North Carolina’s offense poses a legitimate threat to the fate of Notre Dame’s season. As we learned early in the first quarter, you need to make the Tar Heels drive further than midfield if you’re going to win. But even doing that might not be enough. At least the Irish find themselves in a 14-all tie.
Notre Dame got the ball first and went three and out. After Ian Book was sacked by Chazz Surratt on third down, Jay Bramblett was forced to punt in the Irish’s end zone and only could get the ball to the 50-yard line. Led by Sam Howell, the Tar Heels advanced in Irish territory with relative ease. The drive ended when Emery Simmons caught a 50-50 ball for the game’s first touchdown.
Fortunately, the Irish have a strong ground game, and they decided to unleash it on their second drive. Most of the time, Kyren Williams’ number was called, and there also were some nice runs from Book and Chris Tyree. Still, it only made sense for Williams to tie the game on a 2-yard run.
None of that mattered to the Tar Heels because they went right back to work. Even when a holding call in shallow Irish territory appeared to set them back, Howell immediately overcame that with a 51-yard pass to Dyami Brown that got the ball to the 1-yard line. Howell then took the ball in for a 1-yard touchdown run.
Book had something to say about that, though. He found Javon McKinley for a 43-yard reception and then ran the ball himself for 33 yards. He handed the ball off to Williams, then passed to him. The result was a 4-yard touchdown reception that put the score where it is.