**************************************************************************************
**************************************************************************************
Thursday night revealed the very bad of what has been fairly common for North Carolina’s defense, but also the flip side, as the Tar Heels boned up in the second half and put forth its best football perhaps all season in a 30-23 overtime loss at Pittsburgh.
It’s impossible to escape just how poor the Heels were in the first half, especially how the last two quarters played out. Just an average defensive effort would have led to a Carolina victory. But that wasn’t the case, as UNC allowed an opponent to chew up 300-plus yards in a two-quarter stretch for the seventh of the last eight games.
The positive side is that the Heels allowed just 74 yards in the second half to one of the top defenses in the nation, and to do that after being dragged up and down the field in the first half says something about the unit’s fortitude, which has been displayed several times this season.
UNC dropped to 5-5 overall and 3-4 in the ACC, while the Panthers improved to 8-2 and 5-1.
Here is our deep dive into Carolina’s defensive performance:
