Latest / Best of: Features / Carr, ground game help No. 3 Notre Dame push past North Carolina 37-26 for 15th straight win

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Carr, ground game help No. 3 Notre Dame push past North Carolina 37-26 for 15th straight win · Best of: Features

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  Carr, Ground Game Help No. 3, Notre Dame push past North Carolina
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  37-26 for 15th straight win. This
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  article is being read by an automated voice generated by Everlett. Chapel
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  Hill, North Carolina, the AP. Notre Dame abruptly found itself playing in
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  a tight game at North Carolina, with the pouring rain limiting coach
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  Marcus Freeman's Comfort throwing the ball. So the third ranked fighting Irish
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  made it simple get a hard push from the offensive line, open
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  lanes, and pound the ball through those gaps again and again. It
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  added up to regaining control after halftime in Saturday's thirty seven twenty
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  six road win, along with offering a promising leap for a rushing
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  attack that looks very different from the one from last year that
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  produced two first round NFL draft picks. When the know you're going
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  to try to run the ball, and you're still able to run
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  the ball. Because of the weather conditions, that's a reflection of your
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  team and the toughness and the physicality, Freeman said. C.J. Carr threw
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  for four touchdowns and rain for another for the fighting Irish, 5-0,
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  who ran for a season best 241 yards. The Irish were on
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  the verge of going up twenty eight seven before the Tar Heels,
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  two two, came up with a goal line stand and turned it
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  into a long touchdown drive right before half time. The UNC came
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  out of the break, with Jaden Jefferson sprinting through the rain for
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  a ninety eight yard kickoff return that brought the Tar Heels to
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  within twenty one twenty. That's when Carr and the Irish offence went
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  to work with a series of methodical and physical drives, leaning on
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  the run in wet conditions to carry the ball right into the
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  heart of the defensive front and consistently move the chains. Super impressive
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  with the way the offensive line kind of just drove the ball
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  down the field, Carr said. They couldn't really stop us. It felt
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  like we were imposing our will on them whenever we wanted to.
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  Notre Dame responded to Jefferson's big play with a seventeen play, seventy
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  five yard drive, lasting more than nine minutes, by the time Carr
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  got around the right side for a fourth down T D keeper.
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  Then, after forcing a three and out, Notre Dame went to work
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  again in pummeling fashion. Nolan James junior did most of the work
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  on the ground, then caught Carr's short pass in the left flat,
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  and juked a would be tackler off his feet to go in
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  for a six yard T D and a thirty four twenty lead
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  to open the fourth quarter. Carr threw for two hundred and thirty-four
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  yards with Jordan Fazen making eight catches for one hundred and thirty-two
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  yards and two scores. Billy Edwards Jr. Threw for three touchdowns four
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  the Tar Heels but was picked off twice. North Carolina also struggled
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  to get anything going on the ground, seventy seven yards on twenty
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  three carries. We were certainly competitive, we missed some opportunities, Coach Bill
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  Belichick said. We just need to do a better job of coaching
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  and playing, take advantage of those opportunities. They're a good team. It's
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  not like anything was easy today. The Takeaway Notre Dame.
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  The defence had its hiccups in the fighting Irish's fifteenth straight win.
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  The Irish entered Saturday ranked number one nationally by surrendering one ninety
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  nine point three yards per game and second in scoring, eight point
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  three, yet the Tar Heels came within seven points of matching the
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  total the Irish's had allowed through four games. Our guys didn't play
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  crisp in the past game and their guides made some plays, so
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  we've got to go back and get that fixed, Freeman said. UNC.
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  The Tar Heels started two zero before blowing a two touchdown lead
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  in a loss at Clemson on september nineteenth, then had an open
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  week to prepare for this one. Finding ways to generate more downfield
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  passing gains was a focus, and Edwards found more success. The primary
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  targets were wideout Jordan Ship, seven catches for one hundred and nine
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  yards, and Jelani Thurman, five catches for fifty yards and two O
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  T Ds, as the Tar Heels flirted with a marquee win in
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  Belichick's second season. They passing game's really about team execution, Belichick said.
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  It's not just the quarterback. Notre Dame entered
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  ranked ninety eighth in the Bowl subdivision, in rushing offense at one
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  hundred and forty one point eight yards. That was down from seventeenth
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  last year, two hundred and three point four, behind the nation's fifth
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  leading rusher in Jeremiah Love, one fourteen point three, and Jedarian Price,
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  the two eventual first round picks. But on Saturday, freshman Jonaz Walton
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  posted a team high one hundred and twenty yards while James added
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  sixty five. The Irish's rushing output included one hundred and two yards
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  in the third quarter alone in stymieing UNC's momentum. We were doing
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  some gap scheme runs, and to get movement at the point of
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  attack was huge, Freeman said. The backs were patient and trusted it.
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  We were really in rhythm that third quarter of just sustaining that
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  drive, and being able to run the ball when they knew we
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  were running the ball. Up next. Notre Dame, the fighting Irish host
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  Stanford next Saturday. UNC. The Tar Heels visit Pittsburgh next Saturday, the
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  first of back-to-back road games against teams that are a combined 9-0.
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  Sign up for Top 25 Poll Alerts here. Visit the Top 25
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  here and see the AP's full college football coverage here.