Peay's View: Diving Into UNC's Struggles Allowing Sacks

***********************************************************************

Wanna be a UNC Tar Heels insider? You can for just $8.33 a month

***********************************************************************

CHAPEL HILL – A sack in football can be devastating for the offensive team, often leading to a significant setback in their drive.

A sack not only results in a loss of yards for the offense, but also disrupts the rhythm and momentum of their possession. It can instantly shift the balance of power on the field, demoralizing the offensive players and energizing the defense, and if at home, its crowd.

Strategically, a sack can create challenging circumstances for the offense. It pushes them further away from the desired yardage for a first down, making subsequent plays more difficult to convert. It also puts the offense at a higher risk of turnovers, as increased pressure on the quarterback may lead to rushed decisions or errant throws.

Since Mack Brown has returned to North Carolina for his second stint with the Tar Heels, the Hall of Fame Coach has been able to assemble one of the most potent offenses in all of college football. Brown has produced multiple offensive draft picks every year since his return to Chapel Hill.

Though the Heels have been high-powered offensively, the head coach is always looking for ways to improve. UNC only had two games last fall in which it didn’t allow a sack. One in the opener against FCS program Florida A&M, the other versus and Virginia Tech, which finished last in the Coastal Division.

“We had a problem with sacks four years ago, we are still sitting here at 102nd in sacks,” Brown this spring.

Carolina’s inability to keep quarterback Drake Maye upright certainly played a role in UNC struggling to hang with the upper echelon of college football. Maye was sacked 40 times, and the results proved devastating for the Tar Heels’ offense.

In drives when the Tar Heels allowed a sack, the chances of finishing the possession with points greatly diminished. Out of the 482 points UNC scored during the 2022 football season, only 64 points came in drives in which the Heels endured a sack.

As a matter of fact, when Carolina failed to keep Maye clean on a drive, the Heels punted 42 percent of the time. In 32.5 percent of their drives, the Heels turned the ball over or missed a field goal, so 74.5 percent of the time when UNC allowed a sack, the drive ended with no points.

If the UNC took two sacks in a drive, the results were worse. Carolina scored a touchdown against Appalachian State after giving up two sacks during a drive, but as the competition improved, multiple sacks in a single possession proved too much for the Heels to overcome.

Versus ACC opponents, UNC had three drives in which Maye was sacked more than once, and the results were a punt, lost fumble, and a turnover on downs.

A reason sacks decrease your chances of scoring by so much is the amount of yards typically lost on those disastrous plays. When taking a sack last season, Maye averaged losing 5.2 yards, and while a loss of five yards is a setback, Maye often proved to be good at limiting the damage of yardage loss taken in sacks. Of the 40 times Maye was taken down, he lost five or fewer yards 23 times. And though Carolina still had little chance to score on those drives, avoiding catastrophic losses helped the Heels out in the field position battle.

Obviously, where the sacks take place is a factor, as well. For Carolina, 18 of its 40 sacks allowed came on the positive side of the field, including nine in the red zone. A sack in opponents’ territory usually means it was a drive that had generated some steam having stalled, and it can be the difference between seven and three points, and also, three points and a punt. UNC scored two touchdowns in nine tries in drives where it made it inside the 20-yard-line and suffered a sack.

In Brown’s second stint at Carolina, he has had two NFL-caliber quarterbacks, and his offense is ranked consistently near the top of the ACC, but for UNC to make some noise on a national level, keeping the quarterback clean more regularly must be one of its highest priorities