It was stated in yesterday’s recap that there’s no such thing as moral victories in college football, but that doesn’t mean that UNC’s 11-point loss to #3 Notre Dame isn’t interesting. The Irish were better in basically every aspect of the game, but the fact that the Heels were able to keep it fairly interesting from beginning to end is more than we would’ve been able to say last season. Does that mean that Bill Belichick should have some of the heat removed from his backside? Not necessarily, but it does mean that maybe
there’s some hope for this team to make a bowl game after all. Maybe.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s just focus on three takeaways from the Heels’ loss to the Irish. Let’s dive in.
Billy Edwards Jr. isn’t a lost cause
Two weeks ago, Carolina fans were all but ready to bench Billy Edwards Jr. in favor for literally anybody else after his poor play against Clemson. During yesterday’s loss, though, he looked much better for the most part, but he still struggled at times. He finished his day 17-28 for 208 yards, three touchdowns, and two interceptions. He was able to see the field a bit better, but one of his interceptions happened because he wasn’t willing to just take the sack, and the other was just a bad read. But in totality, Edwards was able to do a fair amount of damage by connecting with Jordan Shipp and Jelani Thurman throughout the afternoon.
Here’s the thing: Notre Dame was going to be a really bad team to bounce back against after what happened a couple of weeks ago, but he still showed some improvement regardless. It was especially interesting that he was able to do what he did with a non-existent run game. Edwards deserves credit for what he was able to do, and hopefully he will keep improving as the season progresses.
Notre Dame’s control of the line of scrimmage was the difference-maker
The determining factor in yesterday’s game was the fact that Notre Dame not only ran all over the Tar Heels, but their run defense stifled the Heels in a way that kept them at arms length. While UNC was able to scrape together 77 rushing yards, it’s worth noting that it took 23 attempts to get there.
When it comes to UNC’s defense, the issue aside from giving up 241 rushing yards was that the front seven was incapable of getting to C.J. Carr. This is particularly notable when Xavier Lewis had been averaging two sacks a game and Melkart Abou Jaoude was able to return to the lineup. Credit to the Irish for flexing their muscle in the trenches, and hopefully the Heels are able to shake it off and bounce back next weekend.
The weather seems to hate UNC
There’s not much else to be said about the actual football aspect of this game, but we do need to discuss how the Heels have had to play in rain in each of their games that they’ve played in the United States this season. Their games against ETSU and Clemson both faced weather delays due to rain and lightning, and it rained all throughout yesterday’s game against Notre Dame. I can’t personally remember the last time I’ve witnessed such an obnoxious streak of bad weather, but it has to be a unique situation for the Tar Heels.
For anybody that believes in things beyond our understanding, it really does feel like an omen of some sort. Someone somewhere has it out for the team to constantly bring about poor weather conditions for the Heels to play in. As of right now, the forecast for the game at Pitt says it will be sunny, but we’ll see if that changes closer to game time. If it does, we may have to start asking additional questions about who is pulling the strings with this weather and why.
