Heel Tough Blog: Notre Dame Recap
The Tar Heels faced a monumental task on Saturday when they welcomed Notre Dame, the third ranked team in the country to Chapel Hill. The Fighting Irish had a chance in the middle of the second quarter to take the Tar Heels completely out of game, but back-to-back touchdowns allowed the Tar Heels to flip the script and battle into the fourth quarter. While moral victories aren’t something we love, this was a needed one for the Tar Heels as they head into two more tough games. Here’s a look at our biggest takeaways from UNC’s 37-26 loss to Notre Dame.
Love the Fight This Team Showed
We came into this game hoping to see signs that this team had taken a step from last year and they proved they have on Saturday. At 21-7 with Notre Dame driving, it would have been easy to just let the Irish walk into the end zone to begin what would have likely been a rout. Instead, the team responded with a 4th down stop and a 15-play, 97-yard drive to put them back in the drive. Out of the locker room, the team would score on a kickoff return to get within one, but would fumble the snap on the extra point leaving them down by one. From there, the Irish would take back over, scoring the next 17 points, but this team did what we asked them to on the podcast the other night. The question is, can they build on this going into the game against Pittsburgh, who is undefeated but just lost their starting quarterback?
Early Defensive Gameplan Left a Lot to Be Desired
One of the reasons that Notre Dame got off to such a fast start offensively was because of the extremely conservative game plan that defensive coordinator Brian Belichick brought to the table. The Tar Heels relied on rushing four and dropping seven while playing way off receivers on the outside in an attempt to keep everything in front of them. With the Tar Heels not winning the way they needed to up front, CJ Carr was able to easily settle in and hit the throws that they needed to move the chains in the short passing game and open up the deep passing game as the half went on. A more aggressive gameplan out of the gate may have allowed the team to hold this passing offense in check, but it is clear that they simply do not trust their secondary enough to do that.
Concerns About the Secondary Continue to Grow
Let’s talk about that secondary. After a brutal final three quarters against Clemson, it was clear that there wasn’t any real trust in the unit coming into this game and they didn’t earn any on Saturday. The group had no answers for Jordan Faison, who finished the half with six catches for 109 yards and two touchdowns, including an egregious breakdown on his second score where communication just seemed to break down between Kaleb Cost and Peyton Waters. Luckily, the Tar Heels will not have to face Mason Heintschel, who is out for the season with an ACL injury, but they are not a unit that can be trusted moving forward. It’s up to this defensive line to start winning more consistently up front and creating more pressure themselves because blitzing will be limited with where this secondary is at.
Trenches Dominated by Notre Dame
This isn’t exactly a shock, but the Tar Heels were pushed around in the trenches for most of the day. On defense, the pass rush was corralled as we told you above, but it wasn’t until the second half where Notre Dame began blowing the group back off the line of scrimmage. In the third quarter alone, Notre Dame carried the ball 20 times for 122 yards while the Tar Heels had -3 yards of total offense. The Irish finished the day with 241 rushing yards and a lot of that was due to the dominance that you saw up front. Because it’s Notre Dame, there shouldn’t be any panic, but they are going to have to do a better job of winning at the line of scrimmage if this defense is going to get back to the form that we saw against TCU.
Offsides Penalty on 4th & Goal Gave Notre Dame Back the Momentum
The Tar Heels are one of the more disciplined teams in the country so far and that continued on Saturday. The most important penalty of the game, though, may have been what ultimately won the Irish the game. On 4th & Goal from the three yard line with 5:36 to go in the third quarter, Notre Dame lined up to go for it to cap a 17-play, 75-yard drive. Notre Dame would try to draw the Tar Heel offside before looking to the sideline for more instruction. With one second on the play clock, Carr clapped his hands one more time and Tar Heel defensive end Jaylen Harvey jumped offsides, giving the Fighting Irish a free play. Carr would elude multiple Tar Heel defenders and find the end zone to give Notre Dame a 7-point lead once again and retake the momentum. In the postgame, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman revealed that the plan was to actually take the delay of game and kick the field goal, which would have been another big stop for the Tar Heels. Unfortunately, that will have to remain a big “What If” when looking back on this game.
Billy Edwards Jr. Rebounded, But Still Had Two Important Turnovers
Following a rough performance against Clemson, Edwards was in need of a rebound performance and he was able to accomplish that even after a slow start. While he had a productive first drive that resulted in a touchdown pass and helped give the Tar Heels the early 7-0 lead, he threw back-to-back interceptions that both led to touchdowns for Notre Dame and allowed them to reel off 21 straight points to establish a 14-point lead. From there, Edwards spent the rest of the day battling from behind and did a pretty nice job of doing just that. Similar to the game against TCU, he did a good job of distributing the football to open receivers. Edwards once again showed you why the staff decided he was the best option for them, but he still has to limit the mistakes because they were costly on Saturday.
Jaden Jefferson Introduces Himself
One of the biggest plays of the day came right after halftime when true freshman kick returner Jaden Jefferson returned his first kick return of the season for a touchdown. This was a great time to deploy a guy who might just be the fastest player on the roster and is a former track star to boot. With the offensive inconsistencies that the team has had at times this season, having someone that can change the game at kick returner would be a huge plus for the remainder of the season.
Didn’t Like Bill Quitting on the Game As Early As He Did
One of my major issues with the game lied with the decision making of Bill Belichick in the fourth quarter. Following the Fighting Irish score on the opening play of the quarter, the Tar Heels got the ball back down by 14 with what felt like their last chance in the game. The team would go three-and-out and it felt like 4th & 6 was a must go for the Tar Heels to have any chance of winning the game based off of the issues that the defense had stopping this Notre Dame offense throughout the day. Instead, Belichick chose to basically concede the game and give the ball back to Notre Dame, who drove into field goal range and kicked the field goal that would seal the game. With how hard this team fought, it would have been great to see Belichick be aggressive there and give them a chance to still remain in a game, but alas.
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