UNC Tar Heels Football Team Falls Short to Notre Dame

by Derrick Isaiah Clyburn

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The North Carolina football team faced off against Notre Dame in primetime on Saturday night. It was a very competitive first half that went back and forth. After not scoring on their first series, the Tar Heels got in a rhythm offensively and scored points on the next three first-half drives.

However, the defense struggled throughout the first half and allowed Notre Dame to do whatever they wanted offensively, which allowed the Fighting Irish to take a 17-13 halftime lead. Two costly penalties occurred in the first half that completely changed the game, which was a holding penalty that cost the Heels a touchdown and a facemask that extended a drive for Notre Dame that resulted in a touchdown.

In the second half, UNC’s offense continued to score points but the defense just failed to get any stops. In order for them to have a chance to take the lead, the offense would’ve needed to score on every possession, which did not occur. The defense was horrendous throughout the game and Notre Dame completely dominated the Heels’ run defense with 298 rushing yards. The North Carolina defense was completely out of sync with blown coverages, several missed tackles, and penalties that were costly. Notre Dame took full advantage and would go on to win 44-34.

UNC Game Stats

UNC Total Offense– 554 yards

Rushing 213 Passing 341

UNC Passing: Sam Howell 24-31 341 yds 1TD 1 INT

UNC Rushing: Ty Chandler 15-83 yds 2TDs, Sam Howell 18-91 yards 1TD, D.J. Jones 7-39 yards

UNC Receiving: Josh Downs 10-142 yards, Antoine Green 5-83 yards 1TD, Bryson Nesbit 5-50 yards

Notre Dame Total Offense– 528 yards

Notre Dame Passing: Jack Coan 16-24 213 yds 1TD, Tyler Buchner 2-2 17 yds 1TD

Notre Dame Rushing: Kyren Williams 22-202 yds 1TD, Logan Diggs 11-42 yds 1TD, Jack Coan 3-28 yds 1TD

Notre Dame Receiving: Lorenzo Styles Jr. 3-74 yds, Avery Davis 5-51 yds 1TD, Kevin Austin Jr. 3-36 yds 1TD

UNC Bright Spots

Sam Howell threw for 341 yards and one touchdown. He also had 18 carries for 91 yards and a touchdown.

Ty Chandler had 15 carries for 83 yards and two touchdowns.

Josh Down had 10 receptions for 142 yards.

Antoine Green had 8 receptions for 83 yards and a touchdown.

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 Tar Heels also need to cut down on their penalties and be more disciplined. They had too many penalties that either cost themselves points or extended drives for Notre Dame.

Final Observations

After this loss to Notre Dame, the Tar Heels’ record is now 4-4 on the season. The Tar Heels have not lived up to expectations and have failed to put together games where both the offense and defense play well in the same game. In this game, the offense played well, but the defense had one of their worst performances of the season.

After a bye week, you would expect much more from this Tar Heels squad. It doesn’t look like the defense made any adjustments or improvements to the weaknesses that were on display before the bye week. They still allow too many big runs plays in the 4-2-5 scheme. Defensive coordinator Jay Bateman’s strategies are obviously still not enough to stop high-powered offenses.

At this point in the season, it is time for the young players to start getting more playing time to get them some reps going into the next season. In addition, the Tar Heels need to focus on finishing above .500 while trying to get better each week going forward. Next up is Wake Forest next Saturday.