CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina is off this week, but Tar Heels Coach Mack Brown still met with the media Tuesday morning via zoo to discuss the win over Duke, the open week, and more about his team.

The Tar Heels are coming off a 38-35 win over the Blue Devils on Saturday night at Wallace Wade Stadium, which improved their overall record to 6-1 and ACC mark to 3-0. UNC is also now 4-0 on the road.

Carolina does not play this weekend, and will next be in action at home Saturday, October 29 versus Pittsburgh.

Above is the video of Brown’s presser, and below are some notes and pulled quotes from what he had to say:

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Note: UNC announced before the presser that graduate defensive tackle Ray Vohasek is out for the season with an upper body injury. Also, offensive lineman William Barnes and running back D.J. Jones will be monitored day-by-day.

Brown was asked about junior defensive back Ja’Qurious Conley, and we will have that information in a separate content item.

*Players of the Game:

-Offense: Antoine Green & Josh Downs shared it. “They both played outstanding. I think Josh had 11 targets and nine catches. So, those two guys were really amazing.”

Brown noted that he is proud of Elijah Green for his play (two TDs) and that he has a smaller cast on his thumb, so he could well play more moving forward.

-Defense: Noah Taylor. “He continues to lead and he keeps showing up.”

*Brown is proud of his team and its 6-1 start. North Carolina has been very good compared to last year's team, as Brown even pointed out.

"We didn't win a road game last year. I am so very proud of these guys. They have accomplished a lot".

He's right, they have done a lot. Winning four road games compared to being winless on the road just last season is a sign of development and maturity.

"This team I am very proud of,” he said. “They are bowl eligible after seven games. We have already won as many games as we did last in 2013. (We are) 6-1 for the second time since 1997. 4-0 in road games for the first time since 2016."

Carolina's next stretch is going to be a strong test with Pittsburgh, Virginia, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, and then NC State to close out the regular season. Brown believes the bye week timing is beneficial.

"We have a tough five-game stretch here to finish,” he said. “But they should be exciting challenges for us. This week comes at a good time to get healthy and get energy back. "

*The one-minute offense in the Duke game was highly effective as Carolina scored on both drives closing out the first and second halves. UNC scored on a nine-play, 75-yard drive in the first half, burning 1:25 off the clock and leaving only 13 seconds for Duke. The second half drive ended with the game-winning play, a Drake Maye eight-yard pass to Antoine Green. That drive was nine plays for 74 yards burning 1:24 on the clock and leaving only 16 seconds for the Blue Devils. They were almost identical drives.

"We were excellent in one minute offense right before the half,” Brown said. “Really good time management to take two timeouts to save some time and one in our pocket. Really, really proud of the two drives, I felt like the difference in the ball game."

*Brown explained why he thought UNC did a better job on running on first down than had been the case through the first six games. This included a couple of new twists to the offense, like the quick speed option to get the running back to the perimeter.

"I thought they did a better job on first down," he said. "Part of that, the perimeter plays, we were just running up inside, not making any yards. I thought the options helped, the flares helped, getting the backs on the corner helped, and we did an outstanding job blocking on the perimeter."

Brown is leaning on coaches to correct and fix mistakes has been showing up on the field. He says the staff is working to find ways to move the ball on the ground on those early downs.

"Give the offensive staff credit to keep looking at different ways to change some things and getting in the right place," he said.

*Brown said Elijah Green is getting a longer look this week for a spot in the rotation. With D.J. Jones out with an injury and Caleb Hood banged up again during the Duke game, Green found an opportunity and was successful against Duke when his number was called. The running back had three carries for 24 yards and two touchdowns. Brown was impressed.

"He looked good, he looked fast, he was downhill,” the Carolina coach said. “He protected the ball. He had one issue with pass protection. He hadn't played a lot. He's been on the scout team a lot... He will do anything you ask at any time."

Brown left no doubt that Green is being given more opportunities to earn more playing time.

"The way he looked Saturday night, I think he will have to continue to be in the mix,” he said. “I am excited for him. I'm excited for us, but he sure worked hard and earned the right. "

*After UNC’s run defense showed improvement in wins over Virginia Tech and Miami, allowing a combined 141 yards on the ground in those games, that progress reversed course in the win at Duke. Brown is clearly concerned about this element of his team, and says they allowed way too many big runs by the Blue Devils.

Duke had three runs that went 15 or more yards and nine that went 10 or more yards.

“We gave up too many explosives,” Brown said, noting all phases of the defense. “We had poor tackling, we had poor angles. It’s really interesting, and this is a stat that we came up with after looking at the game: 42 carries for 297 yards rushing when they were averaging 200, so that’s basically a hundred more.

“Thirty-two of those runs were for 93 yards, so they averaged 2.9 yards per carry on 32 of those carries. Nine explosive plays were for 206 yards; they averaged 22.9 per carry. Now, the quarterback on a second-and-24, with a two-deep coverage, goes 74 yards for a touchdown. You absolutely cannot let that happen.

“They also have an inside zone, very much like Notre Dame last year, they cut all the way back behind our jack position and we miss tackles, and he goes 38 yards. So, there’s a hundred right there.

“So, we’ve got to figure out why we keep being so inconsistent on defense.”

*The inconsistency ranges from long stretches of efficient defense followed by periods in which the defense simply falls off a cliff as well as three good plays followed by a breakdown, which is what Brown was initially alluding to.

The staff has a major challenge in finding a way to cut off the downward spirals sooner so they are less damaging.

“We’re pulling our hair out,” Brown said. “We had long conversations Sunday and again Monday and met with them today. We’re pulling out every play where we’re inconsistent and then showing that pattern. You can’t let one bad play lead to another, and we’re doing that. And you can’t. Good teams can’t do that.

“So, we’re talking about looking at personnel, we’re talking about better angles. And practice today was, ‘Go back and check every pursuit angle that you’ve got. Go back and put yourself in better positions to tackle. We can’t keep missing tackles.’

“I took a sequence of plays; the quarterback draw, we were in a two-deep shell. And I said, ‘We’ve got 11 really good players, and this is a simple defense, and they’re second-and-24, you tell me how somebody on that field couldn’t make that tackle. You tell me, c’mon.’

“And I ran it over, and over and over again. I showed the third-down-and six – the 38-yard run. I said, ‘We’re in perfect position here. We’re in gap control. They didn’t knock us off the ball; it’s just like the Notre Dame (91-yard run) play last year, why does he bounce out the back and we couldn’t make that tackle? Why did we lose the edge? Why are we not in position to tackle.

‘“And then two plays ago, you did. So, where’s the disconnect?’ And that’s what we’ve got to figure out… We’ve got to get football smarter.”

*Carolina was flagged twice for delay of game when starting a new possession, which hadn’t happened all season until Saturday night. Brown said it seemed the play clock was starting quickly on changes of possession, and cited that as being partly why that happened. But he also said it was on them to adjust.

Brown has been rather open since his return about sending questionable calls by the officials to the ACC office for review. But what about timing concerns, do they have to follow the same protocol?

“I didn’t (send it in) because Duke didn’t have issues,” Brown said. “So, if I’m the supervisor, I’d say, ‘One team didn’t have issues, why did you?’

“Normally, the officials will kind of watch and wait until you start before they start the clock. This one, obviously, didn’t, and therefore it’s our fault. I addressed that in the meeting this morning as well, ‘We can’t start first-and-15. Twice.’

“So, we’ve either got to go faster, coaches have got to get them out there quicker, or when we get out there, we’ve got to go.”

*Carolina is now in its second open week of the season, btu the approach will be a bit different than a month ago. The staff did a full re-evaluation then, and they are certainly re-evaluating some things this week, but roster management and other things are on the docket.

“For this week, we will going to re-evaluate our last four games,” Brown said. “Our schedule sets up perfectly for us where we could self-evaluate the first three, now we can go back and look at personnel, we can look at every explosive play, we can look at sacks, we can look at tackles for loss.

“Anything we’re not doing well, we can go back and try to figure out what it is and what we can do to change it. Why’s it happening, and how can we get more consistency?”

We will have more on the roster management angle to this week in a separate report.