Mack Brown had a simple explanation for North Carolina’s late season losses to Georgia Tech and rival NC State.

“We haven’t played as well on offense,” the Hall of Fame coach said Monday.

That much goes without saying.

The Tar Heels had been averaging 505.5 yards and 40.1 points while going 9-1 over their first 10 games, with quarterback Drake Maye emerging as a legitimate Heisman Trophy contender.

But those numbers fell to just 358 yards and 22 points per game since then, while Maye’s stock has dropped like the potential game-winning pass he threw to favorite receiver Josh Downs late in the game against the Yellow Jackets.

That decisive 4th-down play was emblematic of UNC’s woes over the past 2 games. After scoring on 43 of its first 49 red-zone possessions (87.8%), it cashed in on only 7-of-12 opportunities (58.3%) against Tech and State.

The disparity is just as dramatic on 3rd down, where they’ve been successful on just 9 of their 34 most recent conversions.

“We’ve punted more than we’ve punted since we’ve been here probably,” Brown said, “and haven’t scored as many touchdowns in the red zone.”

They haven’t scored as many points, period.

The Tar Heels have gotten into the end zone only 6 times on their past 32 drives dating to their most recent win, at Wake Forest on Oct. 11.

It’s a slump that can be easily written off as an overrated team regressing to the norm. Or the law of averages finally catching up with UNC after winning its first 6 games decided by a touchdown or less.

Or perhaps the Heisman moment was simply too big for a freshman quarterback, even 1 with as much talent as Maye, to handle.

While all of those might be contributing factors to the Tar Heels’ recent slippage, there has to be a more analytical exclamation for what’s gone wrong with an offense Clemson’s Dabo Swinney described as “the best we’ve seen.”

And there are several.

They are problems Brown and offensive coordinator Phil Longo must solve to have any shot at beating Swinney’s Tigers in Charlotte on Saturday and bringing home UNC’s first ACC championship since 1970.

“We’re staying here after midnight almost every night trying to figure that out,” Brown said when asked what the solutions might be.

At the top of the list is pass protection.

UNC hasn’t been particularly good at it all season, with 34 sacks allowed. But it’s been especially bad over the past few weeks. Georgia Tech was responsible for 6 of those sacks.

It’s tough for even the best quarterbacks to be effective when they’re on their back or running for their life more than they are looking for open receivers downfield.

Speaking of those receivers, there’s a chance that Maye’s top 2 targets – Downs and Antoine Green – are both less than 100% physically after getting banged up against Wake Forest on Oct. 12.

That doesn’t completely absolve Maye from responsibility.

Whether it’s the pressure associated with his Heisman hype or the youthful tendency to try to do too much, the UNC star’s inexperience has begun to show.

It was especially glaring in Friday’s double-overtime loss to the Wolfpack.

Maye had a hard time recognizing and reacting to a defensive scheme that alternated between pressure and dropping 8 men into coverage. The latter strategy was designed to limit UNC’s ability to hit the deep ball that has become one of its offensive trademarks.

It worked to perfection.

“When you drop 8 guys and have 4 receivers, y’all can do the math,” Maye said after the game. “They’ve got double the amount we’ve got.”

And yet, instead of concentrating on shorter, underneath throws by “being patient and taking the less-exciting, less-exotic aspect of the play” – as Longo put it – Maye continued trying to force things over the top.

It wasn’t until the final desperation drive of regulation, which yielded the tying touchdown as time expired, that the Tar Heels finally began to adjust.

They’d be wise not to wait so long against the Tigers. Because coaches, no matter how accomplished they might be, are copycats by nature. If they see something that works against an opponent, they’re going to keep going back to it.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we get some of that with Clemson,” Longo predicted.

Swinney will have to do something to keep his secondary from getting exposed the way it was in last week’s loss to South Carolina and an earlier overtime win against Wake Forest. The Gamecocks’ Spencer Rattler threw for 360 yards and had 6 completions of 20-plus yards.

Given time in the pocket, Maye has the capability of doing just as much damage. Especially with Clemson safety RJ Mickens out for the 1st half while serving a suspension for targeting.

It’s just a matter of keeping things simple, taking what the defense is giving and not letting the moment become too big.

Regardless of which trophy is at stake.