UNC Football: A Requiem for the Worst Defense in the ACC
By John Bauman
The North Carolina Tar Heels ranked 117th in the nation in total defense in 2014, allowing 497.8 yards per game. Opponents averaged 6.53 yards per play against the Heels this season, gaining 6472 total yards this season. The defense statistically ranks as the worst in the ACC in total defense.
I think it is fair to say that this most recent UNC defense is one of the worst in school history, if not the worst to line up in Carolina blue. Andrew Carter agrees, writing back in November an article titled “UNC defense, perhaps the worst in area history, seeks prideful finish to season.” After what happened the last few games of the season, you can take the perhaps away.
So, rather than complain or gripe about how bad the defense was, why not just offer a last requiem for the worst defense in school history and then bury the hatchet once and for all?
Here is one final look at the 2014 UNC Football defense. What made the defense so bad? Five elements, shown through five plays that sum up the terribleness below. Here are these five elements…
1. Inability to get off the field/tackle
Sorry, no YouTube or GIF for this one. Click on the link above to watch this play.
Here is the scenario — 4 minutes left, 2nd quarter. UNC 20, ECU 21. It’s 3rd and 28th. UNC needs to get off the field here, which should be pretty easy, since it’s 3rd and 28!!! ECU elects to just hand the ball off, nothing special, and pin UNC deep in their own territory after this drive stalled out.
The ball is handed off to Breon Allen, who… scores on a 44 yard rush. Again, this was on 3rd and 28 in a pivotal point in the game!!!
UNC is playing a weird 3 -2-3 defense with two cornerbacks, a prevent defense and not one designed to stop the run. Either way, somebody should have been able to get a hand on Allen! Mr. Allen somehow almost goes untouched into the endzone during the run. Malik Simmons (#11) misses a tackle, #10 Jeff Schoetmer tripped and just missed getting a hand on him, and everybody else on defense… I don’t know.
Touchdown, ECU.
2. Missed Assignments
Ahh, missed assignments. These are always fun.
I have no explanation for the play above. This is just a classic and comical miscommunication that results in the easiest touchdown pass that Watson will ever throw.
What happened was that each Donnie Miles (#15), Sam Smiley (#3) and Brian Walker (#28) thought that they were blitzing or bit on the play action by Watson. The result is two Clemson Tigers running wide open down the sideline.
Touchdown, Clemson.
3. Failure of defensive scheme and playcalling
The highlight video above covers the play in question really quickly. You might have to stop and rewind a couple of times to see it.
It is 4th and goal with 5:44 left in the first quarter. Again, 4th and goal. Miami lines up looking to run the ball in the end zone and… Duke Johnson walks in way too easily. How does that happen so easily on such a big play.
What UNC tried to do was put Donnie Miles (#15) and Sam Smiley (#3) against the entire left side of Miami’s offensive line. It didn’t work at all, as both those guys were completely blown off the line of scrimmage and Duke walked in easily.
What happened here was a failure by the North Carolina defensive coaching staff to put their players in a position to compete and make a play. Jason Staples covered this in his postgame breakdown (always a great read), and I will take a quote from him because he makes the point well…
"I have watched this play repeatedly and have given up trying to figure out what the defense was supposed to be doing here, as they were a player short on the left side in addition to being absurdly outweighed at the point of attack. This led to one of the easiest goal line touchdowns I’ve seen since the Green Bay Packers intentionally allowed Terrell Davis of the Denver Broncos to score in Super Bowl XXXII. The backside view illustrates just how little chance Smiley and Miles had in this situation.I would love to be able to explain the rationale here, but I honestly have no idea why Carolina didn’t put an extra two defensive linemen on the field against Miami’s jumbo personnel. I don’t care how physical a player your safety is, he’s not winning at the point of attack against a 315-pound senior offensive tackle."
The result of the play? Touchdown, Miami.
4. Getting dominated by blockers/being bad
This one comes from the game against Rutgers. The GIF, from FanSided’s official GIF account…
Another really easy touchdown. This time, however, the blame shouldn’t rest on the coaching staff. This one falls on the players getting tossed around like a sheet of newspaper in a hurricane.
All the blocks happen so fast in the GIF, so I made an image that also tells the story.
All those red circles are textbook blocks by the Rutgers offensive personnel. I watched the play like 18 times for any hint of holding, but I couldn’t find any. This is just Rutgers being better at football than UNC.
For good measure at the end, both Sam Smiley (#3) and Des Lawrence (#2) take bad routes in run support here.
The result? I bet you could have guessed it by now… Touchdown, Rutgers.
5. The element of surprise terribleness
The situation — 4th quarter, 3:20 to go in the game. UNC 42, Georgia Tech 37. First and 25 for Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech has 75 yards to go until the endzone.
The play — Georgia Tech runs what looks like a normal triple option, but instead it is a reverse toss to DeAndre Smelter.
The result — TOUCHDOWN GEORGIA TECH!!!
Again, the play goes a little fast, so I made a drawing.
This is some of the terribleness that only the worst defense in school history can cook up. Since UNC won that game, it’s okay to laugh about that one. Looking back on it now, this is really just so bad. Terrible. But again, Carolina won so it is all good.
***
Well, that is it. One last look at the worst defense in school history.
Bookmark this page, and when UNC wins the ACC Coastal, look back that these plays and remember what things were like back in 2014.