UNC Football Moments After – UNC vs. Stanford 20-15 Win

UNC Tar Heels Football Team Stiff Arms the Stanford Cardinal and Gets Their Second ACC Win

by Derrick Isaiah Clyburn

The North Carolina football team faced off against Stanford on Saturday night. UNC’s two sack leaders, linebackers Tyler Thompson and Melkart Abou Jaoude, set the tone early on the very first possession with two sacks on back-to-back plays to help the Heels’ defense force a punt. Carolina’s defense was very good throughout the first half, with their pass rush as the defensive line won their one-on-one matchups, leading to 6 sacks. The Heels were wreaking havoc in the backfield almost every time the quarterback went to drop back to pass, completely disrupting the Cardinal’s offensive game plan.

Unfortunately for the Tar Heels, the production from the Carolina offense was nonexistent, with only 47 yards on 18 plays. The offense was anemic, just too conservative and predictable for Stanford’s defense to figure out. UNC tried to get the running game going, but Stanford was ready for it, selling out to stop the run. Carolina failed to adjust in the first half, continuing to call run plays and passes behind the line of scrimmage that went absolutely nowhere. There were a few attempts passing the ball over 5 yards downfield, averaging just 3 yards per pass, and that made the Heels’ offense easy to defend. Even when the North Carolina offense was afforded great position after a forced fumble from the defense and were on the nine-yard line, they couldn’t even put together a good sequence of plays to get in the endzone, gained negative yards on that drive, and had to settle for a field goal. Carolina’s defense was practically on the field the whole first half, with the offense only possessing the ball for just nine minutes. UNC’s defense showed up and shut down Stanford’s offense, holding them to just 3 points and 100 total yards on offense. The game was tied 3-3 at halftime, but the Heels would need to step up and put points on the board to help their defense out.  

On the very first offensive possession of the second half, the Tar Heels came out and had a 12-play 75-yard touchdown drive that gave them a 10-3 lead. The Heels had more yards on that one possession than they had in the whole first half of this game. North Carolina found success offensively after finally getting the pass game going with multiple 10+ pass plays from Gio Lopez on that drive that completely opened their offense up. After UNC defense continued to shut down Stanford offense and forced an interception, the Heels went up 13-3 and from that point on were in complete control of the game. In the fourth quarter, UNC wide receiver Jordan Shipp made a huge play after taking a 10-yard pass 55 yards for a touchdown to extend the Carolina lead to 17. North Carolina’s offense was finally playing complementary football and holding up their end after the defense kept them in the game in the first half. Late in the fourth quarter, UNC did start to play conservative defensively and allowed two touchdowns in the fourth that cut the lead to five, but ultimately the Tar Heels defense ended the game how they started it with a couple of sacks and pressures by Melkart Abou Jaoude and Tyler Thompson to seal the second ACC victory of the season for the North Carolina Tar Heels.  

UNC Game Stats  

UNC Total Offense- 253 

Rushing 50   Passing 203           

UNC Passing: Gio Lopez 18/25 203 yards 2TDs 

UNC Rushing: Davion Gause 11-28 yards 

UNC Receiving: Jordan Shipp 5-83 yards 1TD, Kobe Paysour 6-54 yards, Davion Gause 3-51 yards 1TD 

  

Stanford Total Offense- 259 yards 

Stanford Passing: Elijah Brown 284 yards 1TD 1Int 

Stanford Rushing: Micah Ford 17-68 yards, Cole Tabb 4-32 yards 

Stanford Receiving: Caden High 10-102 yards, CJ Williams 6-61 yards 1TD 

 UNC Bright Spots  

Quarterback Gio Lopez threw for 203 yards and two touchdowns. 

Jordan Ship had 5 catches for 83 yards and one touchdown. 

Linebacker Melkart Abou Jaoude had three sacks. 

Linebacker Tyler Thompson had three sacks. 

Defensive Lineman D’antre Robinson and Smith Vilbert each had one sack. 

Needs Work  

North Carolina needs to find the right balance between run plays and pass plays. There needs to be more intermediate passes and passes down the field, so they are not one-dimensional and predictable. Establishing the run is important, but you need to keep the defense guessing and not be easy to defend. Offensive Coordinator Freddie Kitchens must become more creative with his playcalling and be able to use his weapons in a variety of ways to get the most out of this offense. He cannot afford to be conservative with his playcalling because it hurts the offense overall, and when they become more aggressive, it will prevent inconsistency in production. 

The Tar Heels must do a better job of being more disciplined and not having costly penalties that put the offense behind the sticks. It hurts the flow of the offense, and they already struggle to be productive as it is. 

Final Observations 

North Carolina gets their second ACC win of the season and improves to 4-5 on the season, with just wins away from being bowl eligible. The Tar Heels’ defense has been tremendous for the last four weeks, holding teams to 21 points or less. The defensive line has been outstanding with the pass rush and in stifling the run. Guys are just flying around defensively, making impact plays and disrupting the opposing offenses. The major problem has been the offensive production from the Heels. Offensive Freddie Kitchens is not a good offensive coordinator, and he makes everything look difficult offensively with his play calls. His play calls are predictable, basic, generic, and just ineffective for a successful offense. There are hardly any explosive plays or any plays that he schemes up with receivers wide open. It’s just hard to watch North Carolina play offense. Demon June, Jordan Shipp, and Kobe Paysour are their best offensive players and should be used heavily in the offensive game plan, but you must be creative in getting those guys the ball. It just hasn’t worked out that way.

North Carolina’s offense is ranked in the 120s in all the major offensive categories, including yards, first downs, and touchdowns out of 130 Power 4 schools. The offense must be better to complement the improved play of the defense. The defense is getting better each week. We need to see the offense improve as well. We’ve seen glimpses, but the Tar Heels must be consistent with their production. The Tar Heels have four games left, and the progress of the offense will be monitored. Changes will need to be made to fix their offensive struggles, or there will need to be changes made to the offensive coaching staff after this season. Next up is Wake Forest on Saturday, November 15, at 4:30 on the CW.