Growing Pains

The Tarheels suffered some serious growing pains in the loss last Saturday to Wake Forest. The 'Heels were without the services of running back Gio Bernard due to a knee injury suffered against Elon and I would like to think that he would have made the difference but backup A.J. Blue had 19 carries for 106 yards and a Touchdown. Romar Morris also got some quality carries. The biggest impact of Bernard sitting out was in the Tarheel passing game. Blue and Morris are not the accomplished receiver that Bernard is, especially when it comes to running screen plays. QB Bryn Renner did not have one of his better games. He overthrew several receivers throughout the game including a crucial overthrow of a wide open Sean Tapley in the fourth quarter. The 'Heels defense was pretty well man handled in the first half by Wake Forest. They played shutdown defense in the second half until Wake Forests game winning drive. The 'Heels are not getting any pressure on the opposing quarterbacks thru the first two games. They have only totaled three sacks in their first two games and interior lineman Sylvester Williams has 2 1/2 of those. Wake Forest QB Tanner Smith had a lot of time to throw the ball especially in the first half. The 'Heels play their first ranked opponent of the season on Saturday when they travel to #19 Louisville.