The Tar Heels walked into Tallahassee looking for their second straight win to creep closer to a bowl game that looked like it might elude them just a couple of weeks ago. For a second straight week, the Tar Heels left no doubt, running away from the Florida State Seminoles 35-11 to give Mack Brown his first win over his alma mater in his coaching career. Here is a look at our biggest takeaways from a victory that has the Tar Heels a win away from getting back to a bowl game for a sixth straight season.
Omarion Hampton Goes Off
Hampton has been the rock for this offense that has had its ups-and-downs so far this season and he was rewarded with his best performance of his career on Saturday. Against one of the conference’s worst defenses, the team leaned on him early and often, handing him the ball 32 times for 172 yards and four touchdowns and throwing it to him three more times for 93 yards and another touchdown. The 265 scrimmage yards and five total touchdowns are both career highs for Hampton, who now sits 7th all-time in program history in career rushing yards and tied for 4th in career rushing touchdowns. Unfortunately, with Carolina’s record, he will not be able to enter the Heisman conversation but he still has a chance to build his case as one of the best running backs in program history and lead this Tar Heel team to one of their best finishes to a season in recent memory.
Defensive Line Puts Together Another Dominant Performance
The defense as a whole has a pretty strong performance, but it all starts with this defensive line. Last week it was Kaimon Rucker who led the way with three sacks and this week that honor fell to Beau Atkinson who simply wrecked shop. A week after finishing with 2.5 tackles for loss and 2.0 sacks, Atkinson tallied five total tackles, 4.5 of which were for a loss and 3.5 which were sacks. He and Rucker have found their groove the last two weeks which has helped Des Evans, who has been able to get after the quarterback more often than the month before the bye. The interior guys also had a nice day, winning consistently enough to hold the Seminoles to just 42 rushing yards on 28 carries. If this defensive line can continue to win at the rate that they have the last two weeks, this defense could finally start to see the type of success we thought was possible from this unit under Goeff Collins.
Jacolby Criswell Continued to Shine
One thing that the last couple of weeks have proved is that Criswell is the next in a line of successful quarterbacks that Carolina has had under Mack Brown. While he didn’t have nearly the production through the air that he did a week ago, he had his most efficient outing, completing 13 of his 17 pass attempts for 211 yards and a touchdown, while running for 18 yards on eight carries. He made all of the throws that he needed to make, including some important ones on third down in the first half. With him playing the way that he has the last two weeks, there is reason to believe that Carolina can win every game that remains on the schedule.
Secondary is Still a Question Mark
While it’s hard to complain about what this defense did on Saturday, there is still reason to be concerned about this secondary. While the group did create two turnovers, explosive plays were once again an issue as four of Florida State’s eight completions went for 28 or more yards. Alijah Huzzie had arguably his worst performance of his season and Kaleb Cost was beat for another big play, leaving questions about what could happen when this team starts playing better passing quarterbacks like they’ll see in the final three weeks of the regular season.
Second Bye Week Placement is a Frustrating One
The first bye week came at the perfect time for this year’s team, but next week’s bye is a frustrating one. The team has put together back-to-back outstanding performances across the board and ideally you’d like to keep building on that, especially on the defensive side of the ball. The good news is that this allows you to focus on cleaning up some of the little things, like those explosive plays allowed by the secondary, and get as healthy as possible before the final three games. Let’s just hope this off week doesn’t ruin the momentum the team has built the last couple of weeks.
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