Poor Third-Down Coverage Plagues UNC

But the North Carolina secondary that held Roethlisberger in check is hardly pleased with its performance.

"I think we could do better than what we did," said cornerback Kevin Knight. "We gave up too many third downs. We're definitely not satisfied with our performance."

Lax coverage was largely responsible for Miami's success on third downs, particularly in the first half. The RedHawks converted 6 of 12 third downs in the first half, and five of those conversions came through the air.

Roethlisberger mostly avoided throwing toward senior CB Michael Waddell, preferring to pick apart the softer coverage of Knight and Derrick Johnson.

"I guess in this game I just wanted to press a lot," Waddell said. "I was suspecting three-step routes and just trying to be on point."

Knight and Johnson were more conservative, especially in the first half, and got burned on several quick outs and slants.

"The first half, I was playing more cautious to the weather, and they ran a lot of short routes," Johnson said. "Coach asked us, 'Can we press 'em up?' And I said, 'Yeah, we can do it.'"

One aggressive play by Knight resulted in the RedHawks' first touchdown. On a third-and-eight at the UNC 37-yard line, Knight went for an interception on a pass intended for Matt Brandt. The pass found its mark, and Brandt rumbled untouched to UNC's 1. Luke Clemens scored on the next play.

"On that third down, I bit on the out, which I shouldn't do when I'm in single coverage," Knight said. "That was just my mistake, not being smart out there."

With more experience, Knight and Johnson should realize that they are fast enough to press receivers to prevent short completions, and still recover on long routes. Waddell executed this scheme to perfection Saturday.

And the other corners improved in the second half. They held Roethlisberger to just 76 second-half yards and limited the RedHawks to three third-down conversions. Increased safety help down the stretch facilitated their more aggressive coverage.

"In the second half I just figured they couldn't run with me, so I just went ahead and pressed," Johnson said. "Sometimes we were gambling on a lot of things that we probably shouldn't have been gambling on, but overall we didn't give up a lot of big plays, so I'd say (the secondary's performance) was probably average."

Seawright to Move Across Line

Saturday's season-ending knee injury to senior defensive tackle Eric Davis has forced UNC coach John Bunting to come up with creative alternatives.

Junior Donti Coats will start and see most of the playing time in Davis' place. But Bunting also said that offensive tackle Jonas Seawright will be moved back to nose tackle, his former position. Both Seawright and Darryl Grant will see snaps against Syracuse this week.

"I think (moving Seawright) should help us now and perhaps down the road," Bunting said. "I think it's a more natural position for him."

The Sports Editor can be reached at sports@unc.edu.