North Carolina Tar Heels: Get Over Hump in Atlanta
The North Carolina Tar Heels were out of the game. The defense could not stop anybody, and Georgia Tech was moving the football at will through their pitch man. Shades of a couple of years prior seemed to be about to repeat themselves and the anguish of the Heels in Atlanta seemed due to continue. Then suddenly it just did not happen.
In what should have been the final drive of the first half, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets went to put the nail in the coffin by trying for a quick score through the air. The result was stopping the clock and allowing the Tar Heels back on the field with a little under two minutes to go. The Tar Heels scored on a Marquise Williams run to close the deficit to seven at the half. Then the defense showed up in the second half.
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By the end, the Tar Heels used new defensive vigor, turnovers, and a running game to return from the largest deficit ever overcome by a Tar Heel squad.
X – Cayson Collins on the ball
Outside linebacker Cayson Collins made two big plays for the Tar Heel defense in the game. One was a forced fumble on Tech quarterback Justin Thomas. End Junior Gnonkonde picked it up and took it into Jacket territory which set up a trick play and a score. Collins also stopped a wide running play by Clinton Lynch on 3rd to 2 to create a fourth and 5. The Jackets had to throw, and that fell incomplete. Good play by Collins will be big in the future as Joe Jackson had to quit football due to injury.
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Y – A Game of Stops
When you don’t stop the option, you lose. When you do stop it, you win. Paul Johnson’s teams do not punt a lot in the opposing side of the field so stopping the option means stopping four downs of it. The Tar Heel defense did that on big occasions in the second half.
Tech may have given the ball back at the end of the first half, but the Tar Heels really earned their stops in this game. That included a third quarter drive when Tech fullback Patrick Skov appeared to be stopped short of a first down on fourth down. It was marked a first down by the slimmest of margins resulting in the Tar Heels having to come together for a goal line stand that also was only decided on fourth down. By the end, a number of Tar Heel defenders had played well, but it seemed like Shakeel Rashad was everywhere.
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Z – Redemption for Marquise Williams
It is rare of a player to lead his team in rushing, passing, and receiving in the same game, but Williams did it here. In the late second quarter and in the third quarter, coordinator Seth Littrell finally put more emphasis on the running game. Williams became the primary weapon, although running back Elijah Hood ended up averaging more than six yards per carry.
Williams had 140 yards rushing to go with 134 passing. Receiver Quinshad Davis had more touchdown passes (1) and Williams had more receiving touchdowns (1) than Davis. They hooked up on a reverse pass after the Thomas fumble. That made the score 31-28 and gave the Tar Heels their first lead of the game.
The win over Georgia Tech gives the Tar Heels a leg up in the Coastal, having matched Duke’s win. They are on a bye this week before facing Wake Forest. With the losses of Virginia Tech and Miami (granted to non-conference Cincinnati) over the weekend, the Coastal suddenly seems to be a winnable place.