CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — It appeared briefly that the Tar Heels found an ever-so-needed glimmer of hope in a game that was starting to get away.

TCU, ahead by three coming off two consecutive scoring drives, drove down the field in Kenan Stadium on North Carolina’s defense in the second quarter and reached UNC’s 20-yard line, poised to score again. But an overthrown pass by Josh Hoover fell into the reaching arm of Kaleb Cost, who hauled in the interception with two hands to give UNC the ball back and spark energy into the home crowd.

Unfortunately for Bill Belichick’s Tar Heels, though, it took just three plays for that light to stop flickering. Bud Clark picked off Gio Lopez on a pass going for Jordan Shipp, and Clark dashed to the endzone for a touchdown that put TCU ahead by 10. The Horned Frogs went on to score points in their next three offensive possessions, and they added a defensive touchdown to put themselves ahead by 34 in the third quarter.

Entering Monday, it felt like there were two practical ways for UNC’s Labor Day opener to play out: either Belichick’s NFL acumen and credentials were going to translate in an emphatic way from the sidelines in his collegiate debut, or the challenge of fielding a brand new team with a brand new coaching staff against a nine-win TCU squad would be too much to overcome in Week 1. The latter proved true, and then some, as Monday’s 48-14 loss to TCU on prime time felt like a worst-case scenario performance for the Tar Heels.

“Look, they just outplayed us, they outcoached us,” Belichick swiftly stated at the microphone Monday night. “I mean, they were just better than we were tonight. That’s all there was to it. They controlled both sides of the line of scrimmage. Their skill players played well. And they did a lot more things right than we did.”

The major questions about the Tar Heels entering Monday night weren’t met with pleasant answers. The defensive line couldn’t make its presence felt, accumulating no sacks and surrendering 258 rushing yards. Collectively, UNC’s offense couldn’t find a rhythm or set a clear identity, as it went 34 minutes and nine seconds of game time without completing a pass. The offensive line allowed two sacks and struggled to help the unit establish the run, as UNC’s running backs managed just 2.9 yards per carry.

Self-inflicted issues hurt the Tar Heels as much as TCU’s offensive proficiency did. North Carolina turned the football over three times, including Lopez’s interception, a sack fumble against Lopez in the third quarter and a fumble on a handoff by Davion Gause.

“It was multiple things,” Belichick said. “Anytime you give up two turnover touchdowns offensively, that’s not good. We gave up several long plays on defense, where they gained a lot of yards on one play. So just too many of those. There wasn’t any one thing. It was a combination of multiple things. Too many three-and-outs, too many long plays on defense, and then (three) turnovers.”

Adding to the misery, North Carolina had to use two quarterbacks in Monday’s loss. Lopez took a crushing hit on the sack fumble in the third quarter and missed the rest of the game with a back injury, bringing Max Johnson in for his first game in just over a year. Before Monday, Johnson’s last game was the 2024 season opener against Minnesota, in which he broke his femur. Johnson completed nine of his 11 pass attempts for 103 yards and a touchdown, but the game was out of reach by that point.

“We’ve got to communicate better with each other with what we’re doing,” Johnson said. “They made some good adjustments. We made some adjustments coming out of halftime, and we just have to go out there and execute better. We had some things that were there, and we just have to do a better job of going out there, competing every single play and throughout the whole game.”

Belichick didn’t have much to say on Lopez’s status or what he’ll do at quarterback this weekend when the Tar Heels face Charlotte on Saturday. He did mention that he was unsure of Lopez’s availability for the Charlotte game.

“We’ll see how Gio is,” Belichick said. “They took him off, took a look at him, hopefully it’s not too bad, but we’ll see. You know, give Max a lot of credit. He came in after being off for a long time, hung in there and made some plays in a tough situation. So give him a lot of credit for what he did tonight, but we’ll take a look at it after we see where things are at and go from there. I don’t know. It’s too early to tell now.”

With every botched snap, turnover, defensive lapse and missed opportunity on Monday, the Tar Heels ventured further and further away from a winning path.

Belichick’s Tar Heels will have more opportunities to pick up wins and play cleaner football this season, but Monday’s debut was a flop. Let the Tar Heels tell it: they still have a lot of work to do.

“It’s definitely disappointing, but it’s just back to the drawing board again,” Kaleb Cost said. “We’re gonna go hard. We’re gonna go hard every single day this week going into Charlotte and make sure that never happens again.”