By Doc Kennedy

In a Halloween night game between two struggling teams, with all the horror movie cliches just waiting out there, it was only appropriate that it was a Demon who helped lead an exorcism.

North Carolina rode the shoulders of freshman Demon June to snap a four-game losing streak and land both its first ACC win and its first Power Four win of the Bill Belichick era in a 27–10 win at Syracuse. While the offense finally found its groove against the second-worst defense in the league, the defense suffocated an offensively inept Orange team that started a true freshman walk-on quarterback better known as a lacrosse player.

The first half was a rock fight as two of the ghosts that have haunted UNC all season once again reared their heads: an inability to score in the red zone and costly turnovers. Carolina had a first-and-goal at the 3-yard line early in the game but had to settle for a field goal.

Later, Syracuse scooped a fumble by freshman tight end Shamar Easter on his first catch of the season to take a 7–3 lead. The Orange later put together what would be its best drive of the night to score a field goal and take a 10–6 lead into the half despite Carolina dominating the stat sheet.

The first-half tricks turned into treats in the second half for the Tar Heels as June turned a screen pass from Gio Lopez into a 72-yard touchdown scamper as Carolina took its first second-half lead against a P4 opponent since the N.C. State game last season, a span of six games. The defense clamped down, and Syracuse had no real scoring threat in the final 30 minutes as UNC cruised to a surprisingly comfortable win.

With that in mind, here is the all treats, no tricks edition of the Good, Bad, and Ugly Report:

Good

Demon June

In UNC’s ever-improving stable of running backs, June once again stood out. The freshman rushed 13 times for 101 yards and a touchdown, and added two receptions for 81 yards and another score. Credit to the offensive line for winning battles to open lanes for June and the Carolina backs.

Defense

What else can you say? Yes, the Orange have been offensively challenged after losing an outstanding quarterback in Steve Angeli to a torn Achilles earlier in the season. But the Tar Heels held Syracuse to 147 total yards and allowed only four pass completions for just 39 yards. The defensive line got pressure all night, racking up three sacks. The defense has been vastly improved since the second open date.

Gio Lopez

After an uneven first half, Lopez responded with a solid second stanza and finished 15 of 19 for a season-high 216 passing yards and two scores while adding 33 more on the ground. Of course, being able to pound the ball on the ground and receivers getting yards after catch help the numbers, but

Bad

Third-down conversions

UNC came into the game with a league-worst 33% conversion rate, and going 4–13 will drive that number even lower. Going 2 of 2 on fourth down helps the effective conversion rate but Carolina has to be better in staying on the field.

Ugly

Crushing mistakes

It looked like a repeat of a late-night slasher movie early in the game as UNC ran through a familiar script of mistakes: turnovers, missed tackles, inability to convert in the red zone, key penalties coming out of time outs, and misreads in the passing game. But a funny thing happened in the second half — Carolina stopped making mistakes and put the clamps on a bad team. Amazing how that happens.

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The first half horror flick was exactly what would be expected from two bad teams, but in the second half, for the first time this season, the Tar Heels played with poise, with competence, and with confidence. Carolina imposed its will offensively on the hapless Orange in the second half, a sentence I was not expecting to type this season, especially after the defense had practically begged the offense to score the past few games.

The improvement of the team clearly shows and has finally resulted in a win. The defense should expect to flex again next week when Stanford comes to town with an interim coach and the only offense in the ACC that’s statistically worse than UNC. Is this the beginning of things turning around for the Tar Heels, or was it just an apparition? We’ll find out next week, but finally Carolina fans can watch football on Saturday with a win already in hand.

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