Saturday night’s ACC opener in Chapel Hill against a high-octane North Carolina offense led by quarterback Sam Howell was expected to provide a clearer picture of just how much the Virginia defense had improved from a season ago.
Now the Wahoos have their answer—and it’s one that no one wearing orange and blue was hoping to see.
"This gives us much more clarity,” UVa coach Bronco Mendenhall admitted after a 59-39 loss to the Tar Heels that dropped his team to 2-1 on the season. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
“It’s on the line,” agreed inside linebacker Nick Jackson. “This one hurts. We’ve got to fix it and we’ve gotta attack next week.”
From the Tar Heels’ first possession, which ended with Howell finding a wide open Josh Downs for a 59-yard catch-and-run to open the scoring, UNC spent all night exposing leaks in Virginia’s defense. Carolina finished just 1 yard shy of becoming the first team to break 700 yards of total offense against UVa. Those 59 points were the most given up by the Wahoos since Clemson scored 62 in the 2019 ACC Championship; the last regular-season opponent to post 59 points was also Clemson, in 2013.
Entering Saturday night’s matchup, the biggest play allowed by the Wahoos was a 33-yard touchdown catch by Illinois receiver Deuce Spann last week. UNC had five plays of at least 37 yards on the night, four by halftime. In the first quarter, the Tar Heels put up 21 points on just eight plays and averaged 29.9 yards per snap. They only ran one play on 2nd down in that first quarter, and didn’t run a 3rd-down snap until early in the second quarter. They weren't forced to punt all night.
Carolina had a least one play of 25-plus yards on each of its first five possessions. The Tar Heels finished with eight plays of at least 25 yards on the night—five through the air and three on the ground. Downs finished with 203 yards and a pair of long scores on eight catches. Khafre Brown’s lone catch was a 75-yard score.
“They were dominant physically,” Mendenhall said. “Running the ball, breaking tackles, throwing and catching. Really their execution from beginning to end was superior and took over the game.”
Saturday night marked Howell’s first win in three starts against the Wahoos. He finished with 307 yards and five touchdowns on just 14 completions. The junior quarterback’s career line against the Cavaliers: 1,128 passing yards,13 touchdowns, and just one interception, thrown to Fentrell Cypress in the second quarter on Saturday.
But for the first time, Howell was also a weapon on the ground against UVa. He had rushed for a combined minus-28 yards in the previous two meetings, with a long of 11. Carolina’s first play from scrimmage on Saturday was a 12-yard run from Howell. He finished the night with a career high 112 rushing yards, including five carries of at least a dozen yards.
Howell wasn’t the only 100-yard rusher for the Tar Heels on Saturday. Ty Chandler finished with 198 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries. As a team, UNC finished with 392 yards on the ground, the most allowed by a UVa defense since Navy rumbled for 452 in the 2017 Military Bowl.
“We were off on our fits. We were off on our mindset,” Jackson said. “We’ve got to come down and tackle. We’ve got to come down and make plays. I don’t think we came out and made plays.”
Entering the game, UVa had allowed just 520 yards of total offense in wins against William & Mary and Illinois, including just 210 on the ground. The Tar Heels had surpassed both of those two-game totals by the end of the third quarter.
“I didn’t see anything today that was positive,” said Mendenhall, “from run fits to execution to tackling to mindset. So really just poor execution from beginning to end.”
Carolina last scored 59 points against Virginia in 1936. UNC’s 699 yards of total offense —the most allowed by a Mendenhall team at either UVa or BYU—were sixth-most in school history; the Tar Heels’ 35 first downs were one shy of matching the school record. The win snapped a skid of four straight UNC losses against the Wahoos.
It also marked the first time in Mendenhall’s six seasons that UVa lost its ACC opener. With 3-0 Wake Forest coming to Scott Stadium on Friday night his team has a short week to prepare for its next test in the conference. The Demon Deacons posted season-highs in both passing (259) and rushing (225) yards in Saturday’s 35-14 ACC-opening victory against Florida state.
“There’s no time to feel sorry or do anything other than reflect, learn, recommit and play better. We play Friday night and then we play on a Thursday night,” Mendenhall said. “The clock’s ticking. It’s a fast turnaround.”
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