Russell Athletic Bowl 2015: Game Grades, Analysis for North Carolina vs. Baylor
It wasn't how Baylor wanted to play a game, it was how Baylor had to play a game.
The Bears had suffered through one of the worst late-season stretches of injuries of any major college football team in recent memory, with four of its top offensive stars sidelined. Despite starting 8-0, the Bears lost three of their last four games to finish 9-3.
Despite having early-season designs on a Big 12 title and College Football Playoff berth, the Bears didn't allow a berth in the Russell Athletic Bowl spoil their mood—and it showed. Baylor ran around, over and through the UNC defense all night en route to 645 rushing yards—a record for any bowl game.
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We'll take a look at the good, bad and ugly in Tuesday night's game grades. For our Tar Heels' defensive players, we're going to need a parent's signature on your report card before you return for spring camp.
Here is the box score from Tuesday's game, via NCAA.com.
| Pass Offense | B | B+ |
| Run Offense | B | B+ |
| Pass Defense | A | A- |
| Run Defense | F | F |
| Special Teams | C | C |
| Coaching | C+ | C |
North Carolina Pass Offense
There's no question Marquise Williams is one heckuva quarterback, but even he couldn't keep up with the pace Baylor's ground game set Tuesday night.
Williams was 22-of-36 for 243 yards and three touchdowns. He found Quinshad Davis six times for 60 yards and Bug Howard for 42 yards and a touchdown on three receptions.
All-in-all, it was a solid performance that would have been more effective had Williams and company received some backup on defense.
North Carolina Run Offense
As with the UNC passing game, the running game wasn't all that horrible. In fact, taken together, the Heels had 487 offensive yards (243 passing, 244 rushing). The rushing game also added two more touchdowns (Williams scored both).
Elijah Hood put 118 rushing yards under his name, and Williams finished with 81. But again, despite the solid performance, it was all undone thanks to the UNC defense's inept performance.
North Carolina Pass Defense
Ordinarily, limiting Baylor to 111 passing yards would be a major victory. But with all the injuries the Bears suffered late in the season, Baylor was forced into a run-first, run-always kind of offense.
With their top two quarterbacks out due to injury, the Bears were forced to play musical chairs at the quarterback position, with five different players taking snaps Tuesday night. Of those five, four attempted at least one pass, with Chris Johnson leading the way with 12.
All told, Baylor was 10-of-18. That's not a great deal of information to go on, but at least it wasn't so horrible that we're ready to rip into the Tar Heels defense for that.
Wait for it...
North Carolina Run Defense
There's so little good to talk about here, we're just going to lay out the facts for you and let you come to your own logical conclusion that UNC was about as a bad against the run as any team could be.
In fact, in the long history of bowl games, no team has ever given up as many rushing yards as North Carolina did Tuesday night.
Baylor ran the football 84 times and racked up 645 yards and seven rushing touchdowns.
"Sure," you might say, "but Baylor ran the ball 84 times." OK, but that's still a whopping 7.7 yards per rush.
And just how dominant was Baylor's ability to run the football? The Tar Heels didn't force a single punt. Not one.
OK, one. But even that one never showed up on the stat sheet because UNC botched it by running into the kicker on 4th-and-3, drawing a five-yard penalty.
No, there really wasn't much good to look at Tuesday night.
North Carolina Special Teams
Yes, we'll count that punt penalty against the UNC special teams unit, as it was essentially a turnover, turning a Baylor punt into a Baylor first down.
And, yes, Baylor scored a touchdown on that drive.
Nick Weller did connect on his only field-goal attempt of the night, but even that isn't good enough to make up for the seven points given up by a needless penalty on fourth down.
North Carolina Coaching
Yes, Larry Fedora has his program on the upswing, and it's hard to not like what he's doing at North Carolina. That being said, UNC looked completely unprepared for a Baylor attack that was—let's face it—very predictable.
With all of the injuries sidelining pretty much all of Baylor's passing game, UNC should have been much-better prepared for the ground game. Still, it looked as if the Tar Heels were caught completely off guard.
After halftime, little was done to quiet Baylor's ground assault, even when not much changed in the way Baylor approached things on offense.
Defensive coordinator Gus Malzahn and Larry Fedora deserve as much blame as the defensive front does for this loss.
| Pass Offense | C | C+ |
| Run Offense | A+ | A+ |
| Pass Defense | B | B |
| Run Defense | B | B |
| Special Teams | D | C |
| Coaching | A- | A |
Baylor Pass Offense
As previously noted, there wasn't much to talk about here. Baylor's passing game was so depleted by late-season injuries, it probably isn't fair to judge that hodgepodge of quarterbacking Art Briles put together against the same measuring stick as we judge other teams.
Still, a combined 10-of-18 for 111 yards isn't too shabby, considering none of the four guys who threw a pass Tuesday night expected to do it for Baylor this season.
Baylor Run Offense
If we were just talking about Johnny Jefferson, we'd give Baylor an "A." He came into the game with 701 rushing yards on the season and finished with 1,000. That's downright amazing.
But Jefferson was joined by four other ball-carriers, including Devin Chafin and his 156 yards, Terence Williams and his 97 yards, Lynx Hawthorne and his 63 yards (on just seven carries) and Chris Johnson's 36 yards.
All told, Baylor was credited with 645 rushing yards—a bowl game record. And, no, not a Russell Athletic Bowl record—a record for all bowl games ever.
There's absolutely no question about the grade here, and if there was any grade higher we could give, we'd give that one. Pick Six Reviews noted Baylor's 624 rushing yards set a new bowl record, pointing out the accomplishment was made in the absence of several key players:
Baylor Pass Defense
UNC is a team that can beat you with the run or the pass, and despite the Big 12 desperately trying to shake off the specter of being a "no defense conference," Baylor did a fine job of bottling up North Carolina's passing game.
The Tar Heels are not a team you're going to completely shut down, but limiting big plays is a must. The Bears did just that as UNC didn't have a single completion of more than 27 yards.
It's not just about forcing incompletions that matters; it's limiting yards after the catch, and that's something Baylor did very well Tuesday night.
Baylor Run Defense
Marquise Williams did his best to carry the Tar Heels offense on his shoulders, but as Baylor's lead grew, it was clear who UNC would be forced to lean on. Baylor knew it well and did a decent job of keeping Williams in front of the secondary.
There were a few big plays, particularly a big second-half 67-yard scamper from Elijah Hood (that was at the time a Russell Athletic Bowl record, until Johnny Jefferson broke an 80-yarder just a few minutes later), but the Baylor defense wasn't shaken by getting hit in the teeth.
Baylor Special Teams
There are rare games where the special teams is almost completely left off the field. Tuesday night was one of those rare nights.
In these situations, the special teams can only cause problems. That didn't happen for Baylor, so we can't complain about the special teams performance.
Baylor didn't punt (statistically). Baylor didn't return a punt. Baylor didn't return a kick. So, yeah.
Still, Chris Callahan missed his only field-goal attempt on the day, but he connected on all seven of his extra points.
Baylor Coaching
As we stated in the opening, this wasn't the style of game Baylor wanted to play, but it was the style of game they had to play. Briles had Baylor well prepared, and the Bears played this style of game well.
Very well.
Baylor knew right where to hit UNC, and the Bears hit the Tar Heels in that soft underbelly all game long— over and over and over again.
The result was 756 offensive yards, 49 points, an 11-point win and a bowl championship.
Unless otherwise noted, quotes or references to quotes were obtained firsthand by the writer.
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