Weekly Report Card: Georgia Tech

Carolina's offense rolled to 48 points and 579 yards of offense against Georgia Tech on Saturday. This performance overcame the defense allowing 611 yards and 43 points. At halftime and after the game, Larry Fedora stressed that the team believes they can still win the Coastal Division and the players definitely showed that they have bought into the coaching staff's philosophy. This game was an example of how the spread offense UNC runs can win games, they just need to score a ton and hope the defense can hang on.

On to the grades:

Give Marquise Williams freedom: A

Throughout this game the coaching staff put the offense on Marquise Williams' shoulders and Williams delivered. The read option was featured heavily throughout this game to great success. The early interception by Williams was by far his low point in this game and he rebounded nicely en route to throwing for 390 yards. The offensive line played better as the game went on and this noticeably improved the run game, allowing Williams to have more freedom within the offense. Williams displayed the ability to deftly move around the pocket as well as hit receivers with great passes in all areas of the field. The throws that stood out the most were the deep touchdown pass to Ryan Switzer and the 4th and 6 touchdown pass to Mack Hollins. On each of these plays Williams displayed great awareness and deft touch on the ball to fit it into places where his receiver was the only one who could make a play on the ball. While running, Williams continued to show great awareness, dodging tacklers en route to averaging 4.6 yards per carry for the day.

Force Georgia Tech off the field on 3rd Down: C

In this game Georgia Tech threw more than expected and that allowed the Heels to get a few more possessions than expected because the game was longer than expected. The Yellow Jackets were 5 for 8 on third downs in the game. This ended up being enough but the Heels need to get better in the next few games if Fedora's hopes of a division title are to be realized. The defensive backs did not turn their heads on several down-field passes which cost the Heels throughout the game. The Heels did eliminate penalties on defense in this game which needs to stay the same going forward, the defense is not good enough to continue to give free first downs to their opponents.

Score early: B

The first two drives were relatively pathetic but after a first quarter in which they only scored 7 points the Heels came back and led at the half, their second lead all season at the half (the other was the Liberty game). The early touchdown passes to Ryan Switzer kept the Heels in the game early and ensured that Georgia Tech had to throw more than usual. The scoring kept the Yellow Jackets off schedule and helped the Heels win the game.