CHAPEL HILL - After a first half to forget, North Carolina’s offense finally got it rolling in the third quarter of its 31-6 season-opening victory over Syracuse on Saturday in Kenan Stadium.

The Tar Heels started off hot, scoring on the first drive of the game but failed to score for the remainder of the half, entering the halftime break with just a 7-3 lead. Sophomore quarterback Sam Howell also threw two interceptions in what was a dismal first half display from the offense as a whole.

Despite the lackluster half, Carolina eventually kicked it into high gear thanks to a 12-play, 65-yard drive resulting in a 31-yard field goal from graduate transfer Grayson Atkins. This put UNC up 10-6 and was the catalyst for the Heels outscoring the Orange 24-0 to close the game.

Junior running back Javonte Williams, who finished with 57 yards on 14 carries and three touchdowns, said the offense struggled to find consistency in the first half before discovering it after the break.

“We just had to get back in our rhythm,” Williams said after the victory. “Once the second half started, we just came together and made plays.”

A six-play, 77-yard drive to end the third quarter followed, with Williams scoring the first of his three touchdowns on the first play of the fourth quarter. UNC racked up a total of 144 yards in the third and had seven first downs, just three shy of the 10 they had in the entirety of the first half.

For Howell, the offense’s second half success was down to some simple adjustments.

“With their secondary, they were playing really deep, they were bailing on everything,” he said. “We knew our deep game wasn’t really gonna be there, so we had to take the underneath stuff and just take what they were giving us.”

Carolina would score three unanswered touchdowns and outgain the Orange 120-41 in the final quarter. The Tar Heels finished with 463 total yards on the day, 160 of which came on the ground.

The upswing didn’t really have anything to do with major adjustments made by the Tar Heels, they simply started to execute clicking their way to the lopsided victory.

“We had some lapses against a new defense…” UNC Coach Mack Brown said. “In the second half, we settled down and became the offense we thought we wanted to be coming into the ball game.”

It took some time, but UNC’s offense finally found itself in the second half, leading to a comfortable win over Syracuse in the season opener and building plenty of momentum going into next Saturday’s matchup against Charlotte.