Tar Heel Weekend Review: UVA (L, 16-3)

Lawrence Jordan: Balance. Whenever “balance” is mentioned in sports it’s a good thing. Batting stances, pitching motions, jump shots, running back styles, QB throwing motions…you get the idea. A balanced athlete is an effective athlete.

The same rings true with team concepts. If a basketball player is better on offense than defense, he is a liability during crunch time. If a batter is a power hitter but hits for low average, he is a liability during crunch time. If a football team has an offense or a defense that is ineffective, they become a liability when they are on the field.

The 2009 North Carolina Tar Heels are unbalanced. The defense is talented and deep. The offense is inexperienced and thin. No matter how effectively the defense shuts down the opposition’s offense, it matters naught if the offense goes three and out and surrenders field position. Combine this with lackluster punting and you have a defense that is playing too many downs and forced to defend a short field.

How does the coaching staff adjust to the offensive/defensive discrepancy? Balanced play calling. Not only does the offense need the running game to step up their production to open up the passing game, but offensive coordinator John Shoop needs to vary his passing plays. Understandably, many slants and short routes were called to combat the ineffective offensive line, but Shoop has to balance his short/deep pass play calling to keep defenses honest.

What is the result of unbalanced play calling and offensive effectiveness? The Tar Heels now have an 0-2 conference record with an average of 5 points scored per conference game.

Thoughts from Saturday:

• Yates yard per passing attempt was pathetic (36 passing attempts resulting in 135 yards). Yates is known to have a lack of touch on his short attempts, as seen on several of his interceptions this year, so formulating an offensive attack around short pass attempts was a foolish coaching move.
• Running Back Ineffectiveness. The Tar Heels only managed 39 yards on the ground against a UVA team that gave up an average of 181 yards per game. Time to play Womble?
• Turnover Margin: The Tar Heels have 6 turnovers and 0 take-aways in conference play.
• UVA was Winless (0-3) entering Chapel Hill and UNC was only their second FBS opponent. UVA gave up an average of 31 points per game in those losses.
• UVA has won 10 of the last 12 against the Heels. I am beginning to know what NCSU or Clemson felt like against the basketball Heels. No matter how bad they were – they still couldn’t manage to beat them.

ACC Statistical Comparison: (ACC Rank) NCAA Stats

• Offense: Rushing (10), Passing (8), Yard Per Game (11), Points Per Game (12)
• Defense: Rushing (3), Passing (1), Yard Per Game (2), Points Per Game (1)

Philip Thompson: Thanks for the cheap shot at NCSU. There are some strange similarities beginning to show between Butch and Amato era over in Chapel Hill. A lot of smoke and mirrors but very little substance. Had Cam Sexton not been run off, he might have been an easy solution to the woes off the passing game. Bring on Paulus!