Trekking into Heinz Field this past Thursday Night I didn't know exactly what to expect from the Tar Heels in the first games I've watched them in person in 2015. What I saw was a team that did exactly what they needed to win on the road.
In the first half, Marquise Williams played his sharpest 30 minute span of the year. Between him ad the play calling Carolina's offense was aggressive and forced Pitt to defend Carolina's balanced of a physical run game and air raid over the top. The offensive line was very sharp in the first half with the one noticeable mistake of Jo Heck whiffing on Quise's Bomb to Switzer. Quise absolutely BAILED out the right tackle. Heck, on that pass play; But like they say, Players Make Plays. The offense in the second half was much more vanilla than in the first, with Carolina relying on the clock control game and less on on the vertical attack. I wasn't enamored with the playcalling in the second half either. Carolina's offense seemed very predictable in the second half, especially for the opposing defense. Credit to Pitt on their second half adjustments; it seemed like they were in Carolina's huddle at times.
On defense, the gold stars must be given to the secondary. Throughout the night we watched one of the best wide receivers in the country get blanketed and frustrated to the highest degree. The only plays that Boyd managed to make were ones that only uber talents, like he is, were able to make. The defensive line took advantage of the coverage the secondary showed and racked up 5 sacks on the evening, most of which being coverage sacks. Give the DL the credit to have the motors to get those sacks, as they were absolutely earned. Another positive is Carolina didn't allow explosive plays and stiffened in the red zone. They forced Pitt to chew up time being down 3 scores and kept the game in front of them at all times.
The one item of Thursday's game that rubbed me the wrong way was how ineffective Carolina was at closing out the game. When up 20-3, Carolina should have gone for the jugular and put Pitt away, but they didn't. Instead Carolina allowed Pitt to hang around, but not ending any second half drives with a touchdown and allowed Pitt to chew their way back to within striking distance. Carolina special teams gave up a second half punt block, shanked a pair of punts and gave up a fake punt early in the 4th quarter. With the 4 game stretch to finish up 2015, it'll be imperative that Carolina closes games out better than they did this past week at Heinz Field.
Instead of nitpicking I'll shift back to the big picture. Carolina went in, on the road and beat a very fundamentally sound, ranked team that is very well coached. Pittsburgh is a good football team and they should finish second in the coastal this year if Carolina closes out the season they way they should. The difference in Thursday Night's game has to be attributed to Carolina's explosive players and plays made on offense. Without that bunch of skill players, I'm afraid we would have witnessed an outcome more accustomed to Carolina's football fanbase.
Time to shift to an angry Duke; a team that I don't think that good, but will certainly play inspired after how their game ended Saturday Night.
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