UNC Tar Heels Football Team Fails to Seize Their Opportunities

By Derrick Isaiah Clyburn

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The North Carolina football faced off against the 2nd ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Friday afternoon. The UNC football team started the game with a 3 and out on defense and with the offense clicking on all cylinders with two straight scoring drives. However, after the early scores on offense, the Heels’ offense stifled and only scored three points on the next three offensive possessions.

Even though the Tar Heels did not play their best after the first couple of drives on the offensive, the score was still tied going into halftime. In the second half, the Tar Heels’ offensive struggles continued, and did not score on their final 6 possessions. The defense did a pretty good job all game of limiting Notre Dame offense the best they could. The North Carolina defense kept them in the game allowing just 7 points in the second half until the late Notre Dame score in the final minute of the game. The high-powered offense just could never get going in the second half and the disappointing showing would lead to their 31-17 loss.

UNC Game Stats

UNC Total Offense- 298 yards

Rushing 87 Passing 211

UNC Passing: Sam Howell 17-27-235 yds 1TD

UNC Rushing: Michael Carter 8-57 yds, Javonte Williams 11-28 yds

UNC Receiving: Dyami Brown 4-84 yds, Dazz Newsome 4-64 yds

Notre Dame Total Offense- 478 yards

Notre Dame Passing: Ian Book 23-33 279 yds 1TD

Notre Dame Rushing: Kyren Williams 23-124 yds 2TDs, Ian Book 8-48 yds

Notre Dame Receiving: Javon McKinley 6-135 yds, Michael Mayer 4-54 yds, Kyren Williams 4-20 yds 1TD

UNC Bright Spots

Sam Howell threw for 211 yards and one touchdown. He also had one rushing touchdown.

Dyami Brown had 4 receptions for 84 yards.

Dazz Newsome had 6 receptions for 64 yards.

Needs Work

The defense needs to continue to get better at tackling in space and finishing the play when they are in position to sack the quarterback. They also need to do a better job of knowing their defensive assignments out there on the field.

The offensive play calling needs to be better. Instead of calling plays that force the quarterback to wait for receivers to get open downfield, there needs to be more intermediate passing plays called.

Final Observations

As we have said all season long, the offense is the strength of this team, so they need to show up every game. The Tar Heels’ offense failed to do that this game and it costed them in their biggest game of the year. The defense actually showed up in today’s matchup against Notre Dame and gave the offense several opportunities.

However, the offense did not show up to do their job. The offensive play-calling has to be much better and Phil Longo needs to take full responsibility for that. He needs to adjust to the different defenses thrown at them because they have the talent and firepower on offense to be successful and score against any defense. The Tar Heels have two games left on the schedule and should look to end the season on a high note to give them momentum going into next season.