UNC Football: Good, bad and the ugly from the Week 2 loss

We break down the good, the bad and the ugly for the UNC Football program after their loss to East Carolina on Saturday afternoon

Things didn’t go as planned for University of North Carolina head coach Larry Fedora and the Tar Heels on Saturday after they fell to 0-2 on the season with a loss at East Carolina.

The Tar Heels looked overmatched against a Pirates team that lost to North Carolina A&T the previous week and the second half proved to be a disaster for UNC. The Pirates flat out dominated the Tar Heels in the second half, shutting them out and making two big stops on fourth down at key points in the game.

With another loss, the heat is now on Fedora and his coaching seat.

Just two years removed since winning the Atlantic Coast Conference Coastal Division, Fedora’s 2015 team finished the year poorly and the 2016 team only won three games. Following this performance, it’s hard seeing more than two wins on this remaining schedule.

But that’s for another story.

As for this game there was some good, believe it or not, but more of the bad and the ugly. Let’s break down what we saw from Saturday afternoon’s performance.

The good

It appeared as if the offense was going to be a lot better early in this game and I was planning on writing about the unit for this part of the article. But that changed in the second half.

Instead, we are going to talk about Freeman Jones.

Where would UNC be without the kicker on Saturday? He accounted for 12 of the Tar Heels 19 points as he connected on all four field goal attempts. Jones got the scoring started with a 32-yard field goal to give the Tar Heels a 3-0 lead.

Jones was the lone bright spot for the Tar Heels on Saturday afternoon, connecting on all four of his field goal attempts. He kept UNC in the game in the first half after drives stalled in ECU territory.

After going 9/14 last year in field goal attempts, Jones has started the year 5/5 including 4 of those from 40-49 yards out.

While this seems good for Jones, you still want to see the UNC offense finish drives in the end zone. We have a feeling Jones is going to get a lot of work this season.

The bad

Penalties, again.

How many times have you seen a UNC player make a stupid penalty that has either kept a drive alive on a third down, moved the offense 15 yards or heck, both? It happens way too much and it’s a damn problem.

During Saturday’s game, the Tar Heels committed 7 penalties for 65 yards. All of those penalties were committed in the first half as UNC didn’t commit one in the second half. So there’s a saving grace, if you’re into those things.

But despite the penalties coming in the first half, that doesn’t mean they aren’t bad.

The biggest one came in the second quarter from defensive end Tyler Powell. On a third and 22, ECU quarterback Reid Herring scrambled to the left and threw the ball away with no one open down field. Powell then hit Herring as he was going out of bounds, giving ECU new life and a first down.

The play is significant because at the time, UNC was up 13-7 and had the chance to extend their lead as they were getting the ball back. Instead, ECU ended up scoring a touchdown to take a 14-13 lead.

This has been a big problem over the past few seasons and it comes back to coaching. UNC committed 13 penalties last week and now add another 7. It’s  trend that we saw all of last season as well:

If UNC wants to turn things around and do it in a hurry, this is one of the things that really has to change.

The Ugly

The entire second half was a disaster.

UNC came out of the break down just 21-19 and had a chance to really come out and take control of the game. Spoiler: They didn’t.

Instead, UNC came out and struggled in the third quarter. The Tar Heels had three drives in the third quarter with two lasting three plays and the other lasting six plays. In total, UNC ran 12 plays in the quarter and gained a total of 44 yards.

The fourth quarter wasn’t much better. UNC had four drives and turned it over on downs on two of those drives. The other two drives resulted in a punt and the game ending as it was already out of hand.

They managed just 93 total yards in the second half with 32 of them coming on the final drive under Cade Fortin as the game ended.

To say it was ugly is an understatement. UNC was totally dominated as they were shutout in the second half and allowed the Pirates to score 20 points in the half during the loss.

Last week it was the opposite as UNC played a lot better in the second half and even got back into the game.