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CHAPEL HILL – The 2024 North Carolina Tar Heels are who they are.
And appearances through six games suggest the 2024 North Carolina Tar Heels just aren’t a good football team.
Could they flip the switch and stop giving up massive chunks of yardage, allowing second-half third and fourth-down conversions, while finding ways to not maximize on their offensive movement.
At least in UNC’s 34-24 loss at home to Pittsburgh on Saturday, Carolina’s penalty problem took a hiatus. The Heels were flagged just five times Saturday, so that didn’t contribute to their third consecutive loss.
What did play a major role is a defense that has shown itself to be pretty much the same thing it was under the previous two coordinators. Think about it:
The problems under Jay Bateman were mega explosive plays and missed tackles. The problems under Gene Chizik were allowing a horde of huge plays and missed tackles. And the problems now under Geoff Collins are a boatload of explosive plays and missed tackles.
Pitt had nine explosive plays. One went for 72 yards; the longest play allowed this season by the Tar Heels. Two went for 43 and 46 yards. Another was a 30-yard touchdown one snap after a 23-yard game on a third-and-nine. And on the Panthers final drive, that ended with a field goal and the game’s final points, their quarterback ran for 24 and 20 yards.
That’s why UNC Coach Mack Brown went for it on six fourth downs. From afar, two of the efforts looked like questionable decisions, as the Tar Heels could have, and perhaps should have, kicked field goals. But they went for it because that wasn't going to win this game, the Hall of Famer said.
“Their quarterback being really good,” Brown said. “They’re one of the highest scoring teams around and they were really good. And analytics said go for every one of them… They knew Pitt was going to score points.”
Eli Holstein passed for 381 yards, three scores and an interception. He also ran for 76 yards.
But this was his fifth start. He played really well through the first four games, but the redshirt freshman got UNC’s attention enough that, even with an experienced and deep defense loaded with talent, the Heels went into the game figuring without scoring a ton of points they would lose.
“We didn’t think we were going to stop them very well going into the game, so we made a conscious decision going in we need to score touchdowns, we couldn’t be kicking field goals,” Brown said.
He’s probably right.
The reality of this season is that Carolina hasn’t played really well yet. It earned props for winning at Minnesota, but the Gophers did miss a field goal that would have won the game.
The Heels were not impressive against Charlotte, and Collins’ defense gave up eight explosive plays. The JMU debacle will be remembered for many years, and could serve as a landmark moment of the for this team and program.
Carolina blew a 20-0 lead midway through the third quarter to lose, 21-20, at Duke last week. And then the generally poor performance today.
The offense did some nice things, and Jacolby Criswell is making progress. But it may not be enough for the Heels to overcome a defense that must deal with Georgia Tech and quarterback Haynes King next week. And, if the plan was to go into the Pitt game with essentially one hand tied behind their, the Heels will do the same against the Yellow Jackets.
They have to.
The direction the team is headed, and the decisions made clearly state that. And that’s okay, the staff must do everything it can to give its team chances to win games. That the same affliction, however, has lingered so long now one doesn’t have to squint to see its haze hovering over Kenan Stadium.
