North Carolina’s football team had been hurt by injuries both before and after its 21-17 win over Pittsburgh on Saturday at Acrisure Stadium, and the latest significant one had Tar Heels coach Bill Belichick fired up postgame. Because in his opinion, it could have been prevented.
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In real time, the “unfortunate” situation that forced Kaleb Cost out of the game at the 11:19 mark of the first quarter looked to be just that: unfortunate. Cost was among a host of UNC defenders in the area contesting an overthrown ball from Pittsburgh starter Holden Geriner in the back-right corner of the end zone. Cost was running in a dead sprint right out of the back of the end zone, so the depth of the play didn’t allow him enough time to stop his momentum.
He tripped over one of the photographers seated around five feet past the end line and tumbled into a lightly-padded concrete wall, seeming to strike first with his lower body against the padding.
“You got all the cameramen sitting down there on the field, and he gets hurt running over them,” Belichick said postgame. “I don’t know why we can’t get (the photographers) someplace where they’re out of the way, so they have more player safety out there on the field.”
Regardless, it was an ugly scene. Down in pain, Cost removed his helmet and tossed it over the short wall, and it looked to strike some fans in the vicinity. Pittsburgh’s medical staff walked Cost off the field. Security and medical personnel came down to the seats behind the wall where Cost got hurt. It was the latest in what’s been a tough stretch from an injury perspective defensively for the Tar Heels. They were already without interior defensive lineman Isaiah Johnson and edge rusher Jaylen Harvey in the game. Now they had an injury in the secondary.
Belichick, when asked about the impact of Johnson’s injury on Monday, said he’ll be hard to replace. And even with all the injuries and some early struggles, UNC’s defense eventually settled in. Pittsburgh scored twice on its first three drives and just once over the next nine drives. North Carolina intercepted two passes and turned Pitt over on downs three drives in a row to end the game, showing a resolve that wasn’t present in a collapse to Clemson: When UNC’s offense finally gave it a lead, the defense mostly held firm.
It truly was a mismatch of experience levels that had to band together for the effort. North Carolina played 24 players on the defensive side, per PFF. The Tar Heels were on the field for 86 defensive plays, with defensive backs Peyton Waters and Jaiden Patterson the only two playing all of them. Freshman Nicco Maggio, who filled a large role with Johnson’s injury, played a season high 42 snaps per PFF. Defensive back Tre Miller was the highest-graded player on the defense, getting a 91.0 coverage grade, per PFF, in 53 snaps — but even he went down with an injury after returning a pass he intercepted in the third quarter.
The defensive backfield was all mixed up as a result: Ade Willie had played nine snaps before Saturday, but played 60 against Pitt filling in for Cost in the nickel; junior cornerback Jalon Thompson played 21 snaps, which was a season high; and Khristian Dunbar-Hawkins played his first three snaps since the East Tennessee State game in week two.
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Freshman Kenton Dopson III, who played 20 snaps coming off a solid performance against Notre Dame, seemed to be the one picked on the most. Per PFF, he was targeted six times and allowed five catches for 76 yards. Some of the completions were indicative of how the UNC defense was playing early in the contest.
The Tar Heels had the Panthers pinned deep on their second drive, a third-and-8. But Dopson lined up deep in coverage and was around 5 yards past the boundary when Pitt wide receiver Catarus Hicks made the cut on his route, leading to an easy pitch-and-catch for an 8-yard completion and first down. Defensive lineman Xavier Lewis said the Tar Heels didn’t want to do anything “crazy” in terms of changing the looks. They just made Geriner a little less comfortable.
“Just being more free (with our rushes),” Lewis said.
Seeming at one point as a weakness, UNC’s defense suddenly looked like it wouldn’t break. It nabbed two interceptions in the third quarter and started to take control of the game, despite the Tar Heels offense not necessarily making it easy. North Carolina’s two go-ahead scoring drives in a row between the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth quarter lasted just 4 minutes, 24 seconds. The eventual game-winning drive took one play and 11 seconds — a 75-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. to tight end Shamar Easter.
But Lewis said the defense is always ready for a “quick change,” and he trusted the depth it had if anyone was tired, no matter the injuries. The Tar Heels managed a fourth-down stop the next Pitt possession. With 4:14 left in the game, UNC would still need its defense twice more.
But Pitt seemed to have no answer for it at that point.
The Tar Heels forced another fourth down on the next Pitt drive — still just a touchdown away from a win at home. But with just under two minutes left in the game, defensive lineman Melkart Abou Jaoude was unblocked on the left edge. He shot toward Pitt running back La’Vell Wright, spun him down short of the line to gain.
The ball was punched out by Derek McDonald, and Wright was later ruled down. But North Carolina got to milk it anyway. Thompson scooped the ball and ran it all the way back. It was the last drive Pitt gave itself a chance, as a listless three-and-out ended the game when North Carolina’s offense stalled. So whether it counted or not, the junior defensive back who played most of his season’s snaps on Saturday, Thompson, had the game’s last big moment, and that was indicative of the way the game went for the Tar Heels:
They were stretched deep into their defensive rotation, but they still closed.
“Don’t care what the time of possession is, or how many sacks you get, or how many whatever else you have — if you’re giving up a lot of points, then you’re probably not playing very good defense,” Belichick said. “So that’s why they keep score.”
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