Lessons Learned from UNC Football's Halloween win over the Orange

Are we a serious team?

UNC's second drive was highlighted by a great scramble and 50-yard completion to a resurgent Kobe Paysour to get the Tar Heels down to Syracuse's three-yard line. When Syracuse stuffed Carolina at the one-yard line on third down, UNC faffed around with formations and motion and ultimately had to call a time-out when the play clock was about to expire.

Coming out of the time-out, they got whistled for a false start and were forced to settle for a field goal. Why were the Tar Heels messing around with their play call for the fourth down? Why don't they have short yardage plays scripted for these scenarios? Why can't they execute when they've had said time out to lock in?

Then, when you have a lacrosse player quarterback that hadn't completed a single pass in the first quarter, Shamar Easter coughed up the football after making a catch that Anwar Sparrow returned for a touchdown. How every single Tar Heel doesn't glue the ball to their body after the catastrophes at Cal and against Virginia is beyond me.

Then, with Syracuse facing 3rd & 10 in the red zone, Melkart Abou Jaoude committed a HEINOUS facemask penalty to give the Orange a fresh set of downs. Fortunately, Syracuse's green quarterback still couldn't complete a pass up to that point, and the Orange had to settle for a field goal. Why give a struggling offense any additional chances to get rolling? That was an unforced error if I've ever seen one.

These are the actions of a deeply unserious football team. Thank goodness, UNC was playing a broken down and hapless Syracuse team.