Thoughts on the UNC Game

Oct 1, 2019, 11:51 AM

While I understand the concern over the play calling, I don't think it was the major issue in the UNC game. I will say that I do wish we were a little more creative in our play calls at times, but who am I to argue with the success we have had over the past 5 years.

I thought the defense played a great game overall sans the first drive of the game, especially in the second half when they were on the field for long stretches and dealing with the heat.

The biggest issue to me was the momentum of the game, which I think is very real regardless of your opponent. When we played Alabama we had a huge momentum swing on our end with the pick 6 at the start of the game, whereas UNC had several to start the game with a long pass play, missed field goal, and untimely fumble.

Looking back at some of the offensive series, it is important to note that regardless of the play calls they have to be executed correctly. I don't think we ran too little or passed too much or anything like that, it was more of an execution issue. Trevor missed several short passes, and a couple of longer passes to open guys down field that were too high. I also noticed him staring down receivers in the second half when the pressure was on, as if he had decided where the ball was going before the snap. If we convert on several of these missed plays and take away some momentum, who knows how the game turns out. Credit to UNC's defense as well for applying pressure and making Trevor make quick decisions.

We also had 1 very sloppy substitution penalty out of a possession change, and 5 (!) false start penalties, predominantly in the second half that halted forward momentum.

Hopefully with a bye week we can work on fixing these loose ends, as this game was a bit of a perfect storm of problems that allowed UNC a chance to win. As seems to be the case though, Dabo and Co. found a way to get the win, and hopefully we have "this" game out of the way for the year and it will help us going forward. The last two years it was Syracuse and the year before was Pitt, it is very hard to go an entire season without some sort of scare.

Go Tigers!

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I agree on the execution. I think part of that is also the number of mistakes we made. We put together a 10 play, 90 yard drive for our first touchdown. Our defense then goes and gets a 3 and out. We had all the momentum at that point, and had a UNC defense that was put right back on the field after giving up a long drive. Then our next drive starts and ETN goes for 9 yards, and then picks up 5 yards on the next carry, but he lost a fumble on the play. It really looked at that point like we were about to get rolling. Instead, UNC gets a short field and turns it into a 14-7 lead to completely change the momentum back the other way.

Our next drive was a 3 and out, but we put together a 10 play drive to score a touchdown before the half. We open the first half, and get a false start on 3rd and 4, but still manage to get a 1st down on the next play. Later in the drive we had a 3rd and 1 from the UNC 30 and ended up with another false start to make it 3rd and 6, and we threw two straight incomplete passes. You have to figure we manage to get a first down without the false start, even if it took running it twice.

The next drive we had a 3rd and 6 that turned into a 3rd and 11 due to another false start. This is the same drive btw where we ran the play to Powell. He may have scored had he not tripped up, and would've at least picked up a ton of yards on the play. That was a great call, and I hope we use something similar later on this year.

On our first drive of the game before the missed FG we threw a screen pass to Rogers on 3rd and 2 that went for no gain. I know many people are frustrated by the screens, but I'd argue this one would've picked up the first down, but Lawrence threw the ball low which slowed the play down. A good throw there results in the first down IMO.

Thoughts on the UNC Game

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