The North Carolina football team lost its second consecutive game and third of the season, Saturday as the East Carolina Pirates traveled to Kenan Stadium and claimed a 55-31 victory.
Here’s what The Daily Tar Heel observed from the Press Box:
ECU: Smart, Fast and Physical
The Pirates picked up only their third win, and first since 2007, in the 16-game series history between the two teams in a dominating fashion.
Utilizing a no-huddle scheme, ECU took claim of UNC’s team motto “Smart, Fast and Physical,” gaining 603 total yards of offense — second-most in UNC school history at Kenan Stadium — while scoring 55 points, which is the third-highest total UNC has ever surrendered in Chapel Hill.
East Carolina was led by a 376-yard, three touchdown passing performance from junior quarterback Shane Carden and senior running back Vintavious Cooper, who totaled 256 yards from the line of scrimmage. Carden recorded three touchdowns through the air and had three one-yard rushes for scores in the game.
“Hats off to them, they’re great players,” redshirt sophomore linebacker Jeff Schoettmer said. “We knew they liked to get the ball in their hands but we have great players to contain them and as a defense we didn’t do a good job of it.”
Tar Heel offense struggles despite career days
UNC senior quarterback Bryn Renner completed 28 of his 46 passes Saturday, throwing three touchdowns and a career-high 336 yards. With his performance, Renner passed former quarterback T.J. Yates on UNC’s all-time career touchdown list with 61.
He also now ranks 24th in ACC history with 7,573 career passing yards.
Sophomore wide receiver Quinshad Davis threw a touchdown on his first career pass in the second quarter on a trick play that initially appeared as if Davis was going to run a reverse after running back Khris Francis flipped him the ball. Redshirt sophomore wide receiver T.J. Thorpe caught the pass for his first career touchdown reception.
Junior wide receiver Nic Platt also grabbed his first career touchdown in the third quarter on a 23-yard pass from Renner. And junior kicker Thomas Moore connected on four extra points, making it 61 out of 61 in his career.
But the Tar Heels failed to get things going offensively as they would have liked to. UNC punted it five times compared to ECU’s two, failed to score in the first quarter while only putting seven points on the board in the fourth quarter and only recorded 67 rushing yards.
“It’s frustrating as a football team that we’re … not scoring on offense,” coach Larry Fedora said. “I wouldn’t say that we did good things offensively. We made a few plays here and there but the consistency is the problem right now and you gotta have that to be a good football team.”
Problem with penalties
UNC struggled with play by the rules Saturday, getting called for nine penalties, which backed them up a total of 96 yards. ECU, on the other hand, received only three yellow flags that cost them 36 yards.
“I’d have to look at the penalties and see exactly what happened and why they happened,” Fedora said. “But I can tell you this — there’s no excuse for personal fouls, no matter what happens in the game.”
Likely the most memorable penalty of the afternoon was assessed to redshirt freshman offensive lineman Caleb Peterson, who was called for personal foul — an illegal block below the waist — after senior tailback A.J. Blue caught a screen pass from Renner and raced 35 yards to the end zone.
Despite the costly penalty, UNC was still able to put points on the scoreboard, a field goal, at the end of the drive — something Renner commended.
“This is the first game that we responded (after having a touchdown taken away),” Renner said. “Even though we still kicked a field goal, I think that was positive for us to go down there. We did get a big play called back but we just gotta keep moving forward. It’s going to happen.”
Peterson was called for holding earlier in the game, costing his team 10 yards and, taking the other miscue into account, 25 total during the game.
Eyes still on the prize
Despite surrendering 1,328 combined total yards of offense in their three losses this season, the Tar Heels, mainly the defense, still have their sights on the team’s ultimate goal set at the beginning of the season.
“We still have the opportunity to win the Coastal Division championship, and that’s the biggest goal we have for the season,” senior defensive end Kareem Martin said. “We just have to learn from this film and get ready for Virginia Tech (next week).”
UNC is now 1-3 on the season, with seven of its last eight games against ACC opponents.
“The good thing is we have more games left to play,” senior defensive tackle Tim Jackson said. “We have a lot of ACC games left to play, so you can’t get too down.
“You have to realize that you still have an opportunity in front of you.”
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