CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — At halftime, the No. 17 North Carolina football team trails Virginia, 14-10.
The Cavaliers marched down the field on their first drive and scored on a quarterback sneak from Brennan Armstrong within the first five minutes.
A sequence of passes by UNC redshirt first-year quarterback Drake Maye quickly took the Tar Heel offense to the redzone, but a costly false start penalty followed by a Virginia sack forced North Carolina to settle for a field goal.
From there, neither offense could seem to click until late in the second quarter, when Maye connected with four different receivers, capped off by a chaotic cross-field quarterback scramble for a touchdown. Virginia answered with a four minute drive capped off by a rushing touchdown.
Here are the three takeaways from the first half:
Virginia offense thriving without starting wideouts
Until junior defensive back Storm Duck picked off Armstrong’s pass on a deflection by junior linebacker Cedric Gray, the Cavaliers' offense seemed to be picking apart North Carolina’s defense with ease.
Virginia has the fifth-worst rushing offense in the ACC at 131.6 yards per game. So far, the Cavaliers have rushed for 140 yards and two touchdowns. Gray, North Carolina’s star linebacker, has already registered 13 tackles. To put this into perspective, his season-high for a game is 14.