Sept. 19, 2005

By Lee Pace

John Bunting perused the play-by-play account Sunday afternoon from the statistics booklet published shortly after the Tar Heels' 14-5 loss to Wisconsin the night before. He ran his finger down the pages, looking for Carolina's offensive standing on second downs throughout the long, steamy evening in Kenan Stadium.

"Second and 10.

"Second and 12.

"Second and seven.

"Second and 14.

"Second and 12.

"Second and seven.

"Second and 14."

He pauses and looks up.

"The beat goes on," he says, then goes back to the play-by-play.

"Second and nine.

"Second and 15.

"Second and 10."

"First and 25. We go 22 yards on a screen pass. Oops - holding away from the play.

"First and 35.

"Second and 30.

"Third and 31."

That's enough. Point made.

"One thing we have got to get much, much better at on offense is first down," Bunting says. "We had a tough time with it in the third quarter last week at Georgia Tech. We had a very difficult night with it last night. Until that gets fixed, we're going to struggle. It's just too hard to play with second and long. We're never getting into third and shorts."

The 2005 season is two games old, and the Tar Heels' script is 180 degrees in contrast from the last several years. A porous defense and prolific offense have done about-faces. The Tar Heel defense is looking stout, aggressive, confident and athletic. We're not talking the Purple People Eaters or Steel Curtain here, of course, but we're looking at significant improvement with more to come given the over-weighting in sophomores across the depth chart. Carolina limited Georgia Tech to 3.7 yards rushing and Wisconsin to 3.2. Meanwhile, the offense is sucking wind as it tries to generate a running game and land forward passes safety into the hands of its receivers.

How nice would it be to put the offense from 2003-04 with the defense that is growing and maturing before our eyes in 2005?

"The defense played great, hats off to them," a bruised and battered Matt Baker said Saturday night. "We apologized to them. We didn't make any plays on offense - again. The defense played unbelievable. I'm proud of them with what they've been through the last few years to play like that. Wisconsin's averaging 65 points a game, and they held them to 14. They should have held them to less if the offense had held on to the ball more and scored some points."

Championship baseball teams are strong up the middle - behind the plate, on the mound, at second base and shortstop, and in center field. A corollary can be drawn this football season as the Tar Heel's offensive anatomy has been gutted down the core. Center Jason Brown, QB Darian Durant, fullback Madison Hedgecock and three tailbacks are all missing, each because of graduation with the exception of tailback Ronnie McGill, who's out until at least mid-season with an injury. Each replacement has some ability. It's just taking a while for the unit to coalesce, and a spate of mental errors is affecting the offense's development as much as physical ability.

Saturday against Wisconsin, a nice gain by tight end Jon Hamlett was wiped out when a receiver "covered" him -- that is, lined up on the line of scrimmage to Hamlett's side. The receiver should have lined up in the backfield so that Hamlett could be an eligible receiver. Another flag resulted from three receivers to one side all lining up in the backfield, when one should have been on the line of scrimmage. Twice in the shotgun formation, tailbacks set themselves on the wrong side and were not in position to effectively protect the quarterback. On three occasions, Baker should have recognized Wisconsin's defensive set sooner and fired a pass before being hurried.

And on Carolina's final drive of the game, a march consisting of nine snaps, the Tar Heels committed six mental errors.

"Some of this is nonsense," Bunting says. "It's inexcusable. It's Pop Warner stuff."

Silliest of all was a delay-of-game penalty when Connor Barth attempted a 52-yard field goal early in the second quarter. Neither Barth nor holder Andrew Wasserman were paying attention to the play clock. It ran out before the ball was snapped, and given that Carolina was headed into the wind, Bunting called the field-goal team off and sent punter David Wooldridge onto the field.

Though running backs coach Andre Powell is the special-teams coordinator this season, each coach on the staff has some responsibility with the kicking game. Bunting has taken the role of "position coach" with the specialists, running the film study and meetings with the kickers and snappers. At his weekly press conference last Tuesday, Bunting joked that hanging around the eclectic personality of the kickers might increase his goofiness quotient. But he wasn't laughing on Sunday.

"Having time expire was unacceptable," he says. "I'll take credit for that, for not having our holder and kicker more aware the clock is running. They thought they had all day out there, like it was practice."

The Tar Heel offense will have to make significant physical and mental improvement this week as it faces a difficult test Saturday in Raleigh. N.C. State is seventh nationally in total defense, allowing an average of 230 yards in each of two games. The Tar Heels are No. 80 in offense with 340 yards in two games. The Heels could eek out only 57 yards rushing in 25 carries against the Badgers. In two games, Carolina is gaining a paltry 3.1 yards a run.

"We have yet to be able to run the football effectively," Bunting says. "That's been a trademark for most of the last two years. I don't see it being all that different in terms of our offensive line. We've got to get to the bottom of that.

"Sometimes things get straightened out quickly, when you operate as proscribed with your first and second-down packages. If we get those things straight and stay away from some foolish penalties, we can be effective."

The receivers, considered one of the team's strengths, struggled as a group again Saturday, dropping several passes that could have resulted in touchdowns or crucial first downs.

"I wish I had a better handle on that problem," Bunting says. "All I'm going to say is it's going to get a lot of (receivers coach) Dave Brock's attention, (coordinator) Gary Tranquill's attention, and my attention. What they're giving us is not good enough. They know it. They've got to make plays. I've been thinking we have an elite group in the ACC, but we're not making enough plays."

Baker gets a passing grade for his throwing ability through two games. Bunting said he was disappointed in only one throw Baker launched on Saturday. But the staff wants him to manage the offense better, get players in the right places and release passes sooner. And Baker gets sterling marks for his courage and willingness to take the kinds of heat that comes only with the quarterback position - from the viscous pass rush from opposing defenses to the expectations from fans and the press.

"It starts with me," Baker says. "I've got to be able to run the game better, make better decisions and the proper calls and get people lined up in the right place. Part of that is them, part of it is me. I'll take majority of heat for it."

Baker's ribs were severely bruised in the third quarter, forcing him breathless to the ground for a couple of minutes and to the bench for one play. His ankle was battered on the Heels' last drive of the game, leaving him hobbled and barely able to walk when he launched a final fourth-down throw that fell incomplete.

"The fourth quarter, I didn't feel too good," Baker said softy after the game. "I couldn't yell too loud without putting pressure on my ribs. But that's football. You've got to go out and play. There's no excuse for anything that happens. If you've got sore ribs, you've just got to play through it. It's just pain. It's just football."

Bunting said Sunday that the sore ribs are part of playing quarterback and he expects Baker to be ready to go Monday night when the Tar Heels being preparations for Saturday's noon kick-off in Raleigh.

"He's a tough kid," Bunting says. "Certainly if you've ever had bruised ribs before, you know it's a painful injury. But it's something you can play with. He may never have experienced before, but every quarterback does sooner or later. There's no doubt in my mind he'll be ready to play and practice this week and will be ready for State."

Meanwhile, the Tar Heel defense will continue to build on some early successes. It improved in third-down defense against Wisconsin, limiting the Badgers to six-of-17 conversions. Carolina had four sacks and one QB hurry. Two consecutive three-and-out defensive stands midway through the second half had Kenan Stadium rocking. The challenge this week will be to groom Victor Worsley as the starting middle linebacker and Durell Mapp as the backup given the season-ending injury to senior Doug Justice.

"It was good to see our defense play better," Bunting says, "but I think we can still play better than that, a lot better than that."

Send your questions about Tar Heel football to Lee Pace at leepace@nc.rr.com. Please include your first and last names and hometown. Individual replies are not possible because of volume of mail received, and names of recruiting prospects and commitments cannot be published on a school-sponsored site until the national signing day in February . The Q&A column will appear each Friday during the season.