By Doc Kennedy
With the near-daily drumbeat of coverage and drama surrounding the North Carolina football program, it’s been easy to forget that the actual team has only played one game in the past four weeks. After a brutal showing against Clemson in the last game, and a less-than-competitive effort in their previous road game at Central Florida, and with the swirl of negative vibes seemingly swimming around the Kenan Football Center, it was unknown what would await the Tar Heels on a cross-country, Friday night affair at California.
The result? Pain and disappointment.
In this episode of ACC After Dark, in a game that ended around 2:15 a.m. on the East Coast, Carolina turned the ball over on fumbles on their first offensive play and their last offensive play, providing sad bookends to a 21–18 loss to the Golden Bears.
Freshman Shanard Clower fumbled after a 7-yard reception on UNC’s opening play, giving Cal a short field and an opening score in just four plays. At that point, it looked like it would be much of the same that fans have seen from the Tar Heels in their games against Power Four opponents, but then something happened that hasn’t been seen much this season: Carolina remained competitive.
Gio Lopez returned as UNC’s starter at quarterback and, well, looked pretty much like the player he was before his injury against UCF. Lopez was 19 of 35 for 167 yards and struggled with accuracy as he has all season. He also only had four rushing attempts, which remains a complete puzzle given his skill set is supposed to be as a dual-threat QB. But he did not turn the ball over, which was a definite improvement.
Lopez and the Tar Heels responded later in the first half to Cal’s score with a touchdown of their own, their first, first-half score against a P4 opponent since the famous opening drive against TCU. Meanwhile, the defense settled in and only allowed one more score as the half ended with Carolina trailing 14–10.
After an opening drive by the Golden Bears to increase the lead to 21–10, the defense clamped down, allowing only 56 yards the rest of the game while the offense put together one of its best drives of the season, an 11-play, 84-yard drive and a two-point conversion to cut the lead to 21–18. After a 3-and-out by Cal, the Tar Heels had a short field and marched toward a go-ahead score when, in a late-night horror movie twist, sophomore Nathan Leacock had the ball punched out at the goal line and the Bears recovered in the end zone, ending Carolina’s hopes in Berkeley.
With that in mind, here is the bleary-eyed version of the Good, Bad and Ugly Report:
Good
Kobe Paysour
The veteran receiver had six catches for 101 yards and was Lopez’s only real downfield threat.
Rushing game
UNC’s running backs — Benjamin Hall, Davion Gause and Demon June — combined for 101 yards on 24 attempts, with both Carolina touchdowns coming on the ground.
Defense
While Cal isn’t exactly an offensive juggernaut, the Tar Heels held the Bears to less than 300 yards of total offense, and only 80 of those came on the ground. Definitely a step forward.
Bad
Third- and fourth-down conversions vs. defense
Though Cal was only 6 of 16 on third down, four of those six conversions were at least 10 yards. The Bears were also 2 of 2 on fourth down. Though this was much better in the second half, Carolina has to get off the field when they have the chance.
Ugly
Turnovers
What else can you say? On a night where UNC essentially played the Bears to a draw, the bookend fumbles were the story of the game. (The final play of desperation laterals also counts as a fumble on the score sheet, but is negligible to the game itself.) For a team with a razor-thin margin of error, you can’t hurt yourself like this.
During the week’s drama, Bill Belichick said there had been improvement and that the “process” was moving forward. If you want to walk on the sunny side of the street, there was, in fact, progress. The team never looked deflated, even after the opening touchdowns of each half, and put themselves in a position to take the lead late in the fourth quarter. On the other hand, California may be the most fraudulent 5–2 team in America. They have one good win over Minnesota, and their two ACC wins have been against arguably the two worst teams in the conference by a combined seven points.
But Cal has done what Carolina has not, as of yet, which is to find ways to win against bad teams. UNC has precious few opportunities to secure wins down the stretch, so chances like Friday night can’t be squandered. Yet there were some real glimpses of progress, so we will see how far they have come when a ranked Virginia team comes to Chapel Hill next week.
Doc Kennedy is an alum, longtime UNC fan, and former high school and college basketball coach who wrote this report for years on Tar Heel Blog.
Photo via @UNCFootball
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