At the half of UNC football’s game against Duke, UNC football trails Duke 17-10, in the last game at Kenan Stadium this season.
After picking up momentum with two straight wins versus Syracuse and Stanford, it looked like the Tar Heels were turning their season around. But following last weeks loss to Wake Forest and Saturday’s first half against the Blue Devils it appears that is no longer the case.
With everything that went wrong, the Tar Heels being down one possession seems like a positive.
Here are two takeaways from Saturday’s first half against Duke:
Stagnant Offense
It’s been the story all year — UNC’s struggling scoring attack.
North Carolina’s offense simply couldn’t move the football down the field for the majority of the first half Saturday.
In true TCU, opening night fashion, the Tar Heels marched the ball down the field 75 yards in a little over seven minutes, capped off with a one-yard touchdown from redshirt sophomore quarterback Gio Lopez. After that, the results have been minimal though.
UNC tallied seven net yards on the two drives following the first, with two consecutive three-and-outs. While on the first drive Lopez was finding open receivers and throwing the ball into tight pockets, the following drives were the complete opposite. The Blue Devils have been able to pressure Lopez at-will, forcing bad throws.
While the play calling looked excellent on the opening drive, it seemed as if the Tar Heels abandoned the effective left-side rollouts that worked, instead forcing Lopez to be the pocket-passing quarterback he’s struggled with all season.
On the fourth and final drive of the first half, UNC went back to the rollout game that worked, which ended up in a late-half field goal. Sticking to playing to Lopez’s strengths in the second half will be key as the Tar Heels look to mount a comeback and get the offense rolling.
Undisciplined Flags
One of the main reasons for the hole UNC is in has been the untimely, flat-out terrible penalties the team has taken.
The first notable one, a pass-interference by senior defensive back Thaddeus Dixon, helped Duke march down the field on its first touchdown drive.
Maybe the most egregious one came on a roughing the kicker from senior defensive back Marcus Allen, which gave the Blue Devils 1st-and-10 from the 14-yard line instead of a missed field goal. On the next play, the Blue Devils scored on a coverage breakdown.
At the end of the half, Allen committed another costly penalty on third down that helped extend Duke’s drive which resulted in a field goal.
On the final drive of the first half, an illegal man downfield infraction turned a first-and-goal from the five yard line to a 3rd-and-seven from the 31-yard line. UNC settled for a late-half field goal as a result.
For a team that preaches fundamentals, the first half penalties have been everything but that. The first step to getting back into the game is cleaning up the play and not digging themselves into holes.
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