North Carolina football is looking for answers after a blowout loss to TCU. The weeks ahead may be even more challenging for the team, as starting quarterback Gio Lopez went down to injury in the game. North Carolina coach Bill Belichick gave a mystifying response when asked postgame about Lopez's injury.
“We'll see how Gio is,” Belichick said, per ESPN. “Max (Johnson) came in after being off for a long time and hung in there and made some plays in a tough situation. We'll take a look at it and see where things are at and go from there. It's too early to tell now.”
North Carolina got blown out by TCU, 48-14. The Tar Heels came out and scored a touchdown to open the game, before falling apart and allowing 41 unanswered points. Lopez got hurt and left the game with a back injury.
Belichick says his team needs to get better, and fast.
“Too many three-and-outs, too many long plays on defense, two turnovers for touchdowns. You can't overcome that,” Belichick said. “We just can't perform well doing some of the things we did. We've got to be better than that. We had too many self-inflicted wounds we have to eliminate before we can even worry about addressing our opponent.”
North Carolina next plays Charlotte on Saturday.
North Carolina football got some good moments from Max Johnson
Backup quarterback Max Johnson did lead the Tar Heels on a touchdown drive in the second half. It wasn't enough to make the score respectable, but Johnson did have decent control of the offense.
“I thought we were prepared for the game,” Johnson said. “We prepared for a week and a half for TCU specifically, but we've been working on our fundamentals for a year now. We need to do a better job executing.”
The Tar Heels quarterback is hoping his team regroups as quickly as possible.
“Don't lose hope,” Johnson said. “We're going to continue to put our best foot forward, continue to work and trust in each other.”
Johnson finished the game with a touchdown pass. He completed 9-for-11 of his passes, for 103 yards. North Carolina managed just 222 total yards of offense against TCU.
