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ATLANTA – For the second consecutive Saturday, North Carolina’s defense took a serious departure from how it performed over the first six games, as the Tar Heels found a way to lose, 46-42, to Georgia Tech at Bobby Dodd Stadium.

Carolina moved the ball most of the night, accumulating 577 yards, but the defense was shredded in the second and fourth quarters, and it was too much for Mack Brown’s team to overcome.

The Tar Heels dropped to 6-2 overall and 3-2 in the ACC, while the Yellow Jackets improved to 4-4 and 3-2.

Here are 5 Takeaways from Carolina’s loss at Georgia Tech:

At no time entering the game had UNC’s defense been worse than it was in the second quarter. The Heels got two fourth-down stops in the first quarter, but the second period was the polar opposite as Tech scored 24 points and racked up 272 yards. The Jackets also had 12 first downs in the quarter.

The Heels looked confused in pre-snap, slow after the snap, didn’t wrap up ball carriers, got turned around in the secondary, and the left side had problems containing the Jackets. At times, they appeared unprepared, and whatever attempts were made to adjust didn’t work.

Tech had one three-possession stretch in that span in which it ran 19 offensive plays gaining 230 yards while using only 7:01 from the clock. It was simply as poor a stretch as one can imagine from a defense that had been pretty good until last week.

“One of the biggest things in the first half I don’t think we handled really well was the tempo,” senior linebacker Cedric Gray said. “I think a lot of times we weren’t able to set up, guys were running around and I felt like we looked a little lost.”

As bad as the second quarter was, the fourth was worse in many respects. The Heels needed the defense to step up and get some key stops, but it never happened.

Remarkably, in the first 4:20 of the quarter, the Jackets scored 15 points on 163 yards of offense. It included a 70-yard TD run up the gut, and on Tech’s next offensive play, it had a 52-yard run.

The yardage on every play GT ran in the fourth quarter until it ran out the clock: 5-yard run, 7 run, 9 run, 6 run, 14 pass, 29 run, 6 run, 8 run, 4 run (TD), 5 run, 70 run (TD), 52 run, 10 run, 14 run, 2 run, 4 run, 5 pass (TD).

In the second and fourth quarters combined, Georgia Tech scored 46 points gaining 537 yards and racking up 23 first Downs.

“Yeah, it's really bad,” UNC Coach Mack Brown said. “It's the first time we had it like it was last year. I thought last week wasn't good and tonight was really bad for two quarters. Why it's good for two quarters and bad for two quarters, I can't answer. And we'll have some guys that played good on defense. That's the trouble.”

Not to be redundant, but to hammer home the reality of this performance, UNC allowed six plays that went for 29 or more yards on the night. The totals: 70, 52, 42, 38, 35, and 29. Plus, Tech had gains of 20, two of 16 yards, and four that gained 14 yards.

So, that’s 12 plays that went for 14 ore more yards on the night. Nineteen went for 10 or more yards.

“We played an awful defensive fourth quarter,” Brown said. “It was awful.”

Six of UNC’s first offensive plays were runs for Omarion Hampton. All he did was get gains of 10, 14, 6, 9, 8, and 1, as the Tar Heels scored a touchdown in nine plays. Given the criticism over not giving Hampton the ball but five times in the second half in last week’s loss to Virgnia…

Then, on Carolina’s second possession, Hampton carried the ball seven yards on the first play, went to the bench for several snaps, and returned to shake off a Tech defender in the backfield and race untouched the rest of the way for a 17-yard TD run.

In all, Hampton had four runs of 10 or more yards, and 11 of six or more yards.

One positive to take away from this game is that the Heels have become a consistently good running team.

“Yeah, we are,” Brown said. “And that really helped us, and I thought that would help us on defense, because that third quarter, Georgia Tech didn’t even have the ball. So, it’s hard to say what would have happened…

“I do think we’ve got to keep getting it to both backs. They were really good tonight and they really helped us.”

British Brooks ran for 56 yards on eight attempts and a score. Maye, by the way, had 58 yards and a TD on ten attempts.

Brown looked somewhat like a beaten man during his postgame press conference, and it makes sense. He didn’t have a lot of answers to our questions and understandably so. He was clear about his disappointment of the defense, but that he really let that side of the ball have it after the game reflects the mood.

Cedric Gray said a few times, “It is what it is” in his postgame interview, and not as a cop out. He was bewildered, surprised, and highly disappointed. He really didn’t know what to say.

And Drake Maye said all of the right things, but he was at a loss for words at times, too.

This is a wounded team. You could see it in the body language of the players when they walked off the field, as some walked toward the bus afterward, and it was on the faces of Brown, Gray and Maye.