Tar Heels in the NFL: Week Three Recap

In the third week of the NFL regular season, there were not many noteworthy performances by former UNC football players; however, there was a Tar Heel touchdown, a leading tackler, and a jersey swap. Let’s take a look at some of these and other stats from former Tar Heels in this week’s NFL recap.

Brandon Tate (Buffalo)

A week after being inactive for the Bills, Tate returned to contribute on Buffalo’s special teams. In their surprising victory over the Denver Broncos, Tate helped set up some good field position for the Bills on a couple of drives. He had two kickoff returns for a total of 41 yards and two punt returns for 20 yards. Though he didn’t contribute in the passing game, Tate will look to continue to help the Bills throughout the season in the return game.

Connor Barth (Chicago)

Mitch Trubisky may have had to sit another week behind Mike Glennon, but another Tar Heel helped the Bears earn their first victory of the season. Barth connected on one of his two field goal attempts, and made both of his extra points.

Gio Bernard (Cincinnati)

The Bengals’ offense had struggled to score any touchdowns the first two weeks of the season. On Sunday, their offense had some success and scored a couple of touchdowns (including one from Bernard, as seen below) in their loss to the Packers in overtime. Bernard, who had 39 total yards of offense (27 yards rushing, 12 yards receiving) had the lone touchdown by any former Tar Heel this weekend.

Eric Ebron (Detroit)

The Lions came up a foot short in their comeback attempt against the Atlanta Falcons. Detroit lost 30-26 to Atlanta in their first loss of the season. Ebron was targeted a few times on the final drive, but came away empty on the receiving end. He did have two total catches for nine yards in the game.

Tre Boston (Los Angeles Chargers)

Boston and the Chargers were looking for their first win of the season on Sunday, but they could not slow down the undefeated Kansas City Chiefs. Boston started at free safety and had two tackles in the 24-10 loss.

Zach Brown (Washington)

Brown continues to lead the way for the Redskins’ defense. For the third straight week, Brown led the team in tackles. He had ten total tackles (five solo, five assisted) in the Redskins’ victory, and impressive defensive performance, over the Raiders.

Naz Jones (Seattle), Da’Norris Searcy and Sylvester Williams (Tennessee)

The Titans earned their second win of the season with a hotly contested 33-27 victory over the Seahawks. Jones and Searcy (starting strong safety) each had a single tackle in the game for their respective teams. Williams didn’t factor into the stat column for the Tennessee defense, but he did post this picture on Twitter of a jersey exchange between the two former Tar Heels.