CHAPEL HILL – The term “trap game” is often used in sports, but what exactly does it mean?

According to UrbanDictionary.com, “A trap game is a game played against an opponent generally deemed to be easy to defeat. As a result, a person or team may not prepare as thoroughly as they would for a formidable opponent. Often this attitude and its attendant lack of preparation lead to a loss.”

So, was North Carolina’s upset loss at home to Georgia Tech this past Saturday a trap game? The Tar Heels escaped at in-state rival Wake Forest with a two-point victory a week earlier, which also clinched the ACC Coastal Division title for the Heels. And, this Friday, Carolina hosts arch rival NC State.

Sandwiched in between was a visit from the Yellow Jackets, who came in with a 4-6 record led by an interim coach and with their top two quarterbacks out. This actually fits the classic description of a trap game, provided the Tar Heels obliged by doing their part to feed the narrative.

And they did, falling 21-17 to the Jackets on a night any hope of competing for a spot in the College Football Playoff was dashed, and likely the Heisman Trophy hopes of quarterback Drake Maye, as well.

But all wasn’t lost.

Mack Brown is still rebuilding a program that won five games over the two years before he was hired to return North Carolina football to a place it was when he left for Texas in 1997. Brown’s last two UNC teams finished ranked in the top 10 and combined for a 21-3 record.

It took him time to rebuild the Heels then, and is taking time now, as each foundational brick must be properly laid so it remains in place for years to come. And that is how Brown is viewing what’s gained from the surprising loss to Tech.

“It’s a good point, (and) I think you get a lot, because we’re always looking at taking another step,” Brown said Monday during his weekly press conference. “We’ve taken another step by winning (nine) games. We’ve taken another step by winning the Coastal for the second time in school history.

“But you’ve got to take an extra step: we knew this was a trap game, and I kept saying during the week, ‘Great teams don’t have trap games, they get ready to play. Let’s go.’ And we didn’t. That’s another teachable moment.”

Carolina has had issues handling prosperity under Brown, as limited as it has been. Losing to Georgia Tech is an example, but there’s another level to it.

The team generated plenty of national attention by clinching the Coastal, and Maye was ascending in the Heisman conversation. Some noteworthy national pundits had him at the top of the list after accounting for 519 yards versus the Demon Deacons.

UNC casually launched a Heisman campaign the following day, and most of the questions Maye received from the media during his availability last Tuesday were about the Heisman. This was unchartered waters for this program, so perhaps a little human natured set in and the Heels just didn’t respect the Yellow Jackets as much as is required at this level of college football.

At least they appeared to let up after methodically building a 17-0 lead in the second quarter.

“It was at home, and we’ve played really well at home,” Brown said, whose team registered season lows across the board offensively in the game. “Offense let us down. We’d played really well on offense; all these boxes that were checked were not checked.

“It’s not about who the best team is ever, it’s about who plays the best on that day. We say it, our team has to learn that, and we learned that on Saturday.”

Trap game or not, that absolutely applies every weekend.

But regardless of what the Twitter warriors and Monday morning quarterbacks say, with some of the chatter certainly reasonable criticisms, the reality is that Carolina is still building. All foundations need strong fortification so they are sustaining.

Thus, the lesson from the Georgia Tech game was to take responsibility for the trap game being a thing. That was totally on the Tar Heels, and the team knows it.

“Absolutely,” Brown said. “If you do what we said we wanted to do back in the spring, and you played in practice to a standard of excellence every day, you don’t have trap games, because that’s who you are.”

Carolina isn’t that program yet, but perhaps the bricks gained from what happened over the weekend will get it one big step closer.

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