UNC’s Mitch Trubisky rebounds in 48-23 victory at Illinois

They had done this sort of thing so many times before, the slant across the middle and the pass at just the right moment – Mitch Trubisky to Ryan Switzer, easy and routine.

“It looks no different than practice, to be honest with you,” T.J. Logan, one of their North Carolina teammates, said later, long after another Trubisky-to-Switzer connection.

Except this wasn’t practice. It was early in the first quarter on Saturday at Illinois’ Memorial Stadium, where the Tar Heels arrived seeking redemption, and momentum, after their season-opening defeat against Georgia on Sept. 3.

They left with a 48-23 victory against Illinois that they hope is just the beginning. And if it turns out to be, the beginning might have begun with that pass from Trubisky to Switzer, and with what immediately followed.

The two-play sequence lasted mere seconds. Its benefits – the confidence that came with it, the intangible belief that, yes, Trubisky is ready to shine on this kind of stage – lasted much longer on Saturday, and could well stretch into the coming weeks and months.

On the first of those two plays, Trubisky found Switzer on that familiar slant. Switzer was open, for a moment, and Trubisky delivered the pass in stride for a 21-yard gain. Seconds later, after what had been his best pass of the early season, Trubisky went on the run.

He escaped pressure, dodged a few defenders and sprinted down the left side of the field for a 39-yard gain. And at the end of it he absorbed a blow that Larry Fedora, the Tar Heels’ head coach, didn’t much like his quarterback taking.

On the sideline later, Fedora told him so. His exact words, Fedora said later, were, “Don’t do that.” Trubisky replied: “I needed it.”

Hours later, Trubisky smiled at the memory.

“I didn’t want to run out of bounds,” he said. “I wanted to finish the run. But I felt like I just needed to get hit to really get my feet underneath me and get going. And sometimes you need that just to settle down, just to get that first pop just because it’s not practice … that allowed me to settle down.”

This was the Trubisky that his teammates, and Fedora, expected to see all along – the one that was absent, mostly, at the Georgia Dome. There, during that 33-24 loss to Georgia, Trubisky played timidly, afraid to make mistakes. The fear precluded him from making plays, too.

Approaching Saturday, it had been a long week, one in which Trubisky said he was “highly critical” of himself. He spent part of it watching his mistakes against Georgia over and over again.

In practices, he focused on better footwork and better vision. He made it a priority to run.

Against Illinois, this is what he had to show for his work: completions on 19 of his 24 attempts for 265 yards and two passing touchdowns, and two more rushing.

One of those rushing touchdowns came on a 1-yard sneak that ended the Tar Heels’ first scoring drive. The other came with Trubisky diving across the plane of the goal line on a 6-yard run that gave UNC a 17-14 lead late in the first quarter.

“I think you guys got to see him run the ball,” Fedora said, “and he ran the ball effectively. And I thought he was really into it and sharp, focused the entire night. Yes, that’s what I expect from him.”

And yet it wasn’t always easy, or perfect. Trubisky threw only five incomplete passes, but some of them sailed over open receivers. Naz Jones, the junior defensive tackle, said afterward that Trubisky still hasn’t put together a complete performance.

Jones didn’t mean it harshly. He meant it in praise, as if to suggest the best is yet to come. At one point against the Illini, Jones said he approached Trubisky on the sideline with an encouraging word.

“Take control and lead this team to the promised land,” Jones said, repeating the words.

A victory at Illinois, a middling Big Ten team trying to find its way under first-year head coach Lovie Smith, isn’t the promised land. It’s a start, though, and one made possible because Trubisky rebounded from whatever ailed him – nerves, poor mechanics – in Atlanta.

The Tar Heels, whose maligned run defense also came through after allowing a 65-yard touchdown run on the third offensive play of the game, found itself in a position similar to the one that doomed it last weekend. UNC then had surrendered a 10-point third-quarter lead.

Illinois cut UNC’s lead to 31-23 early in the fourth quarter. The crowd at Memorial Stadium, sold out for the first time since 2011, came alive after a long succession of failed drives and punts.

About 2½ minutes later, though, it was quiet again after the Tar Heels’ 6-play, 58-yard drive. Logan was the catalyst early, with two 15-yard runs on consecutive carries. Then Trubisky gave the offense a first-and-goal from the 7-yard-line with a 23-yard pass to Jake Bargas, the tight end.

Elijah Hood scored from there, and then again on a 62-yard run midway through the quarter. By then the people here were on their way to the parking lot. Trubisky, meanwhile, stood on the sideline, his work complete. He described this as “a steppingstone.”

“I was hard on myself last week,” he said. “So I just wanted to get better.”

It had been a week of working on mechanics, leadership skills and confidence. And then a Saturday of production, when at times Trubisky made it look as routine as he often does in practice.

This story was originally published September 11, 2016 at 1:31 AM with the headline "UNC’s Mitch Trubisky rebounds in 48-23 victory at Illinois."