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The Daily Tar Heel

Defense makes needed stops

Butch Davis woke up Saturday morning more nervous than normal.

Even with the extra week to prepare for Georgia Tech's triple option, North Carolina's football coach wondered if the team was ready for such an unconventional attack.

This is the first time our football team has played an offense like Georgia Tech"" Davis said.

Before the game … there's an awful lot of anxiety with the coaching staff and probably with the players.""

But the defense silenced any worries right away by dominating the first series en route to a near perfect performance against the Yellow Jackets in UNC's 28-7 win.

Ga. Tech running back Roddy Jones took a pitch toward the right edge" but before he could build any steam UNC linebacker Bruce Carter tackled him behind the line of scrimmage for a 2-yard loss.

Two plays later" Quan Sturdivant shut down quarterback Josh Nesbitt on the option to force a three-and-out.

With that the Tar Heels proved they had what it took to stop the Yellow Jackets — something that wasn't lost on the unit after the game.

""That was a big statement"" defensive end E.J. Wilson said.

That really got a lot of steam behind us. It gave us a lot of momentum. It gave us a lot of confidence going through the rest of the game.""

As was the case during the first few plays" the linebackers keyed everything North Carolina wanted to do defensively.

Carter and Sturdivant utilized their superior speed to get around the edge which prevented backs from breaking outside runs. Mark Paschal negated any damage Ga. Tech could muster up the middle.

UNC's ability to contain forced the Yellow Jackets to scratch and claw for anything on offense.

A 4-yard run here a 3-yard scramble there. By taking the big play away North Carolina made it clear that if Ga. Tech was going to score" it would happen slowly.

""That's the whole key whenever you play the triple option is not give up a big play"" said Paschal, who led the team with 10 tackles and recovered a fumble.

They're not going to beat you going down the field four" five six" four — it's just not the way offenses are built to run.""

In order to force Ga. Tech into that type of methodical attack"" all 11 defenders had to remain mentally involved on each play. Davis said the theme this week was ""disciplined" assignment football" and that's exactly how UNC played.

The defensive line stayed at home and didn't chase after any backs. The linebackers weren't fooled by any of Ga. Tech's movement.

The secondary made sure it didn't get burned if the Yellow Jackets elected to pass — and Trimane Goddard even managed an interception on one of Nesbitt's few passes in the fourth quarter. Each player did his part.

And aside from Dwyer's inconsequential 85-yard touchdown run late in the game, discipline was the key to UNC's 54 minutes of shut-out football.

If I didn't play disciplined" then it was going to affect the linebackers Wilson said.

And if the linebacker gets blocked or gets cut it's going to affect the secondary. It's only going to be a domino effect" and it could land into a disaster.""



Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.


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