UNC Football: Matching Up Against ECU’s Defense
Well after two heartbreaking weeks of almosts and could haves, the UNC football team returns home to Chapel Hill to prepare for their in state rival East Carolina. This foe shouldn’t be anything to unfamiliar for the Tar Heels who play the Pirates on an annual basis, nor should it be for new head coach Larry Fedora who played in the same conference as ECU while he was the head coach at Southern Miss. Coach Fedora beat ECU a season ago in Greenville, NC when he led the Golden Eagles to a 48-28 resounding victory. The recent score would indicate that he should be very comfortable creating a game plan to expose the Pirates defense which has been their strong suit thus far.
Mandatory Credit: Rob Kinnan-US PRESSWIRE
The Pirates have allowed 27 ppg and have forced seven total turnovers this season including three last week against a Fedora-less Southern Miss team. The Pirates are big up front and boast a pair of young linebackers Montrese Overton and Jeremy Grove who effectively plug up running lanes in box the and can cover the sidelines with their impressive foot speed. This group up front has been quietly dominant and even held Heisman trophy dark horse Marcus Lattimore from South Carolina to just 40 rushing yards two weeks ago.
They also have built a reputation this season for attacking the football. This past Saturday, Overton forced and subsequently recovered a Sourthern Miss fumble and took it back for a touchdown to cap a 21 point third quarter for ECU. This was the second time that the Pirates have recovered a fumble for a touchdown this season; a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since 2004.
For the Tar Heels, the amount of pressure that ECU puts on the run doesn’t bode well for star running back Gio Bernard who hasn’t played since injuring his knee against Elon in the Tar Heels’ season opener. If he is to suit up on Saturday, Fedora should make it a point to be conservative with his playmaker so as not to risk further injury going up against an attacking defense such as this.
If Bernard once again sits out, it’s expected that AJ BLue and Romar Morris will split his work load. Both runners haven’t showed the big play ability running the football in Bernard’s stead and only combined for 66 yards on the ground against Louisville last week.
If the running game is contained by their purple counterparts, the Heels will have to air the ball out. The weak point in ECU’s defense is their secondary. They’ve allowed over 300 yards a game passing even in both games they’ve won. Bryn Renner showed us all last week the kind of potential he has throwing the football last week going for 363 yards and five touchdowns, four of which occurred in the second half.
Renner’s 363 yards totals to 53 more yards than ECU’s defense gives up and the 34 points he contributed to scoring is seven more than the ECU defense has allowed per game. All of this work was done against a ranked opponent on the road and a defense that only allows 18.3 ppg which is close to 10 points less than ECU.
To me Coach Fedora’s plan is simple. Just throw the ball. In the midst of going over ECU’s defense I haven’t mentioned that the Tar Heels even with a 1-2 record are averaging 41 ppg including 62 ppg at home. Both numbers are well over the 27 average that ECU has posted and it proves that Coach Fedora’s system is designed to score points. I’d expect big days from Renner and his receivers on Saturday in what hopes to be a bounce back week for the Tar Heels.