No Defense Of or For Larry Fedora

Before the North Carolina Tarheels started their 2017 college football season, most experts agreed that the North Carolina Tarheels defense would have to carry the team until the offense got some game time under their belts, depth charts were decided, and a few playmakers were found.

Two games into the season, the offense has played well enough to win both games but the defense has regressed to its pre-Gene Chizik days and is giving up 41 points a game. Granted, the last game was against Louisville and reigning Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson, but he torched the Tarheels for 525 total yards by himself and 706 total yards to Louisville. In the first game against California, redshirt freshman quarterback Ross Bowers lit the Tarheels defense up for 363 yards through the air and four touchdowns.

The defensive talent is there for the Tarheels. They have a good mixture of veterans and youth in the defensive backfield with M.J. Stewart, Donnie Miles, Myles Dorn, Patrice Rene, and K.J. Sails. The linebackers are also a veteran group led by junior Andre Smith. A lot of veterans on the defensive front as well with Dajuan Drennon, Malik Carney, Jalen Dalton, and Jeremiah Clarke among the notables.

When defensive coordinator Gene Chizik left the North Carolina Tarheels after last season, John Papuchis was promoted from within so the defensive changes should not have been many. A more aggressive defensive was promised and that "aggressiveness" has resulted in three sacks and two interceptions. The two interceptions already doubles the Tarheels interception total from last season.

The Tarheels have blitzed more in the first two games and one example of this is a cornerback blitz by Patrice Rene on Lamar Jackson during the Louisville game. The blitz was perfectly timed and Patrice Rene should have had the sack. Jackson sidestepped Rene and threw a 75 yard touchdown pass. The Tarheels defense has been unable to get off the field on third down. The opposing teams are converting over 50% over their third down opportunities in the two games.

The reasons behind the Tarheels struggles on defense could be classified as "the usual." "Missed assignments" and "lack of communication" are popular reasons given but as a Tarheel fan, there is nothing more frustrating than watching the Tarheels take a 28-27 lead over nbationally ranked Louisville going into the fourth and watching it disappear within minutes.

Insanity

Albert Einstein defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." The North Carolina Tarheels defensive game plan against East Carolina was the definition of insanity. They gave up an even more insane 70 points and it could have been worse. I have said it before but it is time to scrap the 4-2-5 defense and go back to the drawing board. I don't know if the coaching staff does not have the athletes to make this system work but I have always been of the opinion that your system has to fit the players on hand. Their blitzes Saturday were all slow and telegraphed, their zone coverages were very loose and wide open, but they did play some solid man-to-man defense down the field. M.J. Stewart, Donnie Miles, and Brian Walker all made plays on the ball when they had the chance. The Tarheels travel to pass happy and athlete-rich Clemson this coming Saturday and they may need to line their players up one-on-one and see what happens.