Heel Tough Blog: NC State Recap

Lance King- Getty Images

The Tar Heels closed out the first season of the Bill Belichick experiment on Saturday night in Raleigh with a dud against the arch rival, NC State. The Tar Heels would allow touchdowns on each of NC State's first four drives and trail by 18 at the half. In the second half, it felt like there was a chance for them to get back in the game at 28-13, but the defense would fall apart again, leading to the team getting blown out for a second time in three seasons by the Wolfpack. Here are our takeaways from the 42-19 loss.

Team Looked Completely Unprepared

When the Tar Heels made the hire of Bill Belichick, one of the things that we heard was that they were going to be much more prepared for games and that simply hasn’t been the case. Similar to some of the games early in the season, the team looked completely unprepared for the intensity that NC State brought to the game. The staff needed to have these guys ready for the type of fight that the Wolfpack were going to bring them into and that simply was not the case, especially on the defensive side of the ball. The defense also was not ready for backup quarterback Will Wilson’s entry into the game and that is on the staff for having them ready for that package. Sadly, this is what the Tar Heels have struggled with in this series for the last five years and nothing has changed under Belichick, who didn’t have his team prepared for far too many games this season.

Discipline Issues Crop Up Again

This was one area that we were set to compliment Belichick on coming into the stretch run of the season, but that is off the table after what we have seen in the last two weeks. Just like a week ago, the team took penalties throughout the night that killed any momentum that they had a chance to build while their opponent was relatively disciplined. The Tar Heels took eleven total penalties for 129 yards, the most penalty yardage of any game this season, including eight on the defensive side of the ball. The team took three more unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, making that seven called on the team in the last two weeks. Going into next season, if this staff is still in place, they need to make sure the team is more under control in these rivalry games if they want to have any chance of winning these games.

Defense Fails to Get Off the Field Again When It Mattered

One of the biggest issues that bit the Tar Heels in the last few weeks was the inability to get off the field on the important downs. On Saturday night, it was the same problem as last week in that the team just could not find a way to get off the field on 4th down. NC State went for it on four 4th downs and finished the night perfect on that down thanks to their short yardage package with Will Wilson and a fake punt where they easily picked up the first down. It also didn’t help that NC State was 6 of 12 on third down attempts with most of those successful attempts coming on 3rd & 4 or shorter. This defense has to be better on first and second down without a doubt, but they have to find ways to get off the field on 3rd and 4th down next season or it could be more of the same on that side of the ball.

Run Defense Was Exploited in the Final Three Games

After showing so much promise in this area for most of the season, the Tar Heel run defense fell apart down the stretch of the season. On Saturday night, the defensive line was absolutely dominated by the NC State offensive line for a second straight year, allowing 185 yards and four touchdowns on just 42 carries. It doesn’t help that the team struggled to tackle both the running backs and quarterbacks, headlined by linebacker Khmori House who had another rough performance to close out the season. This run defense held up relatively well for the first nine games of the season outside of TCU, but it completely fell apart when it mattered. The team needs to find guys that can win more consistently at the point of attack and add some more depth to the unit if they want to prevent this from happening again next season.

Offense Struggles Again Behind Struggling Offensive Line

The Tar Heel offense was once again unable to move the football consistently and it all started up front. The unit once again struggled in run blocking scenarios as they paved the way for just 70 yards on 24 carries, an average of just 2.9 yards per carry. With the struggles to run the football, the team was forced to lean on the passing game again where they were under a lot of pressure. The unit allowed four sacks and 19 total quarterback pressures, numbers that simply won’t cut it. This is an area that the staff has to hit the portal hard at this offseason if they are wanting to take a step in the right direction next season.

Use of Quarterbacks Was Confusing

Gio Lopez was in the midst of another polarizing performance where he wasn’t playing great but wasn’t as bad as he was early in the season before he suffered a leg injury in the third quarter that was initiated by his own offensive lineman shoving a defender on to him awkwardly. Instead of putting one of the freshman quarterbacks in the game to begin evaluating for next season, the team opted to roll with primary backup Max Johnson, who was playing his final game at the college level. While I understand that the staff may have still felt like the game was still in doubt at the time, this was the perfect situation to put one of the freshmen in to start to get answers about what they are going to bring to the table for the team. Au’Tori Newkirk eventually got into the game when it got out of hand, but we should have been able to get a look at both him and fellow true freshman Bryce Baker in this game after the injury. Just more confusing decisions from this coaching staff.

Jordan Shipp Shows Out Again

One of the few bright spots again for the Tar Heels was the play of wide receiver Jordan Shipp. Shipp was targeted a team-high 13 times on Saturday night and caught eight of those targets for 90 yards and a touchdown. As we said last week, he has to be at or near the top of the list of the guys that the staff needs to retain this offseason and they better be willing to pay to do so.

Season Finishes As Uncompetitive As It Started

The most disheartening part of this game is that it feels like the Tar Heels are right back to where they were early in the season. The team started the season uncompetitive against power conference competition and this game was extremely similar to that game in that it never really felt like there was a chance that the Tar Heels were going to win the game. The final three games of the season took away any momentum that the team had midseason and means the Belichick staff has no momentum going into the second year of this experiment. It’s why if you wanted to convince me that the administration should flush this after one season, I would completely be on board.