Football is a physical game, and that is one element North Carolina needed more in its opening game of the season.

UNC defeated McNeese State 35-27 on Aug. 31, and doesn't play again until Carolina (1-0) visits Rutgers (0-1) at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the weekly ESPN game.

That 11-day gap between games gives the Tar Heels a chance to focus on improving their whole approach to the game.

Look for Tar Heels to be much more physical against Rutgers.

Whether it was McNeese' speed, first-game jitters or whatever, the Tar Heels seemed to play with too much finesse and not enough force along the line of scrimmage on offense and defense.

"Obviously, not playing this Saturday gives us an opportunity to take look at some of the struggles we had and maybe some of the reasons we struggled," Coach Butch Davis said. "We were very fortunate to have won the ball game.

"There were an awful lot of bizarre things: an excessive, over-two-hour rain delay that obviously we didn't do a good job, myself as a coach, of getting our players back into the emotion that we had at the start of the ball game. I certainly take full responsibility for that."

The Heels appeared to start strong, but the storm delay appeared to throw Carolina out of rhythm and help the Cowboys find theirs. McNeese went from trailing 14-0 to leading 20-14 after the teams returned from the locker room.

In the end, however, McNeese did not have an answer for senior wide receiver and return man Brandon Tate of Burlington, who set a school record with 397 all-purpose yards. Tate scored on a punt return, a deep pass reception and became the first wide receiver in UNC history to run for more than 100 yards (105) from the line of scrimmage.

"Brandon Tate could play for every team I've coached for the last 34 years," Davis said. "He is a great kid. You love the way he approaches it. There's a lot of guys who don't like to return kicks and punts. He is electrifying. He makes guys miss. You need guys like that who can change field position and change the complexion of the game."

Tate is a great player, but the offensive line is going to have to line up and pound the defense with more authority for UNC to have the kind of season it wants. By the end of the game against McNeese, Carolina was doing a better job with that.

Shaun Druaghn came in, ran the ball well and scored a touchdown. After that, starting running back Greg Little ran with more authority when he got another chance and scored a TD as well.

As for the defensive line, end E.J. Wilson did his part. He was named the defensive lineman of the week in the ACC and could be seen making many plays throughout the night.

Tate was honored as the ACC specialist of the week.

Davis said it's natural for a team to make its biggest leap forward at this time of the year. With so little depth on the UNC roster, the coaching staff avoided working the team work too physically in the preseason, so the opening game was the first chance to see how all the players would react going full speed.

"In the month of September you're going to make the most improvement," Davis said. "From game one to game two is probably the biggest leap, and game two to game three. One (reason) is because you're playing with an awful lot of kids; this is their first opportunity to play in a ball game. They are true freshmen, red-shirt freshmen or maybe even sophomores or red-shirt sophomores. The speed of the game, no matter how hard you try, you cannot replicate the game speed in practice.

"Fifteen or 30 years ago, maybe you could. You could scrimmage more and get kids used to live scrimmage work. But now, with the reduced number of scholarships, it's almost impossible to replicate that, certainly during August. You're worried you're not going to have some of the guys ready to go the first couple of weeks. God forbid you would lose them."

Now the time has come, however, for everyone on the team to start hitting with all the authority they can muster and to do so with confidence. To continuing playing with anything less is going to bring some unwanted results.