Mack Brown reveals the reason for UNC's late-season dip

The North Carolina Tar Heels have done precisely what head coach Mack Brown didn’t want his team to do, back into the ACC championship game. After securing their spot three weeks ago against Wake Forest, North Carolina has dropped its last two games against Georgia Tech and NC State. When asked what’s the reason for the Tar Heels’ two-game losing streak, Brown revealed that it boils down to two things responsible for UNC’s late-season dip.

“We haven’t played as well on offense,” said Brown. “We were planning a really high level on offense, and we’ve had too many misses on third down. We’ve punted more than we’ve punted since we’ve been here, probably, and we haven’t scored as many touchdowns in the red zone. Those would be the two things I would say is the difference in the game. The defense has gotten better, and the offense hasn’t produced as well as we did in the previous games.”

Opposing defenses have honed in that Quarterback Drake Maye is the engine to the Tar Heels’ success. So in the last two games, Georgia Tech and North Carolina State focused on limiting North Carolina’s passing game. And those two losses, Maye has completed less than 60 percent of its passes and has more interceptions than touchdowns, 2-1. In order to knock off Clemson in the ACC championship game, the Tar Heels will need a resurgence of their offense against the suffocating Tigers’ defense. If not, North Carolina will continue to snowball to end the 2022 season.

Brown identifies the main areas that concern him about Clemson

The Tigers have struggled down the stretch too, but Dabo Swinney’s team has been a Top-10 caliber squad all season for a reason. With all their talent, there’s one area of their team that has Mack Brown worried about Saturday night.

Brown crowned Clemson’s defense as the most talented unit in the nation during his press conference on Monday. He says you can see it in how their program recruits and it has led to the production they’ve seen on that side of the ball over this season.

“They’ve got the best group of defensive players in the country. Their frontline and linebackers are just draft choices…That’s just who they are. They’ve recruited that well,” said Brown. “People have not been able to run the ball at all. And then it’s hard to pass protect. I looked at their numbers. Talking about us not having many (sacks)? They’ve got a bunch of sacks, a bunch of pressures, and a bunch of tackles for loss. That’s just who they are.”

Clemson’s defense finished 28th in the nation by allowing just 20.9 points per game. Their counting stats have been incredibly productive too with 35 sacks that averages out to nearly three a game. They’ve also forced 18 takeaways on the year.