Saturday was a meeting between of the more disappointing teams not only in the ACC but in all of college football as Miami made the trip to Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels prevailed 45-42 in a game that featured a lot of sloppy play, including penalties, turnovers, bad defense, etc. The win improves Carolina’s record to 4-3 overall, including 3-3 in league play heading into their bye week. The bye provides Mack Brown and his staff the ability to hit the reset button and make a final push to salvage what’s a lost season amidst all the hype and anticipation.
Offensive Line:
It was another uninspiring performance upfront for the Tar Heels, despite the offense producing its fair share of points and yards. While the Tar Heels did muster 228 yards rushing on 48 carries, it wasn’t consistent winning at the line of scrimmage for the offensive line. If you take away Ty Chandler’s 51-yard rushing touchdown, he managed only 53 yards on his other 17 carries. Sam Howell rushed for 98 yards but had to rush the ball 17 times to do so, and not all of them were on designed runs. Add in three more false starts, 4 sacks allowed, and 9 tackles for loss, and it’s more of the same we’ve come to expect from this offensive line this season. The play has hindered the offense from being the best version of itself and has handicapped Phil Longo’s play-calling since the season-opening loss at Virginia Tech. The bye week should allow the position coaches, and the overall offensive staff to reevaluate the talent, and make adjustments for the home stretch of the season.
Defensive Line:
The defensive line a lot like the offensive line left a lot to be desired with their performance on Saturday, as collectively they combined for just 2 sacks, and 4 tackles for loss. Ray Vohasek had arguably his best game statistically, recording 5 total tackles and a pass break up. Tomon Fox recorded another to climb the all-time leaderboard at Carolina. Myles Murphy totaled 3 tackles, including a sack and two for a loss. But none of that made up for the lack of constant pass rush, the inability to get off blocks, and the struggle to fill gaps and allow the linebackers to flow to the football and make plays. Like the offense line, the bye week needs to be spent reevaluating the talent, playing time, etc to try and find a way to get more production from a position group that had so much promise entering the season.