North Carolina football’s defense outshined Sam Howell vs. Syracuse football.
The defense of North Carolina football, not Sam Howell, is why the Tar Heels won big on Saturday.
As the No. 18 team in the country, the North Carolina Tar Heels had no issues putting away Dino Babers’ Syracuse football team in the early window, winning 31-6. While the offenses largely sputtered throughout most of it, it was the North Carolina defense that gave Tar Heel Nation a lot to be excited about going forward, especially because it knows Howell will inevitably play better.
Chazz Surratt and the North Carolina defense set the tone early on Saturday.
North Carolina only held a 10-6 lead over the Syracuse Orange heading into the fourth quarter. However, 24 unanswered points proved to be Syracuse’s undoing. While Howell didn’t play terribly, this was not a great first start of the season for the true sophomore signal-caller. Howell completed 25-of-34 passes for 295 yards and one touchdown but had two bad interceptions.
Though it was a decent enough performance to beat an ACC bottom-feeder like Syracuse, Howell must be sharper if the Tar Heels want to edge out the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, the Miami Hurricanes or the Virginia Tech Hokies for their chance to play the Clemson Tigers in the ACC Championship game in Charlotte. However, we have to take notice of the Tar Heels’ defense.
With senior linebacker Chazz Surratt leading the way with nine total tackles, four solo, 2.5 for a loss of yardage and two of them going for sacks, the North Carolina defense made life difficult for Babers and company. His starting quarterback Tommy DeVito was dreadful, as he completed only 13-of-31 passes for 112 yards. Rex Culpepper later came in for him and threw an interception.
Overall, the North Carolina defense held the Syracuse offense to 202 yards of total offense, 134 through the air and 62 on the ground with seven sacks and 11 tackles for loss. Syracuse was a terrible 4-of-19 on third down and didn’t convert its lone fourth-down conversion opportunity. Though the only turnover the Tar Heels forced was a Giovanni Biggers pick of Culpepper, it was a defensive effort worth building on.
North Carolina hosts the Charlotte 49ers of Conference USA next week, who are fresh off a road loss to the Sun Belt’s Appalachian State Mountaineers. As it turns out, 49ers linebacker Peter Agabe’s pregame ritual wasn’t enough for Charlotte to stun App State. With their first ACC victory under their belt, North Carolina can breathe easily before welcoming Charlotte to Chapel Hill.
Though it wasn’t smooth, North Carolina showed us it’s worthy as a playoff contender.
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