Despite a valiant offensive effort, the Tar Heels crumbled as the Fighting Irish exploited a porous interior, leaving the legendary coach searching for answers ahead of Pitt.
All week, the talking point for North Carolina was that they had a chance to upset No. 3 Notre Dame if they clamped down on the Fighting Irish's rushing attack and made their offense one-dimensional.
Notre Dame entered the game with just 567 rushing yards through its first four games, averaging just 4.1 yards per rush.
On Saturday, UNC head coach Bill Belichick's defense gave up 241 yards rushing and a score to the Irish on 45 carries. ND played complementary football, with quarterback CJ Carr throwing for 234 yards and four scores in rainy conditions.
Despite North Carolina making a few runs of their own on offense and special teams, the defense didn't do enough in a 37-26 loss to Notre Dame in front of 50,500 fans at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill.
During his postgame news conference, Belichick noted his frustration with his defense. He wasn't happy with the way the Tar Heels allowed the Irish to pound their rushing attack on the interior.
“We’ve got to obviously coach it better, play it better," Belichick said, via On3.
While the Irish had a hard time running the ball early in September, Notre Dame has made progress in their last three games. The Irish rushed for 161 yards on Michigan State and 177 yards on Purdue. North Carolina allowed the Irish to have a breakout game.
The run defense has been concerning for North Carolina in its last two games. The Tar Heels surrendered 186 yards and two scores in a 28-20 loss to Clemson.
UNC did a lot of things well against the No. 3 team in the country. Still, the Tar Heels didn't hire Belichick for style points in less.
Big picture for UNC after losing to Notre Dame
North Carolina started the season 2-0 before taking a 17-0 lead on Clemson. After a second-half collapse against the Tigers, UNC now had a 2-2 record.
Before the season, a 2-2 record at this point was pretty much expected depending on predictions for the TCU game.
Belichick and the Tar Heels will be facing serious pressure to win games in the next few weeks, and the schedule won't be easy. UNC will next travel to play a 5-0 Pittsburgh team that upset Virginia Tech on Friday night via a controversial field goal, though they lost starting quarterback Mason Heintschel for the season in the process.
Then, UNC will travel to play 4-0 Duke on Oct. 17.
