UNC-ND: Key Takeaways For The Tar Heels
Saturday afternoon 50-43 final score had more of a Big 10 regular-season basketball score than that of an ACC football game. Chapel Hill fought hard but came up short of putting the game in overtime when Notre Dame recovered an onside kick with 47 seconds left. There are many takeaways for Tar Heel fans from this highest-scoring game ever in South Bend. In order to snap this four-game skid, UNC must analyze this game and pick up the pieces against an angry Georgia Tech team this Saturday in Chapel Hill.
1st Takeaway: Marquise Williams can do it all
The 6’2’’, 220 pound junior quarterback did all but put the partridge on the pear tree in South Bend. Williams threw two touchdowns, ran one in, and caught another from wide receiver Quinshad Davis on Saturday. He out-threw Notre Dame’s quarterback Everett Golson’s 300 yard performance with a 24-41, 303 yard passing outing.
Chapel Hill’s takeaway from this is that we need to have the ball going through Marquise at all times. The guy’s a playmaker. Even when the play breaks down and the situation turns ugly, if the ball is in his hand, it finds the right play. This upper classman has a high football IQ and it would be wise for head coach Larry Fedora to continue to make UNC’s offense flow through Williams whenever possible.
2nd Takeaway: Chapel Hill’s Offense Cannot Bandage Chapel Hill’s Defense
UNC put up its season-high 510 total yards last night. It still wasn’t enough. They still let the opposition put up more. The Fighting Irish had 519 total yards on Saturday. Allowing the other team to put up those kind of numbers, even with major numbers ourselves, just will never get it done in big-time college football. The offense cannot bail out the defense time and time again.
While it is great that UNC’s defense led to three turnovers by Notre Dame, Chapel Hill cannot rely on those kind of stats to win football games. In this four game losing streak, the defense has been lackluster in being able to shore up the opposition’s offense. It showed on Saturday, no matter how well the Tar Heels played on the offensive side of the football.
3rd Takeaway: When We Run The Ball Consistently, We Hold The Score Close
True freshman Elijah Hood had a season-high 17 carries with a touchdown and quarterback Marquise Williams had 18 carries for a career-high 132 yards. He also found pay dirt on the ground with a touchdown. By both those guys utilizing rushing for the Tar Heels, the time of possession was relatively close: UNC’s 27 minutes to Notre Dames’ 32 minutes. This was indicative of how close the score was at the end—only a one possession loss for Chapel Hill.
This running game must be utilized going forward for the Tar Heels if they hope to continue to battle great teams like the #6 ranked Fighting Irish were. While this would be a tough game for Chapel Hill to come out victorious to, there are tons of other very winnable games for UNC that this strategy of running the ball with clock management could come in very useful for.
4th Takeaway: Our Pass Defense Must Improve.
It’s a bit like the movie, Groundhog Day, with UNC’s secondary. Again, they get eaten alive by a 300-yard quarterback performance. Notre Dame threw three touchdowns against the Tar Heels secondary. The Fighting Irish’s wide receiver William Fuller pulled in two touchdowns and 133 yards.
Flat out, this will cost Chapel Hill game after game after game after game after game after game after game after game. Sorry. Was just trying my own Groundhog Day impression.
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