The North Carolina Tar Heels gave third-ranked Notre Dame everything they had on Saturday afternoon inside Kenan Stadium.
UNC scored an opening-drive touchdown, with Billy Edwards and Shamar Easter connecting on a 6-yard play-action pass, coming right after a defensive stop. North Carolina returned the second-half opening kickoff for a touchdown and never backed down.
Eventually, the Tar Heels got tired late in a 38-27 loss. The Fighting Irish (5-0) utilized their power run game to the tune of a season-high 241 rushing yards. Quarterback CJ Carr, who looked every bit of a Heisman Trophy contender with five touchdown, scored his fifth and final time on a fourth-quarter touchdown pass to Nolan James Jr.
After starting his second season in Chapel Hill 2-0, head coach Bill Belichick is now sitting 2-2. Give the NFL GOAT coach credit for UNC's gameplan, but it wasn't enough for another early-season upset.
North Carolina's run defense is an issue, allowing 427 rushing yards in the past two weeks. The Tar Heels allowed Carr to throw for four touchdowns against their typically-stout pass defense. UNC never forced Notre Dame into any offensive mistakes, which was a key to victory heading in.
North Carolina has plenty to clean up for its game next weekend at Pitt, which sits atop the ACC at 5-0. During his postgame presser, Belichick rightfully said the Tar Heels aren't thinking about that game yet, but they'll now quickly want to shift focus.
Take a look at everything Belichick had to say after UNC's 11-point loss below. All quotes are via InsideCarolina's Jack Morris.
Opening Statement“Obviously a hard-fought game. Proud of the way our guys competed. We weren’t able to make enough plays really in any area. We missed some opportunities on offense and gave up too many easy touchdowns on defense. A couple of good plays in the kicking game but we missed a couple in the kicking game as well. We just needed to play a little more consistently. They’re a good team.”
About where UNC is in "the process"“We were certainly competitive. We missed some opportunities. We just need to do a better job of coaching, playing, taking advantage of those opportunities. Again, they’re a good team, so it’s not like anything was easy today, but we had some chances that we missed, and had a few opportunities to get off the field on fourth down, and we weren’t able to convert. We did a couple times, but we missed a couple.”
On Isaiah Johnson's absence impacting the Notre Dame run game“We’ve got to obviously coach it better, play it better. They’re an inside running team, and they ran it inside better than I’d say they should have, but they did it. So, we’ve got to coach it better and fix it. That’s been one of the strengths for us. And, unfortunately, today there were too many leaky yards. (Isaiah Johnson’s absence) didn’t help it any, that’s for sure. He’s a good player. But we had other players that we just need to do a better job.”
On Edwards' improvement from the Clemson game“Again, the passing game is really about team execution. It’s not just the quarterback. It’s the receivers. It’s protection. It’s the way the routes play out against the coverage that they have called, and if receivers are able or not able to win some of their matchups. Jelani and Jordan did a nice job today of being able to create some separation. I thought Billy threw the ball well a couple times. We weren’t able to give enough time, but we mixed in some shorter passes, screen passes, and in cuts and outside routes. So I thought we had some balance in the passing game based on the coverages they were playing.”
On CJ Carr's big day and the gameplay against him“He was efficient. I mean, we hit a lot of short passes, and then we gave him a couple opportunities down the field, and we made a couple plays, and he made a couple plays, but we’ve got to defend the deep field better. They beat us on the blitz, on the trap, but the post pattern, we were out of position.”
On encouragement from taking this game into the final quarter“I think you look at every game for what it is. Look at the things you did well. You try to keep doing those well. Look at the things you need to improve on, you try to improve on them, regardless of what the final score is. You do the same thing every week. I don’t know any other way to do it.”
On all three phases of the game coming together“Certainly, there are a lot of positives there. Kickoff return, I mean, that’s probably more yards on that return than we had all last year on all the returns combined, or close to it. So I mean I think we were the worst kickoff return team in the country last year. So that was an explosive play that, like you said, got us back in the game in conjunction with that long drive, so we just got to keep working on all those things and take advantage of our opportunities.”
On the little things separating UNC from a victory“It’s little things on every play. They’re not all the same. Each play has its own dynamics, has its own coaching points, has its own things that need to happen for each individual play to be successful.”
On starting Cristian Alvarez over Jordan Hall“You always have to be ready for a backup plan on the offensive line. It’s nice to have those five guys together for the whole year. You don’t see that very often in college or pro football. Usually, end up having to replace somebody or move somebody. So we felt like that was our best option.”
This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: Bill Belichick speaks after UNC football's loss to Notre Dame