Canes’ resilient defense stands firm in fourth
After a 20-day layoff because of a COVID-19 outbreak, the Hurricanes, No. 10 in the College Football
Playoff rankings, resume pursuit of a New Year’s Six bowl on Saturday.
It was a longstanding tradition of the great Hurricanes teams of the past.
When the fourth quarter came, players’ four fingers shot up in the air, a beacon of pride and warning: Don’t mess with us because this is our quarter. Fans did it, too.
The past six games, the No. 10 Hurricanes (7-1, 6-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) have allowed a combined 17 points in the fourth quarter — zero for Virginia Tech, three for North Carolina State, seven for Virginia, zero for Pittsburgh, seven for Clemson and zero for Florida State.
The late-game defense in the past two games in particular has been outstanding, with the Canes holding the Hokies scoreless the last six minutes of the third quarter and all of the
fourth; and holding N.C. State the week before with a field goal in the first five seconds of the final quarter.
“Our guys have an understanding that we can dominate the fourth quarter and that if we get into a close game we can beat anybody in the last
15 minutes because of our tempo and ability to wear people down [with] our conditioning level,” UM coach Manny Diaz told WQAM recently. “We just do what we do.”
RELENTLESS
The Canes, who have been hit with a COVID-19 outbreak and hope to meet Wake Forest (4-3, 3-3) on Thursday in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, ended their last game Nov. 14 at Virginia Tech with six sacks, 11 tackles for loss and an interception.
Defensive end Jaelan Phillips (eight tackles, 2 1⁄
2
sacks, 41⁄ tackles for loss)
2
was pretty much unstoppable, with striker Gilbert Frierson (eight tackles, two sacks, two tackles for loss), cornerback Te’Cory Couch (five tackles, an interception and part of a sack and tackle for loss), tackle Jonathan Ford, linebacker Sam Brooks and many others standing out.
Diaz was understandably pumped, especially considering that 13 Hurricanes were out for the game. One was a starting defensive lineman, another was a starting linebacker and others included rotational defensive players.
Diaz, now recuperating from the coronavirus as well, was asked how the Hurricanes could translate the late-game trend to the first half as well.
“Look at it like this way,” the coach replied, “it would be fun to just beat everybody up early in the game, right? That’s kind of hard. No one blows everybody out every week. That makes you elite, which we’re not obviously there yet. We recognize that. We’re working our way to that. There’s a whole ’nother level we can get to.
“But what our offense has done and our defense along with it, really the way our program has changed is we’re just going to go really fast and we’re going to [go] fast for four quarters. And you will try to keep up, and maybe you will and maybe you won’t. And sooner or later what happens is the other guy just loses his will. I thought Virginia Tech played hard for four quarters. We just did a better job of executing in the fourth than they did.
“Yeah, it would be great to say, ‘Why don’t we just go score 20 points in the fourth quarter?’ But it’s not like Xbox on easy mode. The other guys are trying too. But the idea of being relentless and staying after it and not blinking when you face some adversity, that’s the cool part. You get a little backbone about you and then you recognize that this tempo, it’s death by a bunch of body blows.”
QUARTER BY QUARTER
This season, the Hurricanes have allowed 31 points in the fourth quarter — with 48, 40 and 79 points allowed in each of the first three quarters. The Canes are fourth of 15 teams in the ACC in scoring defense, allowing 24.8 points a game.
Offensively, they’ve produced the least in the fourth quarter, though quarterback D’Eriq King and a rejuvenated receiving corps have won the game in the final quarter the past two weeks. UM has scored 59 points in the final quarter, with 66, 74 and 67
scored in the first three.
“When I went back and watched the film,” Diaz said, “even when we weren’t doing things well on our offense there were still some body blows being delivered, some short runs, just snapping the ball. We’ve had really long drives on offense over the last three weeks, like 85-yard drives, multiple 80-yard drives each game and those things take their toll and they wear down a defense.”
Defensive coordinator Blake Baker said his players “are getting better and better every week” and that each game “has been a little bit different.”
“... At the end of the day our guys really have bought into playing as one heartbeat and playing together,” Baker said. “They fight, they scrap and when it all comes together you see the result in the third and especially the fourth quarter. I think for a variety of different reasons we get off to a slow start or hit a little bit of a lull. I can’t really pinpoint exactly what it is because it’s just different for every game. But I’m really proud of how they stick together and put it all together and buckle down in the fourth quarter.”
Baker agreed the success late in games “absolutely” catapults his defense to another level and shows how potentially dangerous they can be.
“Clemson, I don’t think we ever got our footing back,” he said of the
Canes’ lone loss on Oct. 10. “N.C. State we got our footing back in the fourth quarter. Last game it happened in the middle of the third. They’re definitely seeing that when they play together and all 11 guys are doing their job for four to six seconds every single snap how great of a defense we can be.”
Baker also confirmed
● that sophomore Couch, who made his first start over Al Blades Jr. at Virgina Tech, has stayed atop the depth chart for now.
“Every kid wants to play more, right?” Baker said. “Everybody is a competitor. We’re very upfront with our guys at what the rotation will be. ... We had told Al that Te’Cory was going to get the nod and he was going to compete with DJ [Ivey]. That was all communicated before the game had even started.”