The Miami Hurricanes’ hopes of a special season are now up in flames after a 26-20 overtime loss to SMU.
Carson Beck was 26/38 passing for 274 yards with 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. One of those wasn’t his fault, but the other came in overtime and very, very much was on him. Mark Fletcher, Jr. had 84 yards on 16 carries. Joshisa Trader had 5 catches for 81 yards and a touchdown.
Miami got out to a 7-0 lead on Trader’s 36-yard catch and run TD, but absolutely stupid, stupid mistakes cost this
team in the first half. Miami finished the game with 12 penalties for 96 yards, and I don’t remember how many were in the first half off the top of my head, but it was too damned many. A Malachi Tony OPI call (which was legit), wiped out a long pass to get inside the SMU 10, and Miami ended up punting.
Later, Trader bobbled a great ball from Beck up in the air, and SMU intercepted it. Two plays later, a busted coverage left an SMU WR wiiiiiiiiiiiide open, and Kevin Jennings found him for a score to tie it up. This game should have been at least 17-0 or 21-0 at that point. Instead, it was tied.
And when Miami wasn’t making mistakes, they were terribly ineffective on a down-to-down basis, particularly in the red zone and in short yardage situations. Toney had a 47-yard punt return shortly before halftime to set up Miami around the 7, but the Canes couldn’t get it in and had to settle for a 10-7 lead at the half.
In the second half, some absolutely disgusting calls went against the Canes that helped swing the game against them, starting with this one on SMU’s first drive:
You know what happened after that. 79-yard drive that ended in a touchdown. Because of course it did. Miami drove down and answered with their own touchdown on a play action pass to Alex Bauman.
But the Canes’ short yardage woes (and uncreative playcalling) killed the team on the next two drives. They turned it over on downs on 4th and 1 at the SMU 29, and later they were stuffed on 3rd and 1 for a loss and had to settle for a FG and a 20-17 lead.
Miami had the ball late with a chance to put it away. On 3rd and 8 with SMU out of timeouts and just over 2 minutes remaining. Miami was called for a hold on an incomplete pass. However, a CRYSTAL CLEAR DPI penalty wasn’t flagged and so instead of replaying 3rd and 8 for the game, Miami had to punt.
And the result was what you’d expect. SMU got on their horse (pun intended) and passed their way down the field to the edge of field goal range. Part of that was aided by this on a potential game-ending 4th down play where SMU called a timeout. It doesn’t look like Marquise Lightfoot heard the whistle, and Miami was punished heavily.
On 3rd and 16 on the edge of field goal range, Jennings completed a pass that was iffy but called a catch to set up a closer field goal that, of course, went right down the middle.
But with a timeout and 25 seconds left, Miami had a slight advantage that they could try to play out. But rather than try to take advantage of that, Cristobal chose to kneel it out, wipe out that slight edge, and play for overtime.
In overtime, Miami got down inside the 10 and had 3rd and 6, but Beck threw a pick on a crosser, and that was basically all she wrote. SMU bullied their way into the end zone to walk it off.
A truly pathetic loss that was very avoidable and basically just pushed Miami out of the playoff conversation. Also, it’s one that honestly should at least start to raise a few questions about Mario Cristobal’s future with the program.
