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Wake (#9 CFP, #5 SOR) at UNC (UNC-2.5) 12:00 noon, ABC

BarcaDeac said:
yeah. not nervous about scoring, just stopping Howell on the ground. he's gonna bust some long runs, has had a few games with over 100 yds on the ground. and nearly the entirety of the national media is waiting to "I told you so" so they can stop talking about us anymore, since all the talk is CFP now.
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Yeah I mean running QBs have tormented us for years. Hopefully our defense is ready to make a statement after basically being called out as a laughingstock in front of the entire CFB world.
 
I think we’ll see a lot more of the RB trio tomorrow because a) I doubt UNC plans to follow the Duke strategy of letting us throw for 50+ yards at a time and b) it would help us bigly to establish control of the game and build some TOP.
 
BarcaDeac said:
yeah. not nervous about scoring, just stopping Howell on the ground. he's gonna bust some long runs, has had a few games with over 100 yds on the ground. and nearly the entirety of the national media is waiting to "I told you so" so they can stop talking about us anymore, since all the talk is CFP now.
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I'm the opposite...very nervous about scoring. We all know our defense is what it is so we need to play better than our last several outings, bend don't break, whatever it is we do. But our defense is what it is. Our offense on the other hand has had to play absolutely lights out to win several of our games this year. Our offense having a bad day is way more dangerous at this point. A bad turnover, a couple of dud drives and we're playing from behind on the road. Yeah I'm nervous.
 
Turd Ferguson said:
I'm the opposite...very nervous about scoring. We all know our defense is what it is so we need to play better than our last several outings, bend don't break, whatever it is we do. But our defense is what it is. Our offense on the other hand has had to play absolutely lights out to win several of our games this year. Our offense having a bad day is way more dangerous at this point. A bad turnover, a couple of dud drives and we're playing from behind on the road. Yeah I'm nervous.
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I agree with your general premise re: the offense needing to maximize opportunities and probably even more so tomorrow given UNC’s potential for explosive plays. Hoping the staff has been developing a few wrinkles (NOT the wildcat obviously) that we can break out as needed for the stretch run.
 
BarcaDeac said:
what was the deal with the UNC offense in the VA Tech game?
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First game of the year, didn't have a handle on which skill players could be trusted. Also think they made Howell more of a running threat after that game.

(has been my understanding)
 
JuiceCrewAllStar said:
mobile QBs are hard for us because our LBs are too slow to spy
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from what little i saw from ND, howells abilitt as a runner is more about strength and breaking arm tackles. that said i have no doubt our guys will be chasing him futilely from behind on numerous occasions. silver lining is that i think i’ve noticed that less from smenda this year than previous years. although dj taylor has filled in admirably in that regard.
 
IAppreciateIt said:
from what little i saw from ND, howells abilitt as a runner is more about strength and breaking arm tackles. that said i have no doubt our guys will be chasing him futilely from behind on numerous occasions. silver lining is that i think i’ve noticed that less from smenda this year than previous years. although dj taylor has filled in admirably in that regard.
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Yeah this is the admittedly modest silver lining. He’s not an explosive runner like Cunningham who is likely to test the edges of the defense. As you say, we will undoubtedly still be chasing him a few times tomorrow. Tackling will be at an absolute premium.
 
WRS said:
Yeah this is the admittedly modest silver lining. He’s not an explosive runner like Cunningham who is likely to test the edges of the defense. As you say, we will undoubtedly still be chasing him a few times tomorrow. Tackling will be at an absolute premium.
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Schraeder(sp?) wasn't either but he gashed us all day
 
Blitz up the middle and make sure our DEs keep outside contain. Also, don't remember seeing our DEs/DTs twist much at all this year, but I'd love to see some of that to confuse an already underperforming UNC OL and get pressure in Howell's face.
 
I am really only worried about two things...1) Howell running on third and long with us rushing three and dropping the LBs and 2) our D-line getting pressure on Howell. If we contain the run and get any pressure on Howell, I think the Deacs are going to have success.
 
We need to come out firing early on all cylinders.

Get them down, then when it starts raining (?) in the 3rd/4th quarter the stands will empty - Game Over.

Go Deacs!
 
BarcaDeac said:
what was the deal with the UNC offense in the VA Tech game?
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Howell had a terrible game - 3 INTS, 17/32 for only 208. 13 rushes for 35 yards.

VT had 6 sacks. Howell was under pressure, a lot. He scrambled around a ton, without much success.

Even with all that, NC out-gained them overall and on the ground (not sure why they went away from running the ball). Downs had a really slow first half, then a big second half. He housed a screen from like 30ish yards out that was just easy.

Some big sacks and TFL opportunities to be had for the Deacon defense.
 
PaddyWF said:
Howell had a terrible game - 3 INTS, 17/32 for only 208. 13 rushes for 35 yards.

VT had 6 sacks. Howell was under pressure, a lot. He scrambled around a ton, without much success.

Even with all that, NC out-gained them overall and on the ground (not sure why they went away from running the ball). Downs had a really slow first half, then a big second half. He housed a screen from like 30ish yards out that was just easy.

Some big sacks and TFL opportunities to be had for the Deacon defense.
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This. Howell is not good at handling pressure, thus his instinct to tuck the ball and run (which he does well). If we don't tackle well and let him escape the pocket, it's going to be a long and stressful game.
 
In UNC's 4 losses, Howell has 5 INTs and 5 fumbles of which the defense recovered 3 - so 8 total turnovers, 2 per game

In UNC's 3 ACC wins, Howell has 2 INTs and 0 fumbles
 
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