Well, I’m still trying to wrap my brain around what I witnessed through my screen on Friday night between the Miami Hurricanes and the Louisville Cardinals. The supposedly different team I’ve watched all season must have stayed in the bye week, as the version I saw in Miami’s 24-21 loss was the one I’ve seen over the last 20+ years.
But who had solid showings and who stunk the most? I like to see what Pro Football Focus says as far as their highest and lowest graded players and see how it compares
to my memory and eyeballs. Here are the top 5 and lowest 5 graded Canes by PFF against Louisville. I’m including players with at least 20 snaps in the game.
Top 5
1. Francis Mauigoa – 76.2
2. Ahmad Moten Sr. – 76.1
3. Rueben Bain, Jr. – 75.9
4. Keionte Scott – 74.8
5. Malachi Toney – 74.7
I’m not too surprised with this list. Toney was Miami’s best player on Sunday in this writer’s opinion, but PFF is particular in their process over 60 game minutes beyond just the overall stats. Mauigoa had a terrible personal foul penalty that killed an early drive, but he was Miami’s highest-graded pass blocker (74.1) and run blocker (83.6), the latter by a country mile. Keionte Scott had the lone sack, but his tackling grade was among the worst on the team (29.4) and he was credited with a co-team-high 5 missed tackles. Still, he delivered 9 tackles, 3 TFLs, a sack, and a big forced fumble.
Speaking of missed tackles….
Bottom 5
1. Zechariah Poyser – 48.1
2. Mohamed Toure – 48.5
3. Wesley Bissainthe – 49.3
4. Elijah Lofton – 49.8
5. Xavier Lucas – 50.7
Miami’s three lowest graded players missed a combined 11 tackles per PFF. Bissainthe was credited with 5 of them, and Poyser with 4. Toure allowed 4 catches on 5 targets for 51 yards (47 YAC) and a touchdown. It appears they tagged him as the player responsible on the crosser to Chris Bell for his second touchdown that put the Cardinals up 24-13 in the fourth quarter. In looking back, he was the closest defender to the catch.
Poor tackling, poor coverage, too much bad from this part of the defense on Friday night, so I can’t really argue with it too much.
But many might wonder – where was Carson Beck? A 55.2 overall grade, which was third worst on the offense. I don’t know how they came up with that number, but, in this writer’s opinion, that number should have been lower, and Beck’s name should have shown up among the bottom five this week.
In any event, a lot of those numbers, particularly with regards to tackling, very much needs to improve next week against a Stanford team that Miami had better lock in against and drop the hammer on.
