This is a free sample of out next-day coverage following games.
North Carolina’s defense turned in another terrific statistical performance in a 59-17 victory over Georgia State on Saturday night at Kenan Stadium, with quite a few Tar Heels grading out well in the process.
Here is a deeper look into how the Heels performed on the defensive side of the ball:
Note that all grades and some stats are courtesy of PFF.
*Georgia State gained 271 total yards on 75 offensive plays, which is 3.6 yards per play. GSU was 5-for-17 on third downs, and 2-for-4 on fourth downs (including a failed fake punt).
*17 Tar Heels that played 10 or more snaps graded out at 60.0 or higher: RaRa Dillworth 81.8; Eugene Asante 80.1; Tomon Fox 75.4; Ja’Qurious Conley 74.6; Power Echols 73.9; Cedric Gray 73.7; Myles Murphy 71.7; Desmond Evans 69.2; Jeremiah Gemmel 68.8; Cam Kelly 67.8; Kaimon Rucker 65.6; Ray Vohasek 65.6; Jahlil Taylor 65.1; Obi Egbuna 65.0; Chris Collins 64.7; Giovanni Biggers 63.1; Jahvaree Rtizie 62.8.
*Sacks: Myles Murphy
*QB Hurries (5): One each for Ritzie, Evans, Tomon Fox, Alex Nobles, and Kristian Varner.
*Tackles: Conley and Kelly five each; Don Chapman, Asante, Dillworth, Collins, and Power Echols with four each; Ritzie, Evans, Tony Grimes, Biggers, and Tomari Fox with three each; Kyler McMichael, Trey Morrison, DeAndre Boykins, Rucker, Gray, Vohasek, and Kevin Hester with two each; and Tomon Fox, Egbuna, Christopher Holliday, Kerick Bingley-Jones, Gemmel, and Taylor one each.
*Missed tackles (5): Echols 2; Grimes, Biggers, and Chapman one each.
*STOPs (plays that result in failures for the opposing offense): Kelly and Collins three each; Dillworth, Murphy, Evans, Conley, Vohasek, and Asante two each; Ritzie, Echols, Rucker, Grimes, Gray, Bingley-Jones, Hester, Biggers, Taylor, Morrison, McMichael, Gemmel, Tomon Fox one each.
Run Defense
*Georgia State ran the ball 45 times for 181 yards, which is an average of 4.02 yards per attempt.
*Of GSU’s 16 first downs, 13 came on running plays. It had four runs of 10 or more yards, and 86 yards came after contact.
Rushing Direction
*Left end: 10 attempts for 54 yards (5.4 average), 4 first downs, two 10-plus runs, and a long of 29 yards.
*Left tackle: 7 attempts for 19 yards (2.7 ave), 1 TD, 3 first downs, long run of 8 yards.
*Left guard: 4 attempts for 20 yards (5.0 ave), 1 TD, 3 first downs, long of 7 yards.
*Between LG & C: 6 attempts for 18 yards (3.0 ave), 1 first down, one 10-plus run, long of 10 yards.
*Between C & RG: 2 attempts for 4 yards (2.0 ave), long of 2 yards.
*Right guard: 1 attempt for 6 yards.
*Right tackle: None
*Right end: 9 attempts for 22 yards (2.4 ave), 1 first down, long of 5 yards.
*QB fumble: 1 for minus 8 yards.
*QB scramble: 3 attempts for 43 yards (14.3 ave), 1 first down, one 10-plus run, long of 36 yards.
THI’s Take:
GSU ran five times over their guards picking up 26 yards, two of those were fourth-down conversions. The QB scrambling got the Heels a couple of times, but otherwise, UNC’s run defense was pretty good. There are some things to pick at, especially regarding the 17-play drive, but nothing was really alarming about its run D.
Passing Defense
*GSU played two QBs, though Cornelious Brown played most of the game. Brown was 12-for-26 with 68 yards and an interception, while Darren Grainer was 2-for-4 with 22 yards.
*GSU QBs did not throw away any passes, its receivers were charged with one dropped pass, no passes were batted down were sacked once, and their collective NFL rating was 38.0.
We will stick with Brown’s numbers since he was the starter and played until the game was out of hand:
*Brown was 9-for-21 with 54 yards and an INT when he was under no pressure from UNC’s defense.
*Brown dropped back to pass five times when under pressure and was 2-for-4 with 14 yards.
Passing Direction
*Brown was 4-for-4 with 11 yards on passes thrown behind the line of scrimmage.
*Brown was 7-for-10 with 57 yards and an INT on passes thrown between 0-9 yards downfield.
*Brown was 0-for-7 on passes thrown between 10-19 yards downfield.
*Brown was 0-for-4 on passes thrown 20 or more yards downfield.
THI’s Take
Brown’s passing numbers were horrible in part because he missed some open guys, but credit UNC for those numbers, too. No completed passes on balls thrown longer than nine yards downfield is awfully impressive by the Tar Heels. They didn’t get enough of a pass rush, though, but they also only blitzed five times, so the intent was to play more in base defense.
Pass Coverage
*Kyler McMichael was targeted 7 times allowing 3 receptions for 11 yards.
*Don Chapman was targeted 4 times allowing 2 receptions for 16 yards, though one time the receiver was charged with a drop.
*Tony Grimes was targeted 4 times allowing one reception for 12 yards and a first down.
*Power Echols was targeted 3 times allowing one reception for 7 yards and a first down, he also had an interception.
*Eugene Asante was targeted 2 times allowing one reception for 3 yards and he had a PBU.
*Giovanni Biggers was targeted 2 times allowing one reception for 17 yards and a first down.
*Trey Morrison was targeted 2 times allowing one reception for 4 yards.
*Dae Dae Hollins was targeted 2 times allowing one reception for 8 yards.
*Obi Egbuna was targeted 2 times allowing one reception for 5 yards.
*Cam Kelly was targeted one time allowing one reception for 10 yards and a first down.
THI's Overall Take
As noted a few times, people can nit pick about the 17-play drive and the receivers getting open without conversions because of high throws and drops (it certainly appeared more than one pass was technically dropped), but the overall result and output is what matters. And for the second consecutive game, UNC allowed fewer than 300 yards.
It had four three-and-outs through three quarters and two other four-play possessions. Plenty of guys playing displaying glimpses of the future, which is rather promising on this side of the ball. Overall, UNC fans should be fine with this performance.
