By R.L. Bynum

ORLANDO, Fla. — North Carolina badly needed a tipping point to spark an offense that has sputtered and a defense that has struggled to stop decent teams.

Instead, the Tar Heels got more of the same, and it was almost all discouraging.

Two tipped first-half passes from struggling redshirt sophomore quarterback Gio Lopez were intercepted to help put UNC in a hole it couldn’t escape in a 34–9 loss Saturday to UCF at the Bounce House.

Bill Belichick’s legendary coaching pedigree may eventually pay dividends. But, for now, the 2–2 Tar Heels limp into their first open date still searching for answers.

He was short during many of his responses after the game. It wasn’t quite, “On to Clemson,” but it was close in many cases. He clearly looked discouraged.

“We had just too many problems out there to be consistent, turned the ball over, penalty just at the end of the half, missed tackles,” Belichick said. “So, a lot of things we need to do a better job of. They were just better than us today.”

Lopez’s day ended in the third quarter when he suffered a right leg injury while scrambling for a first down on a fourth-down play.

Belichick had no insights on Lopez.

“No, wait and see how it looks [Sunday],” he said. “It’s hard to evaluate injuries five minutes after the game.”

Social media erupted earlier in the game, with fans and even one former UNC player calling for senior Max Johnson to get his shot.

Johnson finally entered following Lopez’s injury and led Carolina to its lone touchdown, guiding most of a 19-play, 80-yard march capped by an 8-yard touchdown pass to Kobe Paysour. The two-point attempt failed, trimming the deficit to 27–9.

The play-calling all season has seemed to more fit into Johnson’s skill set. When asked whether Johnson offered more of a vertical passing attack, Belichick said, “Yeah, we’ll take a look at the film and take a closer look at it. There are a lot of guys out there to evaluate.”

Johnson (11 of 19, 67 yards, 1 TD and a 104.9 passer rating) couldn’t sustain the spark. UCF’s pass rush collapsed the pocket often afterward, making it challenging for him to move the ball.

Belichick pointed to a familiar issue.

“They have a good pass rushing team. Third and long is a problem for these guys, for everybody,” he said. “Situation we want to stay out of. And when we were in it, it was hard. When we weren’t, we had a little more success, but it’s a good pass-rushing team.”

Carolina’s wide receivers rarely got separation from UCF defenders and, when they did, Lopez (11 of 14 for 87 yards, two interceptions and a 102.2 passer rating) seldom saw them.

“Football is a team sport, there’s 11 guys out there. It’s not talking about one guy, it’s 11 guys,” said Belichick, trying to avoid all the blame going to Lopez. “Have to operate efficiently. And times we’ve done that and times we haven’t. Today wasn’t one of our better ones.”

Much like an inferior Richmond team did a week earlier, UCF (3–0) controlled the ball and dominated time of possession for much of the game.

Belichick said that UCF didn’t do much that he didn’t expect.

“No, they did a good job. They do a good job of multiple options on their plays,” Belichick said. “They execute them well. They’re a well-balanced offense.”

Belichick said the open date will be used to take a wider view of the season so far.

“We’ll take a look at not just this game, but the first four weeks, just the areas that we feel like need to be improved the most and work on those,” he said. “We’ll do what we feel like we can do to improve the team.”

Asked what would be emphasized, he said, “fundamentals, and basic execution certainly will be near the top of this. Situational football. That’s up there, too.”

And as he looked ahead, Belichick kept it simple.

“We’ll take each game, one week at a time, and go out there and do our best each week. That’s what we’re going to do,” he said.

UCF drove 73 yards in 13 plays on the game’s opening drive with three third-down conversions to produce a keeper from quarterback Tayven Jackson, who ran untouched 13 yards for a touchdown.

UCF’s Horace Lockett tipped a Lopez pass that Nyjalik Kelly intercepted, leading to a 36-yard Noe Ruelas field goal four plays later. Ruelas added a 36-yard field goal early in the second quarter.

A promising UNC drive with some good running from Benjamin Hall and a nice Jordan Shipp reception for 24 yards was foiled by another interception. UCF’s Jayden Bellamy tipped the ball, and teammate Braeden Marshall came down with the pass at the Knights 8.

UNC finally scored on a 40-yard Rece Verhoff field goal with 1:23 left in the first half after going 29 yards in seven plays. But it took UCF only 64 seconds to go 83 yards and score on a touchdown pass from Jackson, after a pump-fake, to a wide-open Kylan Fox on a 17-yard scoring play with 13 seconds left.

After Carolina went three-and-out at the start of the second half, UCF easily drove 64 yards for a Myles Montgomery 1-yard touchdown run.

UCF added a 93-yard drive, the longest against UNC this season, and consumed 10:26 to add a five-yard Jaden Nixon touchdown run.NOTES — Carolina gets next weekend off before playing host to Clemson in the Tar Heels’ ACC opener on Oct. 4, their only game in three weeks. The Tigers fell to 1–3 Saturday with a 34–21 home loss to Syracuse in their ACC opener. … UNC is 0–8 against the Big 12, including 0–2 this season. … It was the first home UCF game in three games that didn’t have a weather delay. … If you missed it, here’s why they call the stadium the Bounce House. … The game started 15 minutes later than scheduled because an earlier Fox game went long. … Austin Blaske started at left tackle after missing the first three games because of a foot injury, and committed a damaging false-start penalty in the first half. … It was the 16th consecutive victory for UCF with Scott Frost as its head coach.with Scott Frost as its head coach.

UCF 34, UNC 9

Month/ date	Score/ time	Opponent	Record/ TV
September
1	L, 48–14	vs. TCU	0–1
6	W, 20–3	at Charlotte	1–1
13	W, 41–6	vs. Richmond	2–1
20	L, 34–9	at UCF	2–2
October
4	L, 38–10	vs. Clemson	2–3, 0–1 ACC
17 (Fri.)	L, 21–18	at California	2–4, 0–2
25	L, 17–16, OT	vs. No. 16 Virginia	2–5, 0–3
31 (Fri.)	W, 27–10	at Syracuse	3–5, 1–3
November
8	W, 20–15	vs. Stanford	4–5, 2–3
15	L, 28–12	at Wake Forest	4–6, 2–4
22	L, 32–25	vs. Duke	4–7, 2–5
29	L, 42–19	at N.C. State	4–8, 2–6