All things considered, Saturday wasn’t a bad showing for Carolina.
Yes, Billy Edwards Jr. made some ill-advised throws and seemingly no one in the secondary could hang with Jordan Faison, but the game was significantly closer than oddsmakers expected. Notre Dame looked well on its way to covering the 21-point spread and then some when it got to first-and-goal with a 21-7 lead in the second quarter, but the Tar Heels forced a turnover on downs and marched 97 yards to cut it to 21-14 just before halftime.
Even after the Irish put the game out of reach in the fourth quarter, UNC continued to battle, scoring a late touchdown to make the final score 37-26.
That brings me to our question of the day: how much did that game change your outlook on the season?
If you look back at our Tar Heel Blog preseason predictions, you’ll find that I was on the more pessimistic side of things, forecasting a 2-10 record for Bill Belichick’s squad. Heading into Saturday, I would have revised that to 4-8 at best, but the way the Tar Heels played makes me think they might have a real shot at .500 and a bowl game. The level of execution across the board wasn’t good enough to beat the third-ranked team in the country, but it sure looked good enough to beat the mid- and bottom-tier ACC teams Carolina will see in the coming weeks.
Let us know how you’re feeling in the comments below.
