Lucas: Notre Dame Rapid Reactions

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University of North Carolina Football v Notre Dame
Kenan Stadium
Chapel Hill, NC
Friday, November 27, 2020

Photo by: Grant Halverson

November 27, 2020 | Football, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas

Quick takeaways from the home matchup with Notre Dame.

By: Adam Lucas

By Adam Lucas

1. Credit to the Notre Dame defense for a spectacular performance. The Irish were staggered early but played magnificently over the second half and most of the second quarter. They held one of the best offenses in Carolina history to zero touchdowns over the final 47:59. The Tar Heels, who have been regularly breaking the 500-yard mark in total offense, managed just 298 yards in the game, with just 78 of those yards coming in the second half.

2. Absolutely impossible to walk away from Kenan Stadium on Saturday evening not wondering what that game might have been like with a packed Kenan Stadium, the type of sold-out crowd that the Tar Heels enjoyed at every home game last season. It would have made a difference. How much difference? We'll never know, unfortunately, and the kind of opportunity that doesn't come around every year will be chalked up to the year of the virus.

3. So how did the Notre Dame defense do it? They completely shut down the Carolina running game, as the Tar Heels managed just 87 yards on the ground and 2.9 yards per carry. Javonte Williams was largely contained, as he accumulated just 28 yards on 11 carries.

4. And the Irish pass rush also posed a serious problem. Sam Howell very, very rarely had a clean pocket from which to operate. Notre Dame collected six sacks, pressuring Howell into a 17-for-27, 211-yard performance. "It looked like we had some mismatches some, and we got whipped in certain situations," Mack Brown told Jones Angell on the Tar Heel Sports Network after the game. "We'll have to go back to work."

5. What a game for Tar Heel punter Ben Kiernan. The native of Ireland was terrific, averaging 50.6 yards on his six punts and changing the field position on multiple occasions.

6. Unfortunately, one of those field position changes might have led to the decisive sequence of the game. After Kiernan pinned the visitors on their own three-yard line in the third quarter, Notre Dame responded with a 97-yard drive that chewed up 5:22 on the clock and led to what was eventually the decisive touchdown and a 24-17 lead. The Tar Heel defense being unable to get off the field in that sequence felt like a gamechanger.

7. Even more frustratingly, that Irish drive was sustained by a Carolina penalty. It looked like the Tar Heels had a stop on the Irish 24, leading to a fourth and one. Notre Dame came to the line of scrimmage and appeared intent on trying to draw Carolina off side. The Tar Heels cooperated, handing out a free first down, which Brown called "inexcusable" after the game. That was the biggest of nine penalties for 90 yards. Notre Dame was penalized four times for 24 yards.

8. Notre Dame did provide a couple of opportunities for the Tar Heels to capitalize. They missed a 31-yard field goal with 3:19 remaining in the third quarter on a play in which Carolina had only ten defenders on the field. In a 24-17 game, that felt like a possible turning point, but the offense was unable to take advantage.

9. The Irish offense wasn't spectacular, but they did enough to win the game. That especially applied to Ian Book, who flipped the ball all over the field while avoiding UNC tacklers. The most painful of those came with eleven minutes left in the game, when Book somehow tossed the ball over the middle of the field while being pursued and converted a third and five. The veteran finished 23-of-33 for 279 yards. More importantly, he directed an offense that didn't turn the ball over. "Ian Book is a really good football player," Brown said. "He's so slippery. Time and time again, we thought we had him tackled. Those underhanded throws he was making--he's a special football player."

10. That failure to get a turnover, coupled with multiple missed tackles on potential big defensive plays, will likely leave defensive coordinator Jay Bateman frustrated. On several occasions, it looked like the Tar Heels were in the backfield and poised to make a big play, but either took a bad angle, overran the ball, or simply failed to pull down the ballcarrier. Keep in mind that Carolina was playing several young players against the nation's second-ranked team, including true freshman Tony Grimes (who should be in high school) getting nearly every snap at corner and fellow freshman Ja'Qurious Conley seeing nearly as much time in the secondary.

11. Although it feels like a long time ago now, a Tar Heel youngster also made a huge play on offense. Emery Simmons' touchdown catch in the first quarter was an incredible play. Simmons continues to show he'll be an important part of the offense in 2021 and beyond.

12. On a defense that played much better than it has at times this season, Chazz Surratt played from sideline to sideline in racking up his seven tackles, including a sack.

13. Notre Dame and Carolina have now played 21 times. Friday's game was only the second in which both teams were ranked. The other was in 1950, when the top-ranked Irish beat the 20th-ranked Tar Heels, 14-7, in South Bend. Somewhat surprisingly, it was the first time Mack Brown had faced Notre Dame in his 32-season head coaching career.

14. That felt very much like a program game. Brian Kelly arrived in South Bend in 2009 and has built his program exactly the way he wants it, with depth on both sides of the ball and veterans all over the field. Carolina isn't there yet, but if you think back to where the program was in 2018, it's remarkable how much progress has been made. Brown has overseen two good teams. The next task is trying to get the Tar Heel program on the same solid footing Notre Dame now enjoys.

15. In the end, it's not going to be that loss to Notre Dame--a good team--that most shapes the season. Instead, it'll be those frustrating two losses to Virginia and Florida State, two opponents Carolina probably wishes it could have a do-over against. Saturday's loss was the first in the Mack Brown 2.0 era that came by more than a touchdown, perhaps indicative of the gap still left to close between the Heels and the nation's number-two team. But it's also a reminder that as Carolina wins even more of those close games, there will be more opportunities to play games just like this one.