The North Carolina football team gave its most balanced offensive performance of the season against No. 11 Notre Dame but fell miles short of matching the offense with an equally solid defensive showing.
Led by junior quarterback Sam Howell, the offense managed to look potent, playing one of its best games at this point in the year.
“We had all our weapons involved in the game plan,” Howell said. “When I’m spreading the ball around, we’re really hard to stop.”
On the flip side, UNC's defense certainly didn’t have a cakewalk of a game in front of it, as the Notre Dame offense had several weapons of its own to attack the Tar Heels.
The Fighting Irish took comfort with having Jack Coan and Tyler Buchner as quarterback options, depending on what they wanted to exploit on a play.
If Notre Dame thought UNC would overcommit to stopping the run, they would sub in Coan to unlock the passing game. If the defense focused on slowing down the receivers, they would throw in Buchner and let him run.
Sometimes, the Fighting Irish used Buchner to make the defense think he would run it when he would actually throw it. That exact tactic freed a receiver for Notre Dame’s first touchdown of the game.
Oh, and don’t forget containing running back Kyren Williams, who ran for 199 rushing yards in the game.
Head coach Mack Brown wasn’t shy to pile praise onto Williams, calling his 91-yard touchdown rush early in the fourth quarter one of the best he’s ever seen. Senior linebacker Jeremiah Gemmel praised Williams’ ability to find gaps in the defensive line.
