5 Takeaways From UNC's Loss To App State

CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina dug itself another big hole Saturday, and for the second week in a row, the Tar Heels couldn’t work their way out of it, falling 34-31 to Appalachian State at Kenan Stadium.

UNC scored on the first offensive play of the game, but then allowed 20 straight points to the Mountaineers and played catch-up the rest of the way.

UNC fell to 2-2 on the season while App State improved to 3-0.

Here are 5 Takeaways from UNC’s loss to Appalachian State:

App scored 14 points in the first half as a result of two UNC turnovers. One was after a Sam Howell fumble that was retuned 20 yards for a touchdown giving the Mountaineers a 13-6 lead, and then Howell’s first interception of the season led to an App TD four plays and 26 yards later. That’s two TD drives by the Mountaineers using four offensive plays and going just 26 yards. Given how close the game was, those two mistakes were crucial in the game’s outcome.

“We had time and time and time opportunities to win the game, even after the turnovers that gave them short fields,” UNC Coach Mack Brown said. “In fact, 14 points off turnovers and that’s something we haven’t been doing. We’re not stripping the ball, we’re not getting enough turnovers and obviously today we gave them too many… “I think we had the ball 89 snaps today so, if we don’t have the three turnovers, we win the game easily but we had them and that’s a credit to Appalachian’s defense."

UNC’s defense held App State to just 251 total yards over the final three quarters of the game, which is usually enough to win a football game. Overall, App finished with 385 yards, again, that’s a number that will usually lead to a victory when a team’s offense scores 31 points and racks up 469 yards of its own, which is what Carolina amassed.

But that wasn’t the case because the Heels struggled getting off the field on third downs. App was 7-for-15, which doesn’t come close to the 28.9 percent success rate it had through the first three games, which was good for a No. 26 national ranking.

The Heels allowed a couple of long runs by App State quarterback Zac Thomas that proved the be back breakers.

“The 48-yard run was a killer,” Brown said. “It was third-down-and-seven and we don’t contain, so it goes back to one of those things we’re talking about – a coaching mistake. We’ve got to teach our guys to contain, and we should have tackled him in the backfield and then he gets out because we should have had a contain man out there and he wasn’t.”

Not having Nick Polino hurts, and the Heels won’t have him for a while longer, and not having Charlie Heck, who missed Saturday’s game, was an even bigger blow to UNC’s offensive line. The OL was so inexperienced that it collectively – all five starters – had combined for TEN career starts going into this game . Now they have 15.

Not only did the Heels have trouble running the ball for most of the day (averaged 3.7 yards per attempt), mainly because the front didn’t open many holes or sustain blocks, but Howell didn’t get many opportunities to go through his progressions. He fumbled after being sacked when pummeled from behind and his first interception thrown this season was when he was scrambling a heavy pass rush. He was sacked three times and App was credited with two more QB hurries. Lack of experience up front was clearly a factor Saturday.

“It’s a problem but it’s an excuse, they’re on scholarship,” UNC’s coach said. “We’ve got to play with what we’ve got and we’ve got to coach what we’ve got. We’ve got to run the ball better, we tried it more today. We got some plays better that were running but when you run it better your protection is better and all those things let us get back in the ball game.

“But, even then, right before the half they take it down and score, right after we gained momentum. After the half, they take it down and score right when we go back out there. They answered our touchdown plays and we didn’t always stop them.”

Howell threw the first two interceptions of his career, one of which led to a four-play, 26-yard App State scoring drive. He also fumbled when being sack on a play a Mountaineers’ defensive lineman scooped up the ball and ran it 20 yards into the end zone. Most true freshmen would have a tough time overcoming mistakes that big, but Howell stayed even keeled and nearly led the Heels to another amazing comeback.

He finished the game 27-for-42 with 323 yards and three touchdowns and took a beating from App’s defense, but it never affected his game or demeanor. Howell obviously can’t win games by himself, but if the Heels give him help he proved again Saturday he can get the job done.

“Sam [Howell] doesn’t change much emotionally,” Mack Brown said. “He played so good the second half. He had the one bad throw, but he played so good the second half. I think he just keeps playing. Obviously, it bothers him because he understands that these things are things that get you beat, but it didn’t keep him from coming back and giving his team a chance to win.”

Injuries, Again

Four games in and the injury issue is alive and well. The Tar Heels were devastated the last two seasons with injuries costing so many players a lot of games. Now, while the volume of players out right now isn’t quite what it was in 2017 and 2018, some of the ones going down are players the team can least afford to lose.

Not having the only senior offensive linemen on the roster (only upper classmen) out Saturday was big, as noted above. Also, Jason Strowbridge just couldn’t get going courtesy of a bum ankle, safety Myles Wolfolk missed much of the game, which was a big blow given the Heels have basically no depth in the secondary.

In addition, Patrice Rene is out for the season, wide receiver Antoine Green missed his second straight game, and linebacker Matthew Flint is out for the season.

*Jacob Turner contributed to this piece.