By R.L. Bynum

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina’s defense keeps getting better, just in time for the Tar Heels to gain some momentum while the offense tries to find some consistency.

The Tar Heels piled up a season-high nine sacks and got enough offense to beat down a bad Stanford team 20–15 Saturday for their second consecutive victory after struggling in the first half.

“Good win at home. Always good to win at home,” UNC coach Bill Belichick said. “Interesting two halves, had a tough start offensively, and then kind of got things going a little bit in the second half. Defensively, played well really for three quarters and then gave up [yards] in the two two-minute drives at the end.”

Appropriately, it was Melkart Abou Jaoude’s third sack of the game that helped snuff Stanford’s last drive before its final play only got the Cardinal to its 42 as time expired.

It was a group effort on defense, led by linebacker Khmori House, who racked up 13 tackles and an interception. He topped his career high of seven by halftime, when he already had eight.

“I’ve said it 1,000 times that we’ve improved significantly over the course of the season, individually and collectively,” Belichick said. “Our team defense, our team offense, our kickoff coverage. It’s not just one guy or one thing. It’s a collective effort.”

Carolina limited Stanford to 36 yards rushing, the second-fewest and the sixth time this season that the Heels have allowed fewer than 100 yards on the ground.

“I would say that bye week after Clemson, we just decided to just lock in,” House said. “We just had to lock in and really just come to work every day. It came with realizing that we were a new team early on, and we have to hone in now, because everybody’s waiting on it. We know we’re a good
team, and it just shows with a matter of attention to detail and things like that.”

Three others had six tackles (Andrew Simpson, Marcus Allen and Will Hardy), while linebacker Tyler Thompson had a career-high three sacks.

Belichick praised Thompson’s surge of late.

“He’s worked really hard, going all the way back to the spring,” Belichick said. “He’s gotten a lot stronger — maybe 15 to 20 pounds heavier, all good weight. He’s explosive, he’s strong, and his fundamentals and techniques rushing the passer have been something that he’s refined and worked on.”

The secret to beating Stanford (3–7, 2–5 ACC) is through the air, and Carolina (4–5, 2–3) finally began to take advantage of that in the second half. The Cardinal entered the game ranked 132nd (out of 134) nationally, allowing 293.6 passing yards per game.

Quarterback Gio Lopez, while not perfect, exploited that Stanford defense after halftime. Lopez, who had just 28 first-half passing yards, finished 18 of 25 for 203 yards, no interceptions and second-half touchdown passes of 20 yards to running back Davion Gause and 55 yards to wide receiver Jordan Shipp.

“It was kind of the same discussion as when we were behind at Syracuse,” Lopez said. “We came back and we just executed a lot better in the second half. I think we just did an overall good job in the second half, just executing our plays and playing to the best of our ability.”

When Belichick was asked if he ever considered bringing in Max Johnson at any point, he said that Lopez gave the Tar Heels “the best chance to win.” He praised Lopez’s resilience after the first-half struggles.

“I think Gio is a really competitive kid,” Belichick said. “He’s tough. He runs like a running back, not afraid to take a hit. And look, not every play is a great play. Part of being a quarterback is coming back from a three-and-out or a play that doesn’t go the way you want it to go and just block it out and move on to the next play.”

Simpson got a strip-sack on Stanford quarterback Elijah Brown (top photo), and Vilbert Smith recovered to give the Heels the ball at the Stanford 6. But UNC had to settle for a 27-yard Rece Verhoff field goal.

Stanford’s Matt Rose forced a Lopez fumble that Hunter Barth recovered at the UNC 30. After a three-and-out, Emmet Kenney’s 41-yard field goal sailed wide right. Kenney later made a 38-yarder as the first half expired to tie it at 3 after a 16-play, 56-yard drive.

After only managing 47 total first-half yards, UNC’s offense came to life on a 75-yard drive to open the second half and take a 10–3 lead.

Lopez completed six passes on the drive, including the 20-yard Gause reception that finally got Carolina into the end zone with 7:43 left in the third quarter.

Belichick admitted the slow starts are a concern.

“We just have to always try to play well early and try to play from ahead,” he said. “We haven’t done that lately, and we need to find a way to do that offensively.”

House’s interception gave UNC possession at the Stanford 35, but a holding penalty backed up Carolina. The Heels had to settle for a 47-yard Verhoff field goal for a 13–3 lead as the fourth quarter started.

Carolina struck again through the air as a pressured Lopez found Shipp on the 55-yard touchdown pass, Shipp’s longest career reception, for a 19–3 lead with 12:04 left.

“I think we had a play today, that ball to Shipp for a touchdown. I’ve thrown that before,” Lopez said. “He was on his break. But, it’s something I probably wouldn’t have thrown against TCU because I wasn’t comfortable with it. So, it’s just situations like that where you just get comfortable with your guys practicing, and it just shows up on game day.”

Shipp said that they had practiced the play for a while.

“When I saw the zero look, I just got into my route faster, and I knew Gio was gonna hit it,” Shipp said. “We’ve hit that route so many times in practice, so when he called it, I knew I just had to get out of my break and go make a play. I trusted my whole line, trusted Gio. I knew he would put the ball exactly where it needed to be. And, like I said, that’s a trust thing. He threw before I even got out of the break. That’s nothing but trust and repetition.”

Stanford then put together its best drive of the game, going 75 yards in nine plays for running back Cole Tabb’s one-yard touchdown. Brown couldn’t complete a two-point conversion pass, but UNC’s lead was 11 with 8:28 remaining.

The Cardinal made it interesting with an 80-yard drive that produced a 24-yard touchdown pass from Brown to C.J. Williams. Again, the two-point conversion failed, leaving UNC ahead 20–15 with 1:48 left.

Stanford failed on an onside kick. After UNC went three-and-out, Stanford’s last-ditch drive fell short.

NOTES — Carolina visits Wake Forest at 4:30 Saturday (The CW). The Deacons (6–3, 3–3) won at Virginia 16–9 on Saturday night. … Abou Jaoude has 10 sacks on the season, the most since Kareem Martin got 11½ in 2013. … It was the first time UNC had three or more sacks from two players in a game in program history. … The corporate logo that appeared on the field in two places for earlier home games was replaced by a Rams Club logo. … UNC tied the series with Stanford at 2. The other win also was at Kenan Stadium, when No. 7 Carolina beat No. 17 Stanford 17–14 in 1997. … Saturday was the first time the Tar Heels have been outgained by an opponent, but still won the game since defeating Duke, 38-35, on Oct. 15, 2022.

UNC 20, Stanford 15

Team	ACC	All
No. 16 Virginia	7–1	10–2
No. 12 Miami	6–2	10–2
No. 25 SMU	6–2	8–4
No. 24 Georgia Tech	6–2	9–3
Pittsburgh	6–2	8–4
Duke	6–2	7–5
Louisville	4–4	8–4
Wake Forest	4–4	8–4
California	4–4	7–5
Clemson	4–4	7–5
N.C. State	4–4	7–5
Stanford	3–5	4–8
Florida State	2–6	5–7
North Carolina	2–6	4–8
Virginia Tech	2–6	3–9
Syracuse	1–7	3–9
Boston College	1–7	2–10

Friday’s result
No. 4 Georgia 16, No. 24 Georgia Tech 9
Saturday’s results
N.C. State 42, North Carolina 19
No. 12 Miami 38, Pittsburgh 7
Louisville 41, Kentucky 0
Clemson 28, South Carolina 14
Boston College 34, Syracuse 12
Duke 49, Wake Forest 32
Florida 40, Florida State 21
No. 16 Virginia 27, Virginia Tech 7
California 38, No. 25 SMU 35
No. 9 Notre Dame 49, Stanford 20
Saturday’s ACC championship game
No. 16 Virginia vs. Duke in Charlotte, 8 p.m., ABC

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