North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Bill Belichick gave his thoughts on the team's big win in Week 2.
Despite an ongoing investigation into the football program, the North Carolina Tar Heels were able to come away with a massive win in Week 2 against East Tennessee State.
North Carolina jumped out to a 35-0 lead before surrendering a point, showing pure dominance on the field. All week, the Tar Heels talked about how they didn't want this investigation to get in the way of gameday prep, and so far, it has worked.
But the investigation isn't going away, with the team's general manager, Michael Lombardi, resigning from his position. This has become a massive storyline around the team, but the players were able to quiet the noise on the field.
At least for now, the Tar Heels were able to silence any doubters, with head coach Bill Belichick fired up after the win.
“Solid effort by our guys. We were able to convert our opportunities into touchdowns and made a couple stops on defense. They kept the points down, so ultimately that was a big difference in the game. Running backs had good production. I thought Billy made some good checks at the line of scrimmage on some of the tough looks that ETSU gave us. But that’s a good football team," Belichick said
Belichick's first season with the Tar Heels didn't go as planned, with the team going 4-8 overall. But there was some optimism entering this year, especially coming from the defensive side of the ball.
It was an all-around solid game for the Tar Heels, with the defense also stepping up. On the year, North Carolina has only allowed 13 total points in two games.
The defense allowed 255 yards of total offense in this contest, with only 77 coming on the ground. The Tar Heels recorded four sacks, showing an ability to get into the backfield to disrupt the offense.
Belichick was happy to see his team put together a well-rounded game, praising the unit.
“Players playing good team defense is where it starts. You can’t give up big plays. When you give up long touchdown passes, you don’t have a chance to stop them in the red area," Belichick said. "So if we don’t give up big plays and make them drive it, hopefully we can make plays somewhere along the way to knock them off, get behind the chains, get them in long yardage, and then make a stop or make a good play on third down to get off the field.”
Next up for this team is the Clemson Tigers on the road, giving the Tar Heels a chance to earn its first win in ACC play. Clemson has seen its own share of problems to start the season, but North Carolina can't take them for granted entering the game.
