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Carolina must burn the ships, as there\u2019s no going home for the rest of the season
With Kenan Stadium shut down for the rest of 2023, the Tar Heels must hit the road from here until the end of the season. What will that season look like? Mathematics tells us that it will probably not include a trip to Charlotte for the ACC Championship game, but it\u2019s not impossible.
A bowl is a certainty, but will it have a historical name attached, or just a sponsor? Wins against Clemson and NC State could push Carolina back into the Orange Bowl, but a loss in either game (or both!) could put them into \u201c… with that said, I will not be playing in the XXX Bowl, in order to prepare for the NFL Draft<\/em>\u201d territory.
Death Valley looms, and the sleepy Tigers are now wide awake, thanks to an angry phone call from Tyler<\/a>. Clemson is 2-0 since that conversation, and the offense has come to life, scoring 31 and 42 points, with the latter being a conference season-high. The Tar Heels defense has been shaken, rattled, and rolled by Virginia, Georgia Tech, and Duke, and has to summon up the strength and courage to stop sabotaging Drake Maye and the offense as they attempt (for the second season in a row) to reach for win number nine with an eye to surpass last year\u2019s squad.
The story of this season\u2019s balloon popping lies at the feet of the defense. They have been too easy to run against, don\u2019t handle tempo, and can\u2019t win games despite the insane amount of points gifted to them by Chip Lindsey\u2019s offense.
Gene Chizik\u2019s \u201cbend but don\u2019t break\u201d defense has done plenty of the former and arguably even more of the latter, and the results have been predictable. It won\u2019t get any easier with Clemson, who have a dynamic rushing attack led by Phil Mafah and Will Shipley. The pair combined for 173 yards against Georgia Tech, so if we extrapolate that, we can expect approximately 2,980 yards against Carolina.
Part of Chizik\u2019s philosophy is making an opponent\u2019s offense execute and forcing timely turnovers. A simple review of the ACC schedule neatly breaks the season into the \u201cgood times\u201d (Pitt, Syracuse, and Miami) versus the \u201cbad times\u201d (Virginia, Georgia Tech, and Duke). In the good times, Carolina forced nine turnovers. In the bad times, they only got three.
You can swallow sadness on defense if you\u2019re picking off passes or scooping up a fumble every once in a while. If you don\u2019t, you\u2019re forcing Drake Maye to be perfect. He\u2019s really<\/em> good, but he\u2019s not perfect.
Can Carolina turn Clemson over? The Tigers have been surprisingly generous this season, throwing seven interceptions and losing nine fumbles, and they\u2019ve turned the ball over at least once in every game. For UNC to have any chance, the defense has to either 1.) not get bulldozed again and again and again, or 2.) get some timely turnovers to give Drake Maye and the offense extra possessions.
This song should be pumping in every defender\u2019s headphones on the way to Death Valley (Clemson = Huns):
Clemson\u2019s D is stout, but Carolina has come to grips with a tougher one in Duke. The Blue Devils currently own the #22 scoring defense in college football, giving up just 18.8 points per game, while Clemson comes in at #39, surrendering 21.2 ppg. Keep in mind that Duke would be tied for #7 with Air Force at just 15.7 ppg if it weren\u2019t for the 47 points Carolina hung on them in double overtime.
Carolina can score, and they\u2019ve proven they can score on anyone. Unfortunately, the pressure is on the offense because they must<\/strong> score if they want to stay in the contest. Clemson has 24 sacks on the season, two less than UNC, so if the Tar Heels can keep Drake Maye clean and on schedule, the offense has a chance.
In the secondary, senior safety Jalyn Phillips is out and senior cornerback Sheridan Jones is questionable. If Carolina can attack Clemson\u2019s depth, they could find joy to open up space at the line for Omarion Hampton to gobble up yardage. The Tigers are only giving up 107.3 rushing ypg, but Hampton averages 123.6 ypg (and an amazing 155 ypg in his last five games!), so who wins this battle will be a deciding factor.
Prediction: UNC 35, Clemson 42<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Filed under:Carolina must burn the ships, as there\u2019s no going home for the rest of the seasonWith Kenan Stadium shut down for the rest of 2023, the Tar Heels must hit the road from here until the end of the season. What will that season look like? Mathematics tells us that it will probably not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n