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CHAPEL HILL – It wasn’t as smooth as North Carolina wanted out of the gate, but the Tar Heels eventually got it going on both sides of the ball and pulled away from Georgia State for a 59-17 victory Saturday night at Kenan Stadium.

The Tar Heels led just 24-10 at halftime after several sluggish offensive possessions, but they didn’t return to the field until 3:09 remained on the halftime clock, and the third quarter amounted to sheer dominance by the No. 24 team in the nation.

UNC outscored the Panthers 21-0 in the third quarter while amassing 279 yards of offense. Carolina improved to 1-1 on the season and GSU dropped to 0-2.

Here are 5 Takeaways from UNC’s win over Georgia State:

Good thing UNC had Sam Howell behind center tonight, because he was all the Tar Heels had on offense, aside from some receivers making some nice plays. But it was Howell who pushed his team in pulling away for the victory courtesy of three touchdown passes and scoring runs of 22 and 62 yards. He ran for 104 yards on 11 attempts, two of which were sacks.

Howell got hit more than was necessary for a game versus a G5 opponent but given the struggles with UNC’s conventional ground game and offensive line play, it was necessary for Howell’s legs to play a part in the Heels getting a victory.

“He’s worked so hard to slim down and be more flexible, and he’s so strong. I’m really, really proud of the way he runs,” UNC Coach Mack Brown said. “He escapes from the pocket some, he can run the option some. We moved him some in the second half, which I thought helped. And he throws so well on the run.

“He doesn’t get the credit he deserves for his ability to run.”

Howell had a key 14-yard run on a third-quarter scoring drive that gave the Heels a 31-10 lead, then his 62-yarder near the end of the third quarter pretty much put the final exclamation mark on his night, giving Carolina a 45-10 lead.

It should also be noted, UNC has 13 runs of 10 yards or more yards on the season with Howell accounting for eight of them, the 62-yarder the most entertaining of his runs.

“Honestly, man, never,” Howell replied when asked at what point he thought he was really going to get into the end zone on that long run. “When I was running, I was thinking, ‘dang, someone hasn’t caught me from behind yet?’ It was awesome, man. A lot of people made some really good blocks for me. It was just awesome.”

Howell also completed 21 of 29 pass attempts for 352 yards and those three scores.

The only other time a UNC player ran for 100-plus yards and passes for 300-plus in the same game was Marquise Williams in a loss at Notre Dame in 2014. Howell is now the second UNC player to do this.

One of the questions coming out of last week’s loss in Blacksburg was if another receiver would step up to complement Josh Downs, who had nine catches for 132 yards and a TD versus Virginia Tech. Here against Georgia State, Downs had eight more receptions, but Antoine Green gave some healthy glimpses perhaps he’s the player to fill that need.

Green caught three passes for 117 yards and a touchdown, with the score going for 57 yards. It was perhaps the nicest play of his Carolina career. Green was well defended racing up the left sideline. The DB gave him nothing and the officials let both players jostle as they ran down the field, but Howell put the ball in the one spot Green could catch it, and he did a terrific job hauling it in and outracing the defender into the end zone.

“He played really, really well,” Brown said about Green. “The (31-yard) catch to get the drive started, the second drive of the second half, when he actually turned all the way back to the inside and made the catch over his shoulder was one of the better catches that I’ve ever seen. And he made some other great catches.

“So tonight should give him confidence to move forward and be one of those receivers that we’re talking about.”

The Tar Heels were just not sharp offensively in the first half, especially in the run game. The offensive line had issues, as noted below. But the Tar Heels were outstanding in the third quarter, putting their collective feet on the Panthers’ throats. UNC outscored Georgia State 21-0 in the period while also outgaining them 279-39.

Howell was huge in the period, but other Heels stepped up on offense and the defense did a nice job of getting the offense right back onto the field, forcing a trio of three-and-outs in the period.

“I thought it was a good challenge for us because we started off fast and we kind of got slowed down and faced some adversity there,” Howell said. “It got a little closer than we would have liked it to. I’m proud the way we bounced back.

“We came together in the locker room and just settled down and were able to go out there in the second half and play Carolina football like we want to play it.”

The staff will have plenty to pick on in film room from the first half, but the light went on and the Heels looked like a top-20 team in the second half, especially the decisive third quarter. In fact, the Heels scored on its first six possessions of the second half. The only series it didn’t score was the final one, in which it took possession with 2:05 remaining to play.

Carolina totaled 403 yards in the second half.

After a suspect performance in the opener at Virginia Tech last week, UNC’s offensive line turned in another less-than-stellar outing against the Panthers, at least in the first half and with respect to the conventional ground game. The first half was the tell-tale, as even though the Tar Heels took a 24-10 lead into the locker room, the story beneath the score was revealing.

In addition to Sam Howell being sacked twice in the first half, Carolina ran the ball 16 times for only 37 yards. Now, this included the two sacks, which totaled a loss of six yards, and also a 14-yard loss on Howell’s fumble that led to a GSU field goal. But it also includes Howell’s 22-yard TD run on UNC’s first possession. So, remove those four plays, and the numbers are 12 attempts for 35 yards (2.9 per attempt) on conventional runs aside from Howell’s TD.

Now, including that run, which was a pass play that broke down, so he took off, the numbers were still 13-for-53, which is just 4.1 yards per attempt.

“I will probably be staying up all night trying to fix it,” Brown said. “We haven’t fixed it for two weeks. We ran for some good yards last week. It was more than early tonight. But we do have to count Sam’s yards, because when you run the offense like we run it, those count.

“Everybody used to say (and criticize), ‘Your quarterback’s your leading rusher, that’s a bad thing.’ Well, not if they stop the running backs and nobody’s on the quarterback… We’ll continue to run Sam and figure out why, again, it looked like we had some guys miss up front. And it sure wasn’t for crowd noise, because our people were quiet when we had the ball.

“I think right now, running the ball and making sure that we’re solid in pass protection as we get back into league play are the two most critical things that we’ve got to analyze and try to figure out why they haven’t been as good as last year.”

Even UNC’s first possession of the second half, a 16-yard run by Ty Chandler was a positive start and then Howell hit a 41-yard pass play, but everything stalled because of a minus-1-yard run, an incomplete pass with a rush coming, and Howell avoided a sack picking up a yard. Then Grayson Atkins missed a 34-yard field goal attempt.

For the game, UNC finished with 201 yards on 40 attempts, but the conventional run game was 29-for-97, which is an average of 3.3 per attempt.

The first-line defense was really good with the exception of one series in the first half, which cannot be left out from these takeaways. Call it uninspiring, call it whatever one wants, but it was a series the staff surely will zero in on in film room.

Georgia State’s lone touchdown drive of the first three quarters came in the second period and consumed 75 yards on 17 plays. The Panthers ran the ball right at the Tar Heels, usually with success. They had three eight-yard runs on the drive, a seven-yard run, and a six-yarder, plus a 10-yard screen.

They consumed 7:30 from the clock and racked up five first downs, including converting a dive play on a fourth-and-one play. The Heels weren’t strong at the line of scrimmage and appeared a bit out of sorts a few times. They were very good otherwise, so perhaps this is nit picking, but Georgia State scoring a TD on a 17-play drive is too noteworthy to ignore.