GM Addresses Need to Clean Up Penalties, Inconsistent Calls Against UNC

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — With production on offense still hard to come by for North Carolina, the Tar Heels didn’t do themselves any favors against Stanford with a season-worst 11 penalties, seven of which were whistled against the offense.

UNC football general manager Michael Lombardi addressed some of the issues that led to a flag-filled laundry day on the Carolina Football Live radio show. Though he didn’t necessarily agree with all the calls made in the Tar Heels’ 20-15 victory on Saturday, he did note the 73 yards of penalties need to be cleaned up moving forward.

“I mean, it was some interesting calls by them, I could say that,” Lombardi told show host Jones Angell on Monday night.

One play that stood out to Lombardi was a holding call against Austin Blaske, UNC’s center on the offensive line. In the second quarter, Gio Lopez’s quarterback draw picked up 8 yards on a second-and-10, but instead of that resulting in third-and-short, the Tar Heels moved back due to the penalty on Blaske.

Two plays following the penalty, Lopez rolled out on third-and-long and turned the ball over. Stanford’s strip sack on Lopez allowed the Cardinal to take over in UNC territory. Lombardi said replays of the penalty told a different story.

“I thought the guy was stumbling on that play,” Lombardi said. “When you watch the tape, I don’t know what they expect him to do. And they call that on the quarterback draw.”

Lombardi said pass interference calls on the Tar Heels’ defense have been marked by inconsistencies this season. Against Stanford, the UNC secondary was flagged once for pass interference, a second-quarter call against cornerback Marcus Allen.

That penalty occurred on a third-and-12, negating a Cardinal incompletion, and gave Stanford a first down. Which extended Stanford’s drive and eventually led to a 3-3 tie at halftime, with Stanford hitting a field goal on the final play of the first half.

Allen isn’t a stranger to drawing flags, either. He leads UNC’s secondary in penalties with seven on the season. Three games ago, a pass interference penalty on Allen against Virginia wiped out an interception for him, and stirred up Carolina supporters who didn’t agree with what looked like a phantom call.

“The pass interference calls, they’ve been inconsistent all year long,” Lombardi said Monday night. “I haven’t been able to figure that out. I don’t figure it out in pro football. It’s like the strike zone in baseball, you can’t figure it out either.”

The penalties that most bothered Lombardi were pre-snap and post-whistle flags UNC picked up against Stanford. Among the Tar Heels’ 11 penalties during the weekend, six of them occurred in those situations — including three false starts, an offside and an illegal substitution. Messy mistakes for a coaching staff under Bill Belichick that preaches excelling in the fundamentals.

“The ones that hurt the most are the unforced errors,” Lombardi said. “The ones where false starts (happen), a receiver flinches, or all that. Those are the ones that we have to focus and concentrate on fixing.”