The Tar Heels' running game
Two things in particular stood out to me in Atlanta about North Carolina's season-opener at Georgia Tech, at least after I got past the matter of Matt Baker's debut start. One, the Tar Heels really miss Ronnie McGill, not to mention Jacque Lewis and Chad Scott. Two, why on earth did Tech not run the ball much at all in the fourth quarter up 13 points?
Judging by the talk on talk radio and message boards today, that 2nd question is on the minds of a lot of people. P.J. Daniels rushed 21 times for 103 yards, but was a forgotten man by his own coach late. On their last scoring drive, to go up 27-14, the Jackets passed the ball 7 straight times. QB Reggie Ball then scored on a 9-yard run that looked like a broken pass play. The next three Tech drives: three passes and a punt; two passes, run and punt; three passes and a punt. That, to me, was responsible for the game taking three hours and 50 minutes and giving UNC enough clock to come back with a shot to win.
Here's was Ga Tech coach Chan Gailey's explanation: "Their front seven was strong and physical, and they did a better job at stopping the run as the game went on, especially in the second half."
Seriously, that can't be it.
As for UNC's running game, the true freshman, Cooter Arnold, got the start. But neither he nor Barrington Edwards appeared ready for a 1,000-yard season. The Heels need a running game, obviously. Here is what John Bunting had to say about it -- after the game, and Sunday.
Comments (1)
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I was actually at the game and it did appear that UNC owned the running game, at least on the defensive side of the ball. Yes, Daniels did run for over 100 yards, but a good portion of those yards came on busted plays. UNC held pretty frequently on running plays.
When Ball started passing, however, UNC looked out of their depth. The UNC secondary was often beat or caught out of position. People are going to throw all over UNC this year.
UNC is the team that appeared to give up too early on their running game. Given UNC's ball-control style, they went to the air too frequently. (They especially prefer to throw into the flat on third and a bazillion yard situations. They have been running that same STUPID play for decades now and it drives me NUTS!! Why on why do you throw into the flat on third and eighteen?? That play consistently nets you three yards and yet you STILL insist on resorting to it in long yardage situations! Will someone PLEASE remove that play from the UNC playbook? PLEASE!)
Where was I? Oh yeah...UNC went to the air too often. It wouldn't have been so bad if the UNC receivers hadn't dropped so many catchable balls. Too frequently the receiver was heading for the touchdown before catching the ball. After three quarters, Matt Baker started to rush the pass and ended up throwing into the ground or over the heads of the receivers.
The Heels have some problems to solve. Poor play calling, poor execution, giving up big plays on third down, costly penalties. I predict it's going to be a long year for Carolina, especially given the strength of their schedule.
Posted on September 13, 2005 3:06 PM