ACC Roulette: North Carolina lives; Hokies are alpha dogs no more

North Carolina 20, Virginia Tech 17. In the big picture, the Tar Heels' season-saving upset is on the ACC-leading defense: Carolina shut out Virginia Tech for a half, held the Hokies to 256 yards, sacked Tyrod Taylor three times and forced two turnovers, one setting up the game-winning field goal. Twice with its back against the goal line, the Heel defense was inches away from turning Tech away on its only two touchdowns. The Hokies had to work for everything they got, and they didn't get much. But that was more or less expected from the UNC defense -- if you gave Virginia Tech 17 points coming into this game, Frank Beamer and a large percentage of the betting public on Tech would probably have taken it, because North Carolina's struggling, lo-fi offense was too hopeless to make anything happen against a Bud Foster defense on the road, where this fading season was set to go to black. And it should have, right after T.J. Yates' disastrous dump-off into the arms of Tec...