University of North Carolina Athletics
Turner's Take: Quality Time
September 8, 2016 | Football, Featured Writers, Turner Walston
By Turner Walston
Last weekend in Atlanta, Georgia possessed the football nearly 17 minutes longer than Carolina did. That's more than a quarter's difference, in which the Tar Heel defense was on the field, the Tar Heel offense was off it, and there were many fewer opportunities to score points.
That time-of-possession figure is less important to spread, high-tempo teams like Carolina than it would be to a more deliberately-minded offense like, say, Georgia Tech under Paul Johnson –last year's Tar Heels won 11 games yet on average possessed the ball for nine fewer minutes than opponents– but it does keep the defense on the field and make them more likely wear down over the course of a game.
The impetus, then, is on the offense to have quality time of possession, to make the most of their opportunities on the field. Basically, to score points. The Tar Heels didn't do that well enough on Saturday, and they know it. They took care of the football, didn't commit any turnovers, but no single Tar Heel drive was longer than three minutes and ten seconds, and six of Carolina's 11 offensive series lasted four plays or fewer.
"We didn't have the ball enough, through our own fault, or through the other team being on the field too long, so that was an issue," said Tar Heel offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Chris Kapilovic.
The Carolina offensive line is one of the most experienced in the nation, and they'll need to draw on that experience to help make first-year starting quarterback Mitch Trubisky comfortable in the pocket. Larry Fedora said left guard Caleb Peterson and center Lucas Crowley played well in Atlanta, but the rest of the offensive line was "average."
"I think we all played good at times, but I feel like we didn't play together enough to be successful," Peterson said. "We'd have four guys doing the right thing and doing a good job, and then one person would mess up, and that would kind of kill the play. That's the thing about o-line play: All five people have to do their job to make the play successful. If one person busts, then the play's over. It's like a machine. You can have all these individual cogs, but once the cogs aren't rolling together, then products don't get made."
Chewing clock is not the Carolina offense's preferred method, Peterson said, but they do have to give themselves time to operate and breathing room to impose tempo on a defense. "For us as an offense, it's not about TOP; it's about moving the chains, moving the ball however you do it," he said. "We do it in a fast manner. That's our MO, is move the ball fast, tempo 'em and get 'em tired, and score."
Getting that defense tired allows for the big plays that are an integral part of the Tar Heel offense. Last season, Carolina had 57 pass plays of 20 yards or more, six by Trubisky in a reserve role. Last weekend, the Tar Heels had just three plays of 15 yards or more, with the longest a 23-yard completion to Ryan Switzer in the third quarter. But there were more opportunities for long passes, plays that flip the field, move the chains and allow the offense to move quickly on the next snap. "Our offense has been built on being able to run the ball and hit some shots," Kapilovic said. "We had some opportunities Saturday that were really lay-ups, and we didn't connect on any of them. I'm not pointing fingers at who, but you hit one or two of those, and all of a sudden the whole thing's different. But we didn't get it done."
"I know that (Austin) Proehl got behind them, I know that (Ryan) Switzer got behind them and we didn't connect on any of them," Fedora said on Monday. "You only get so many lay-ups in the game, and you've got to hit the lay-ups, and we didn't hit on any of those lay-ups, and so that makes it tough for you."
Switzer said the quarterback and his receivers have worked on fine-tuning those connections as they look toward Illinois. "We've corrected it mentally. I think Mitch is glad to get that game out of his system. That's tough. He took some snaps last year, but being in that environment, 75,000, 65 probably for Georgia, against a quality opponent. It's a tough spot for him to be in," Switzer said. "Most definitely, we expect more out of him. We expect more out of ourselves as a receiving group, and hopefully we can connect on the lay-ups that have been there."
Kapilovic said the Georgia game is behind the Tar Heels. They've used the film and practice time to correct the mistakes that all agree are correctable, and now look toward establishing a rhythm and the offense doing their best imitation of themselves. "We made some adjustments this week and we're going to do some things to help ourselves there, and just grow and hopefully we can get back to doing those things."
Wednesday's practice ended, as usual, with a two-minute drill, with the first-team offense facing off against the first-team defense. It's more about intrasquad competition than drawing conclusions –particularly as they'll all be wearing the same uniform on Saturday; the true test will come then. Still, the offense decided to take a shot early in the drill. Trubisky lofted a beautiful deep ball from midfield to a streaking Mack Hollins. The ball fell delicately into the senior's hands, almost as if Trubisky had reached out and placed it there. Touchdown.
