UNC Football Moments After – UNC vs. Appalachian State 40-34 Win
UNC Tar Heels Football Team Holds on Against Its Instate Rival and Wins in Double-Overtime
By Derrick Isaiah Clyburn
In their home opener of the 2023 season, the North Carolina football team faced off against Appalachian State on Saturday night. Early on, both teams’ offense struggled to put up points and went scoreless in the first quarter. The Heels were able to move the ball down the field on App State’s defense but after some questionable play calling was stopped twice on fourth down and unable to convert on third and short resulting in no points.
UNC was uncharacteristically conservative in the first half going with a run-heavy offense, which is totally different from what we have seen in the past from this UNC offense. Drake Maye only threw for 45 yards in the first half, which was a career low. The one big play on offense in the first half came from a 68-yard touchdown run by Omarion Hampton. Meanwhile, the UNC defense played a decent half holding App State to just 10 points but had problems getting off the field on third down.
App State converted 4 of their eight third downs in the first half alone after holding South Carolina to 4 of 14 on their third downs last week. This would allow App State to extend drives and get points. However, even with the Tar Heels not playing their best football on both sides of the field, the score was still tied 10-10 going into halftime
In the second half, North Carolina and Appalachian State would go back and forth with scoring drives. UNC finally made the necessary adjustments offensively and was able to find a rhythm that allowed them to score on their first three possessions after halftime. Omarion Hampton was exceptional all game running the ball and had over 200 yards rushing with three touchdowns.
App State found success in the running game as well and took advantage of North Carolina’s porous run defense and inability to cover the Appalachian State receivers on third downs, which led to their points. With both defenses struggling to stop the opposing offenses, the game would go down to the wire. Late in the game with just 4 minutes left in the 4th quarter, Appalachian State would drive down the field down by three with a chance to tie or take the lead. However, on 3rd and 9 in Appalachian State’s red zone, the Tar Heels would get a huge stop to force them to kick a field goal, which tied the game at 27.
After that, the Heels would have a shot for a game-winning drive with one minute and 20 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Drake Maye would lead the Tar Heels down the field after completing three passes and a couple of scrambles to get them in field goal range. With three seconds left, the Heels brought out kicker Ryan Coe for a chance to kick the game-winning field goal, but he missed forcing the game to go into overtime.
In overtime, both teams scored touchdowns on their first possession with the ball. On Carolina’s second offensive possession, they would score once again this time from a Drake Maye rushing touchdown. Appalachian State would get the ball back for their opportunity to score, but UNC would force a 4 and out after a pass breakup from Alijah Huzzie to seal the game for the Tar Heels.
UNC Game Stats
UNC Total Offense- 527 yards
Rushing 319 Passing 208
UNC Passing: Drake Maye 21-30-208 yards
UNC Rushing: Omarion Hampton 26-234 yards 3TDs, Drake Maye 11-57 yards 1TD, Caleb Hood 6-26 yards 1TD
UNC Receiving: JJ Jones 5-91 yards, Kobe Paysour 8-73 yards
Appalachian State Total Offense-
Appalachian State Passing: Joey Aguilar 22-43-275 yards 2TDs 1INT
Appalachian State Rushing: Nate Noel 26-127 yards 2TDs
Appalachian State Receiving: Dashaun Davis 7-117 yards 1TD
UNC Bright Spots
Omarion Hampton had 26 carries for 234 yards and three touchdowns.
Drake Maye threw for 208 yards and had 11 carries for 56 yards and a rushing touchdown.
JJ Jones had 5 catches for 91 yards
Kobe Paysour had 8 catches for 73 yards.
Don Chapman had 5 tackles and an interception
Needs Work
The North Carolina secondary needs work and must do a better job of being in a better position to play the ball and get pass breakups. They also need to stop playing in soft coverage so much because they give too much space to the opponents’ receivers to run their routes and are not recovering fast enough to force incompletions.
The UNC defense needs to do a better job of getting off the field on third downs especially on third and long. App State converted more than half of their third downs, which is totally unacceptable.
Even though the North Carolina offense has put up points the first two weeks of the season, they have been too inconsistent with their play on the field. Drake Maye does not look as sharp with his play as he did last season and the lack of aggression in the passing game along with the receivers’ inability to get separation and get open consistently is a major issue.
In addition, the offensive play calling needs to be better. The tight ends need to be used more in the passing game and they need to go upfield more on their passing plays.
Final Observations
The North Carolina football team moves to 2-0 on the season. The Tar Heels were once again in a tough matchup with Appalachian State and were able to pull it out. Every year the Heels play App State, the Mountaineers play their best game of the season against UNC. This was on full display in this game as they scored 34 points and made North Carolina work for everything out there on the field.
Coming into this season, something that the fans and the coaching staff talked about all offseason regarding this team was consistency, going from good to great, and handling prosperity or success as a team better. Well, the Tar Heels are still working on that. The defense didn’t play badly but was nowhere near the defense we saw last week against South Carolina. They failed to put pressure on the quarterback and were unable to make enough plays in the backfield, which put too much pressure on the UNC secondary which continues to be the weakness of the defense. This is an area that the defense will need to address. They will need to make sure they can play closer to the way they played against South Carolina going forward for them to be successful as a unit. Offensively, the running game looks good, but they have not found much success in the passing game. Drake Maye is not as sharp or as in sync with his receivers as he was last year. Chip Lindsay needs to find a way to correct that. His playcalling has been questionable when it comes to the passing game so far. Lindsay is not calling enough passing plays for the tight ends or enough plays upfield. Everything in the passing game has been getting it to the receivers in the flat or five- or six-yard routes up the field. That won’t work if they want to be successful as an offense. They must throw upfield and the coaches must be more creative with their playcalling in the passing game. Once they make those changes to the offense, it will be fine. Next up is Minnesota on Saturday, September 16 at 3:30 P.M.