The Miami Hurricanes beat the Florida State Seminoles 28-22 on the road at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, FL on Saturday night. The Hurricanes move to 5-0 (1-0 in the ACC) and are the Florida State Champions
this season. FSU slides to 3-2 (0-2 in the ACC) and I assume will slip outside of the top-25.
I predicted a 7-point win for Miami, and the Canyonero Keys to Victory theme was to avoid a self-implosion. Miami did just that. Mario Cristobal’s Hurricanes played keep away and squeezed the life out of FSU, even towards the end of regulation. The Canyonero Keys were:
1- Come out on fire. Miami allowed an early FG and punted on their first drive but followed that up with a TD to end the scoring in the first quarter. Miami then went on a 28-point streak to take a commanding 28-3 lead over FSU into the 4th quarter. It wasn’t the hottest start on earth but it was enough to take and keep the lead.
2- Contain Castellanos. Miami forced FSU into three turnovers, two of which were interceptions by Thomas Castellanos. The FSU QB averaged only six yards per pass attempt and 3.6 yards per rush. I think that’s fairly contained by most standards.
3- Win the kicking game. Miami didn’t win the kicking game per se, but the ‘Canes didn’t lose it either. Carter Davis made his four PAT attempts and Dylan Joyce did a fine job punting including dropping two inside the 20.
The Doppler
The ‘Noles won the money downs, had 1/3 of the penalty yards of Miami, and made all of their kicks and still lost. The turnover battle swung to Miami’s side as the ‘Canes did not turn the football over and FSU gave it away three times including a 3rd quarter INT sandwiched between two Miami scores.
Miami converted on only 41% of their money downs, but did finish 2-of-3 on 4th down. FSU converted on 50% of their money downs, including 3-of-4 on 4th down.
FSU was flagged five times for 45 yards on their home turf while Miami came away looking undisciplined with 114 yards on 13 flags on the night.
Jake Weinberg made both of his FG attempts and both kickers made their PAT’s. There was one single return on the night, a zero yard PR attempt by FSU.
Miami Offense
Carson Beck threw four TD’s with zero turnovers on 8.9 yards per pass attempt. Beck hit six different targets and hit on throws of 44 and 47 yards.
Mark Fletcher Jr. thumped out 3.3 yards per carry while Marty Brown and Jordan Lyle got nothing done on the ground. Brown averaged 2.4 yards per carry while Lyle hit only 2.6.
Two receivers came alive against FSU with double-digit yards per catch as the duo of Malachi Toney and CJ Daniels both caught a pair of TD’s. Toney averaged 15.3 yards per catch while Daniels averaged 15.6.
The offensive line wasn’t exactly dominating on the ground with 3.0 yards per carry and five TFL’s, but they allowed only one sack.
Above- Pass protection isn’t passive. You don’t see many combo pancake blocks on a pass play but maybe you should. Anez Cooper and Francis Mauigoa dominating on the play while Toney gets open on mesh. Toney just has a knack for settling in space in an option-route focused passing game.
Above- Markel Bell opens up a huge hole here and Fletcher just needs a smidge more burst to make it an even bigger run. Miami is really kicking some butt on combo’ing to the 2nd level in the run game.
Above– Once the run game gets going Beck can turn to play-action which is his big concept. Beck has a really good ball fake and that will get him drafted to a PA happy NFL team.
Above– I’m not sure why he forced this double-covered throw to Bauman with Lofton there. But Beck probably should’ve just taken off and ran on this one. Bauman came up with it but the risk-reward wasn’t there.
Above– Slant RPO tag inside the +5 is a tough beat. Beck can’t throw this if the overhang drops but when he plays the run the green light to pull and throw is on. That ILB shouldn’t be able to drop in the window if the WR runs the route skinny enough.
Above– Miami is known for slugging out the run game and that’s fine. It opens up some Rhett Lashlee type tricks from Shannon Dawson’s Air Raid playbook. A flea flicker that catches safety help cheating to the run. There’s no catching Toney and it’s a Y-Cross type over route for a TD.
Above– People ask about Miami’s ‘condensed sets’ and the reason they work is two fold: 1- they’re useful in the run game to get a wham or kickout block in and 2- they’re hard on the OODA Loop of a defender in coverage on a pass play like this one.
Above– #3 threat runs out up the numbers, #1 threat runs inside and Toney hides behind them to run a spot route. Beck throws him open, ie. the front shoulder on the move so the momentum carries the WR and the defender chasing can’t get a PBU.
Above– The Canyonero Convoy of the Week brought to you by the Miami OL. If Keelan Marion slow plays this it’s a TD vs. a 20-yard run. Put your hand on Mauigoa’s back and run with him. Instead he runs in front of his blockers.
Above– Dawson likes the boundary screen which for two years was a bust but CJ Daniels understands that it helps to cutback off of the wall and run to space. Defenders are taught to ‘wedge bust’ on screens and Bauman can pick the closest threat so Daniels scores.
Miami Defense
As I said before, Castellanos was bottled up for the most part and turned the ball over twice. The ‘Noles QB did hit eight different receivers including five with double-digit yards per catch averages. Lawayne McCoy and Randy Pittman Jr. both caught TD’s from Castellanos.
Tommy Castellanos (3.6), Gavin Sawchuk (4.3) and Ousmane Kromah (3.8) outperformed the ‘Canes backfield on the ground. FSU hit 3.5 yards per carry on the ‘Canes including sack yardage.
The FSU O-Line held Miami to only two sacks and five tackles for loss. Ahkeem Mesidor and Jakobe Thomas had big games on the stat sheet for Miami DC Corey Hetherman. Thomas logged a sack, a TFL, two PBU’s and an INT. Thomas also had a couple of questionable plays (getting beat for a TD by Pittman, missing an easy tackle up 9).
Bryce Fitzgerald stepped in front of another FSU pass, and Mesidor picked up a sack and two TFL’s.
Above- Wheel routes have killed Miami for years. Slow ILB’ers and coverage mis-communication. Clearly you’re going to wheel to Mohamed Toure’s side of the field.
Above– Neither defender sees the back running up field. If he doesn’t slip it could be a 7-0 lead instead of 3-0.
Above– Toure reminds me a lot of Kiko Mauigoa. He’s a plus blitzer and interior run stuffer. He’s a liability in pass coverage and laterally. FSU runs a toss-read to his side and it’s a first down before Toure can get horizontal.
Above– Thomas was making plays between some blunders. He’s everywhere doing a lot of jobs, it happens. A veteran player should know better on a few of these, however. Here Mesidor freelances and it hurts Miami. It leaves Thomas as the force player.
Above– Now Thomas doesn’t wrong-arm it against a kickout and the play is designed to go right between no.57 and the kick. Wrong-arming would put his left shoulder in the TE’s chest and his right, inside arm would be free to make the play.
Above– Mesidor retraces from his earlier blunder and Thomas can’t help at all as the RB goes right under him.
Above– This isn’t on Thomas here but the power of a good head-fake is a thing of beauty. Robinson gets massive space with an inside-out move.
Above– Castellanos doesn’t take the check down on 4th and 8 and instead chucks one deep.
Above– This is Fitzgerald’s biggest strength and they leaned right into it. I may not trust him in run support but a 4th and 8 situation with a risk taking QB, get Fitzgerald on the field in deep center.
Above– So Bain freelances his pass rush here. He’s the only outside contain player and has two ILB’s inside who can pick up TC if he rushes inside. Castellanos escapes outside, where QB’s want to go, and picks up the 1st.
Above– If you’re beat reach in and punch the rock out. Miami hasn’t been ticking up the takeaways but they did vs. FSU on Saturday night.
Above– There’s no.8 again… This could’ve been an issue for any of these guys out there (maybe Fitzgerald, honestly) but a little scramble drill turns into a TD for FSU.
KICKING GAME
Above– I’m not sure why Miami attacked the football so far upfield and so early into the onside kick attempt. Once Miami touches the ball it’s live, whether it travels 10-yards or not. Just a curious decision to send Wesley Bissainthe up field to potentially be blocked into the kick, thus making it a live ball. Daniels then came in and hits the ball before 10-yards making it live. Just more kicking game buffoonery from Miami.
The Wrap
Cristobawl is getting up early on your opponent through the air and then suffocating them with a ‘four minute offense,’ or a fourth quarter offense for Mario, to drain the life out of the clock and the game. So far Miami is 5-0 with wins over Notre Dame, FSU, and Florida for the first time in a season since the 12-0 National Championship run in 1987.
Miami has their final idle week of the regular season before hosting the Louisville Cardinals on Friday, October 17th at 7pm. The rare Friday night game for Miami has both teams having an off weekend. The Cardinals are standing at 4-1 after an OT loss to UVA this weekend.
As many have noted, the Miami Hurricanes are faster and more powerful than they’ve looked in two decades. The curse of the mustache has been released and now the veterans look more developed and the freshmen still look fast at this point in the season. Good on Cristobal for going in another direction.
