University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: First Priority
September 22, 2005 | Football
Sept. 22, 2005
By Adam Lucas
First down, the theory goes, sets the tone for an offense.
Unfortunately for North Carolina, that's been exactly the case through two games of the 2005 season.
First down is supposed to be the offense's down to dictate. Three cracks remain to get 10 yards, so the entire playbook is open--running plays, short passing plays, long passing plays, trick plays, almost anything goes.
But for the Tar Heels, almost nothing has gone, foreshadowing an offense that has sometimes sputtered.
"You want to be able to throw some on first down and run some on first down," John Bunting says. "Being able to run on first down gives you a tremendous advantage. That's my background."
Carolina hasn't had that tremendous advantage so far this season. The Heels tried running plays on six of their nine first downs in the first half against Wisconsin--the rushes went for a combined -3 yards and the only successful first-down play was a 10-yard pass to Jon Hamlett. Fully half of the first-down rushing attempts went for negative yardage, plus a fourth play that was an intended pass that ended in a sack of Matt Baker.
It's those negative yardage plays that have been the bane of the Carolina offense. Coordinator Gary Tranquill can work around a short gain on first down. Second and 8 is manageable, even second and 9 presents a variety of options. But second and 12 or longer telegraphs a pass, reduces the effectiveness of play-action, and puts Baker in peril.
"It's been the small things on those negative runs," Baker says. "It hasn't been big missed blocks. It's been missed assignments from every group, from the backs getting the wrong aiming point to alignment on the line. It's one small missed assignment that can change a play from a 5-yard play to a negative play."
And change an offense from potent to poor.
As Bunting said, his background--and the Carolina offense--is built on running the ball early in the series. When those plays don't click, the tenor of the possession changes and defenses quickly adjust. The Heels eventually rumbled to life on first down last Saturday--including three long passes to Wallace Wright and one to Derrele Mitchell--but did it by giving up any pretense of running and letting Baker fling the ball down the field to try and muster a comeback. It was a system born of necessity that was devoid of deception for the Badger defense.
"Wisconsin wasn't coming up to play the run at all," Wright says. "They felt the interior could handle the dirty work...They didn't respect our running game much."
The Tar Heels generally consider anything inside of third and 8 to be a manageable third down. That's a down and distance where even short passes can still be used--it's relatively simple for a short 5-yard pattern to turn into an 8-yard gain.
Longer yardage requires longer passes, which require deeper drops, which come with a higher risk factor both for the quarterback and for potential turnovers. The glamour stat is third down conversions (where Carolina ranks 89th in the country at 31.3 percent) but players and coaches know it's how you get to third down that often determines the level of effectiveness.
"When you get in second and long and third and long it takes out 90 percent of the playbook," Baker says. "There's not much left to work with."
Correcting the first down problems can be frustrating. It seems like a small tweak to go from losing one yard to gaining three or four but isn't as simple as just pointing out one faulty cog in the offense. Carolina has spent this week of practice putting extra emphasis on the execution in their early-down packages.
"We've really tried to work our first-down plays," Baker says. "We've got a set of those plays we know we want to run, and we've tried to work those as much as we can. We've also got the scout team defense set up for what NC State likes to do on first down."
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. He is the coauthor of the official book of the 2005 championship season, Led By Their Dreams, and his book on Roy Williams's first season at Carolina, Going Home Again, is now available in bookstores. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly or learn more about Going Home Again, click here.
