Papuchis On The Front, Crawford, Waiver, 'Cuse & More

CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina defensive coordinator John Papuchis met with the media following Tuesday’s practice at Kenan Stadium to discuss what went well in Saturday’s loss at Virginia Tech, the breakdown defensively on the Hokies’ late fourth-down conversion, injuries and the Malik Carney waiver from the NCAA.

Here are some outtakes from what Papuchis had to say:

*UNC’s defensive front had a nice game Saturday picking up four sacks and forcing Hokies’ QB Ryan Willis out of the pocket a lot. What does Papuchis think of their performance?

“I thought they did a really good job,” Papuchis said. “We knew going into the game we needed to be able to get a four-man pass rush. We thought that was important in terms of the matchups on the back end. We thought that if we were able to get some good pressure in his face that we would get him off his spot and reduce his opportunity to go downfield. Really, for the most part I thought we did a really good job up front.”

*The secondary had two interceptions and five PBUs, as JK Britt and Patrice Rene acknowledged the unit saw the ball a lot better than they had in previous games. The effort up front was a big part of that.

“Any time you can get a great four-man pass rush that’s ideal because that way you can maximize your coverage,” Papuchis said. “So, I thought it helps everybody and certainly it helps the back end. It allows us to play with two high safeties, that limits big throws and big plays. So, I thought being able to establish a four-man pass rush early was critical in the game.”

*One of the biggest plays of Saturday’s game was when Virginia Tech converted a fourth-and-9 play at the UNC 40 with less than a minute remaining. Willis ended up running for 12 yards and a first down, and several plays later, the Hokies scored the game-winning touchdown. What happened on that play defensively for the Tar Heels?

“We had a four-man pass rush game going and we were in coverage. We really got good pressure (but) he was able to buy enough time to find a rush lane and get out. We had two choices in that point and time to either bring pressure, which was one of my thoughts, or go with our four-man pass rush that been successful.

“I erred on the side of going with the four-man rush to give our guys the most coverage help we could in that situation. I can second-guess myself all day long whether it was the right thing to do because it didn’t work.

“But at the time I thought to be able to give our guys some support was the right thing because when you do bring pressure it puts us in man-to-man and they had started to expose us a little bit outside as the game wore on.

“So, hindsight’s always 20-20. Maybe I would have done it differently had I known the result, but at the time I thought it was the best thing to do.”