By Doc Kennedy

There’s a saying in football about “best on best,” such as your best player vs. another team’s best player, or what you do best vs. what your opponent does best. That idea was expected to be on display as Minnesota visited UNC on Saturday afternoon. Undefeated Carolina brought its explosive, multi-faceted offense to bear against the undefeated Gophers’ stingy defensive unit that had only allowed 16 total points and fewer than 450 yards total in two games against Nebraska and Eastern Michigan.

Advantage Tar Heels.

Although Minnesota was able to stuff the powerful Carolina running attack for most of the afternoon, Drake Maye reminded everyone why he is the reigning ACC Player of the Year, throwing for 414 yards and two scores as UNC rolled to a 31–13 win over the Gophers. And while the Tar Heels won the strength-on-strength battle, the game turned on the flip side, with the Carolina defense getting the better of the Minnesota offense, holding the Gophers to a single touchdown and a pair of field goals while playing the classic Gene Chizik “bend-but-don’t break” style.

Though it got dicey after Minnesota trimmed an 18-point lead to eight in the third quarter, Carolina was able to exert its will, burn up clock and grind out the final period in the first meeting between the two schools. With that in mind, here is the Minnesota version of the Good, Bad, and Ugly Report:

Good

Nate McCollum

The Georgia Tech transfer announced his presence in Chapel Hill with authority, catching 15 passes for 165 yards and a touchdown. McCollum had the third straight breakout offensive performance for the Tar Heels this season, following British Brooks in Week 1 and Omarion Hampton in Week 2. The 15 receptions were one shy of the school record. 

Drake Maye

His interceptions on back-to-back possessions notwithstanding, Maye posted the second 400-yard passing effort of his UNC career, joining only T.J. Yates, Marquise Williams, Mitch Trubisky and Sam Howell as Carolina QBs with multiple 400-yard passing games.

Third downs

Another tale of the game was Carolina’s success (and Minnesota’s lack thereof) on third down. The Heels converted 12 of 17 third downs (and their only fourth-down attempt), meaning UNC was able to keep its offense on the field. Conversely, the Gophers went 3 of 12 on third down, getting the Carolina defense off the field.

Bad

UNC’s sacks vs. hurries

The nine sacks the UNC defense recorded in the season opener vs. South Carolina seem like a lifetime ago. A week after not recording a sack vs. Appalachian, the Tar Heels defense could only get to Minnesota QB Athan Kaliakmanis once, although they did record eight QB hurries, following up on their nine-hurry effort vs. App. As the quarterbacks get better, the Carolina defense front will have to start getting home.

Ugly

UNC’s rushing offense

Just one week after Hampton ran for 234 yards and the UNC offense gashed Appalachian State for 319 yards on the ground, Minnesota bottled up Hampton, Brooks, and even Maye for a combined 105 yards and a paltry 2.8 yards per rush. The running game was so anemic at one point that the Tar Heels attempted only one rush in the entire third quarter. And the final rushing total comes with an asterisk as Hampton’s longest run of the day was actually on a pass reception from Maye that counts as a run because it was technically a backward pass. Take those 17 yards away and Carolina only had 88 yards on the ground.

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UNC had been touting its offensive balance through the first two games, but the good news for Carolina is that Saturday showed that if the ground game gets shut down, the potential NFL first-rounder at quarterback can still sling the ball around and put points on the board. The Tar Heels now head to Pitt for a difficult night game, where fate has not been kind the past couple of visits. Once again, Carolina will face an offensively challenged team with a strong defensive presence. Let’s hope the winds of fate blow the same way as they did this week.

Doc Kennedy is an alum and longtime UNC fan, and a former high school and college basketball coach who wrote this report for years on Tar Heel Blog.

Photo via @UNCFootball