Quick shots – North Carolina v Virginia

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Strong points:

Condensed game:

Carolina breaks a four-year losing streak against Virginia in a game with 1,273 total attacking yards. The Tar Heels finally salted the game in the second half, scoring a touchdown on all five possessions after halftime.
Interesting little tidbit, for those who haven’t caught it yet: Carolina vs. Virginia is the second most contested rivalry among all FBS schools. Today was 126^e Meet. Only Minnesota and Wisconsin have played more (129 times).
The Tar Heels caught fire. Their first eight offensive plays included one incompletion, seven plays over 10 yards and three touchdowns. In the first quarter, Carolina had the ball for 2:41 and scored 21 points. What about Sam Howell’s QB rating this quarter? A ridiculous 583.8. The first eight offensive games, in order:

After the season opener loss to Virginia Tech, many pundits have declared Sam Heisman’s campaign over. I would kindly say to these people: No.
UNC desperately needs to get the racing game out of Sam Howell. It happened tonight as Ty Chandler had a night of 20 carries, 198 yards and two touchdowns. Freshman Caleb Hood contributed 66 yards and one touchdown on nine carries. If the Tar Heels can keep that kind of production going to complement Howell’s passing game and run, they’ll be in business. Well done to the makeshift offensive line, which led the way all night.

Speaking of Howell as part of the running game, get used to it. As coach Mack Brown said after the game, “Sam is going to be a part of our running game. These are facts. Howell finished with 112 yards on 15 carries. This is a career high in both range and rushing yards. He has double-digit rushing attempts in all three games this season, and now back-to-back games with over 100 rushing yards and over 300 passing yards.
Just like rushed play needs help outside of Sam Howell, passing play needs help outside of Josh Downs. Downs did his part tonight with eight receptions for 203 yards and two touchdowns, including an incredible dip into the corner of the end zone. Tight end Garrett Walston was the only other player with multiple receptions (three for 15 and one touchdown). Khafre Brown, Antoine Green and Kamari Morales each added a catch (including two for touchdowns). The Downs dive take starts at 0:16 of this video:

And by the way, a last minute update: Josh Downs and Khafre Brown are very, very fast. We are now returning you to your regular schedule. Here is the proof :

Jonathan Kim continues to do his kickoff thing. He came into the night with a perfect 12 for 12 on touchbacks. He was 10 for 10 tonight, bringing his total to 22 touchbacks on 22 kickoffs.
Carolina only had one sack in each of the first two games, but collected three tonight – two for Kaimon Rucker, one for Tomon Fox. The defense also made a fumble (in the red zone, forced by Chris Collins, recovered by Des Evans) and an interception by Ja’Qurious Conley.
Conley’s interception at the end of the third quarter was of the “incredibly athletic” type. He basically jumped over the receiver and the defensive back, grabbed the ball and put his foot down, thrown and everything, before landing out of bounds.
Sam Howell has feasted on Virginia in his three career games against the Cavs.

Carolina had a 24-7 lead with 10:47 left before halftime. Virginia had 21 straight points the rest of the quarter to take a 28-24 lead in the locker room. You like to see how the team reacted after half-time, but you wish you didn’t have to fight back if necessary. Put the game aside 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 are the highest ever against UNC and the highest for Virginia in a single game. The previous record against Carolina was set by Dave Brown of Duke in 1989. It must seem strange to accumulate 554 passing yards and lose by 20.
However, part of the reason Armstrong had as many yards as he was because Carolina focused on stopping the run. The Cavs finished with a meager 21 rushing yards overall. At one point late in the game, Virginia had eight (8!) Total rushing yards for Sam Howell’s five touchdown passes. That’s right, the Carolina QB had just three less passing touchdowns than the entire Virginia team had rushing yards.
Tonight was the first time since 1943 that Carolina had hung over 50 points in Virginia. Ending a four-game losing streak against a team in this way is nice.
The Tar Heels pack their bags and head south to Atlanta next weekend to take on a team from Georgia Tech who gave Clemson all he could handle today. in Caroline from the south.

The score of the box