In a lot of ways the loss to Virginia can be summarized thusly: next verse, same as the first.
Yet again the Tar Heels squandered points by fumbling close to the end zone, yet again the offense stagnated
after a decent start, and yet again the Tar Heels lost to a Power 4 team. The chances for Carolina to have a winning season are winding down, but if you want to look at the sunnier side of things, you can actually point to some improvement.
The problem is most folks went into the season not looking to try and salvage anything they could from a noon game against Virginia. Instead what looked like a winnable game at the start of the season was actually two ships passing in different directions.
On to the weekly list:
Winners
Steve Belichick: Look, credit where credit is due here. The Carolina defense was really good on Saturday and deserved a better result. Chandler Morris was under a lot of duress during the game, being sacked six times and picked off once. They only netted 59 yards total on the ground, and just managed to score 10 points before Overtime. Their TD drive was the only one on the day where it looked like what fans expected. They were also shorted one interception because of a PI call that still no one can find. If you’re looking for silver linings, the defense is it. It was their best effort of the season by far, and if they can continue it there’s a chance they can lead the Tar Heels to at least one more win this season.
Going for 2 in Overtime: Stewart Mandel of The Athletic talked about this in his notes for this past weekend, and he is right. The way overtime rules are now set, you might as well go for two on your first possession of overtime in the situation Carolina was in. You knew you needed a touchdown to tie, and if you just go for the extra point you’re not only going to have to go right back on offense, if you score you’re going to have to go for two. If it’s tied after that, you do nothing but two point plays. You only practice so many of those a season, so why risk having to go deep in your playbook by dragging overtime out? Not to mention you might catch the defense asleep having just given up the score. The decision to go for two was absolutely the right call. The play? Well, we’ll get to that.
Melkart Abou Jaoude: The Delaware transfer was the primary person bothering Chandler Morris on Saturday. He recorded an astounding three sacks and assisted on another one, just being a general menace to the Virginia backfield. It was fun to see the defense rally on Saturday and to at least see one side of the ball not giving up on the season. Jaoude and the rest of the defense played with pride that had been sorely lacking from a lot of players, and it makes the result that much more heartbreaking.
Losers
Football revenue: The favorite pastime of media is to send out crowd shots of Chapel Hill and just how empty Kenan Stadium is at kickoff. Usually it’s done as a dig to the fanbase but at this point if feels more like there’s a tone of “we don’t blame you.” in there.
Look, you can explain away reasons why the crowd shots is an easy story to jump on, but the fact is when the athletic department decided to spend $10 million a year on Bill Belichick, hiked the prices of tickets, and then touted the fact that every game was sold out prior to the start of the season, it’s a story when the stadium isn’t filled. That’s still real money that’s being lost in concessions and everything associated with the program that hits on game day. 30 minutes before kickoff a ticket could have been had for just $17 with fees on SeatGeek. The empty stands would be a dig at the fans if Carolina were 6-0 and not there—but chances are that game wouldn’t have been relegated to noon on the ACC Network. If you’re looking for evidence as to how it might make more sense to just give up on this current staff, look at this as a warning to how difficult it’ll be to sell those tickets again next year.
ACC Officiating: I still don’t get the pass interference call. It was the most egregious of a just poorly called game, but honestly it’s just par for the course with the officials that typically wear the stripes for the conference. A billion dollar endeavor and we throw striped shirts on part time folks and expect them to be able to accurately adjudicate kids going at lightening quick speeds.
Bill Belichick: As promised he was going to make an appearance in each one of these for the rest of the season, and this one is because of his decision to hire and now keep Freddie Kitchens as the offensive coordinator. The defense held a potent Virginia offense to just ten points. It was insanely good considering the other games this season. They were rewarded by being cowards at the end of the first half and going for a long field goal that was ultimately missed, a continued reliance on Gio Lopez who clearly just isn’t meant for this level of football as his two interceptions and three sacks showed, and a two point conversion play that had no chance of succeeded because that same quarterback took forever to diagnose a play. This post notes it was because of different defenses trying to defend Lopez, but look at how much longer each quarterback holds the ball and you can see the difference in the offensive skill and level between the two teams.
The next two weeks against Syracuse and Stanford offer the best chance Belichick has to notch a couple more wins this season, but if the offense can’t improve they are staring down the hole of a 2-10 season.
Honorable Mentions
UNC Rushers did managed to net 145 yards on the ground Saturday, and each rusher not named Gio Lopez averaged over four yards per carry. With that success it’s a big head scratching that they only managed 10 points before overtime…for the second week in a row Carolina turned the ball over inches from the end zone and apparently learned nothing from last week. This time it was the normally steady Kobe Paysour who ultimately made up for it with a good performance on the day, but when a season is going down you take bigger risks and it leads to turnovers.
It’s a short week for the Tar Heels as they hit the road up to Syracuse for a Halloween Night matchup against the struggling Orange. Can the Tar Heels take some momentum up to New York or will this latest loss be deflating for them?
