What: Meineke Car Care Bowl
Where: Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NC
When: Saturday, December 26th, 4:30 PM
TV: ESPN
Records: UNC 8-4, Pitt 9-3
UNC heads back to Charlotte for a second straight year, the by-product of bowl officials jockeying for a profit and the Heels’ complete inability to take care of business in three different games. Change just on of those results, particularly the Thursday night game versus FSU, then UNC is playing somewhere else. What’s done is done and while the location might be the same, the opportunity is as well. The Heels will be facing a very good Pitt team on national television, can registered the first nine win season in Chapel Hill since the Mack Brown years and collect the first bowl win since the beginning of the decade.
How are the Heels going to accomplish that? Defense baby. Pitt is a running team and UNC has shown they can shutdown a good running game. Just ask Ryan Williams. Pitt has a 1600-plus yards rusher in Dion Lewis who averages 5.5 yards per carry and has scored 16 TDs. Stopping Lewis puts the pressure on the passing game to deliver offense for the Panthers. That is not necessarily a negative for Pitt however. Panther QB Bill Stull has done an effective job all season limiting mistakes(only 8 INTs) and balances out the run game. Stopping the Panther run game won’t necessarily derail the Pitt offense but it can put it out of balance and if the UNC defensive line can do to Stull what alumni Julius Peppers did to Brett Favre on this same field six days ago it will put the Heels at an advantage.
The question is whether the Heels can muster any kind of offense to back up the defense. Pitt sports a fairly decent defense on paper. The passing defense is the weaker aspect which probably does not work as well for UNC given the trouble T.J. Yates has finding receivers. Who knows, maybe Santa Clause brought Yates some mobility and passing accuracy for Christmas. Given the amount of time UNC has had to prepare for this game I would expect to see plenty of those deceptive plays such as putting Greg Little in motion and then handing off or maybe a pass or two from Bobby Rome. The more UNC is able to use plays that keep opposing defenses off balanced the easier it seems to be for them to get away with their glaring weaknesses.
Concerning the intangibles, Pitt is coming off two losses and the last one cost them a trip to a BCS bowl as the Big East champion. You always wonder in a situation like that if the Panthers will have the proper interest level. The same could be said for UNC since this is the 2nd time they have played in this bowl. One caveat for the Heels, especially on defense is this game could be a nice highlight reel for NFL scouts. That certainly was the case for Hakeem Nicks last season. The juniors on defense currently considering a jump to the NFL could help themselves with a huge game here. Also, the game is not sold out. Less than 50,000 is expected for a stadium seating over 73,000. I expect most of them will be wearing blue making this a de facto home game for the Heels.
UNC has enough riding on this one that showing up and not winning will be hugely disappointing.
UNC 28 Pitt 19
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Go Tarheels- Go Tarheels
I’m excited to be going to the game today. It will be the first Tar Heel football game I’ve seen in years, and here’s hoping it is a UNC victory!
Thanks to a fellow alum, my wife and I will be cheering on Carolina in person. Shout out to John Scroggs, you rock!!
Riding the train into downtown presently. $3 roundtrip ticket trumps $30 parking every time.
Aside from Austin, who are the other juniors that are thinking about making the jump to the NFL?
I’m hoping the boys have such a bitter taste in their mouth from the egg laying in Raleigh that they come out and destroy Pitt; I’ll forever despise Dave Wanstedt for the lousy job he did with my beloved Miami Dolphins, and having UNC kick his teeth in would be awesome.
A talking head on ESPN radio predicted a Pitt win by at least 10 points, saying UNC’s DEFENSE was “nowhere near” as good as Pitt’s, and that the only advantage UNC’s defense had on Pitt’s was in the secondary. While most of us (and even a lot of the experts) would disagree with that statement, I could see UNC pitching a near shutout on defense giving the offense a chance to come through when it counts.
At any rate, I’m picking Greg Little to have a huge game; Pitt’s secondary isn’t all that great, and Little’s success can mean things open up for Highsmith and Boyd. Yates throws for two touchdowns, Little accounts for at least one score, and Burney/Williams/Sturdivant/Carter run back a pick for six.
I’m calling UNC 38, Pitt 16.
great call Andy, go heels!
I sure hope Greg Little isn’t going to act like an idiot for the entire game…
Wow…..I need UNC to score four TD’s in the second half for my score prediction to come true. Considering there are enough issues for the Heels to score a TD in a half, I may be slightly off.
A pick six is impossible to come by….WHEN WE KEEP RUNNING THE SAME FRIGGIN’ DEFENSE!!!
This game is over.
C’mon, briarcliff. It’s 16-10.
That said, if Yates is the starting QB next season, I’m not to say I won’t watch, but I am going to practice emotional detachment.
a few reflections:
-sweet fancy Moses, our O Line is GARBAGE!
-Greg Little is going to prove me right when his puerile actions cost us a game. Kid’s got the brains of an eggplant. too bad.
-If the Heels lose, I hope the Heels lose by at least 14 points. I’m beyond tired of losing by 3 points. (In the Davis Era, the Heels are 3-10 in games decided by less than a TD…that’s concentration and guts).
-Negative yards on 1st down is almost as predictable as Shoop’s playbook.
-I have no animus against Yates. Joe Montana couldn’t do any better behind that O-Line.
-If the Heels do end up losing by <7 points, it will be the second straight loss due to PENALTIES. Yeah, "swagger" is GREAT.
-Catharsis over, for now.
Brain dead…
No reason to try to block that field goal.. the most important thing was not getting drawn off sides… so what do we do? Outcoached again…
Ibid, op. cit. JohnBrownsBooty 6:37pm
arent they tired of making the dumbest plays imaginable? WHEN will they tire of that, exactly? when? this next season? decade? ever?
i have never seen a program make the most idiotic choices, decisions, plays.
NE.VER.
“there’s only a minute left in the half…how can we make it easier for Pitt to get points? hmmm…shorten the field FOR them? YES! squib kick! that IS the perfect plan. surely we won’t lose by 3 or less.”
“we are on the goal line. i know!, i’ll force a pass in. surely we won’t lose by 3 or less.”
“only an offside will extend Pitt’s drive and keep their kicker from trying his career long(and leave us time even if he makes it). surely we won’t lose by 3 or less.”
probably 80 QBs in D1 that couldve thrown better passes in that last drive. some that dont even start.
Choked again. Outcoached again. Defense folds in the 4th quarter again. TJ Yates does NOTHING on the final possession again…
I am getting so tired of being so right about this exquisitely mediocre, underachieving football team.
HTTE is right; they do the EXACT worst thing in a string of scenarios that can only combine to make them lose. Look at the devolution of the last two games.
Heels fans have to start asking of the football program why Davis’ teams are 3-11 in close games (those decided by less than a touchdown). This is getting really old.
Predictable in EVERY way.
Outcoached? Can’t say that for sure. Yates not being able to hit the broadside of the barn on the final drive? That’s for sure. Defense folding? Not really, but Cam Thomas should have a lonely ride back to Chapel Hill tonight…..
The offensive line is bad, and the receivers are young (except Little) and can’t get separation on a route to save their lives, but they still had a chance. Playing this “bad” and still having a chance to win the game is starting to get frustrating.
i HATE it just sounding like namecalling, but i really have a hard time working it around to some other explanation.
i mean on the 47 yd FG attempt, every man, woman, child, fetus, dog, mouse, houseplant, line of mildew in the shower KNEW there was a very good chance they were trying to draw us off.
have they never seen this game played? at any level? there are hundreds on tv every year. check one out, fellas.
and you FELL for it. that makes you, well…DUMB. no, not excited. no, not trying to make a play. it makes you NOT SMART.
last thing the special teams coach should say is “watch you dont jump offsides, they may try to draw us. its 4th and less than 5.”
last thing the head coach should yell is “stay onsides!”
last thing the D captain ON THE FIELD should say is “watch you dont jump offsides. they’d get a 1st down.”
last thing you should say to yourself is “i better not jump offsides.”
HTTE, you can be on my coaching staff anytime!
19th in salary, mmm, mmm-well, at least we know there won’t be another shake-down anytime soon.
note to everyone in football at any level.
kicking it deep when time is short MAY…MAY result in a big runback. if your coverage team stinks. it also has a decent chance of leaving the opposition 70-80 yards away.
squib kicking it WILL shorten the field almost certainly. it will NOT roll to the 30…20 without the returner, who LIVES to run, picking it up. it MAY go out of bounds on a squibby bounce (*gasp* i know, right!)
the chances of an up man touching/kicking/flubbing/booting the ball 40 yards to his own rear is fairly small.
short clock… give them a short field? short on smarts.
Well one thing is for sure. There is no way we can say that this season was any better then last season. Still got owned by UVA and NC State. Still lost our bowl game (and the SAME bowl game for that matter). Still didn’t finish in the top 25. Is some year to year improvement too much to hope for? Apparently it is.
HTTE, the question is, did any of those things happen? If not, then the coaches ought to donate 25% of their salary to charity, then get their butts kicked.