Defense Giving Tar Heels Puncher's Chance In Close, Low-Scoring Games

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Saturday night proved to be a difficult watch for the offensively-minded football fan, with North Carolina and Stanford — the ACC’s two lowest-scoring offenses — trudging along throughout the game.

For fans of defense, though, UNC’s production offered a pleasant sight. That unit ultimately guided the Tar Heels in Saturday’s 20-15 win in Kenan Stadium, with a season-high nine sacks and two forced turnovers that kept them in control of the game.

North Carolina’s first score of the game was set up by a strip sack from Andrew Simpson, which Smith Vilbert recovered at Stanford’s nine-yard line. The Tar Heels didn’t get any movement offensively that drive, but were close enough for Rece Verhoff to knock in a field goal. Later, with UNC up by seven, an interception by Khmori House late in the third quarter set Verhoff up for a fourth-quarter field goal to put the team ahead by 10.

As the defense did its part, the offense eventually benefited.

“They’ve been showing up over the last couple of games,” Gio Lopez said on Saturday. “It’s just a great job for us, feeling like, ‘Hey, we’ve got to respond for them.’ It’s complimentary football. You’re with those guys in the locker room every day, in the weight room every day, so you just want to show up for them.”

By design or by circumstance, the formula in the last four weeks for Bill Belichick’s Tar Heels has been for the defense to play just well enough for them to hang around, and for the offense to make enough plays to get over the top.

North Carolina was within striking distance against California and Virginia, with the defense tightening up after three blowout losses to power conference teams.  The UNC defense limited Cal to 21 points, even keeping the Golden Bears scoreless in the fourth quarter and holding the door open for the offense to take a lead down the stretch. But a lost fumble at the one-yard line in UNC’s penultimate drive sent the Tar Heels home with a loss.

The following week, the UNC defense held Virginia — a team that entered that game averaging 40 points — to 10 points in regulation. But turnovers and stalled out drives hindered North Carolina in the overtime loss.

In the last two weeks, albeit against struggling teams, the offense has taken the baton from the defense in the second halves of games and walked away with victories. North Carolina trailed 10-6 at the half against Syracuse before scoring 17 unanswered second-half points in the road victory. 

On Saturday, both Stanford and North Carolina struggled to get anything going on offense. From UNC’s standpoint, the effective pass rush and ability to force turnovers put the offense in position to score and stay on top, as the Tar Heels never trailed in Kenan Stadium. North Carolina’s defense stayed on the field for extended periods of time in the first half, with Stanford controlling the time of possession 20:27 to 9:33.

The defense held Stanford to three points until it scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns, but by that point, UNC had built up enough of a lead with scoring drives of its own to come away with a five-point win.

“Discipline, just doing our job,” Khmori House said. “We always preach discipline, our fundamentals. When we get tired, rely on our fundamentals. Playing disciplined football, team football, and we know we’re great when we play good, team football.”

To begin the second half, the offense worked for the defense, too. UNC came out of the break with the ball and drove the field 75 yards in 12 plays while eating up more than seven minutes of game time. 

“The defense loves when the offense gets driving down the field, affecting their defense,” House said. “It’s a great help. And when the offense does have their ticks, we’re gonna have their back regardless. Just how we get scored on, I know our offense is gonna have our backs.”

North Carolina has allowed 15.8 points per game in the last four weeks, a number that includes the overtime touchdown against Virginia and the offense’s lost-fumble-turned-touchdown against Syracuse. In that time, UNC has recorded 21 sacks, forced four turnovers and held teams to an average of 256.3 yards of total offense.

UNC has scored just 20.3 points per game over that same span offensively, which still is an improvement from the 33 total points it scored against TCU, UCF and Clemson.

The Tar Heels gave up a few late scores to the Cardinal, but their defense played well enough throughout the game to stay on top.

“I don’t think everybody necessarily knew the name of the person to the left or right of them several weeks ago, so we’ve gotten to spend more time with each other,” Belichick said about the defensive improvement and increase in trust. “A lot of new faces, and trying to find some combinations. We’ve moved some people around. Trusting the person that’s next to you and trusting the play.”

North Carolina’s next three games come against Wake Forest, Duke and N.C. State. Duke and N.C. State entered Saturday ranked fifth and seventh, respectively, in the ACC in scoring. Wake Forest sat at 13th, but upset No. 14 Virginia on the road. Duke has scored 40 or more points against league opponents three times, and the Wolfpack scored 48 in an upset win against Georgia Tech.

UNC hasn’t shown that it can keep up in a shootout, but in low-scoring outings so far, the defense has held up. Nine games into the season, it’s clear that keeping games from turning into high-octane duels and limiting mistakes gives North Carolina the best chance to win.

“In every area of the game, we’re just not as consistent as we need to be,” Belichick said about the team in a collective sense. “We do enough good things, we’ve done enough good things to be competitive in the last four games, win two of them and lose two of them with a turnover inside the one-yard line. But we’re competitive. To play better, we just need to be more consistent across the board.”