With the exception of the Syracuse game, our O has largely struggled this year. The D has carried us, but it has led to many close, low scoring games since the O hasn't produced as well as expected.

It is very alarming that we gave up 7 in a row in the 4th quarter (not sure why a TO wasn't used sometime during that run). UNC was running a lot of 2-man games up top with picks that worked well. It was similar to what Duke ran against us in the championship in 2010 that gave us fits (although Duke used a 3 man "weave" in the same spot on the field). Let's hope it was a 1 game fluke and not a trend - it will be very interesting to see how they play Friday night.

The face off penalty situation had a lot to do with the 4th quarter run as our FO guys were reluctant to get called again. We also 7-8 penalties, which is very uncharacteristic of this team.

I also think this would have been a different outcome if Finley's shot after a FO win in the midst of UNC's run had gone in instead of hitting the pipe. UNC went right back and scored off the rebound - a quick 2 goal swing.

... so much of what we've been doing on faceoffs has been not so much aimed at winning the draw straight up, but creating a scrum until our wings get in, or stopping the other team's guy from winning it to himself. The penalty situation took us out of that and left our D unsettled.

It's definitely not the only reason we lost, but it definitely changed the flow of the game.

I didn't see a second of the game, but I'll be with flanner96 on my outlook. The way we lost the game is the exact same way we beat Denver (let's assume we made our last attempt in regulation, thereby giving us the win - I know that did not happen).

Do any of you NOT THINK Denver looks like our most formidable rival for the trophy? I'm not putting any carts before horses - I know there are a thousand things that can happen. I'm just trying to provide the same context as flanner96.

You can't look at the Denver game and the UNC game and come up with two drastically different views of the world of us and Denver.

So if you really DO THINK the sky is falling, that also means you think Denver is completely fucked as well.

I don't think Denver or ND is fucked.

It's a game, it's a competition, it was against a damned good program, we had the game in hand (14-9), yet it slipped away. You can shit your pants and say IT WAS THE WAY... if you want, but that proves to be true as often as not. Had we lost star players, it might make sense to think we're fucked. If the Dubs have lost Curry, they might be fucked. However, the way we lost does not have to be any sort of harbinger whatsoever. We'll see if it is only after the season is complete.

The last two games were arguably our worst performances of the season. We should be peaking going into the tournament. Duke has about 5 losses but now they are playing their best lacrosse of the year. Winning the ACC is now not a given, as it once appeared to be.
The team appears to have hit a plateau which they are going to have to rise above or they will be watching the teams play on Memorial Day.