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CHAPEL HILL- North Carolina Coach Mack Brown asked his team to play a more complimentary style of football this week.

And the Tar Heels heeded his command in their 41-10 win over Virginia Tech on Saturday at Kenan Stadium.

In particular, a sequence of drives in the first half served as a tone-setter to the complementary football the Heels would play on the night.

Brown’s request, made last Monday in his weekly press conference, was for his offense to sustain some drives allowing Carolina’s beleaguered defense chance to rest at times. Last week’s loss to Notre Dame was the best example of that not happening, as the Irish ran 85 plays to UNC’s 60, and had the ball for nearly 15 more minutes.

So, the mandate was to sustain some drive, eat some clock, and let the guys on defense rest a bit.

“We had a bounce-back game for both sides of the ball,” UNC quarterback Drake Maye said after the Tar Heels win over the Hokies. “After the first drive, they came down, and they had a big play. We held them to a field goal, which was huge.

After that first touchdown, things were rolling from there. This defense, I face them every day in practice. They have players. They make plays, and they make it hard on you in practice.”

UNC (4-1, 1-0 ACC) punted on its first possession before the Hokies drove 59 yards to take a 3-0 lead. Against the Fighting Irish, Carolina’s kryptonite was a bevy of short possessions, while Notre Dame gorged on chunks while eating clock. It was as if UNC couldn’t change the course of the game.

Yet, on UNC’s next two possessions, both of which led to touchdowns, the Heels ran 12 plays (75 yards) and 11 plays (85) yards using nine minutes of clock time. At the same time, the defense forced Tech (2-2, 1-1) to punt after six plays and 19 yards, and then an interception on its fourth offensive snap of its third possession.

Junior linebacker Cedric Gray intercepts Hokies’ quarterback Grant Wells, giving Carolina excellent field position for Maye to connect with Antoine Greene for a 16-yard touchdown reception to cap a 21-0 scoring run for the Heels.

“An answer on defense is after we score a touchdown, you have to stop them, so we can get another one,” Brown said. “There's another concept when Virginia Tech scores, our offense has to go out, and they have to score.”

UNC’s offense has had to pick up its defense a lot this season, on Saturday, they picked up each other.

“I think we are giving each other what we need. They keep getting better. At the end of the day, the defense and offense are working with each other, and that’s the best brand of football for any team. We put that on display tonight, and it feels good when that happens.”

UNC playing complementary football led to its most lopsided win of the campaign. They executed their coach’s request, and it paid off.