Saturday’s loss to Pittsburgh in Chapel Hill marked the third straight defeat of the season for Carolina after a 3-0 start. It’s the first time the Tar Heels have dropped three consecutive regular-season games since 2019, head coach Mack Brown’s first season back in charge of the football program.
The third loss of that streak was a one-point defeat to top-ranked Clemson, a game which showed the Tar Heels had the building blocks of success. Pitt’s visit to Kenan had nowhere near the level of hype the Tigers brought, but the Panthers are 5-0 and look like a threat for the league title.
Brown wasn’t despondent after the 34-24 defeat, the way he was two weeks ago when some thought he had abruptly resigned. Instead, he projected a positive message.
“It’s all there for us,” said Brown. “We’ve just gotta keep working. You show them all the positives they’ve got and you show them how close they are to being good. That’s an undefeated team, and there’s not much difference between the two teams. So we had our chances. And we’ve gotta continue to be positive, and we’ve gotta do a better job coaching.”
It’s safe to say Brown didn’t expect the Tar Heels to be where they are at this point in time. Not only has Carolina dropped its last two games to teams it beat each of the last two seasons, but its offense is reliant on a third-string quarterback who was plainly told he wouldn’t be playing this season. Jacolby Criswell is doing what he can, well aware of the limitations inherent with leading a team he joined just a few months before. Like Brown, Criswell said he’s keeping his eyes forward.
“Where do we need to take the next step? How do we get better in the pass game? How do we get better in the run game? How do I get better?” Criswell said. “We’re finding that out each and every week. You have positives throughout a game, then you have negatives. So the next step is, let’s build on those positives and let’s work out these negatives.”
Criswell hasn’t always been put in the best positions by a defense which let the Pitt offense rack up more than 500 total yards. Eli Holstein joined a long list of mobile quarterbacks who have befuddled Tar Heel defenders in seasons past, accounting for all four of the Panther touchdowns on the day.
Even so, a wobbly pass from Holstein in the final minutes could’ve been a Carolina lifeline. But it fell harmlessly to the turf, and the Panthers effectively sealed the game with a field goal on the next play. As cornerback Alijah Huzzie said afterward, that sequence was a good summation of UNC’s issues: getting close, but not quite close enough.
“We’re moving the right direction,” said Huzzie. “We’ve just gotta finish. Finish games, finish plays, finish drives. Just finish everything that we do.”
Huzzie, like Criswell, didn’t seem too broken up about the loss. The two veterans look like they have internalized Brown’s immediate message to the players in the locker room, one of optimism and the long game.
“It gets better. We’ve got a chance,” Brown said. “We’ve said all the time we’re gonna be a team that gets better at the end of the year. And we are. We’re playing better teams. Pittsburgh’s the best team we’ve played, by far. And we had our chances.”
Those chances came and went, as did Pittsburgh’s winless all-time record in Chapel Hill and the Victory Bell the weekend before. Now, Carolina is simply looking for something good to happen. Otherwise it risks falling into a losing record. It sounds like a perfect time for the Tar Heel-killing Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets to visit Kenan Stadium.
What could go wrong?
Featured image via Associated Press/Chris Seward
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