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Clemson at North Carolina

This Saturday the North Carolina Tar Heels will host the Clemson Tigers, as both teams come in searching for their first conference win. After two close losses to LSU and Georgia Tech, the Tar Heels have rolled off two straight wins, as their offense has really emerged this season. The Tigers come in off two straight losses, as they were unable to come away with a win at home against Miami last week. This is the first meeting between the two schools since 2006, when Clemson rolled the Tar Heels 52-7. If you are interested in making a bet on the game this weekend, the current odds have the Tar Heels favored by 2.5-points over the Tigers at home.

Clemson (2-2, 0-1 ACC): The Tigers have been right there in both their losses this season. Last week they trailed 27-21 with just over two minutes to play in the third quarter, but the offense stalled in the final period of play and the Hurricanes went on to win 30-21. Quarterback Kyle Parker had his worst game of the season, completing just 14 of 33 attempts for 149 yards with no touchdowns and three interceptions. It was the first game this season that Parker didn’t throw a touchdown.

The Tigers got all their offense from running back Andre Ellington, who finished with 107 yards and three touchdowns on 17 carries. Backup Jamie Harper added another 57 yards on 18 carries. With so many starters missing on the defensive side for North Carolina, Ellington and Harper should have a big game, as the Tar Heels are giving up an average of 171 yards a game on the ground. The Tigers turned the ball over six times against the Hurricanes last week, and still had a chance to win, but they are going to continue to keep ending up on the wrong side of the scoreboard if they don’t start securing the football.

North Carolina (2-2, 0-1 ACC): The Tar Heels have really got outstanding play out of senior quarterback T.J. Yates, who has thrown for 1,006 yards and seven touchdowns and is completing just over 68% of his passes. Yates completed 18 of 26 attempts for 181 yards and two touchdowns in an easy win over East Carolina last week, but will be asked to do a lot more this week, as the Tar Heels are going to have to put some points on the board to keep up with the Tigers. North Carolina is coming off its best rushing performance of the season, as they packed on 263 yards on the ground against East Carolina. Shaun Draughn had 137 yards and three touchdowns on 27 carries, while backup Johnny White added 140 yards on 16 attempts.

With so many starters not eligible to play on defense, the Tar Heels need their offense more than ever. Even though their defense has looked good the last two weeks, allowing just 30 points, it came against two pretty poor offenses. The Tar Heels suffered another blow to the defensive side of the ball last week, as they lost defensive tackle Greg Elleby for the season.  It will be a tough test for the Tar Heels defense this week against the Tigers, who come in averaging nearly 35 points a game.

Looking at the Odds: I was actually a little surprised to see that the Tar Heels were favored in this game, but either way I will take it, as I think you have to jump all over the Tigers at +2.5 in this one. Not only do I believe Clemson will cover the spread, I think they come away with a pretty convincing win on the road. North Carolina has already lost two home games against BCS schools this season, and I think Clemson is the best offense they will have faced so far this season. My final score prediction is Clemson 33, North Carolina 27.