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Tar Heels football struggles again in blowout loss to Georgia Tech
(Courtesy: UNC Athletics/BVM Sports)

Tar Heels football struggles again in blowout loss to Georgia Tech

ATLANTA — Following their week three shootout victory over the Virginia Cavaliers, the North Carolina Tar Heels seemed to have worked out their early-season offensive struggles; but their 45-22 blowout loss on Saturday to Georgia Tech at Bobby Dodd Stadium proved otherwise. The Tar Heels jumped out to an early 7-0 lead, after quarterback Sam Howell muscled through several Yellow Jackets en route to a 23-yard touchdown run. Unfortunately, for UNC fans this would be the Tar Heels only lead during their week four matchup against Georgia Tech.

One of the main reasons why North Carolina relinquished their lead against Georgia Tech was the poor play of the offensive line. After giving up just one sack last week against Virginia, the Tar Heels front-five allowed the Georgia Tech pass rush to sack Sam Howell eight times; which ultimately led to the quarterback uncharacteristically coughing up the ball three times. The Yellow Jackets capitalized by scoring 20 points off of Carolina’s turnovers en route to blowing out their ACC Coastal opponent.

Along with making Sam Howell uncomfortable all game, the Yellow Jackets were successful at completely shutting down Carolina’s run game. After rushing for over 100 yards in two consecutive days quarterback Sam Howell was only able to muster up 8 yards on 16 carries, and Tennessee transfer Ty Chandler mustered up a total of 48 yards on 17 carries for the Tar Heels. The offensive line is definitely in line to receive a good portion of the blame for UNC’s inability to establish the gun game, but I believe that offensive coordinator Phil Longo needs to be held accountable as well.

In the Tar Heels two losses of the season, Longo’s play calling has been extremely predictable for opposing defenses because he is basically calling on Howell to make up for the lack of production from UNC’s skill positions. An example of this is during Carolina’s week one loss to Virginia Tech Longo called 17 straight passing plays, which led to Howell throwing two interceptions and being sacked six times. Longo’s predictable play calling tendencies were apparent once again against Georgia Tech, after Howell amassed 16 rushing attempts while freshman running back Caleb Hood didn’t get a single touch all game. The decision to leave Hood parked on the sideline is baffling considering the freshman is just a week removed from totaling 66 yards on 9 carries and a touchdown in UNC’s week three victory over Virginia.

Overall the same issues that plagued the UNC offense in week one against Virginia Tech, resurfaced to derail the Tar Heels on Saturday against the Yellow Jackets. The offensive line was quite frankly overrated coming into the 2021-2022 college football season, which is a testament on how good running backs Michael Carter and Javonte Williams were for the Tar Heels last season. Despite the ugly loss in week four, North Carolina is still in contention to get back on track and earn a trip to the ACC Championship game in Charlotte. If the Tar Heels can win their next three games against Duke, Florida State, and Miami then they very well could be sitting atop the ACC Coastal division headed into their matchup with No. 9 Notre Dame on Oct. 30.

This is an unedited user writing submission. The views, information, or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Best Version Media or its employees.