UNC nabs first ranked win under Belichick. Observations from victory at Pitt

Billy Edwards Jr. said, technically, every play is designed to be an 80-yard touchdown. It just doesn’t always work that way all the time. But North Carolina football didn’t need it all the time in a 21-17 win over No. 25 Pittsburgh on Saturday at Acrisure Stadium.

Just once.

Because by the time Edwards and UNC delivered the game-winning play — a 75-yard catch-and-run touchdown to tight end Shamar Easter — a lot had gone wrong for North Carolina. Edwards, too, had made his mistakes. He had an interception that ended a drive and nearly threw for another one if not for a fall start on consecutive drives to start the third quarter. That was in the midst of a comedy of errors, three interceptions combined from UNC and Pitt. But even when UNC finally got a score in the aftermath of that chaos, it found itself down 17-14 again at the 12:47 mark of the fourth quarter, just 2 minutes, 35 seconds after its own score.

But then Easter got open.

“Coach (Bill) Belichick made an emphasis of, ‘we’re the faster team, so we need to show that, we need to play like that,’” Edwards said. “And I think that that play encapsulated a lot what he said in the meetings this week.”

All over the field, UNC finally got the explosive plays at the right moments on Saturday, and it led to the biggest win in Belichick’s tenure as UNC’s coach. Saturday win, Tar Heels’ first ranked win since 2023 against Miami and first ranked road win since 2020, was an imperfect one. But it’s been an imperfect season, too. A loss could have sent the season in the wrong direction amid perhaps the toughest month of games on the Tar Heels’ schedule. But instead, UNC grabbed two interceptions, Edwards connected on two 40-plus yard passes and put itself in the situation that one 11-second burst could move the Tar Heels’ season momentum ever-so-slightly forward.

It was a massive moment given the opportunity UNC had. It was facing a backup quarterback in Pittsburgh’s Holden Geriner, and the Tar Heels took advantage: Geriner completed 27 of 44 passes in the game, but North Carolina held him to 219 yards and the forced the two interceptions. Defensive lineman Xavier Lewis, who had a career-best 12 tackles and a half-sack, said the Tar Heels were able to bother Geriner by simply keeping up the pressure of their rush.

And that seemed to impact him much more in the second half. While the game was, certainly, never out of reach in the first half for the Tar Heels, the Panthers certainly controlled the pace. None of Pittsburgh’s four drives in the first half of the game went less than nine plays. The nine-play drive went just 28 yards, but took 4 minutes, 53 seconds off the clock as Pitt possessed the ball for 22:19 and ran 49 plays to North Carolina’s 16 in the first half.

The Panthers’ most successful drive was their first, as they marched down the field for a touchdown in 5:11 — a 12-play, 75-yard drive. UNC’s offense, conversely, couldn’t get anything going. It gained 31 yards on 10 plays on its first two drives of the game, and rushed for -1 yards in the first half overall. The Panthers added a field goal to go up 10-0 when North Carolina’s offense looked like it was nowhere close to production. But, again, it just took one play.

On the first play of the Tar Heels’ third drive, Edwards uncorked a 49-yard pass to Jordan Shipp to set up a five-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to cut the lead to 10-7 for Pittsburgh before the half. Shipp said that forced Pitt to abandon a Man (or Cover Zero) look for the rest of the game, something that he said the Panthers comfortable with.

The game, still, didn’t look like it would be one that was dominated by the offenses. After the long first-half drives for Pittsburgh, four second-half drives (two on each side) went by in just 6:06. Edwards threw an interception on the Tar Heels’ first drive of the third quarter. Then Geriner followed that with a brutal interception of his own, throwing the ball right to UNC defensive back Greg Smith, no Panthers around him. Edwards, though, fumbled ball on a sack the first play of the Tar Heels’ next drive, which led to a 17-yard loss and, eventually, a three-and-out.

“We gotta take better care of the ball,” Belichick said after the game.

But Geriner one-upped Edwards again, as Tar Heels defensive back Tre Miller undercut a route for another UNC interception at the 8:54 mark of the third quarter. And with that chaotic, awful back-and-forth behind it, UNC finally got a few breaks thanks to its best receiver on the ensuing drive. Shipp caught a 12-yard pass on third down, forced a defensive hold and rise up for a catch at near the goal line before running back Demon June scored a one-yard touchdown to cap the 51-yard drive and put the Tar Heels ahead 14-10.

Pittsburgh responded immediately with a seven play, 75 yard touchdown drive in just 2:35. UNC went down 17-14 with 12:47 to go. Momentum had taken a turn. In its last road game, when Clemson took a late lead, the Tar Heels never got that momentum back again while losing to the Tigers.

“You’ll say, ‘The game’s not over till the clock is zero,’” Lewis said. “But sometimes in your head, you could think you know we got in the bag. I feel like that’s how it was (against) Clemson. We let it get away from us.”

Yet on Friday, directly after Pitt’s go-ahead score, all it took was one play: good protection, a patient Edwards in the pocket and Easter wide open with room to run over the middle.

And North Carolina still needed a stop after taking the lead back with 12:36 left. Several, actually. And things, of course, weren’t perfect in that pursuit. Edwards threw an interception trying to toss the ball up for Shipp with 6:21 left in the game.

And UNC couldn’t put the Panthers totally away even after Geriner sailed a pass high for Cataurus Hicks, wide open past the sticks, causing a drop on fourth down. Then again when UNC defensive lineman Melkart Abou Jaoude wrapped up running back La’Vell Wright before the marker on another fourth-and-2 the next drive. But on a game limited on offense, the Panthers didn’t come close to responding to the Tar Heels’ last strike.

UNC and Pittsburgh each had three scoring drives. They each turned over the ball. But on one play, Easter broke free. So North Carolina’s season remained afloat.

“We all believe that we’re an amazing team,” Shipp said. “We believe we can win highly ranked games like this one.”

Here’s what stood out from the game.

Shipp said the way he approaches a jump-ball has nothing to do with his mindset. He just sees the ball in the air, so he’s going to grab it.

“You’re in the way between me and putting food on the table for my family,” Shipp said. “So I mean, I’m gonna make that play nine times out of 10. And if I don’t, we’re gonna come back and I know coach is gonna call it again.”

And that’s a gamble that the Tar Heels seem to take more often lately. UNC provided nothing inspiring against Pittsburgh’s defense deep into the second quarter. But then on the first play of its third drive, it sent Shipp deep. The Tar Heels junior wide receiver won his route easily, and Edwards leaned back and unleashed a throw. It was a tad underthrown, but Shipp made an adjustment and came down with the jump ball for 49 yards.

On a five-play, 75-yard touchdown drive for the Tar Heels, capped by a seven-yard touchdown pass from Edwards to Thurman at 5:23, Shipp was the star. He pulled in three catches for 65 yards and was instantly above 50 yards receiving for the second-straight week. The Tar Heels need weapons, and he’s emerged as one of late, totalling six catches for 93 yards in the game. And it’s come as a result of UNC giving him some chances.

Early in the first quarter, Pittsburgh tried a pass into the back of the end zone and — while it wasn’t completed — it led to a catastrophic outcome for the Tar Heels. UNC defensive back Kaleb Cost was among those defending the pass, and his momentum took him into the wall behind the end zone, where a seemingly-slim layer of padding covered the concrete. Cost crashed into it hard, and went down.

It was an ugly scene. Cost was hurt. While on the ground, he took his helmet off and tossed it into the crowd, seemingly striking a group of fans. Cost didn’t return to the game after playing just eight snaps, and UNC had to cycle some different defensive backs into the game. Pittsburgh picked them apart.

Nothing about Pittsburgh’s passing game looked explosive, but it consistently had success attacking the outside of the defense. With Miller going down with an injury and carted off after his interception and return at 8:54, freshman Kenton Dopson was forced to play even more snaps. Still, the quarterbacking in the second half was brutal for Pittsburgh. And when Geriner made mistakes, the Tar Heels took advantage just enough, securing two interceptions and muddying up the field enough down the stretch to make things difficult for the new Panthers quarterback.

“A lot of great guys behind us,” Lewis said, “and they’re ready to step up.”

There have been times of the past two weeks for Edwards where the quarterback looks without answers. Under heavy pressure in the third quarter, Edwards threw an interception on the Tar Heels first drive, fumbled the ball (which was recovered by offensive lineman Andrew Threatt) on a sack the first play of the next drive for North Carolina and nearly threw a pick-six the drive after, but the play at 7:26 was called dead after offensive lineman Christian Alvarez false-started. It was a rough game for the offensive line overall, and Edwards’ rushing game gave him effectively no help.

But right after that near miss, Edwards suddenly looked more comfortable. A few nice plays by Shipp gave the quarterback some rhythm, and right after Pittsburgh took the lead back, Edwards delivered his best moment of the season. On the first play of a drive that the Tar Heels started while trailing 17-14, Edwards remained poised in the pocket amid a rush, stepped up and tossed to tight end Shamar Easter over the middle of the field. Easter burst through for 75 yards to give the Tar Heels a 21-17 lead.

It wasn’t an otherworldly play for Edwards, but it was more evidence that he can still lead good moments for UNC despite the bad plays. There was another bad play, too, as Edwards threw a pick the next drive. But he was good enough, completing 18-of-26 passes for 249 yards and two touchdowns.

“At the end of the day, I’m going to trust my guys to you know go downfield and make plays for me,” Edwards said. “So it’s just my job to give them a catchable ball where it’s within range for them to make a play.”

This story was originally published October 10, 2026 at 3:31 PM with the headline “UNC nabs first ranked win under Belichick. Observations from victory at Pitt.”