All throughout the 2025 season, Bill Belichick has been walking on eggshells. He was held at the edge to either fix the program or the North Carolina Tar Heels, instantly pulling the trigger on him. Belichick kept running on borrowed time, as before the Syracuse face-off, the Tar Heels were running with four back-to-back losses. Finally, their luck favored them, as they crushed Orange 10-27 on the last day of October. And thanks to Belichick’s boys, the Tar Heels fans are now teleported to 29 years in the past.  

On October 31, InsideCarolina tweeted, “The same score as UNC’s 1996 win at then No. 9-ranked Syracuse, by the way. Fitting night to wear the same retro uniforms.” The team was led by head coach Mack Brown back then. The 24th-ranked Tar Heels stormed ahead 17-0 in the first 18 minutes, then fended off a fierce third-period push from No. 9 Syracuse to seal the deal. Back in 1996, it marked the Tar Heels’ first on the road over a top 10 team in 30 years. Yes, under Belichick, they did not achieve such a big milestone, but enough to boost their morale.

Crushing Syracuse, Belichick’s boys secured their first ACC win of the season. And it has been a spectacular night, indeed. Demon June lit up the night with two touchdowns and nearly 200 total yards, while Gio Lopez added two more through the air. After managing just six points and trailing 10-6 at halftime, Belichick’s offense finally caught fire.

Lopez hit June on a short pass that turned into a dazzling 72-yard sprint down the sideline to put the Tar Heels ahead for good. June punched in another score from five yards out, and Lopez later found Jordan Shipp for a 21-yard strike, capping a 21-point surge that buried Syracuse 27-10.

Over the past two weekends, Belichick’s squad was outscored 120-33 by its first three Power Four opponents, and then suffered one-possession losses to Cal and No. 16 Virginia. But how fast the tables turned. North Carolina shredded the ACC’s weakest defense, piling up season highs with 209 yards on the ground and 216 through the air. It was also the first time all year the Tar Heels cracked 20 points against an FBS opponent. Now, that’s how Belichick’s program picked up a spooky win on Halloween night. While the Tar Heels finally got rid of the losing streak burden, something must be pulling back Belichick and co. from celebrating wholeheartedly, and that’s their quarterback woes.  

Bill Belichick’s nagging issue with his quarterback

Against UCF, the Tar Heels’ quarterback, Lopez, had to leave the game with an injury. While he was expected to return for the game against Clemson, he did not. Finally, Belichick could let out a sigh of relief before the California face-off. But the spark went missing for Lopez. He came up with 19 of 35 passes for 167 yards and no touchdowns against Cal. During his face-off against the Virginia Cavaliers, he racked up 23 of 36 for 208 yards and two touchdowns. 

His glaring issues with moving the ball quickly and making deep ball passes continued to trouble Belichick. Lopez hit seven targets against Virginia, but his deep ball remained an issue, with just 56.6% accuracy beyond the line, 6.57 yards per attempt, no scores, and all picks coming downfield. Before the Stanford game, Belichick came up with a plea for Lopez and his mates: “We have to score more points. You don’t get points for just moving the ball.” And unfortunately, Lopez failed to mend the cracks. 

As X user, Campbell tweeted, “Pretty obvious that UNC does not trust Gio Lopez’s arm. They are doing a lot of pitches and screen passes to fool the DBs and safeties.” Against Syracuse, Bill Belichick’s quarterback completed 15 of 19 yards and two touchdowns. Yet then, the Tar Heels made short, quick plays that rely on running backs or receivers gaining yards after the catch, so that they did not have to depend too much on Lopez’s arm. Time for Belichick to take care of it before they host Stanford next weekend.