Train Keeps Rolling: UNC Beats Pitt, Wins Seventh Straight

With the lights of Heinz Field shining bright and the ESPN TV cameras watching closely, senior quarterback Marquise Williams and the rest of the UNC football squad made a loud statement against Pitt on Thursday night.

The nation’s only one-loss team from a Power 5 conference to be left unranked this week, the Tar Heels defeated the No. 23 Pittsburgh Panthers 26-19 with another tough, grind-it-out performance.

“I’m happy we won a football game,” Tar Heel head coach Larry Fedora said afterwards. “And did it on a short week. We went on the road, we played the number [23] team in the country, they were leading the Coastal Division, and so yeah, I’m happy we won the football game.

“There’ll be a lot of things we can get corrected, and that’s the great thing about it,” he continued. “It’s all correctable.”

UNC is now all alone atop the ACC Coastal Division, with its seventh straight victory bringing its overall record to 7-1, and making the Tar Heels a perfect 4-0 against ACC competition.

Coming into Thursday, Pittsburgh’s only loss had been to Iowa, a team ranked 10th in the nation and still undefeated. Now, the Panthers fall to 6-2 with a 4-1 record in conference play.

Williams completed 14 of his 23 pass attempts for the Tar Heels, to the tune of 270 yards and two touchdowns–while also playing turnover-free football. He also carried the ball nine times for 52 yards, leading a UNC offense that jumped out to a commanding 20-3 halftime lead behind a barrage of explosive plays.

The first of those plays involved Williams breaking free of a sack, scrambling away, and lofting a 71-yard touchdown pass to junior Ryan Switzer in the second quarter–giving the Tar Heels their first lead of the night at 10-3. Switzer finished as UNC’s top receiver in the game, catching five passes for 126 yards.

“Their safeties were playing down all game, and we knew we could, me and Mack [Hollins], get behind them,” Switzer said. “Quise did a great job keeping the play alive, and I beat my man pretty bad, and he put it in a good spot.”

Two drives later, following a 31-yard field goal by Nick Weiler that put the Tar Heels ahead by two scores, Williams found 6-foot-4 junior Mack Hollins streaking across the field for a 32-yard catch-and-run touchdown. Hollins’ only other catch of the night was on a 49-yard streak route–a third quarter play that led to the third of kicker Nick Weiler’s four field goals on the night.

Elijah Hood, the Tar Heels’ sophomore tailback, continued to assert his will on opposing defenses, grinding out a tough 98 yards on 20 touches.

Pitt quarterback Nate Peterman nearly matched Williams’ effort going 27-of-42 for 262 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions. He also showed off his skills in the ground game, racking up 41 yards on 12 attempts rushing the ball.

Peterman’s top target, and future NFL draft pick, Tyler Boyd caught four passes on the Panthers’ opening drive on his way to 10 receptions and 89 yards.

In the second half the UNC defense held strong with a “bend but don’t break” mentality.

They were unable to stop Pitt from driving down the field, but did a tremendous job forcing punts and field goals when it mattered. The Panthers picked up a pair of touchdowns after halftime, including one with just 45 seconds left in the game, but the Tar Heels had built too big of a lead.

As they tried to mount a comeback, the Panthers continually threw in the direction of Boyd, but UNC junior cornerback Des Lawrence continually swatted them down–finishing the game with a total of four pass deflections along with seven tackles.

“I think our secondary did a heck of a job,” Fedora said. “Let me tell you, number 23 [Boyd] is a heck of a football player. We had him schemed up and he still made, I don’t know how many catches (10), but he’s a heck of a ball player and I’m proud of the way the secondary played.”

With the game largely out of reach during the second half, UNC’s offense seemed to get stuck in the mud a bit–but it didn’t seem to matter. Despite picking up just a pair of field goals after halftime, defensive coordinator Gene Chizik proved for the second straight week his bunch has what it takes to close out games.

As a result, this team is rattling off wins with no end in sight. This isn’t your older brother’s Tar Heel football team. That statement was made loud and clear Thursday night.

“[We] didn’t play our best ball, and we know that,” Switzer said. “But the most important thing is we came out of here against a ranked opponent on the road with a win. So it’s something we can build off of. There was a lot of energy in the locker room.”

Williams, the team’s unquestioned leader, said that, “We celebrate [this win] tonight and tomorrow, and that’s about it. Then we get ready to go. We gonna get ready to go against the Duke Blue Devils, and that’s a pretty good football team that’s gonna come into Kenan.”

Up Next:

The Tar Heels will have a couple extra days to recover as they move on from this game–the biggest of their season so far–to next week, the new biggest game of the season. Duke, currently ranked 22nd in the top 25 polls, visits Kenan Stadium to take on a UNC team that likely will make its first appearance in the polls next week.

It would be the first time in 76 years the two arch-rivals have met in football as ranked teams.

Game Notes:

• Senior receiver Quinshad Davis caught three passes for 24 yards, giving him 183 receptions for his career. He passed Hakeem Nicks (181) as the school’s all time leader in that category.
• UNC was again without one of its key cornerbacks, as junior Brian Walker did not make the trip for personal reasons.
• In the first quarter, Marquise Williams became the fifth quarterback in ACC history to rush for 2,000 yards in a career (Tyrod Taylor, Josh Nesbitt, Woody Dantzler, Tevin Washington).
• Last season UNC made just six field goals all year. Nick Weiler had four in this game alone.