The North Carolina Tar Heels go on the road to play the Virginia Cavaliers on Saturday, with the game kicking off at noon ET. The game can be seen on The CW Network.
North Carolina (3-4, 0-3 ACC) is coming off a 41-34 loss to Georgia Tech. On the other hand, Virginia (4-3, 2-2 ACC) is coming off a 48-31 loss to Clemson.
North Carolina vs. Virginia: Preview
The Tar Heels are a four-point underdog against Virginia on Saturday. The over/under is set at 59.5 points.
North Carolina is coming off its bye week, but before that, the Tar Heels suffered a home loss to Georgia Tech. North Carolina is on a four-game losing streak after starting the year 3-0. UNC allowed a 68-yard touchdown run with 16 seconds left to lose in stunning fashion.
"They're all coming down to a play," coach Mack Brown said about the loss, via 247Sports. "There's a thin line between winning and losing, and this team's had a load put on them. So what we've got to do is just keep getting better. There's a fumble in the first quarter that leads to a touchdown. There's a missed field goal.
"There's the field goal right before the half where he has the long run, where we lose contain. There's a run at the end of the game. I mean, there are so many things we can fix that give us a chance to be a better team and win the last five games, and that's what we'll do."
The Tar Heels have been led by quarterback Jacolby Criswell, who has thrown for 1,367 yards, eight touchdowns and three interceptions. Omari Hampton has rushed for 901 yards and seven touchdowns.
Defensively, North Carolina is led by Kaleb Cost, who has UNC's only two interceptions of the season. Jahvaree Ritzie has five sacks and Power Echols has 48 tackles.
Meanwhile, Virginia is coming off a lopsided 48-31 loss on the road to Clemson. The Cavaliers were outscored 21-0 in the third quarter, which proved to be the difference.
Despite the loss, coach Tony Elliott says the loss was a good learning experience for the UNC game.
"Our guys will grow from this," Elliott said. "It's a great opportunity for us to learn kind of what progress we've made, and then the areas where we truly need to make more progress. I knew this was going to be one of those types of games where we get to truly evaluate where we are as a program.
"And today we got to see that, and we'll own it. We'll go back to work. The thing about this sport is we don't have much time to sit there and feel sorry for ourselves. We got a good North Carolina team that's coming off a bye week, coming into our house, and we got some objectives and goals still set for this season. That's what we got to focus on."
Virginia is led by quarterback Anthony Colandrea, who has thrown for 1,649 yards, 11 touchdowns and four interceptions. Malachi Fields leads the way with 606 receiving yards and four touchdowns.
Even though UNC is coming off its open week, Virginia's offense is legit and should be able to score against the Tar Heels defense, which has been an issue for them this season.
Prediction: Virginia 34, North Carolina 28
North Carolina vs. Virginia: Betting Tips
Tip 1: Virginia -4 (-112)
Tip 2: Over 59.5 (-108)
Tip 3: Anthony Colandrea over 1.5 passing touchdowns
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