No. 21 Notre Dame Throttles UNC Football, Tar Heel Offense Lifeless Again

With black storm clouds looming over Kenan Stadium for the majority of the UNC football team’s 33-10 loss to No. 21 Notre Dame on Saturday, it was a perfect metaphor for a Tar Heel offense which has fallen completely flat over the last couple weeks.

Right out of the gates, UNC went three-and-out on its first five offensive possessions. For the game, the Tar Heels punted a whopping nine times while gaining just 13 first downs.

Quarterback Chazz Surratt and company managed only seven yards in the entire first quarter—while finishing with just 265 for the game.

If that wasn’t enough to illustrate the Tar Heels’ severe offensive woes, they also lost two fumbles, threw an interception that put Notre Dame into the red zone and watched as tailback Jordon Brown was tackled for a safety just before halftime.

Despite the best efforts of the UNC defense—which played a strong first half before fatigue set in once again—a failure to execute any type of consistent offense doomed the Tar Heels (1-5, 0-3 ACC) for the second straight week.

Confronted with his team’s woes on that side of the ball after the game, head coach Larry Fedora struggled to find answers.

“The key to getting better is just executing the play,” Fedora said. “We’re not doing anything exotic. We’re not asking them to do something that they can’t do. We just have to execute the play that’s called. That’s it.”

With the exception of a beautiful 25-yard touchdown toss to Anthony Ratliff-Williams in the second quarter, Surratt appeared every bit like the freshman quarterback he is.

For every flash of potential he shows, there seems to be at least one or two growing pains that follow.

Notre Dame (5-1) held him to just 179 yards through the air on Saturday, while letting him complete only 19 of his 42 pass attempts.

Surratt also lost a fumble on a freak play where he took the snap, and had the ball bounce off his running back’s arm on a play fake.

In total, the Tar Heels went three-and-out on eight of their 15 drives.

Although he credited the Notre Dame defense for having a solid game plan, Surratt echoed Fedora when diagnosing the problems himself.

“I think most of it was a lack of execution,” Surratt said. “We had some stuff going and then either we miss a block or I miss a read—just little stuff that adds up. We can’t have that in the offense.”

Defensively, the Tar Heels played solid but were given little to no help from their counterparts on the other side of the ball.

Eventually, fatigue set in after a scoreless first quarter and the Fighting Irish began reeling off points.

Despite using a backup quarterback, Notre Dame ultimately broke through for three touchdowns of at least 24 yards. UNC is still struggling to stop those types of explosive plays, which has hurt the team all year.

Now 1-5 at the midpoint of the season—and mired in a three-game losing streak–Fedora recognizes that injuries and inexperience have played a large factor on both offense and defense.

Still, though, he refuses to make that excuse—pointing the finger inwards at himself.

“It comes down to me as the head coach putting them in a position to be successful,” Fedora said. “And I haven’t found a way to make that happen yet.

“I can assure you, that every minute of the day,” the coach added. “We’re working on it.”

Up Next:

UNC will stay at Kenan Stadium next week as it looks to snap its current three-game losing skid against Virginia. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m.

Game Notes:

• Saturday marked the first time since 2009 that the Tar Heels went consecutive games scoring 10 points or less.
• Injuries took a couple more key contributors from UNC, as punter Tom Sheldon and safety Donnie Miles each left the game with different ailments.

 

 

Cover photo via Gerry Broome (Associated Press)