Breaking down UNC's third-down issues as Tar Heels fall to 126th nationally

Carolina has gotten itself into unmanageable situations when it counts

It’s not yet at the level of Roy Williams’ “Dadgum,” but Phil Longo has quickly established a go-to adage in his first season as North Carolina’s offensive coordinator.

Unfortunately for the Tar Heels, he’s had to repeat it several times as he looks for better production of third downs.

“I still say, and you know I’m going to tell you this,” Longo said, “The best way to handle third-and-long is to stay out of it and that goes back to our first- and second- down production. As we can minimize those negative type situations like third and long, we’ll do better overall offensively.”

Offense has been a roller coaster for the Tar Heels this season, going from the spectacular fourth-quarter drives with big plays from Dyami Brown and Sam Howell to the disastrous first half at Wake Forest on Friday night that saw Carolina punt eight times while gaining 71 yards.

Another glaring number from that first half was the failure to convert a third-down attempt, coming up short on all eight. Despite a furious rally, things didn’t get much better, as Carolina finished 2/16 on third-downs to drop the Tar Heels to 126 nationally on third downs, with just 9 conversions on 42 attempts — good for 21.4 percent.

Third downs were among Coach Mack Brown’s first concerns on Monday morning, bringing up the struggles, unprompted.

“Third downs on offense have been atrocious because we're not putting ourselves in a position to make them,” he said. “It's first and second down that’s

causing third down to be so hard. So we've got to do a better job on first and second downs to have manageable third down situations so we can make them.”

Poor first down performance was most glaring against the Deacons, as the Tar Heels saw 14 of their 26 first-down plays net one yard or fewer while averaging 5.3 yards per attempt — a number aided by 50- and 23-yard gains. Remove those, and Carolina averaged a paltry 2.7 yards on 24 first-down plays.

In the victories over South Carolina and Miami, Carolina had just 16 plays that gained one yard or fewer in 65 attempts, while averaging 7.6 yards per attempt. Removing each of the two biggest gains from each of those games, the Tar Heels still averaged 5.7 yards on 61 first-down attempts.

“It’s important for any offense to have some early-down success,” Longo said. “The first two games, we had a lot more success on first down and that got drives going and got Sam confident, the rest of the guys confident.”

Coming into Friday night, Howell had done his best work on first downs, completing 17 of 19 attempts for 278 yards and three touchdowns.

Wake Forest got him and the Carolina offense out of sorts, disguising blitzes and dropping seven into coverage while generating ample pressure with four pass-rushers, holding Howell to 5 of 11 for 36 yards on first downs.

To further illustrate the importance of a good start, on Carolina’s 13 scoring drives (seven touchdowns, six field goals), the Tar Heels have picked up an average of 13.6 yards on the first play of the drive — a number boosted by Howell’s 62-yard touchdown pass to Brown vs. Miami.

The trouble has come when Carolina hasn’t had early-down success, as third downs haven’t been particularly manageable in any game for Carolina, with the Tar Heels facing an average of 7.9 yards to go on their 42 third-down attempts.

Not only does that take a talented trio of running backs out of the equation, but it’s asking a young, banged-up offensive line to protect a freshman quarterback for an extended period, resulting in six third-down sacks to this point.

That’s part of a bigger issue, as Carolina ranks 125 nationally, with 13 sacks allowed.

“I've told our coaches that's on coaching, that's on coaching,” Brown said. “If your guy is not good enough to block their guy, then you've got to get him some help or you've got to do something different for your quarterback. We can't just sit there and be sacked and say, ‘Oh, that’s too bad.’ I mean, we've got to fix those things.”

It’s clear that defenses are pressure is a better option than sitting back and allowing Howell to get a good look at the secondary, as he’s connected with receivers to convert third downs of 10, 13 and 20 yards, in addition to a key 4 and 17 vs. Miami.

Ultimately, Longo placed the blame on himself and the coaches for not putting his players in position to succeed, and moving forward, expect to see a little more of his most successful players on third downs.

“We still have to make sure we’re directing the ball toward the strengths that we have offensively, schematically and we’re still trying to get our better players the football,” he said. “There’s kind of an emphasis this week on some higher-percentage plays on third downs to try to help our guys in what I think is the toughest situation in football.”