UNC Tar Heels Football Team Lose in Overtime to Pittsburgh

by Derrick Isaiah Clyburn

The North Carolina football team was once again in a close game to the end. After the Tar Heels opening touchdown drive in the first quarter, the offense struggled to drive the ball down the field until the fourth quarter. Pittsburgh exploited the Tar Heels young secondary all game long with deep pass plays. Going into the fourth quarter, Pittsburgh led 24-10. However, as the Heels have done all season long, they did not give up.

UNC made another huge comeback, scoring 17 points in the fourth quarter to tie the game, which gave them the opportunity to go win in overtime. In overtime, Pittsburgh scored a touchdown on the opening possession, but the Tar Heels failed to score on their possession, resulting in a 34-27 loss for the Tar Heels.

UNC Game Stats

UNC Total Offense- 458 yards

Rushing 136 Passing 322

UNC Passing: Sam Howell 27-43-322yds 3TD’s 1INT

UNC Rushing: Antonio Williams 12-107yds, Michael Carter 11-34yds, Javonte Williams 5-25 yds

UNC Receiving: Dazz Newsome 11-170yds 1TD, Beau Corrales 5-92yds 1TD, Dyami Brown 5-35yds 1TD

Pittsburgh Total Offense- 498 yards

Pittsburgh Passing: Kenny Pickett 25-41-359yds 1TD

Pittsburgh Rushing: AJ Davis 19-58yds 1TD, Kenny Pickett 12-53yds 2TD’s

Pittsburgh Receiving: Shocky Jacques-Louis 4-104yds 1TD, Taysir Mack 6-83yds

UNC Bright Spots

Sam Howell threw for 322 yards and 3 touchdowns on 27 of 43 attempts

Dazz Newsome had 11 catches for 170 yards and 1 TD

Needs Work

The defensive coordinator needs to find ways to help his young secondary since opponents are starting to exploit them every week. He needs to do a better job of calling plays that will allow his defensive lineman to get more pressure on the quarterback to take some of that pressure off the secondary.

The defense also needs to be more disciplined as there were too many penalties called on them in critical points of the game.

The offensive play-calling needs to be better at critical points of the game. You cannot call the same play more than once on the same drive when you are trying to win late in the game.

Sam Howell struggled with his deep-ball accuracy in this game. They were three separate throws that could have been touchdowns if the passes had been accurate.

Final Observations

The Tar Heels football team has been in every game this year. However, too many times they have missed opportunities that would allow them to pull out those games that they lost with a victory.

UNC has two more games left against Mercer and NC State and need to win both games to qualify for a bowl game. North Carolina has the team to do it so it will be interesting to see if they will finish the season strong.