UNC Football: TCU’s Defensive Line Got the Attention. The Tar Heels’ Front Stole the Show.
Coming into Saturday’s season opener, much of the attention surrounding the matchup between North Carolina and TCU centered on the Horned Frogs’ defensive line. After all, TCU had plenty of experience and talent up front, and there were legitimate questions about whether North Carolina’s offensive line could hold up against one of the better defensive fronts it would see this season.
By the end of the afternoon, however, it was the Tar Heels’ defensive front that had stolen the show.
Leroy Jackson and Xavier Lewis turned in two of the most impressive interior defensive line performances we have seen at North Carolina in quite some time, perhaps dating back to the Butch Davis era. The two combined for 14 tackles, but their impact went well beyond the stat sheet.
For much of the final three quarters, Jackson and Lewis helped keep Derek McDonald clean on the back end of the defense. That matters. McDonald finished the game with eleven tackles, but his ability to play downhill and make plays was aided by the work happening in front of him. The interior of the defensive line consistently occupied blockers, disrupted TCU's running game and created opportunities for the linebackers to make plays.
And it wasn't just Jackson and Lewis.
Melkart Abou-Jaoude added four tackles and a strip sack, while transfer Jaylen Harvey recorded five tackles in his first game wearing Carolina blue. When you add those performances to the production from Jackson and Lewis, it becomes difficult to look at Saturday's game and come away with any conclusion other than this: North Carolina's front seven was the difference.
The numbers tell the story.
UNC's front seven accounted for 49 tackles against TCU, compared with just 20 credited to the secondary. Even more telling, the safeties were the primary tacklers within that secondary group.
That doesn't mean the secondary played poorly. When your defensive line and linebackers are making 47 tackles, it means the defense is allowing the players closest to the line of scrimmage to make plays rather than asking the secondary to constantly clean up mistakes.
That's a significant distinction because Tar Heel fans have seen safeties having to clean up a many a mess that did not always turn out in their favor.
One of the biggest concerns coming into this season was whether North Carolina’s transfers would make a difference and was the interior line as good as the coaching staff felt about that position.. Saturday provided an early answer, and it started in the middle.
TCU managed only 106 rushing yards, and after scoring 10 points in the first quarter, the Horned Frogs were held scoreless for the final three quarters. Jeremy Payne had a 142 yards on 26 carries; however, 48 of those yards came on a big run early in the game. Taking that run out of the equation and the Tar Heels limited a future NFL running back to less that 4.00 yards per carry.
The Tar Heel defensive line made TCU earn virtually every yard after the opening quarter. Jackson and Lewis controlled the interior. Abou-Jaoude provided a game-changing play with his strip sack. Harvey showed that the transfer portal addition can make an immediate impact. And McDonald was able to spend much of the afternoon doing what linebackers are supposed to do. Go find the football and make tackles.
That's a pretty good formula.
And perhaps the most encouraging part is that this wasn't supposed to be the matchup where North Carolina's defensive front stole the headlines. TCU's defensive line entered the game with the attention.
North Carolina's left Dublin with it.
For a program that has spent far too much time in recent years talking about what went wrong defensively, this was a different kind of conversation. The Tar Heels didn't need the secondary to make a dozen spectacular plays. They didn't need turnovers every other possession. They didn't need the offense to score 30 points.
They needed the guys up front to win. They did.
And if Jackson, Lewis, Abou-Jaoude and Harvey can continue to play at this level, North Carolina may have discovered something much more important in Dublin than simply a season-opening victory.
It may have discovered the foundation of its defense.
