UNC Ends Streak and Silences Critics by Sprinting Past Rutgers in Jersey

The Tar Heels were the pre-season darlings of the national media. 

Among others: Mark May, Athlon and the ACC press were quick to jump all over the Heels; picking them as an ACC darkhorse and a team to watch for the 2008 season.

Following a two hour rain delay, the Tar Heels limped to an eight point victory over McNeese State.  In an instant, in a game that almost nobody watched, the hype was taken away and replaced with questioning and criticism.  A once packed band wagon had more room on it than Subway Jerrod has when he puts on his old fat pants.

Thursday night the Heels showed the nation what UNC football is all about.  Toughness, intensity, passion and execution. 

Oh yeah, and speed too.

The 32-point victory was the Heels most impressive win in nearly a decade, and the young team showed America why they have all the pieces to legitimize the claims made early in the season.  North Carolina got plays from all three facets of the game and were quite thorough in their approach and execution.  Let's run the game:

The Offense

The Tar Heels were held scoreless through the first quarter and as their offense was slowly getting a feel for the blitzing and confusing alignments of the Rutgers defense.  Schiano did a good job shifting fronts late, bringing linebackers into the box and making Yates and the offensive line uncomfortable. 

One of the most telling plays for the offense in the first quarter was Yates' fourth down pass to Brandon Tate that was tossed behind the dynamic receiver. 

Good thought process, good read; but Yates overcompensated for a blitzing defensive back and fired the ball a step behind the wide open Tate.  Yates, and the Heels as a whole, just needed to settle down, relax, and hit their spots.

Offensive Coordinator John Shoop became the difference in this game, as he worked to out fox Greg Schiano.  From the second quarter on he was always one step ahead of the Rutgers defensive staff, often leaving Schiano and his players standing looking at each other dumbfounded.

Shoop rode his horses Hakeem Nicks and Brandon Tate to a quick lead and kept riding them to a blow out.  He had Yates hit the junior receiver Nicks for two scores on corner routes that were wide open. 

Courtne Greene, Rutgers best defender, was out of position both times, and both times TJ Yates found Nicks, with beautiful touch passes.  Coming out of a Scarlet Knights made field goal, Shoop and the Tar Heels took a deep shot immediately to Tate that paid off in the way of a 69-yard touchdown pass.

The running game began to open up with the continuous threat of Nicks and Tate getting loose in the secondary.  Starting tailback Greg Little broke a couple of nice runs, including a 26 yard play where his offensive line manhandled the Rutgers front seven and he sprinted into the third level untouched. 

He totaled 71 rushing yards.  Not a bad effort, and he is beginning to show a knack for picking up first downs and doing what it takes to fall forward and maintain his leg drive.  Little is becoming a true prototype running back.

Our offensive line struggled early but as the game wore on they gelled and became increasingly confident in their diagnosing of the Rutgers pass rush scheme.  Watching this group of guys come together will be fascinating as the season rolls on and the Heels begin to run the ball more. 

A pulling Bryan Bishop teamed with right guard Calvin Darity and right tackle Garrett Reynolds to make the right side of our line Greg Little's favorite running spot.

UNC's skill players and line played exceptionally, but the most important factor in this team's run away win was the play of quarterback TJ Yates.  He made smart throws, none of which were into traffic. 

His touchdown passes to Yates were soft balls right on target and easy to catch.  His two deep balls to Tate were lasers that hit the speedy receiver in stride to pick up big chunks of yardage and a score. 

The redshirt sophomore also showed some savvy and toughness that a team likes to see out of their leader as he threw the ball away to keep the team in field goal range and then later sacrificed his body to pick up a crucial first down.

Overall the unit played well in putting up 378 yards of total offense, 157 of which came on the ground.  Yates' was outstanding in completing 64% of his passes for 221 yards and three touchdowns.

The Defense

For the second game in a row the Tar Heels defense surrendered more yards than their offense gained.  For the second game in a row the Tar Heels chalked a dub-ya up in the win column.  From 30 to 30 the Heels played a very vanilla scheme, dropping linebackers into coverage, rushing four and playing heavy zones to keep things in front of them. 

But, when teams build momentum and pressure the Tar Heels defensive coordinator Everett Withers isn't afraid to use his young, athletic defense to turn up the heat on the opposition.

As the game wore on the Tar Heels secondary, especially safeties Trimane Goddard and Deunta Williams, grew increasingly confident and this could be seen in their ability to hold coverage disguises longer to influence and dictate the reads of Mike Teel. 

Corner back Kendrick Burney (6), Goddard (6) and Nickleback Charles Brown (10) all were major tacklers in this game as Rutgers was forced to throw underneath check down routes and the Heels made sure tackles.

On one drive, Deunta Williams and Kendrick Burney both had rib blasting hits on Rutgers' two star wideouts Kenny Britt and Tiquan Underwood.  Burney's was a decleater that left the smaller Underwood laid out on the rug clutching his torso in pain.

Burney and Brown bolstered their solid tackling night by snatching Mike Teel passes out of the Jersey air.  Burney returned his 34 yards while Brown's pick was a nice diving effort coming from behind the receiver to make the grab.

The Tar Heel linebacking core of Quan Sturdivant, Bruce Carter, Mark Paschal and Chase Rice struggled early in making their drops and reading the quarterback.  But, after a couple of drives of Rutgers hitting passes in the middle they recognized down, distance and go to their proper depths.  Sturdivant and Carter both made athletic interceptions, Carter returning his 66 yards for a score and Sturdivant weaving 57 yards into Rutgers' territory.

As a core the backers looked solid, made tackles at and near the line of scrimmage and flowed well against the run.  Carter and Sturdivant are going to be special players for the Carolina family.  They're growing by leaps and bounds in their second year at the position.  Expect Butkus and Nagurski watch lists in their future; their one of the most athletically gifted linebacking tandems in the nation.

North Carolina's defensive line got their first sack late in the game when freshmen Quinton Coples and Michael McAdoo took down Mike Teel in the fourth quarter.  The stats are less than telling as the defensive line contained the Rutgers' running game and aggrevated Teel enough to force him into making bad decisions. 

A bright spot was Robert Quinn who had a slobber-knocker of a hit on running back Mason Robinson.  The freshmen defensive ends played well in the absence of Darrius Massenberg and should continue to improve.

Interior the tackles Cam Thomas, Marvin Austin, Alleric Mullins and Tydreke Powell did a solid job keeping the linebackers clean and letting them flow to the football.

As a singular unit the defense played better than advertised and showed that against a more traditional (read non-gimmicky) offense the Tar Heels have what it takes to make big plays and be the deciding factor.  The four interceptions really turned the tide and gave the Tar Heel offense plenty of opportunities to put the ball in the end zone.

The Special Teams

John Lovett ought to pat his boys on their backs after tonight's showing.  Perfect on PATs it seems Jay Wooten has won the kicking job and his three field goals, including a 43 yarder, were proof that Connor Barth can be replaced.  Terrence Brown averaged 43.5 yards per punt and downed one inside the twenty.

Brooks Foster had a heady recovery of a muff, and a spectacular almost downing of a punt, Matt Merletti, Ryan Taylor, Richie Rich and Da'Norris Searcy all played big on the teams.  They made tackles, limited Rutgers' returns and covered punts and kickoffs exceptionally well.

Stand out Brandon Tate was kept pretty well bottled up by Rutgers' punter Ted Dellaganna and their kickoff and punt coverage units.  He was close to breaking one, a 32-yard kick return that was a block away from going the distance.

Good work out of the Tar Heel special teams and while most folks will celebrate, Yates, Nicks and Tate; I'll continue to work to highlight the teamers and the defense as they are equally as crucial to the success of this young Heels team.

Summary

Overall a good win for the Heels and seeing as this was a national television game and "the only show in town" for the evening Carolina did themselves a favor by knocking off the Rutgers team.  The Mentor bested the Pupil in this go around and this was a great way for the team to get on track before opening their ACC season with Virginia Tech next Saturday.

Celebrate this win for a day or two heading into the weekend before the Heels head back to the office in order to continue to improve as a team.  Sure it is patented coach speak but it is the truth, the Heels will have to play a better game in order to be victorious against Virginia Tech, Miami, Georgia Tech and the remaining teams on their schedule.