UNC Football Moments After – UNC vs. James Madison 70-50 Loss
UNC Tar Heels Football Team Underestimates the Dukes and Takes an Embarrassing Home Loss
by Derrick Isaiah Clyburn
The North Carolina football team faced off against James Madison on Saturday afternoon in their final non-conference game. The Heels were looking to go 4-0 for the second straight season coming into this matchup. After losing quarterback Max Johnson to injury in the first game of the season and Connor Harrell being benched in the third game against North Carolina Central, the Tar Heels gave Jacolby Criswell the nod to start today. This game got off to an explosive start for both offenses. James Madison’s first offensive play was a 38-yard run by JMU’s quarterback Alonza Barnett. Carolina’s first offensive play was a 42-yard pass from UNC quarterback Jacolby Criswell to freshman receiver Christian Hamilton.
Coming into this game, both teams were known for leaning heavily on their running game but both teams’ game plan early was pass-heavy. James Madison marched down on their very first offensive possession of the game and put 3 points on the board. North Carolina would do the same and march down the field on their first offensive possession, but it ended in a fumble. That fumble on their first possession would be the first of many mistakes on the day for the Tar Heels. A couple of possessions later, the UNC offense went 3 and out and on the punt attempt, James Madison blocked the punt returning it for a touchdown to give them an early 11-0 lead over the Heels. The Tar Heels would respond with two touchdown drives as their offensive success continued both on the ground and through the air giving them the first lead of the game 14-11.
As it has plagued them all season thus far, North Carolina’s pass defense was once again horrendous in this game. After regaining the lead, the Tar Heels surrendered a 69-yard pass touchdown to James Madison as the game continued to go back and forth. On the next kickoff, James Madison surprised the Heels with an onside kick and recovered, looking to change the momentum of the game and disrupt the flow of the Tar Heels offense. This onside kick recovery would indeed give James Madison the extra confidence they needed, and they marched right down the field after 4 completed passes for a touchdown and a 2 pt conversion completely torching the UNC’s defensive backs and extending their lead to 11.
As James Madison’s confidence grew, the Carolina football team started to unravel after that onside kick both offensively and defensively. North Carolina was finding their groove offensively with Jacolby Criswell running the show and leading the Tar Heels to three straight touchdown drives, but after that failure to recover the onside kick the UNC offense ended their half horrifically on their final five offensive possessions before halftime. Those five offensive drives ended in two punts, a fumble, an interception, and a pick 6.
Meanwhile, defensively, they had no answers for James Madison’s passing attack and the Dukes took advantage of every mistake the Tar Heels made in the first half. The Heels’ defense had multiple blown coverages, was out of position on several plays, and failed to get any pressure on the quarterback or to disrupt or make anything difficult for James Madison’s offense. James Madison put up a whopping 53 points in the first half against UNC, which is the most points given up in a half in the history of North Carolina football. Everything that could go for the Tar Heels did in that first half. UNC made every error you could imagine including a pick 6, a blocked punt, a fumble, an interception, and multiple penalties. It was arguably the worst half of football played in North Carolina football history. The first 30 minutes were filled with non-stop action and surprises. There were 21 possessions between the two teams and over 70 points combined put on the board. The Dukes scored 7 touchdowns and had over 400 yards of total offense in the first half as North Carolina was down 53-21 at halftime, which is their biggest deficit of the season.
To start the second half, the Heels did find some offensive success again and moved the ball down the field, but it only resulted in a field goal. James Madison picked up right where they left offensively continuing to dominate the Tar Heels’ defense, especially with their passing attack, and pushed their lead to 60-24 early in the third quarter. UNC did put up some fight and strung together a couple of touchdown drives and a blocked punt that resulted in a touchdown to cut the lead to 19. However, when Carolina had a chance to cut more into the lead with the ball on offense, they couldn’t make the right play and had another costly turnover. As they had all game long, James Madison took advantage of the Heels’ miscues and scored their final touchdown giving them 70 points.
70 points was the most points given up in a game by the Tar Heels since 2014 against East Carolina. The defensive performance in this game by North Carolina was an atrocity, an abomination, embarrassing, disappointing, and every other negative word you could use to describe it. It was arguably their worst defensive performance in the history of the program. North Carolina surrendered over 600 total yards of offense to James Madison including 9 touchdowns, had 5 turnovers and 9 penalties, and allowed more points in the first half of this game than they allowed against their first three opponents combined. It was a horrendous performance all around for the Heels. The only bright spot of this game was the North Carolina offense which had over 600 yards of total offense and put up 50 points, but it just wasn’t enough. James Madison came in on a mission and the Tar Heels floundered an opportunity to have momentum playing some good football going into conference play, dropping the first game of the season.
UNC Game Stats
UNC Total Stats- 616
Rushing 141 Passing 475
UNC Passing: Jacolby Criswell 28/45 475 yards 3TDs 2INTs
UNC Rushing: Omarion Hampton 19-139 yards 3TDs
UNC Receiving: Kobe Paysour 4-93 yards, JJ Jones 5-86 yards, Bryson Nesbit 4-71 yards 1TD, John Copenhaver 3-62 yards 1TD, Christian Hamilton 2-51 yards 1TD, Jordan Shipp 2-25 yards 1TD
James Madison Total Offense- 611 yards
James Madison Passing: Alonza Barnett III 22/34 388 yards 5TDs
James Madison Rushing: Alonza Barnett III 13-99 yards 2TDs
James Madison Receiving: Omarion Dollison 3-125 yards 1TD, Cam Ross 7-107 yards 1TD, Taylor Thompson 2-26 yards 1TD, Logan Kyle 1-11 yards 1TD, Dylan Williams 1-7 yards 1TD
UNC Bright Spots
Quarterback Jacolby Criswell threw for 475 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Running back Omarion Hampton had 19 carries for 139 yards and 3 rushing touchdowns.
Wide Receiver Kobe Paysour led the team in receiving yards with 4 catches for 93 yards.
Tight End Bryson Nesbit had 5 catches for 86 yards.
Tight End John Copenhaver had 3 catches for 62 yards and one receiving touchdown.
Jordan Shipp recorded his first career receiving touchdown.
Antavious Lane recorded a forced fumble.
Needs Work
North Carolina must be better prepared coming into these games. This was the second straight week they had a bad start to the game and looked completely unprepared defensively and on special teams.
The passing defense must be better. On too many occasions, the defensive backs were out of position, giving up several explosive plays in the passing game every single game. It was almost like they had never played football before. They have been the weakest part of this defense every game this season and adjustments must be made to put them in a better position to succeed.
The defensive line also must be better at rushing the passer and making plays in the backfield. They also need to be more disciplined. Because of their alignment on defense and their poor decision-making to take bad angles, it allows opponents to have more explosive plays This must be addressed. Defensive coordinator Geoff Collins needs to go back to being more aggressive defensively and putting these players in a position to disrupt and wreak havoc on these offenses. If not, these offenses will continue to torch them.
The offensive line must be better in pass protection. They have done a terrible job against the blitz and are allowing free runners to hit the quarterback on multiple occasions during the game. They must do better with identifying blitzes, and the coaching staff needs to have more 6- or 7-man protections to help out and implement more plays that will get the ball out of the quarterback’s hands quicker in those situations. must be more disciplined and cut down on their turnovers.
Final Observations
The Tar Heels drop their first game of the season and move to 3-1 on the season. It was an utter embarrassment to lose to James Madison the way they did. It’s one thing to lose to a better opponent or a conference opponent but to lose to a group of five school that you’re obviously more talented than is completely unacceptable. The coaching staff should be ashamed, and their jobs should be on the line if they continue to put performances on the field like this. They haven’t had this team prepared to play at the start of the last two games and too often they take inferior teams for granted.
This time it came back to bite them. There is no way the defense should play as badly as it did today, especially with how they were performing in the first three games. The trend of losing to inferior teams every year continues and something must be done about it. This team is a direct reflection of the coaching staff and it’s coming to the point where they might need to start fresh as a football program. The Heels are recruiting fairly well, and have immense talent but year after year they underperform at various parts of the season. It is totally unacceptable, and the athletic director shouldn’t be afraid to move on from Mack Brown and his staff if these types of performances continue to happen. This is year 6 for Mack Brown and the Tar Heels should be in a much better position as a program and shouldn’t be still struggling to play to a standard every week or to find a consistent identity. Next up is Duke on Saturday, September 28 at 4:00 on ACC Network.