Offensive Line's Mission: Greater Physicality

CHAPEL HILL – Plenty went wrong for North Carolina’s offense during most of its loss at Wake Forest last Friday night, but when parsing the details, it’s clear the problem began up front.

The Tar Heels didn’t block that well, which likely comes as no surprise to anyone who watched the game. That UNC was 0-for its first 11 third-down attempts is one of the statistics illusgtrating just how much the line struggled. The average distance for a first down on those plays was 8.8 yards.

Effective third-down teams usually have consistent success on first downs,. The Heels certainly didn't, and the struggles aren’t relegated to the loss in Winston-Salem, in which Carolina finished 2-for-16 on third downs. I it wasn’t all that effective in the other two games, either. UNC is ranked No. 126 out of 130 FBS schools in third-down conversions at 21.4 percent.

“We’ve got to do a better job of executing on first downs,” UNC offensive coordinator Phil Longo said Monday. “I’m very used to be dictating on first downs and getting six, seven, eight yards on first downs… We want to be in that second-and-four-to-six range, and we didn’t do a good job of that in the first half.”

Against Wake, the UNC ran the ball 31 times that weren’t sacks, of which the Demon Deacons registered six, and the Heels failed to gain more than three yards on 20 of those attempts. In fact, they couldn’t muster more than two yards on 16 carries, more than one yard on 12 and eight times failed to gain a single yard.

It was a major struggle, and Longo knows exactly what is needed to fix the problem.

“I think we have to do a better job of being physical at the line of scrimmage,” he said. “That’s where it starts.”

Redshirt freshman guard Ed Montilus takes that request personally, but understands why this mandate is being pushed.

“When a coach says you’ve got to be more physical, that’s a big hit to the stomach,” Montilus said. “That’s what offensive linemen do, so we have to do that every day to play like that.”

Part of the problem is UNC’s youth up front. The Heels entered fall camp with only two seniors contending for playing time, and now they’re down to just left tackle Charlie Heck, as Nick Polino is out for a while with an injury. Sophomore Brian Anderson moved into Polino’s spot at center, and with sophomore right tackle Jordan Tucker going down last Friday night, redshirt freshman Josh Ezeudu ended up getting the first 44 snaps of his college career.

Montilus has played in just three college games and Anderson had a handful of game snaps prior to three weeks ago. Other than Heck, this is a green unit that is learning on the fly.

Experience will help moving forward, as Anderson says the problems, notably the physicality request, are correctable.

“Absolutely,” he said. “I think being physical is a choice you can make, it’s a mental thing you can walk into a game and decide whether or not you want to finish blocks or not, whether you want to take the extra couple of steps to block to the whistle or not.”

The mantra is quite simple: The big boys up front need to take steps forward for UNC’s offense to properly grow into the air raid attack Longo envisions. And the process begins with a more rugged disposition.