Are The Heels Ready To Blitz More?

CHAPEL HILL – If Louisville and NC State laid out the blueprint to throw Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman off his game, North Carolina will be a bit out of character if it embraces that approach when the No. 15 Tar Heels visit the Demon Deacons on Saturday night.

The Cardinals lead the nation with 34 sacks, and while the Wolfpack have half that number on the season, it is quite effective at pressuring quarterbacks to move away from comfort zones. Their combined results in beating Wake the last two weeks: 11 sacks and 11 forced turnovers.

Neither – sacks and forced turnovers – are specialties of the Tar Heels, and aren’t a requirement for UNC (8-1, 5-0 ACC) to defeat the Deacons (6-3, 2-3). Dialing up some pressure, however, is most likely a part of Carolina’s game plan, so it must get something out of it, which would be rare given the first nine games.

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“We are not getting there,” UNC Coach Mack Brown said during his Monday press conference at the Kenan Football Center. “That's what I told the kids, ‘It's not fair to your secondary who gets yelled at when they leave someone wide open and you're not getting there.’ So, we have to get there when we blitz and we are not.”

According to PFF, UNC has blitzed just 50 times this season, compared to 40 combined blitzes – 19 by Louisville, 21 by State – against Wake the last two weeks. But the Tar Heels have picked it up some of late, and are getting better results.

On the season, opposing quarterbacks are 25-for-40 with 271 yards and four touchdowns while getting sacked three times when Carolina brings fire. Breaking it down, however, suggests the Heels are moving the needle in the right direction.

Through the first four games, all nonconference affairs ending with the loss to Notre Dame, UNC blitzed 21 times with opposing quarterbacks 12-for-18 with 140 yards and four touchdowns without getting sacked. In the last five contests, all ACC games, Carolina has blitzed 29 times with opposing quarterbacks 13-for-32 for 131 yards, no touchdowns, while being sacked three times.

Yet, Brown says the Heels must be more effective when getting after quarterbacks. The bar is higher than recent performances.

“To be a great defense, we got to do that better,” he said. “We blitzed a bunch on Saturday (at Virginia), and you didn’t notice because we only had one sack. We have not gotten sacks without blitzing, we haven't for four years.”

The other issue with blitzing, and was the case in the 31-28 victory at UVA, is that mobile quarterbacks can make defenses pay with their legs as much as their arms. They are harder to blitz because they can run QB draws and escape pressure.

Hartman doesn’t use his legs a lot, which is probably a reason Louisville and NC State had so much success going after him.

There’s more.

The staff must trust their cornerbacks to consistently cover in isolated situations. That was not the case earlier in the season, as UNC didn’t blitz more than four times in five of its first six games. The outlier was going after Notre Dame’s Drew Pyne 11 times, but that was mainly because the Heels trailed most of the game and were trying to make something happen. They had to be more aggressive.

Ideally, the a more fruitful conventional pass rush would be a part of the equation. It was a point of emphasis this past offseason, and really each offseason since Brown returned four years ago, but hasn’t rendered much prosperity.

“We definitely have to get more pressure with the four-man pass rush,” defensive coordinator Gene Chizik said Monday. And he’s right.

But, considering how much success Louisville and State had versus Wake, it shouldn’t surprise anyone if the Heels dial up more heat than usual.