Five in a row never sounded so good. Carolina, following a shaky start with two Marquise Williams picks, annihilated Wake Forest in the last 3 quarters of game play. What we saw (while some, listened) was a complete offensive performance against a sneak good Wake Forest defense and a Carolina defense that took advantage of an over matched and not very talented Deacon offense. Carolina, after settling in, boat raced Dave Clawsen's Deacon squad sending them back to Winston with the worst less ever dealt to a Wake Forest squad at the hands of the Tar Heels.
Heading into Saturday I was convinced Wake had a punchers chance because of the nature of their quick, shifty, and chaos generating defense. After a couple of drives it looked like that out of bounds prediction could come true. But, like we've seen in the last couple of games, when the Tar Heels have faced adversity, they've collected themselves, listened to coaching, and played their game.
The biggest adjustment I noticed on offense came in the second quarter in the run game.Once Carolina's O finally settled in, they took advantage of the defensive looks the Wake Forest D displayed. Early on Wake used a linebacker to set the edge for defending zone reads and it proved troublesome for the Carolina run game. I have to give credit to the adjustments made by Carolina's coaching staff. Recognizing this unbalanced look for the Wake Forest defense, the offensive coaching staff scripted a counter play utilizing a pulling guard to kick out the extra defender Wake had on the edge. Elijah Hood (a man who Carolina fans should be kissing the feet of) was patient, read and followed his blockers and hit the hole north and south. Elijah Hood's running style makes me salivate.
To exploit the Wake Forest passing D, Carolina took advantage of the Zone Passing Defense Wake Forest relies on. The attacking nature of their front coupled with zone at the rear, creates havoc for opposing QBs and has led to a (until playing Carolina) upper tier ranking in terms of total defense. We saw the havoc early on with Quise's early interceptions. With Wake wanting to stop the run and keep the ball in front of them, Carolina was able to exploit the over the top passing game with with 4 passing receptions that exceeded 40 yards each. Carolina exploited the extra man in the box with a zone read play action fake which froze the safeties and let Quise hit Wake over the top.
On defense, Carolina played to about as close to a complete game on defense that we've seen in years. Wake Forest runs a plethora of pick plays in the passing game that utilizes a quick passing scheme set to catch the opposing defense off guard. The pick plays were plentiful and you could definitely argue that many of the plays would be illegal under the current set of rules, but you have to deal with it. Carolina's DL got after it, took away any chance of a run game and let the DBs make plays. Let it be known:It didn't hurt that Carolina knocked out Wake's Starting QB. With the substitute QB, Carolina was able to load the box and force the new QB to beat him with his arm, which he couldn't.
While this game was far from perfect, it was one of the more complete games Larry Fedora and his staff have put together since he got on campus. Adjustments were made and players made plays. Carolina has a back loaded schedule so we'll have to look out at what lies ahead in the final six. But, I must say, it feels great to be 5-1 heading into UVA.
Go Heels.
WFP
No comments:
Post a Comment