UNC Tar Heels Football Team Squeak Past Miami
by Derrick Isaiah Clyburn
The North Carolina football team looked to get back in the winning column on Saturday afternoon against Miami after last week’s loss to Florida State. The Tar Heels came out and made a statement with an opening scoring drive. After that, Howell would throw a pick six which tied the game at seven.
In the first half, the Carolina offense could not be stopped as they drove up and down the field on several possessions. They scored 31 first-half points in large part due to the running game led by Sam Howell and Ty Chandler. The defense also was playing well and forced two interceptions. However, the penalties in the first half were costly for the Tar Heels and it helped extend drives for Miami that resulted in points. Nevertheless, UNC was still up 31-17 going into halftime.
In the second half, the Tar Heels offense got away from what made them successful in the first half and they started to struggle to get anything going. The defense was horrendous in the second half with blown coverages and assignments including missed tackles and allowed Miami’s offense to start clicking on all cylinders.
The Hurricanes capitalized on the UNC’s defensive mistakes and it allowed them to get back into the game. The Tar Heels never relinquished the lead to Miami, but the game was made much harder than it had to be due to costly miscues on both sides of the ball by the UNC football team. Miami would get the game within 3 points and had the ball in the red zone before UNC linebacker Cedric Gray made a game-sealing interception with six seconds left in the game to give the Heels the 45-42 win.
UNC Game Stats
UNC Total Offense– 382 yards
Rushing 228 Passing 154
UNC Passing: Sam Howell 17-26-154 yds 2TDS 1 INT
UNC Rushing: Ty Chandler 18-104 yds 2TDs, Sam Howell 17-98 yards 2TDS, D.J. Jones 12-27 yards
UNC Receiving: Josh Downs 11-96 yards 1 TD, Antoine Green 1-41 yards, John Copenhaver 1-2 yards 1TD
Miami Total Offense– 421 yards
Miami Passing: Tyler Van Dyke 20-45-145 yds 1TD 3INTS
Miami Rushing: Jaylan Knighton 17-92 yards 2TDS, Cam’Ron Harris 6-26 yards, Tyler Van Dyke 9-36 yards
Miami Receiving: Jaylan Knighton 2-73 yards 1TD, Keyshawn Smith 7-73 yards
UNC Bright Spots
Sam Howell threw for 154 yards and 2 touchdowns. He also had 17 carries for 98 yards and 2 rushing touchdowns.
Ty Chandler had 18 carries for 104 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Josh Downs had 11 receptions for 96 yards and 1 touchdown
Cedric Gray had 2 interceptions, including the game-sealing interception.
Cam’Ron Kelly had 1 interception.
Needs Work
The defense needs to do a better job of tackling in space. They continue to miss entirely too many tackles which results in big plays for the opponent.
The defensive coordinator Jay Bateman needs to do a better job of using the 4-3 defensive front to help eliminate the big runs up the middle. The 4-2-5 is not a great scheme to stop the run and the secondary struggles to cover without the defensive line getting enough pressure on the quarterback.
The offensive coordinator Phil Longo’s play-calling needs to call more quick-hitting plays to get the ball out of Sam Howell’s hands. The offense needs another receiver other than Josh Downs to step up to give Sam Howell a quality option to throw to consistently.
The Tar Heels also need to cut down on their penalties and be more disciplined. They had too many penalties that extended drives for Miami that put them in scoring position.
Final Observations
The Tar Heels did get the win against Miami on Saturday, which is a good thing but it’s hard to be impressed by what we saw out there from them. The Heels allowed a team with their backup quarterback to put up 42 points, which is totally unacceptable.
In addition, the passing attack from the Tar Heels has regressed tremendously and the offensive line play has been horrendous the last couple of weeks. Outside of Josh Downs, no other receiver can get open and it is making Sam Howell work too hard to get positive things going on offense.
On defense, Defensive coordinator Jay Bateman is not putting his guys in a position to succeed. They allow too many big runs up the middle and the 4-2-5 scheme he runs seems to get torched by almost every team we face. The bottom line is there needs to be significant changes and improvements on both sides of the ball if this team wants to still compete for the ACC Coastal division title. The Heels have a bye week next week so the coaching staff needs to take that time to address their issues and get ready to go on a good run in the second half of the season.