Quick Hitters - North Carolina vs. Virginia

Isaac Schade presents Quick Hitters from North Carolina’s 59-39 home win over Virginia on Saturday evening.

Author:
Isaac Schade
Sep 19, 2021 2:56 AM EDT

Quick Hitters from North Carolina’s 59-39 home win over Virginia on Saturday evening.

Highlights:

Condensed Game:

Carolina breaks a four-year losing streak to Virginia in a game featuring 1,273 yards of total offense. The Tar Heels ultimately salted away the game in the second half, scoring a touchdown on all five post-halftime possessions.
Neat tidbit, for those who hadn’t previously caught it: Carolina vs. Virginia is the second-most contested rivalry amongst all FBS schools. Today was the 126^th meeting. Only Minnesota and Wisconsin have played more (129 times).
The Tar Heels came out on fire. Their first eight offensive plays included one incompletion, seven plays of 10+ yards, and three touchdowns. In the first quarter, Carolina had the ball for 2:41 and scored 21 points. And Sam Howell’s QB rating in that quarter? A ludicrous 583.8. The first eight offensive plays, in order:

12-yard run (Sam Howell)
11-yard pass (Howell to Antoine Green)
Incomplete pass
59-yard TD pass (Howell to Josh Downs)
17-yard run (Ty Chandler)
28-yard run (Chandler)
37-yard TD pass (Howell to Downs)
75-yard TD pass (Howell to Khafre Brown)

Following the season-opening loss to Virginia Tech, many pundits declared Sam Heisman’s campaign over. I would like to kindly say to those people: Nope.
UNC has desperately needed to get the running game going outside of Sam Howell. That happened tonight as Ty Chandler had a 20-carry, 198-yard, two-touchdown coming out party. Freshman Caleb Hood contribute 66 yards and a touchdown on nine carries. If the Tar Heels can keep up that type of production to complement the passing game and Howell’s running, they will be in business. Kudos to the makeshift offensive line, who cleared the way all night long.

Speaking of Howell as part of the running game, get used to it. As Coach Mack Brown said postgame, “Sam is going to be part of our running game. That’s facts.” Howell finished with 112 yards on 15 carries. That’s a career high in both carries and rushing yards. He has double-digit rushing attempts in all three games this season, and now back-to-back games with 100-plus rushing yards and 300-plus passing yards. As you can imagine, that doesn't happen very often:

Just like the rushing game needs help outside of Sam Howell, the passing game needs help outside of Josh Downs. Downs did his part tonight with eight receptions for 203 yards and two touchdowns, including an unbelievable diving catch in the corner of the end zone. Tight end Garrett Walston was the only other player with multiple receptions (three for 15 and a touchdown). Khafre Brown, Antoine Green, and Kamari Morales each added one catch (two of which were for touchdowns). Downs' diving catch starts at the 0:16 mark of this video:

And by the way, a breaking news update: Josh Downs and Khafre Brown are very, very fast. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program. Here's proof:

Here's more proof:

Jonathan Kim continues to do his thing on kickoffs. He came into the night a perfect 12-for-12 on touchbacks. He was 10-for-10 tonight, bringing his total to 22 touchbacks on 22 kickoffs.
Carolina had just one sack in each of the first two games, but tallied three tonight – two for Kaimon Rucker, one for Tomon Fox. The defense also came up with a fumble (in the red zone, forced by Chris Collins, recovered by Des Evans) and an interception from Ja’Qurious Conley.
Conley’s interception late in the third quarter was of the “insanely athletic” variety. He ssentially leapt over the receiver and defensive back, caught the ball, and got his foot down, cast and all, before landing out of bounds.
Sam Howell has feasted on Virginia in his three career matchups against the Cavs.

2019: 15-29, 353 yards, 4 TDs
2020: 23-28, 443 yards, 4 TDs
2021: 14-21, 307 yards, 5 TDs

Carolina had a 24-7 lead with 10:47 left before halftime. Virginia reeled off 21 straight the rest of the quarter to take a 28-24 lead into the locker room. You love to see how the team responded after halftime, but would love to not have to fight back if necessary. Put the game away in the first half.
In the first half, the Tar Heels were 0-2 on third down conversions. The second half? 7-7.
Virginia QB Brennan Armstrong’s 554 passing yards is the highest ever single game total against UNC and the most for Virginia in a single game. The previous record against Carolina was set by Duke’s Dave Brown in 1989. It must feel odd to put up 554 passing yards and lose by 20.
However, part of why Armstrong had as many yards as he did is because Carolina focused on stopping the run. The Cavs finished with a measly 21 total rushing yards. At one point late in the game, Virginia had eight (8!) total rushing yards to Sam Howell’s five touchdown passes. That’s right, Carolina’s QB had just three fewer passing touchdowns than Virginia’s entire team had rushing yards.
Tonight was the first time since 1943 that Carolina hung 50+ points on Virginia. Ending a four-game losing streak to a team in that fashion feels nice.
The Tar Heels pack up and head south to Atlanta next weekend to face a Georgia Tech team that gave Clemson everything it could handle today in South Carolina.

Box Score

Mack Brown postgame press conference

Players postgame press conference

Marcus McKethan

Sam Howell

Josh Downs

Jeremiah Gemmel

Ja'Qurious Conley

Ty Chandler

Remember to check in for Quick Hitters after every North Carolina football game. Next up is a road game against Georgia Tech on Saturday, September 25. Kickoff is at 7:30pm ET on ACC Network.

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