CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina has a hard-fast 24-hour rule, and there is no wavering from it.

Each Sunday, the day after a game, the Tar Heels watch film from the contest the day before, have a light practice to shake out tightness and fix some things, team dinner, and when the players head home, that game is gone.

The game is in the rearview mirror growing further into the distance as each minute passes. On to the next one.

Only that sometimes the decree might come with a caveat; like when a defense makes ugly history as UNC’s did last weekend at Appalachian State. Then, human nature takes over, and the players, and perhaps even the staff - though they won’t admit it -are hellbent on getting back onto the field to make amends.

For Carolina, that opportunity comes Saturday at Georgia State, a sneaky dangerous team that could give the Tar Heels fits. At stake, aside from notching a win and improving to 3-0, is for UNC to show needed improvement on the defensive side of the ball. The Heels were blitzed by App State, and they want to rid that lingering taste from their mouths.

“We’re definitely ready to go out there and showcase what we have,” senior safety Cam Kelly said earlier this week inside the Kenan Football Center. “What we put out there on that field in the fourth quarter wasn’t pretty, and everybody wants to make that right.”

Ah, the fourth quarter. A period in which the Mountaineers scored six touchdowns leading to 40 points, the most ever allowed by a UNC team in one quarter, while racking up 338 yards and 18 first downs. Think about it: App State ran 30 offensive plays in the quarter, a numbing number in its own right, while converting 18 first downs.

The Tar Heels were so miserable they gave up 168 yards on first downs alone in the period. It was historically bad for UNC.

“They’re embarrassed,” UNC Coach Mack Brown said about the coaching staff. “They’re disappointed. We’re not playing as good as we should, not playing as good as we thought we would, and gotta get it fixed.”

**************************************************************************************

Remember, for just $8.33 a month, YOU CAN BE A TAR HEELS INSIDER, TOO!!!

***************************************************************************************

So, getting it fixed is what coordinator Gene Chizik and his guys set out to do earlier in the week. A serious issue is that Chizik couldn’t point to one exact spot where the fire started. In a way, that would be a much easier fix.

“It was not on a single individual, it wasn’t on a single group of players – d-line, linebackers, secondary – it was everybody,” he said during his weekly press conference Monday. “And usually when those scenarios happen, it’s poor execution. And then you throw on top of that we had several opportunities to get off the field and we had penalties.”

Four App State drives were aided by Carolina penalties, adding another wound to their time on The Rock.

For the game, App accumulated 664 yards, fifth most ever against UNC, 37 first downs, and got into the second and third levels of Carolina’s defense way too often. The gashes might be the hardest memories to squash for those in blue.

“We gave up 21 explosives, which is absolutely ridiculous,” Brown said. “And only three of those explosives were in the second and third quarters. So, it is what it is, gotta be fixed.”

Junior defensive lineman Kaimon Rucker offered up a suggestion during his interview Tuesday.

“Honestly, we’ve just gotta pass rush better,” he said. “I know for us; we had one sack to App State’s three or four. There’s not really a specific plan what we need to do, we just need to pass rush better. We need to be aggressive up front with our pass rush, and I feel like we can bring that.”

Fourteen missed tackles, and a missed tackle rate of 20.6 percent, didn’t help. The Tar Heels worked on that as much as a team can in “thud,” which is the manner of practice during the season, as teams do not have full contact in between games.

So it was all about fundamentals with tackling, striking blocks, the first five yards in press coverage, pre-snap communication, and making sure each player is one of 11.

“'Do want to be the defense that played midway through the second quarter and all of the third, or do you want to be the other,'" Chizik said he asked the players last Sunday.

“'And if we don’t want to be the other, than why were we the other?' That was the message. It was well received. And I expect us to be better this week.”

A mandate was laid out last Sunday, and while the Heels put the 63-61 win over App State behind them, they sort of didn’t. And that’s okay.

The narrative for the week is “teachable moments,” which is an obviously link to what took place in Boone. That was much longer than 24 hours ago, but these are unique circumstances.