By R.L. Bynum
PITTSBURGH — Carolina’s two longest plays of the season and four huge late fourth-down stops produced the biggest victory of the Bill Belichick era.
Despite averaging less than a yard per rush and plenty of tough moments, UNC rallied in the second half to beat No. 25 Pittsburgh 21–17 on Saturday at Acrisure Stadium for the program’s first win over a ranked team in three seasons and the Panthers’ first loss.
UNC (3–2, 1–1 ACC) took advantage of the Panthers’ risk-taking defensive scheme, with quarterback Billy Edwards connecting for a 49-yard pass to wide receiver Jordan Shipp, as well as the game-winning 75-yard fourth-quarter touchdown pass to tight end Shamar Easter, who sped for the final 50 yards.
“It’s not many teams that play defense like Pitt, and I mean that in a complimentary way,” Belichick said. “They play a lot of tight man coverage. They play safeties close to the line of scrimmage, and they play a lot of six-man pressure, so they cause a lot of negative plays. They give you a lot of problems, but if you can get behind them or get through them, you’ve got a chance for an explosive play.”
Carolina quarterback Billy Edwards Jr., who was 18 of 26 with two touchdowns and 249 yards, joked that the play design on the Easter score was nothing out of the ordinary, even if the result was.
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“Probably every play is designed to be an 80-yard touchdown, but they obviously all don’t go that way,” he said. “Felt really nice to see Shamar catch and run with that. He did a great job.”
Edwards said the touchdown reflected what Belichick stressed in meetings all week: “we’re the faster team, so we need to show that; we need to play like that.”
Edwards said Pitt’s aggressive approach created opportunities for UNC’s receivers to make plays even when they couldn’t get clean releases off the line of scrimmage.
“They were going to be aggressive. They were going to grab, right? We’re not going to get clean releases on deep balls, so really just trying to give my guys chances,” Edwards said. “I think we’re able to connect on some of those.”
It wasn’t always pretty, but Carolina’s defense held Pittsburgh (5–1, 2–1), which combined for 94 points in its previous two games, in check with big plays down the stretch.
Defensive lineman Xavier Lewis, who finished with a career-high 12 tackles, said the finish reflected a lesson the Tar Heels took from letting the Clemson game get away from them.
“Our brand of football, UNC football, is we’re gonna play for the 60 minutes, even if it goes past that, and it’s not over till the clock is zero,” Lewis said.
Panthers quarterback Holden Geriner (27 of 44 for 219 yards, two interceptions and no touchdowns), taking over for the injured Mason Heintschel, was inaccurate all day and made it tough for Pitt to move the ball.
Pittsburgh took the opening drive 75 yards in 12 plays, scoring on La’Vell Wright’s two-yard touchdown run with 9:49 left in the first quarter. The Panthers made it 10–0 on Antonio Chadha’s 41-yard field goal with 7:46 left in the second quarter.
UNC finally broke through with a five-play, 72-yard drive that ended on a run-pass option, with Edwards finding Jelani Thurman in the end zone on a 7-yard touchdown pass with 5:32 left in the first half to make it 10–7 Pitt, which was the score at halftime. The key play was that long Shipp catch.
Edwards said the throw was never about perfection, because he expected Pitt’s defenders to be physical with his receivers downfield.
“I wasn’t trying to make a perfect throw,” Edwards said.
The victory was another step for a team that has shown flashes of promise but still needs more consistency. Edwards threw two interceptions and was sacked three times, while UNC’s running game managed only 20 yards on 25 attempts.
Edwards acknowledged that the offense must do a better job protecting the ball even as it looks to take advantage of opportunities downfield.
“It’s that fine line of ‘you want to be aggressive, but you can’t be reckless. You can’t be careless with the ball,’ ” Edwards said. “At the end of the day, I’m going to trust my guys to go downfield and make plays for me. So, it’s just my job to give them a catchable ball where it’s within range for them to make a play.”
Shipp said the Tar Heels believed they could compete with highly ranked opponents despite coming up short in their previous two games against Clemson and Notre Dame. Against Pitt, Carolina finally made enough plays to finish the job.
“We all believe that we’re an amazing team. We believe we can win highly ranked games like this,” said Shipp, who had six catches on nine targets for 93 yards. “We believe we could have won last week; we believe we could have won versus Clemson. We didn’t make the plays we needed to. So we just went out there and made plays.”
Shipp also credited the defense for keeping UNC in the game, particularly with several players stepping into larger roles because of injuries.
“The defense stepped up in a huge way,” Shipp said. “This team has really grown a lot, and that just shows that we have the depth.”
The win gave Belichick his first victory over a top-25 opponent at UNC and ended a two-game skid after losses to Clemson and Notre Dame. The Tar Heels had shown they could compete with quality opponents, but this time they made the critical late plays to beat Pittsburgh.
Belichick praised the team’s effort and the way players responded to the tough defeats.
“I’m really proud of our team, and it’s a great team effort all the way around,” Belichick said. “We got some big plays on offense, some big plays on defense, big stops.”
Belichick also pointed to the defense’s second-half tackling and pressure as key factors in keeping Pitt from adding to its lead.
“We tackled better in the second half, and got a little pressure on the quarterback, forced a couple bad throws,” Belichick said. “They’re not easy, but our guys hung in there and battled them all the way. I’m so proud of them.”
Carolina didn’t have positive rushing yards until Benjamin Hall’s 8-yard run with 3:28 in the third quarter, on the drive when the Tar Heels took their first lead. Running back Demon June reached the plane of the goal line on a 1-yard touchdown run to cap a 10-play, 51-yard drive and give UNC a four-point edge.
A terrific catch from Malik Knight, just getting his foot in, on a 40-yard reception, keyed a Pitt drive that quickly gave the Panthers the lead back. Wright then punched it in for a 1-yard touchdown with 12:47 left, giving the Panthers a brief three-point lead.
On the first play of the next drive, 11 seconds later, Edwards, facing a blitz, found Easter 25 yards downfield, and Easter did the rest on the longest play of the season for a 21–17 UNC lead.
A huge sack by Donovan Hoilette of Holden Geriner stopped the Panthers’ ensuing drive. But Edwards threw his second interception, giving Pitt the ball back. Shadarian Harrison’s snag gave the Panthers the ball at the UNC 41, but a Geriner fourth-and-two pass was too high for Cataurus Hicks.
UNC appeared to put the game away when Derek McDonald, who had 12 tackles, punched the ball out of Wright’s hands for a fumble, and Jalon Thompson recovered it and returned it 70 yards for a touchdown. But officials, upon review, ruled that Wright was down. Pitt still was short on fourth-and-two, giving UNC the ball.
Pittsburgh had one last chance but, again, couldn’t convert on fourth down. On a fourth-and-10 pass, Jaiden Patterson knocked the ball away from intended receiver Bryce Yates.
Notes
— UNC visits Duke at 3:30 p.m. next Saturday. The Blue Devils (4–0, 1–0) took a four-game win streak into Saturday’s game at Georgia Tech.
— Carolina ended an 18-game losing streak when trailing by double-digit points.
— Kaleb Cost ran into the wall beyond the end zone in the first quarter and took a while to get up and walk off. He never returned to the game.
— With the win, Belichick moved to 9–3 in what is now called Acrisure Stadium. It was the first time he had coached there since his Patriots won 21–18 on Dec. 7, 2023.
— It was UNC’s first road win over a ranked team since beating No. 9 Miami 62–26 in 2020 and its first win over a ranked team since beating the No. 25 Hurricanes 41–31 in 2023.
— UNC leads the all-time series with Pittsburgh 13–6, including 6–4 in Pittsburgh.
UNC 21, No. 25 Pitt 17
| Month/ date | Score/ time | Opponent (current ranking) | Record/TV |
|---|---|---|---|
| August | |||
| 29 | W, 15–10 | vs.TCU in Dublin | 1–0 |
| September | |||
| 12 | W, 35–3 | vs. ETSU | 2–0 |
| 19 | L, 28–20 | at Clemson | 2–1, 0–1 ACC |
| October | |||
| 3 | L, 37–26 | vs. No. 3 Notre Dame | 2–2 |
| 10 | W, 21–18 | at No. 25 Pittsburgh | 3–2, 1–1 |
| 17 | 3:30 | at Duke | ESPN2 |
| 24 | TBA | vs. Syracuse | TBA |
| 31 | TBA | vs. No. 4 Miami | TBA |
| November | |||
| 7 | Noon | at UConn | CBSSN |
| 14 | TBA | vs. Louisville | TBA |
| 21 | TBA | at Virginia | TBA |
| 28 | TBA | vs. N.C. State | TBA |
| December | |||
| 5 | noon, ABC | ACC championship game in Charlotte | ESPN |
Photo via @UNCFootball
