North Carolina left Pittsburgh with the kind of win that looks cleaner in the standings than it did on the field. The Tar Heels beat Pitt on the road for their first ranked victory of the season, and the result also gave Bill Belichick his first ranked win as UNC’s head coach.
The game itself was messy from the start. Pitt opened by driving 75 yards for a touchdown, and North Carolina spent much of the first half fighting uphill.
The Tar Heels had little going on the ground, and Billy Edwards Jr. spent plenty of time uncomfortable in the pocket as Pat Narduzzi kept throwing blitzes at him. Pitt backup quarterback Holden Geriner also had his issues after that opening series, so the game settled into a rough stretch before halftime with Pitt ahead by three.
North Carolina found a little more rhythm after the break, and Pitt found a lot less. The third quarter mostly stayed tight until Demon June finished a drive with 22 seconds left, putting UNC in front 14-10.
Then the fourth quarter turned into the kind of back-and-forth chaos that made this game feel so strange. Pitt answered with a seven-play, 75-yard drive to regain the lead, but Edwards responded right away with a 75-yard touchdown throw to Shamar Easter.
From there, Pitt kept making life harder on itself with a string of baffling offensive decisions, while UNC tried to manage the clock and also gave the ball back a couple of times. On Pitt’s final possession, Geriner missed repeatedly, and the Tar Heels were able to drain the clock to zero.
A lot of the postgame attention has to go to Narduzzi’s choices late. After the Panthers ran the ball well in the first half, he kept asking Geriner to make plays through the air, and that decision produced two interceptions and a 1-7 mark on third down.
At times, the play-calling was so strange that it was fair to wonder what Pitt was trying to do. Maybe the absence of the starting quarterback left Narduzzi searching for answers, but it was still a rough stretch of decisions for a head coach.
UNC was far from perfect, too. Edwards also threw two interceptions, but he made enough key plays to keep the Tar Heels moving when it mattered.
The defense deserves credit as well, especially after Pitt had success running the ball in the first half. UNC tightened up in the second half and forced Pitt into the kind of passing game that clearly wasn’t working.
However ugly it looked, the Tar Heels still walked out with a much-needed road win over a ranked opponent. Now the focus shifts to Duke next weekend in Durham for the Victory Bell.
At the time of writing, the Blue Devils were undefeated pending the result of their game against Georgia Tech. If that holds, UNC would have a chance to hand them their first loss.
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Denis said the game carried extra weight for him, and his performance seemed to reflect a player trying to answer questions about where he fits in the programs future. Malones trust and coaching style were part of the equation, and he also praised Denis for his development and for sticking with the team through coaching changes, a small but meaningful sign of buy-in as UNC settles into a new era. [Read more 🡒]