd probably just as soon reserve judgment on that. Still.
After two opening wins over middling opponents _ the second, over Boston College, narrow enough that Mack Brown made it a point to say he wasn't going to complain about winning _ this was the Tar Heels' best chance yet to justify their lofty eighth-ranked position in the polls.
That's not exactly how it worked out.
Are the Tar Heels as good as the hype that's been steadily building since last December, and will continue to build after Saturday's 56-45 win over the Hokies? Maybe so. But it's still too soon to say.
The offense is every bit as explosive as advertised, with the unstoppable one-two running punch of Michael Carter and Javonte Williams _ 383 yards! _ and quarterback Sam Howell connected on a couple long passes for the first time this season, the one missing link in the UNC offense.
The Hokies hadn't allowed this many points in high definition. They hadn't allowed this many points in their entire 17 years in the ACC.
But the Tar Heels were also in total control twice, up 21-0 early and 35-14 at the half, and continued to let the Hokies make a game of it, whether through dropped passes on offense or breakdowns on defense.
"There's another level," receiver Dyami Brown said. "We had a couple drops. I think about two three-and-outs. We didn't really finish those drives. We can go further. We can do more."
North Carolina isn't the first opponent to have that issue against a surprisingly resilient Virginia Tech team that keeps on fighting even with half its defense in quarantine. The Hokies could just as easily have been 0-2 going on 0-3 Saturday morning, but hung on against Duke last week and somehow put a thorough whooping on N.C. State, a result that's already a front-runner to finish as the most baffling result of the ACC season.
(Virginia Tech then narrowly beat Duke, which got blown out by Virginia, which got beaten by N.C. State, which got blown out by Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech did miss out on a chance for the 3-0 Triangle week, a year after Wake Forest pulled off that same feat.)
The Hokies' failure to fold Saturday afternoon was entirely in keeping with their season. But so was North Carolina's inability to put daylight between itself and Virginia Tech when twice given the chance. It wasn't until Carter's 62-yard sprint in the fourth quarter that the Tar Heels could even feel comfortable, and even then Virginia Tech was able to narrow the gap.
The Tar Heels needed a big second half to overcome Syracuse in the opener and Boston College was a two-point conversion away from forcing overtime a week ago.
"We really haven't put a full game together," linebacker Jeremiah Gemmel said.
So the jury remains out whether the Tar Heels are among the true elite, and it may be a while before there's another litmus test like this one. It'll may be six games and seven weeks until they face another ranked opponent, and that's assuming the schedule holds, which it hasn't so far.
There's a decent chance North Carolina is 8-0 when Notre Dame comes to town the day after Thanksgiving, and an equally decent chance we won't know that much more about the Tar Heels than we do now.
At the very least, they have met expectations.
"That's who we want to be," Brown said. "But have we earned it yet? That's what we talk to them about every week."
We know North Carolina is good. Whether the Tar Heels are merely good or really good still remains to be seen. They missed a chance to demonstrate that Saturday. They'll take the win instead.
