Is North Carolina improving under Bill Belichick? Despite heartbreaker vs. Cal, Tar Heels show signs of life

North Carolina coach Bill Belichick turned some heads during a rare midweek media appearance on Oct. 13 when he, coming out of his first bye week with the Tar Heels, touted the team's improvement amidst a skid of lopsided losses to Power Four opponents. Though North Carolina is still searching for its first ACC win of the Belichick era, it did at least show some signs of progress in a narrow 21-18 Week 8 loss on a long road trip to play California. 

In fact, the Tar Heels were a goal-line fumble away from taking a lead with less than four minutes to play in the fourth quarter. On second-and-8 from Cal's 13-yard line, quarterback Gio Lopez hit wide receiver Nathan Leacock on a crossing route. 

With plenty of space in front of him, Leacock raced towards the end zone but just before he could break the plane, Cal defensive back Brent Austin punched the ball out of his hands and recovered the fumble. From there, the Bears embarked on an eight-play, 3:42 drive that consumed most of the remaining fourth-quarter clock. 

"I thought we played with confidence," Belichick said after the loss. "We competed hard, we showed toughness. Just have to do some things fundamentally better, obviously."  

Though Friday night's result dropped North Carolina to 2-4 on the year, including an 0-2 record in ACC play, it was arguably UNC's strongest showing under Belichick. For starters, the Tar Heels crossed three time zones to play a now five-win conference foe and only lost by three points. 

A moral victory, yes, but an important one when considering the fact that, entering Week 8, Power Four opponents outscored North Carolina 120-33 in three games. Friday also marked the most points that North Carolina has scored and the fewest points that it has allowed against an opponent of equal standing. 

Lopez returned to the field for the first time since North Carolina's loss to UCF, and though his numbers didn't pop off of the box score, he played well enough to put his team in a position to win. He was also crucially smart with the ball and did not throw any interceptions. 

The Tar Heel rushing attack also turned in an admirable performance. It was the first time they broke the 100-yard mark against a power conference opponent, and they scored both of their touchdowns on the ground. Running back Benjamin Hall averaged a brisk 4.9 yards per carry. 

Belichick touched on his defense's inability to force a turnover and its failure to get a stop in a sufficient amount of time on Cal's final drive, but it also kept the game within reach by allowing the Bears one scoring possession in the second half. 

"As I've said, we've been improving every week, so I'm not going to back off that," Belichick said. "I think that's true. But you can't turn the ball over and win. It's just too hard. And then we've got to eliminate some of those kinds of mistakes. We need to tackle better, play better on third down, both sides of the ball. So still, things we need to do that it might have been enough. We hadn't turned the ball over, but we did, and we didn't get any turnovers on defense. So until that changes, it's a little bit of an uphill struggle."