University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Rapid Reactions
September 28, 2014 | Football
1. It's hard to know exactly how to feel about Saturday's loss at Clemson. It's true that the Tar Heels fought back from some early adversity and made the game interesting for all four quarters. But it's also true that it never really felt like the Tigers were concerned about actually losing the game, and at times were just toying with Carolina.
2. The UNC defense has been scorched for two straight weeks against two of the best offenses on the 2014 schedule. The last two weeks mark the first time in school history that the Tar Heels have given up at least 50 points in back to back games.
"We had too many major mistakes on the back end," Larry Fedora told Jones Angell on the Tar Heel Sports Network. "We just turned guys loose. We're going to have to figure out what went wrong in those situations. We did do a much better job against the run, which gave us a chance."
Next week's game against Virginia Tech looms large. The Hokies are in a different category than ECU and Clemson offensively, and the defense needs to make a stand and keep Carolina in the game.
3. The Tar Heel offense, though, showed some glimmers of the explosive unit it was supposed to be coming into 2014. Ryan Switzer ripped off a 75-yard score, T.J. Thorpe took one 41 yards for a score, and Carolina amassed a robust 478 yards of total offense.
The most encouraging development, however, might have been the 71 rushing yards on 13 carries for true freshman Elijah Hood, a bruising runner who seeks out contact and delivers punishment. The Tar Heel offense is in desperate need of a consistent ground attack, and Hood looks like he might be able to provide it.
A reliable rushing attack would help both the offense and the defense--the offense by taking some pressure off the air attack, and the defense by keeping them off the field.
4. Carolina has now had more penalties than the opponent in three of the four games in 2014. The Tar Heels handed Clemson 30 yards on personal foul penalties on the Tigers' second scoring drive of the game. Some defenses are potent enough to overcome giving away free yardage. This year's Carolina edition, however, is not one of them. The final tally was 15 penalties for 130 yards.
"Fifteen penalties looks like a poorly coached team, is what it looks like," a frustrated Fedora said.
Players Mentioned
