CHAPEL HILL - Entering Saturday’s ACC tilt with Pittsburgh, the halfway point of the regular season for North Carolina, the Tar Heels ranked 131st in college football in opponent yards per completion at 16 yards per catch. This mark, which is the worst among Power Four programs, bested only UAB, UTSA, and South Florida.
all tChem explosive plays, chunk plays, or big gains, but the point remains the same, allowing back-breaking yardage, whether on the ground or through the air, has led to three straight defeats for UNC, including a 34-24 loss at the hands of Pittsburgh.
The Panthers recorded nine explosive plays en route to their fifth straight win, dicing up the Tar Heel secondary for passing plays of 72 yards, a season-high, 46 yards, 42 yards, and 30 yards, all of which resulted in points for Pat Narduzzi’s squad.
“We gave up (nine) explosive plays that we can’t continue to give up. That was the difference in the game defensively,” said UNC Head Coach Mack Brown. “We’ve got to limit the number of explosives that they get.”
Redshirt freshman quarterback Eli Holstein, the commander of the Panther offense, was responsible for all nine explosive plays, throwing for more than 15 yards on seven occasions and rushing for 20-plus yards twice.
Holstein, who tallied a career-high 381passing yards and paced Pittsburgh on the ground with 76 yards rushing, recorded at least one explosive play on each of the Panthers’ six scoring drives.
He was particularly effective in the second half, where he not only tallied four explosive plays, but helped guide the offense to eight third down conversions, including two touchdowns.
Whether it be a fresh set of downs or third down, also known as the money down, the Tar Heel defense did not make the necessary stops.
“[It’s] simply just making a play, a dude making a better play. He’s on scholarship, too, just like we are,” said Defensive Back Alijah Huzzie. “They could come down to technique, the player not really making a crazy play, but you’re just losing off of technique or like an angle, an assignment, or alignment. [It’s either] me make the play or him make the play, one of the two.”
North Carolina has surrendered a total of 32 explosive plays in its three-straight losses, compared to just 18 amidst a 3-0 start. And on Pitt had at least one explosive play on each scoring drive going for, in order, 53, 72, 30, 46, and 24 yards.
For Huzzie and the Geoff Collins-led defense, the term “finish” is the focus, and the key to halting devastating plays by the opposition.
“We had some chances to get off the field defensive wise, we’re just leaving plays out there on the field,” said Huzzie. We’re moving in the right direction for sure, we just gotta finish. "We got to finish games, finish plays, finish drives, just finish everything that we do.”
Saturday’s performance marked the third time this season that an opponent threw for more than 300 yards, and was the fourth-instance in which an opponent recorded a pass play of 40 or more yards.
With a matchup against Georgia Tech looming, an offense that ranks fourth in college football in completion percentage (72.88%) and top-30 in yards per pass (8.5), the UNC defense will face another difficult test.
