UNC Football: Tar Heels offense stalls at Georgia Tech

It got ugly for the North Carolina Tar Heels in Atlanta as they lost to Georgia Tech for the first time since 2013

When looking at the box score from Saturday’s disappointing loss at Georgia Tech, it may look like the defense played poorly.

But the game itself told a different story.

Instead, it was UNC’s offense that struggled in Atlanta  and in the end it doomed the Tar Heels chances at winning the game.

The offense only managed to score just 7 points and struggled to move the ball consistently on the Yellow Jackets defense. Even when they did it was a turnover, penalty or missed field goal that stalled drives.

Playing against the Yellow Jackets’ triple option offense isn’t an easy thing for a defense to do and when your own offense isn’t sustaining drives, it makes it that much more difficult.

Georgia Tech loves to run the ball and control the clock, hoping to have drives end in touchdowns.

That way they wear down your defense and if your offense struggles, you have no chance.

Looking at the time of possession, the Yellow Jackets dominated. They held the ball for 38:35 compared to just 21:25 for the Tar Heels.

Following the game, Larry Fedora admitted that UNC just didn’t execute anything on offense.

“I don’t know if we executed anywhere on offense,” Fedora said on the radio.

He’s right.

UNC just couldn’t move the ball. Surratt threw a costly interception on a bad read just a play after the defense forced a takeaway.

He didn’t look himself making more freshman mistakes. Sure, you can say that’s going to happen but on Saturday the offensive struggles proved to be too much for the Tar Heels to overcome.

Surratt finished 18-of-30 for 141 yards but it was by far his worst game of the year.

The injuries have certainly played a role in this disappointing season as both Austin Proehl and Thomas Jackson are done for the year. For a quarterback like Surratt to develop, it would have helped to have both of those guys for the entire season.

Now it opens up chances for other players.

As for the offensive line, it has seen it’s fair-share of injuries as well and that is becoming evident.

The Tar Heels just can’t keep shooting themselves in the foot with holding and false start calls, something they did on Saturday.

Next: UNC falls to Georgia Tech

If UNC wants to salvage anything this season, they need to start with better production on the offense.