UNC Tar Heels Football Team Comebacks From 18 Down for Victory Over the #9 Ranked Deacons

by Derrick Isaiah Clyburn

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The North Carolina football team played #9 Wake Forest in their homecoming game on Saturday afternoon. The game started with a fumble by UNC running back Ty Chandler on the first play of the game, which gave Wake Forest great field position. Throughout the first half, neither team’s offense could be stopped.

Wake Forest scored on five of their seven first-half possessions and North Carolina scored on 5 of their 8 first-half possessions but the Heels would be down 31-24 going into halftime.  

North Carolina’s defense had an awful performance for most of the game and in the second half, the North Carolina offense stalled for a couple of possessions. This led to Carolina being down 18 points with 7:37 left in the third quarter.

However, the defense did finally step up and made three key stops against Wake Forest on three straight possessions. UNC’s offense capitalized on their opportunities with scores and took a three-point lead with 2 minutes and six-second left in the game.

Ty Chandler was the player of the game with over 240 yards rushing and 4 touchdowns including 3 second-half touchdowns and the game-clinching touchdown that pretty much sealed the victory for the Tar Heels. Wake Forest would go and score on the next possession bringing the game back within 3 points but the Tar Heels would hold them off to get the 58-55 win. 

UNC Game Stats 

UNC Total Offense- 546 yards  

Rushing 330 Passing 216 

UNC Passing: Sam Howell 16-26-216 yds 1TD 

UNC Rushing: Ty Chandler 22-213 yds 4TDs, Sam Howell 21-104 yards 2TDs 

UNC Receiving: Josh Downs 4-35 yds, Antoine Green 6-83 yds, Justin Olson 1-45 yds 

Wake Forest Total Offense- 615 yards 

Wake Forest Passing: Sam Hartman 25-51 5TDs 2INTs 

Wake Forest Rushing: Justice Ellison 13-81 yds, Sam Hartman 12-78 yds 2TDs 

Wake Forest Receiving: A.T. Perry 6-129 yds 2TDs, Jaquarii Roberson 7-111 2TDs, Taylor Morin 2-66 yds 1TD 

UNC Bright Spots 

Sam Howell threw for 216 yards and one touchdown. He also had 21 carries for 104 yards and two touchdowns.  

Ty Chandler had 22 carries for 213 yards and four touchdowns. 

Antoine Green had 6 receptions for 83 yards and a touchdown. 

Cam’Ron Kelly had 2 interceptions 

Needs Work 

Defensive Coordinator Jay Bateman needs to do a better job of having his players prepared to play. Wake Forest and other teams have continually exploited the weaknesses of UNC’s defense and the Tar Heels have given up at least 35 points in six of their nine games, which is totally unacceptable. 

The defense needs to get better at tackling in space and finishing the play when they are in a position to sack the quarterback. They continue to miss entirely too many tackles which result in big plays for the opponent. 

The defensive coordinator Jay Bateman also 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 11 penalties for over 100 yards in today’s game. 

Final Observations 

The Tar Heels got a huge win over a top ten opponent today. This was the second year in the row the Tar Heels had to overcome a double-digit deficit against Wake Forest. Nevertheless, the Heels pulled it off and are still in the hunt to win the division.

Sam Howell surpassed Marquise Williams in today’s game and became the North Carolina football program’s all-time total yardage leader. He now has 10,505 yards of total offense over his career. 

 One major issue that the team still needs to address is the defense. The defense has had one bad performance after another over the last few games. They have allowed at least 35 points in several games this year and no adjustments have been made to the scheme or the product out there on the field.

You can even say that they have regressed as the season has gone along. The defense’s issues are putting too much pressure on the offense to score every time they touch the ball and it is holding the team back. The offense is playing well but having to outscore your opponents every week is extremely difficult. Some things have to change if the defense wants to improve and this team wants to go to another level. Next up is Pittsburgh on Thursday.