Hey. Winning is hard and Miami won. So let’s take it and move on. Well, after we analyze things, that is.
Miami went on the road and beat the Virginia Tech Hokies 34-17 on Saturday afternoon.
Craig T. Smith
is back with your Game Recap:
Mike Schiffman is here as always with your 3 stars:
Let’s get into this edition of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly:
The Good
- A win! Winning is hard, and I’m never taking it for granted. IDC IDC IDC.
- Getting a lead early. Would have liked even more, but hey.
- That last touchdown. Needed it for the scoreboard watchers.
- QB Carson Beck. 27/32 passing (84.4% completions) for 320 yards with 4 TDs and 0 INTs. This is the player I expected to see this year.
- WR Malachi Toney. The offensive weapon continued his strong and diverse performance. 12 catches for 146 yards and a touchdown, 3 carries for 16 yards, and 1/1 passing for 15 yards. He continues to be a walking highlight.
- RB Mark Fletcher Jr., TE Elija Lofton, and RB Girard Pringle Jr. each had a receiving touchdown today.
- DT Ahmad Moten Sr. 5 tackles, 3 TFLs, 2 sacks. He was elite today. MVP of the game on defense.
- S Zechariah Poyser. 10 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 sack, 1 QB hurry, 1 PBU, 1 fumble recovery. He stepped up big today
- EDGE Akheem Mesidor. 3 tackles, 1 sack, 1.5 TFL, 2 forced fumbles, 1 QB hurry.
- DT Justin Scott. 4 tackles, 2.5 TFL, 1 sack. Dominant.
- CB Damari Brown. 3 tackles and great, lockdown coverage. Yes, he made one mistake biting on a double move on 4th down which put VT in position to score, but I’m not ignoring the other 50+ plays of excellence because of it.
- P Dylan Joyce. Only 2 punts but a 44.5 yard average and pinned VT as far back as possible. Well done.
- Canes opened the scoring with a touchdown pass from Carson Beck to Elija Lofton. Switch routes for the win!
- Canes marched 75 yards in 14 plays and took 8 and a half minutes off the clock on their second drive, which ended with Mark Fletcher Jr’s first career receiving touchdown. Bang.
- Miami swarms VT for a 4th down stop! OG BOBBY PRUITT WITH THE TACKLE!!!!
- Carson Beck with a BEAUTIFUL THROW to Girard Pringle Jr. on a wheel route in the low red zone for a touchdown. I love it.
- DT Ahamad Moten Sr. with a huge 4th down sack, chasing down VT QB Kyren Drones in the process. An INCREDIBLE play.
- Akheem Mesidor with a strip sack. Zechariah Poyser with the recovery. This was after VT had recovered an onside kick and sorely needed.
- Huge, positive injury news for Miami. After leaving the game in the 2nd quarter with what looked like a BAD injury, S Jakobe Thomas looks like he’ll be able to return next week.
- 418 yards of offense
- 335 yards passing
- 6.6 yards per play
- 12 yards per completion
- 41:04 time of possession to Virginia Tech’s 25:18. Wait what? That math doesn’t math.
- 9 chunk plays — 9 passes (15+), 0 runs (10+)
- 5/5 red zone scoring
- 22 first downs
- 7/13 on 3rd down
- 2/2 on 4th down
- Held Virginia Tech to 3/12 on 3rd down
- Virginia Tech QB Kyren Drones 12/21 passing for 124 yards with 0 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. 14 carries for 31 yards.
- 9 TFLs
- 5 sacks
- 1 turnovers created — Mesidor forced fumble, Poyser recovery
- +1 turnover ratio
- Only allowed 3 TFLs
- No sacks allowed
The Bad
- Allowed 22 first downs to Virginia Tech
- Allowed 395 yards of offense to Virginia Tech
- Allowed 17 points to Virginia Tech
- Yeah, the rest is ugly
The Ugly
- 2nd lowest rushing output on the year: 83 yards total
- 2nd lowest rushing average on the year: 2.8 yards per carry
- Back on our bullshit with penalties (deserved or otherwise). 9 penalties for 88 yards today.
- Allowed a season-high 194 yards rushing to Virginia Tech. That’s all they can do on offense. We knew that going in. And we still couldn’t stop it.
- Allowed nearly 400 yards of offense to THIS Virginia Tech team. That really sucks.
- Allowed 20 first downs to Virginia Tech
- Allowed 17 points to Virginia Tech. Yeah, this is in the Bad AND the Ugly
- Missed tackles. So many missed tackles. Miami had 5 sacks and could have had nearly 10. And don’t even get me started on the missed tackles in the run game.
- Speaking of the run game, some of the worst run fits and angles from the back 7 we’ve seen all year.
- The camera work by the ESPN crew. Some of the worst I’ve ever seen in my life.
- The narrative pushing by Bob Wischusen and Louis Riddick. Listening to the broadcast, you’d have thought Miami were losing when they were up 27-10 it was so bad. Clearly guided by the network but yeah that was atrocious.
- Miami allowing Virginia Tech’s backup QB to hit a prayer on 4th down (Damari Brown’s 1 bad play, peeking in the backfield and getting caught on a double move)
- Miami allowing Virginia Tech’s backup QB to score on the next play, cutting the lead to 27-17
- Miami allowing Virginia Tech to recover the ensuing onside kick after VT scored to make it 27-17
- An early false start by Matthew McCoy. We hadn’t had one of those in weeks, and I hated to see it return.
- A personal foul on the kickoff after going up 7-0. Just stupid shit, man.
- The run fit angles by Bryce Fitzgerald and Xavier Lucas on Virginia Tech’s 1st offensive play. Little league type shit, and it allowed VT a massive gain.
- Another week, another dropped touchdown by a Tight End who can’t play through contact. This time, it was Alex Bauman, and his drop ended Carson Beck’s streak of 24 consecutive completions across 2 games. And that caused Miami to settle for a FG to go up 17-3 instead of a touchdown to go up 21-3.
- Cameron Pruitt called for a facemask to negate a TFL on 4th down. I thought it was a facemask (grabbed it late) but many thought otherwise. Either way, it allowed VT’s drive to continue and end in a touchdown, cutting the score to 20-10
- The ACC refs. They’re the worst. Multiple horrible calls gifted VT yards and points today. It happens every week against Miami, and it has to fucking stop.
- James Brockermeyer snapping the ball when Beck wasn’t looking. Nearly cost Miami a safety, and definitely killed the final drive of the 3rd quarter. He’s been very bad this year, I’m sorry to say.
- I think there’s more, but yeah. It was a win where we doubled up the opponent but it doesn’t feel great, if we’re being honest.
Team Grades
Offense: C+
Miami scored points on their first 5 possessions, but settling for a pair of field goals kept the score from truly reflecting the disparity on the field. Another dropped TD by a Tight End who can’t play through contact (this time, Alex Bauman), and penalties killed drives to force Miami to settle for field goals.
Carson Beck might have played his best game of the year. Nearly 85% completions, 320 yards and 4 TDs. He had one bad play that was nearly an interception after getting heated up by pressure, but outside of that Beck pitched a perfect game. And had Bauman not dropped a touchdown, and had Beck hit Malachi Toney out of the backfield against a blitz, his numbers might have been truly incredible.
I’m sorry. I was writing this and totally forgot the biggest issue, one that had me lower the grade by a full letter: Miami’s run game. 83 yards on 2.8 yards a carry are both the 2nd lowest numbers in a game this season (with the Louisville game being the only one worse). It worked out because VT wasn’t able to stop Miami’s passing game, but performance of this caliber is unacceptable regardless of opponent. The run game was an F- today.
The return of procedural and holding penalties was an unweclomed sight. And, James Brockermeyer snapping the ball into nowhere when Beck hadn’t signaled for it was atrocious.
Going for it on 4th down late in the game to hit Toney for a touchdown to make the score more palatable shows Cristobal and company know the situation facing this team. I’m just glad Beck was on fire and dropped a perfect dime to Toney for the score.
Defense: C+
On Monday, Defensive Coordinator Corey Hetherman said the key to the game was stopping Virginia Tech’s run game. On Saturday, Virginia Tech ran for 194 yards on 5.2 yards per carry. Those numbers are BY FAR the most Miami has allowed on the ground this year. Time and again, Miami was manhandled up front, misaligned behind them with bad angles and terrible run fits, and Virginia Tech gashed Miami’s nation-leading run defense all day long.
Miami’s pass defense was pretty good, but allowed a couple plays when they couldn’t. The 4th down prayer by the backup QB to set up VT’s final score being one of them. The raw numbers were fine, but when coupled with a pretty dominant rushing attack, VT’s pedestrian passing game was complementary enough to move the ball and that sucks.
Miami’s pass rush was dominant. 5 sacks on the day, and several more possible is Drones weren’t a tank. 9 TFLs were cool too, but the gashing runs outnumbered the negative rushing plays nearly 2-to-1 for VT, which doesn’t feel great, if we’re being honest.
I know Miami only allowed 17 points, and 14 of them needed referee and broken play assistance to get on the board, but I’m left with a sour taste in my mouth after this game. Which sucks, because I’d have killed for this kind of defensive performance last year, but in this spot, with the ESPN announcers and the CFB world clearly in lockstep against Miami, this just didn’t deliver enough in a moment where Miami needed it.
Special Teams: B
Kickoffs were great. Punting was incredible. Davis went 2/2 on FG attempts. And the coverage units were great.
Miami had another penalty on a returns for a block in the back. Full grade demerit.
Coaching: C+
This is a tough compilation grade today. Let me explain:
Mario Cristobal clearly had the team ready to go. They came out and scored TDs on their first 2 possessions, while holding VT to 3 points total, even though both of their first 2 drives ended inside the Miami 25. You love to see stuff like that.
But the penalties came back this week. And there were multiple calls that could (should?) have been challenged that weren’t, and that matters too.
I love the fact that Cristobal had the offense go for a touchdown on 4th down late in the game while up 27-17. That killer instinct to make the score look more appealing is what we needed, and credit to Cristobal for bucking his conservative reputation by going for it there.
Shannon Dawson’s offense was cooking in the air, but boxed up on the ground. I want and need more from the run game. But, some drives were killed by penalties and poor performance — not his fault Bauman dropped a touchdown he drew up — but the lack of positive result is on the OC. Sorry, but them’s the breaks.
And Corey Hetherman’s defense being unable to stop or even contain the VT run game when we all knew that was the only thing they could do on defense is……………suboptimal. I know the game is based on points, and the defense only allowed 17, but it’s truly shameful that we allowed that many points, and all the yards on the ground. Again, Hetherman himself said during his Monday presser that job #1 today was stopping the run, and his defense failed that test with flying colors. Like, had a meltdown during the bar exam, ripped up the test, stripped naked, and slapped the proctor before peeing on the walls type of stuff.
Miami won. Miami doubled the score of their opponent. But this game shouldn’t have been this close, and by virtue of letting it be close, the only thing they’ve done is allow more negative narratives to be spun about them from nearly everyone in the CFB world. Miami and the coaches pass because they won, but in a very “C’s get degrees” not “Summa Cum Laude” kinda way.
That’s it for this installment of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
Hop in the comments and let me know your thoughts.
