Carolina Film Room: the devil is in the details for Tar Heel defense

The Carolina defense needs to focus on fundamentals

The North Carolina defense has had its big moments, but like everything else about the Tar Heels this season, consistency has been the biggest issue for a unit looking to take a step forward in a new scheme.

Most frustrating of all for Carolina players, coaches and fans, defenders have often been in the right places before a missed tackle, a poor angle or similar fundamental mistake leads to a breakdown.

That was certainly the case on Saturday against Appalachian State, leaving defensive coordinator Jay Bateman the most disappointed he's been with his defense this season.

"We weren't very happy with how we played. I think the biggest issue, I thought we tackled really poorly," he said. "Fundamentally, it was really poor and at some really poor times. I think we've got to do a better job teaching it."

Here's where things went wrong for the Tar Heels, and what they're doing to fix it moving forward.

After jumping to a 7-3 lead, Carolina has the opportunity to take control. With App State facing 3rd and 7, the Tar Heels appear to have everything covered downfield with the defense closing in before Zac Thomas escapes the pocket.

Thomas is an accomplished runner, so containment needs to be a bigger emphasis here.

Regardless, junior D.J. Ford has it sniffed out and should get the stop.

Not only does he come in too fast on the play, but he also gives up his leverage and allows a lane for Thomas to cut back for a huge gain that ultimately led to a field goal.

Defense is all about forcing ball carriers to your help to maximize your odds for a stop, and in this situation, the best help on the field is the sideline.

"We weren’t using the 12th man as the sideline like we’re supposed to," linebacker Jeremiah Gemmel said.

More on those two points.

Here's another instance of a Carolina defender overrunning the play and giving up his leverage.

Again, the best help defender here is the sideline. Instead, Corey Sutton gets a quick cutback lane and buys enough time for his blockers to clear a lane.

Slow it down and set up an inside-out tackle rather than having to attempt an outside-in stop.

Safety Myles Dorn explained.

"You don’t want to overrun the ball; you want to be inside-out,' he said. "For me, safeties and really anybody in football, it’s to be out-leveraged and then trying to come back in to make the tackle. I feel like that’s what we didn’t use on Saturday, staying inside and using the coaching intangibles we’ve been taught, to stay inside-out and we’d overrun and that’s why they were getting that leaky yardage."

Here's an excellent example of Dorn getting himself in position, maintaining his leverage and wrapping up for a great stop in the backfield.

Unfortunately for Carolina, there weren't nearly enough of those.

This Darrynton Evans run was another nail in Carolina's coffin, setting up another touchdown the Tar Heels would have to answer just before the half.

Another example of overruning the play, giving up your leverage and opening a cutback lane in the middle of the field.

Good defense isn't always about making the big play or stop behind the line of scrimmage. Here, the big play would have been funneling the runner toward the sideline, where Dominique Ross was in excellent position to make a play or force Evans out.

Bateman explained the concept.

"When you have advantage on a running back, you have to maintain that advantage, and if you give it away, you're cutting off the other 10 guys on the defense," he said. "The other guys were chasing, expecting the ball to be delivered to a certain spot, and then when you miss, if you have outside leverage and you miss and you give up that outside leverage, the rest of the defense is hunting thinking the ball's coming back to them and it doesn't work. The fundamentals of tackling I think we did okay with. I think it's more of the fundamentals of leverage and team defense."

But there were tackling issues, too.

"We work on it every day, so I don’t understand why we’d be missing so many tackles," Gemmel said.

Ultimately, though, fundamental tackling issues stem from the problems that start with losing leverage on a play.

When you miss an opportunity at the line, it's a crapshoot at slowing down a runner in the open field.

"I think tracking is half of tackling," Dorn said. "Putting yourself in position to make the play is the biggest part and it’s something that sounds crazy ... if you track it right, it’s so much easier to finish and so much easier to get the right leverage and to make the play than it is to if you overrun it."

There's also bad timing...

Thomas is a great player. Sometimes you can generate good pressure, but arrive half a second too late and a great player makes a great, timely play.

And with the game on the line...

A big mistake ultimately cost the Tar Heels about two minutes after allowing Thomas to run for a first down on a blown assignment.

"We had guys out of position on the third down and five or six where Thomas kept the ball outside," Brown said on Saturday night. "The corner was inside, he was supposed to be outside … we made entirely too many mistakes.

"We shouldn’t have a corner inside with a quarterback keeping it outside. That, we can correct."

Moving forward, the emphasis for the Tar Heels is ensuring everyone does their job and only doing their job, allowing them to focus instead on the details.

"It’s believing in one another and making sure everybody is doing their job," Gemmel said. "When we start to have those miscues and big plays, other people are trying to do a little bit too much and they start doing somebody’s job and that leaves them out in the water, and they get beat instead of handling their own job."