Whew! I’ve gotta say, as much as there might be to address with this team, and particularly the defense, over the next two weeks, it feels pretty, pretty good to be saying that after a come-from-behind win rather than another agonizingly close loss. Somehow, more points were scored in this game than in UNC’s barnburner against Virginia Tech, so there’s a lot of praise and criticism to go around and chew on as UNC heads, finally, into its second open weekend of the season. Let’s get into it:

Quarterback: A+

My word, Sam Howell. I think I’ve said that his excellence has been overshadowed at times this season by UNC’s running backs carrying the team on their backs; he’s still been really good but not as flashy as he was last year nor as good as it’s felt like he could be.