Pittsburgh Panthers Bill Stull (thanks Icon SMI)

Pitt will begin the struggles for the ACC in this year’s bowl series. They play a UNC team that struggled all year to find their offense in Chapel Hill, which is only a couple miles from UNC’s campus, in the Meineke Car Care Bowl the day after Christmas. This will be the second consecutive trip to this bowl game for UNC, but they hope they will fare better this year.

There is no doubt that some of the best talent on the defensive side of the ball is going to take the field in this game as Pitt boasts the 17^th ranked defense and the Tar Heels have the 6^th ranked defense in the nation. Yards are going to be hard to come by in this game, so I am not expecting a huge score in this one.

The reason why I give the edge to Pitt over UNC in this game is that their 16^th ranked offense is going to be enough to overcome the tough defense that North Carolina is going to present on Saturday. A big reason why their offense clicks is because they have a very reliable back in Dion Lewis who ended his season with just over 1,600 yards and 16 touchdowns. Now granted, North Carolina is stronger against the run then they are the pass. That just means that they will use their superb quarterback, Bill Stull to use the short and intermediate pass game to set up the run.

UNC has struggled mightily most of the season to find their offense, but things did begin to click right at the end of the season. Don’t get me wrong, I think the UNC can and will move the ball in this game, but I think they will struggle in the red zone and will be forced to kick field goals instead of score touchdowns which are not going to be enough to get it done. Look for TJ Yates to looks to Greg Little’s way early in this game to try and establish the pass as that is where Pitt struggles the most defensively.

Both teams finished their regular seasons on disappointing notes as UNC lost by a single point to their rivals, NC State, and Pitt lost to back to back Big East games to West Virginia and then Cincinnati.  In my opinion, I just feel that Pitt is more stacked offensively and that will be enough to win by 3 points or less. The wild card in this game is going to be the home crowd for UNC since they are so close to their home campus. That could be a game changer in a close game. Prediction: Pitt 17 – UNC 14.

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Tags: ACC