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CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina defensive coordinator Gene Chizik watched his unit’s performance twice on the bus ride back from the Tar Heels’ wild 63-61 victory at Appalachian State on Saturday in Boone.

Most of the questions Chizik was asked by the media focused on his unit’s struggles, which included allowing the Mountaineers to score six touchdowns (40 points) in the fourth quarter. In addition, they accumulated 338 yards and 18 first downs.

For the game, App State’s 664 total yards are the fifth most ever against a UNC team, and its 37 first downs are the second most.

UNC plays at Georgia State this Saturday for a noon kick.

Above is video of Chizik’s press conference, and below are notes and a few pulled quotes from what he said, and a timeline noting the direction various questions went and some interesting things he said:

*The first question was simple: Where does he start when looking at this game and what transpired?

“Well, as you go back and look at it, early in the game, we gave up a couple of explosive plays: one 41-yard pass and we gave up a long touchdown run. Then we kind of settled in and started to play better probably midway through the second quarter all the way through the third quarter.

“We settled down. We kind of had an idea of what we were doing. I thought we fit the run well, we weren’t giving up any explosive plays, we were getting off the field. And then the fourth quarter, at that point, I think we had given up 21 points, and the fourth quarter was an implosion. And it was a lot of things.

“It was not on a single individual, it wasn’t on a single group of players – d-line, linebackers, secondary – it was everybody. 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.

“I think special teams did a good job of giving us long fields where they had to drive the ball, there was times we'd get ahead of the chains and there was a penalty. So, the fourth quarter was a mixture of a lot of things. Some of it was great execution by them, some of the throws they made in the fourth quarter were right where the ball had to be. But we have to be better in the coverage element. And when we have time to get off the field, we have to get off the field. And those penalties aided three or four different drives that ended up turning into points.

“So, there’s a lot of good that can come from this. Obviously, it was a performance that we wish in the fourth quarter hadn’t happened. There’s a lot of learning, there’s a lot of teaching. We have to tackle better; I feel like we missed a lot of tackles we shouldn’t have, and that was evident pretty much through most of the game. I think we can get better at that.

“Overall, it was just penalties, the tackling, missed execution of some coverage elements. All of those things, it was a perfect storm, and will be a learning experience for our whole defense.”

*The Tar Heels took the bus back to Chapel Hill following the game, and during that time, Chizik watched the game twice. He watched it again before going to bed. He said during the film session Sunday, and later at practice, “the players have responded amazingly.”

*About 5 minutes into the presser, Chizik was asked about the in-game conversations he had with the players, and even some coaches.

Yes, it was about getting their mindsets right, but Chizik also put it on himself and the staff saying, “We have to do a better job coaching.”

*With respect to the wild inconsistency of the game (UNC allowed no points and just under 100 yards between the end of App’s third possession and the end of the third quarter), one of the things Chizik asked the team Sunday was pretty simple: “Do you 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?

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

*At around the 6:45 mark, Chizik was asked if the issue was in preparation or more just a lack of execution.

“Any time you’re not playing well, it’s always a matter of execution. But it goes back to my original statement, we have to do a better job.”

Accountability wasn’t an issue with Chizik on Monday.

*UNC had issues with App’s zone blocking and successfully sprung quite a few big runs. Chizik discussed this at around the 7:40 mark.

*Chizik, as well as UNC Coach Mack Brown before him, noted the problems with pass coverage. More specifically, was this the corners not playing the ball properly, safeties rolling over, communication, something else? Chizik was asked this at around the 8:15 mark.

“I think we can get better. We talked it yesterday; I think our technique can be better in the secondary for everybody, and that’s not just the corners but the safeties as well. There were some balls thrown Saturday that we could have defended better for sure.

“Usually, when you are in press coverage, if you lose the battle, it’s in the first five yards or the last five yards, or both. So, what we have to get better at as a secondary just in general, is when we are in press coverage, we’ve got to win at the line of scrimmage. That’s the beginning.

“So the first five yards always matter, and sometimes our technique wasn’t as good as it needed to be, so we lost at the line of scrimmage, and typically when that happens, you’re trying to play catch up.”

Chizik said it’s about getting better at all fundamentals, and the staff must do a better job coaching.

*So, is this a pulled-thread deal where you tug on a sweater thread, and next thing you know the sweater becomes a head of whatever? Is there a trigger point that affects everything else, and if fixed can have an immediate positive impact on all else that went wrong? Question asked at around the 9:20 mark.

His reply was no, there were a lot of things. Chizik said it begins with technique at every position. He mentioned the first five yards in press coverage, but also the DL getting off the snap quickly and properly, linebackers missing fits, and myriad things that were evident Saturday.

*At around the 10:50 mark, Chizik said he thanked Phil Longo and Drake Maye big time for scoring enough to get the win.

*At the 11:30 mark, he was asked about similarities to when he arrived before the 2015 season inheriting one of the worst defenses in the nation – the similarities asked weren’t about personnel but having something to draw from that experience.

*Chizik said he’d never coached a team that gave up 40 points in a quarter until Saturday. He spent some time discussing the issues before saying, “I know what goes with this, I know what issues are out there, I know what we have to fix. I have a lot of confidence in our guys still being all in, without question. I don’t think there’s any question in that right now…

“We’ll continue to give them a consistent message. We as coaches, me, everybody on defense, we have to up our game.”

*With tackling being such a problem, teams don’t go full contact during the week in practice. They do thud and light contact, but execution is more the emphasis. The tackling-related things they can give the kids as many “game-speed scenarios as you can.”

That helps in more guys improving at getting to the ball. If two or three are at the ball or near it, the chance that a collective group can slow and bring the runner to the ground is greatly enhanced over just one player trying to do it alone.

Also, the individual time along with skill stuff, that must improve. How a player strikes a block is as important as how a player tackles because it frees him up to more quickly see where the ball is and is going, and to break free and get toward the ball.

*Chizik said some of the explosive plays by App occurred with 10 defensive players doing their job and one guy didn’t, and that led to the explosive plays.

*He also said the unit may have lost some focus once they went up by 20 points going into the fourth quarter, and once a football team loses its edge, it’s very difficult to get back in the same game.

*At around the 16-minute mark, Chizik was asked a question about Georgia State. It was the only one, to some of what he said was, “Georgia State runs the ball really, really well.”