For the second time in a row at at Hard Rock Stadium, your Miami Hurricanes lost to the Louisville Cardinals, this time by a 24-21 score.
Craig T. Smith has your game recap:
Mike Schiffman is back with the
3 stars of the game:
Let’s get into this edition of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly:
The Good
- A win! I will never take this for granted.
- Miami is now undefeated against Stanford all-time….at 1-0 after this game.
- Bowl eligibility! 6 wins means Miami’s going to a bowl game. It’s a big step, but a minor note. We have bigger goals this season.
- WR Malachi Toney. 5 catches for 52 yards, 1 carries for 13 yards, and 2 punt returns for 73 yards, both of which probably score if the blockers were blocking and not staring at Malachi wondering what he’d do next. Another incredible night for the superstar receiver. He’s SO good.
- RB Mark Fletcher Jr. 23 carries for 106 yards and a career-high 3 touchdowns. This is what happens when the run game works!
- CB Xavier Lucas. 3 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 sack, 1 interception, 1 PBU. This is the kind of game that makes you understand why Wisconsin tried to violate his rights to keep him on their roster. Great job.
- LB Wesley Bissainthe. 2 tackles and an interception, which he returned to the Stanford 3.
- QB Carson Beck. 21/28 passing (75% completions) for 189 yards, 1 touchdown and 0 interceptions. A fairly pedestrian passing game (especially considering Stanford’s passing defense was 3rd worst in the country coming into the game), but it was a clean game and had 0 turnovers. I’ll take it.
- WR Tony Johnson. 3 catches for 69 yards. A nice addition to the passing game!
- Good contributions from Jordan Lyle, Chris Wheatley-Humphrey, and Girard Pringle Jr. in the run game.
- More snaps for Joshua Moore, Tony Johnson, and Jojo Trader at receiver. The first 2 had multiple catches each, but Trader wasn’t targeted. Don’t fret; the ball will find him soon.
- P Dylan Joyce. 1 punt for 47 yards. Bravo.
- Miami finally scored!!! A Carson Beck touchdown to C.J. Daniels covered 5 yards and put Miami on the board just before halftime.
- Miami finally got home with a sack. David Blay with the pressure, Armando Blount with the sack.
- Malachi Toney with the best punt return of the year to give Miami prime scoring position 2 plays later.
- Mark Fletcher’s 1 yard TD to put Miami ahead 14-7.
- Wesley Bissainthe with an interception and big return to the 3!!!! Miami scored on the next play.
- Miami with the kind of dominance in the 3rd quarter that, frankly, I expected to see all game against a team of Stanford’s caliber.
- Miami allowed 74 yards and 7 points to Stanford on the first drive of the game. They allowed 70 yards and 0 points, and forced 2 interceptions across Stanford’s final 10 drives. Combined.
- 42 unanswered points after going down 7-0.
- 404 yards of offense
- 205 yards passing
- 199 yards rushing
- 74 total plays — this was key to get a bigger number of snaps after 2 very low snap count games against FSU and Louisville.
- 5.5 yards per play
- 4.5 yards per rush
- 9.3 yards per completion
- 10 chunk plays — 5 passes (15+), 5 runs (10+)
- 6/6 red zone scoring — with 6 touchdowns!!!!! THIS IS HOW YOU PLAY THE GAME!!!!!!!!
- 25 first downs
- 8/15 on 3rd down
- 3/5 on 4th down
- Held Stanford’s starting QB to 9/21 passing with 2 INTs. Sure, the Cardinal had several drops, but this was still a job well done by the pass defense.
- Held Stanford to 53 total plays.
- Held Stanford to 4/14 on 3rd down.
- Held Stanford to 1/2 on 4th down.
- Held Stanford to 2.7 yards per play. TOTAL.
- Held Stanford to 2 yards per rush.
- Held Stanford to 8 first downs total.
- Won time of possession 36:42 to to 23:18 for Stanford. WOW.
- 6 TFLs
- 2 sacks
- 2 interceptions — Bissainthe and Lucas
- Only allowed 5 TFLs
- 0 sacks allowed
- Being able to empty the bench and play multiple backups and freshmen in an ACC conference game. See, this is what happens when you score touchdowns and win big!!!
- Another advanced stats snapshot that tells the story of a Miami blowout win that finally had the scoreboard match the stats profile. I mean LOOK AT ALL THE DEEP PURPLE (very, very bad) ON THE STANFORD SIDE!!!! This was the blowout it should have been.
The Bad
- The run-after-catch choices of non-Malachi Toney receivers. They continually ran inside on WR screens, when the numbers were there to run outside and score. C’mon man. Do better.
- Miami stalling out on their first 2 drives. Yes, we got things going, but you can’t have this when you have championship goals.
- Letting Stanford hang around. First of all, letting them walk down the field for a touchdown on their first drive, yuck. Then, they held the lead until the bitter end of the first half when Miami finally scored. The 35-0 difference in the 2nd half should have been even more across the whole game.
- 5 penalties for 30 yards. Bad, yes, but better than previous weeks. So this moves up from Ugly to Bad. Let’s try for even fewer to get this up to Good in each of the final 5 games.
The Ugly
- Starting defensive lineman Akheem Mesidor tried to play, but wasn’t able to go. Injuries suck, and we don’t need them to one of our best players.
- Miami’s first drive ended with a missed field goal. It’s bad enough that the drive stalled due to penalties (plural), it’s infinitely worse that it stalled AND went scoreless. Woof.
- More. Missed. Tackles.
- OH hey look. Miami gave up an opening-drive touchdown to go down 7-0 to Stanford.
- Going for it on 4th and 3 from the Stanford 30, C.J. Daniels had one of the worst drops I’ve ever seen. You cannot have that.
- This is the 3rd time this season I’ve mentioned an ugly Daniels drop. Sure, he’s the leading receiver and has a bunch of great catches to his credit, but we cannot keep talking about bad drops in spots that matter for #7.
- Another failed 4th down attempt at the Stanford 21 a few drives later. Center got manhandled by a backup/rotation Stanford player. You CANNOT have that.
Team Grades
Offense: B
It took a minute, but this finally started looking like the Miami Hurricanes offense again. The run game started to pop. The passing game was good enough. And Malachi Toney was Malachi Toney, which is a good thing for Miami.
After missing a field goal, going 3 and out, then failing on 4th down on their first 3 drives, the offense scored touchdowns on 6 of their final 7 drives, with the only outlier a failed 4th and 1 from the Louisville 21 yard line. That’s damn-near perfect, and that’s the kind of production this offense needs to replicate moving forward.
There was more rotation at receiver. There was accurate passing. There was physical running. And the special sauce of a freshman All-American sprinkled on top. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a step in the right direction. Demerits for the 2 drives that ended on failed 4th down attempts inside the Louisville 30, and the slow start before them.
Defense: A+
After starting slowly and allowing a TD on Stanford’s first drive, the defense settled down and played light’s out the rest of the way. 0 points and 70 total yards on 10 active drives after the opening touchdown. I mean, lockdown city!
Two turnovers via interception. Constant pressure on the QB. Some missed tackled on the first drive, but I don’t think I saw many (if any) beyond that.
Plain and simple, this is the kind of lockdown defensive performance I expected to see against a team of Stanford’s caliber. And, to their credit, Miami came out and made the plays to make this expectation a reality. And that was without one of their best defenders in Akheem Mesidor. Love love LOVE the performance from the defense tonight (even if I would have preferred a few more 3-and-outs from Stanford’s offense).
Special Teams: C+
Kickoffs were great. Punting was incredible. And the Malachi Toney punt returns were explosive. You love to see it.
MAJOR demerits for missing a field goal on the first drive. You cannot have that if you want to win. And, you can’t settle for a FG attempt because of multiple penalties in the late stages of the drive as you approach the scoring zone, but that’s on the offense, not special teams.
Additional demerits for the kick and punt return teams spectating, looking at the explosive returners….INSTEAD OF RUNNING AHEAD TO GO FIND SOMEBODY TO BLOCK!!!!!! Keelan Marion’s KR was a good block or two from going to the crib, and both of Malachi Toney’s punt returns score if the blockers further up the field stop looking at him, turn upfield and GO HIT SOMEBODY!!!!!! 1 step away from potentially 3 special teams touchdowns. Better, but frustrating, because the players were there to be made. So go make them!!!!!!!!!
Of positive note to bump the grade up a slight bit: no penalties on special teams tonight. After multiple penalties on special teams in recent weeks, this is a major win.
Coaching: B+
This was much, MUCH better by the coaches tonight. Cristobal clearly had the team ready to go, even if they started a bit slower than you’d prefer. I’ve spoken about the success of the defense (70 total yards across the final 10 Stanford drives), and the offense (6/6 with touchdowns in the red zone). These are things you love to see.
Nitpicking the issues, in list form:
- 2 more false starts on the offensive (Okunlola, Bauman)
- 2 more offsides (Blay)
- 2 failed 4th downs inside Stanford territory (30, 21)
- Not taking a timeout in 1H. Not that we NEEDED it, but we probably could have used one to get on the right track earlier.
- Taking so long (4 drives) to finally score against Stanford.
Even with these issues, there was a lot to like, and some big steps forward for the coaching staff and the team.
Now, we have to keep this going, find a way to come out early and build a lead instead of playing from behind (remember when Miami was among the teams who hadn’t trailed this season, or trailed for fewer than 10 minutes? because I do) and extend leads from there.
A very nice job to get back on the good foot. Now we need to keep this going through the treacherous month of November, one where Cristobal’s Canes have routinely struggled.
That’s it for this installment of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
Hop in the comments and let me know your thoughts.
