UNC Football Gameday: Louisville Game Review, Cardinals Hold On in a Thriller
By Matt Hamm
The North Carolina Tar Heels squared off with the 19th ranked Cardinals of Louisville today. UNC was without its star running back Giovanni Bernard who stayed back in Chapel Hill while he continues to nurse an injured knee suffered in the opener against Elon.
Photo Credit: US Presswire
The game started out ugly with Louisville scoring 15 quick first quarter points and overwhelming the Tar Heels. Louisville struck again early in the 2nd quarter to take a 22 point lead in what looked to be a dreadful game early on. Quarterback Bryn Renner looked overwhelmed early starting very slow and throwing an early interception that led to a Louisville TD.
Turnovers were the story in the first half as the Cardinals capitalized on two early turnovers with TDs. Cardinals QB Teddy Bridgewater diced up the Heels secondary early starting out 9 of 11 passing with and 2 TDs. The run defense was equally was bad with Jeremy Wright and Senorise Perry sharing the load in the first half with each averaging at least 7 yards per carry.
Louisville scored on their first six offensive possessions
The beat down continued after a UNC punt pinned Louisville inside their 20 before a 5 plays, 84 yards drive that only took 2:27 ended with yet another Louisville TD. Bridgewater remained nearly perfect carving up the Heels secondary. Anytime UNC got any type of pass rush, the Louisville QB seemed to get a bigger play out of it by hitting a wide open WR.
Carolina was consistently beat on first engagement in every match up on the field (literally). UNC struggled to tackle anyone running the football and could not get to the QB at all in the first half. Down 29-0, the Carolina offense finally got something going on a Renner pass to running back Romar Morris on a 44 yard TD play. It was hard to get excited about the play though as it was more a completely blown coverage than a play made by Carolina. Morris was so wide open, my Grandmother would have waltzed in for the score on that play.
On the ensuing possession, Louisville went over 300 yards on total offense with 4:04 left in the first half. Louisville responded with yet another scoring drive of 10 plays, 69 yards, in 5:33 for another TD for an embarrassing 36-7 lead over the Tar Heels at the end of the half.
Score at the Half: UNC 7 Louisville 36
On the first possession of the second half Carolina finally got their first sack of Bridgewater for pretty much the first positive defensive play all day. Louisville drove the ball into Carolina territory and decided to bail out the Heels by going for it on 4th down and turning it over on downs. The seventh possession of the game for the Cards, the first one they didn’t score.
Renner finally seemed to settle into a rhythm after the turnover on downs, the Heels capitalized in the red zone with a two yard TD pass to tight end Eric Ebron bringing the score to 36-14. The drive was impressive, especially from Renner who led the team on a 11 play, 79 yard, scoring drive in 4:59.
Louisville responded with a 12 play, 49 yard, drive that ate up 6:10 of the clock and ended with a 44 yard field goal. As of 13:38 left in the 4th quarter, Louisville had yet to punt. The Tar Heels scored on their next possession on a fast 7 play, 65 yard drive in just 1:36, capped off by a nine yard TD pass to WR Erik Highsmith.
Romar Morris blocked the first punt attempt of the game by Louisville giving the Tar Heels great field position with 8:30 to go. Eight seconds later Renner hooked up with TE Eric Ebron for his 2nd TD reception of the game. The game was finally interesting with 8:22 to go the score Louisville 39, UNC 28. Ebron did a terrific job breaking tackles on the TE screen to get into the end zone.
UNC played a much better 2nd half and a terrific fourth quarter after a horrid first half. UNC trusted their defense and did not go for the on-side kick with 8:22 to go, instead kicking off to Louisville. Carolina did a great job of pushing the Cardinals back and forcing a big timeout with 6:50 left in the ballgame. UNC forced a punt after a completed pass lost six yards for the Cardinals, putting the ball back in the hands of the suddenly efficient Tar Heel offense.
Another huge pass to Romar Morris capped off a 6 play, 93 yard drive that took just 1:45, a failed 2 point conversion brought the score to 34-39 with 4:23 left. The Heels did a tremendous job running the hurry up spread in the second half, especially the fourth quarter. The ensuing kickoff return by Adrian Bushell for 20 yards, fumbled, recovered by Alex Dixon at the Lvile 23. A big pass interference call put the Heels on the 6 yard line.
Louisville held strong and pushed the Heels to fourth down on the 4 yard line. Fedora let the game clock run all the way down before using his final timeout. On fourth down, UNC set up for the play of the game. Renner got time to throw in the pocket and threw it up for Erik Highsmith who had the ball knocked away by Andrew Johnson when it looked like Highsmith would come down with the catch.
Louisville got the ball and continued to run plays when they could take a knee and win the game risking a turnover.
Final Score: UNC 34 Louisville 39
The Heels are now 1-2 and face East Carolina next Saturday. Keeping It Heel will have much more on this game.