Another game, another victory for the Canes! On Saturday night, your Miami Hurricanes continued the ACC schedule and beat the rival Florida State Seminoles 43-35 in Double Overtime.
Craig T. Smith has your game recap:
AND Mike Schiffman has your 3 stars from the game:
And now, let’s get into The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
The Good
- A win! I will never take this for granted!
- A win vs Florida State! I love beating our little brothers from Tallahassee. Enjoy the flight home, LOSERS.
- QB Darian Mensah. It wasn’t perfect, but it was still damn good. 23/34 passing (67.6% completions) for 326 yards, 3 touchdowns, and 1 interception, and 3 carries for 6 yards rushing.
- Mensah’s cumulative stats this year: 134/167 passing, 80.2% completions, 1,764 yards, 18 touchdowns, 1 interception, 15 carries, 85 yards, 2 touchdowns.
- WR Malachi Toney. Superstar did superstar stuff. 11 catches for 154 yards and 2 touchdowns, 2 carries for 31 yards, and 1/1 passing for a 2pt conversion.
- RB Javian Mallory. 13 carries for 108 yards and 2 touchdowns. He’s the co-starter in my mind at this point.
- RB Mark Fletcher Jr. 16 carries for 66 yards and a touchdown.
- WR Daylyn Upshaw. 4 catches for 91 yards.
- LB Mo Toure. 12 tackles, including some BIG ONES to keep FSU from gashing yards and points.
- DT Justin Scott. 8 tackles and tons of solid play on the interior of the line.
- S J.J. Dunnigan. 7 tackles and a TFL.
- LB Chase Smith. 6 tackles and flashed his positive athleticism all night.
- DL Armondo Blount. 3 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 sack, 2 QBHurries.
- TE Elija Lofton. 3 catches for 26 yards and a touchdown. And more solid blocking, which is a big bonus when he’s able to do that.
- Miami forced an early punt on the first FSU drive. Allowed 1 first down but then locked in.
- Malachi Toney with this insane catch on 3rd down. Over 3 defenders!!!!
- LB Chase Smith with a run stop on 4th and 2 from the Miami 3 to end FSU’s 2nd drive and keep the Noles off the scoreboard! HUGE PLAY!!!
- LB Mo Toure with a pair of nice tackles, one in the run game, and one on punt return, that kept FSU from gaining SERIOUS yardage in the 1st half.
- The NASCAR rush package — Damon Wilson II, Third Scroggins III, Booker Pickett, and Marquise Lightfoot — generating immediate and consistent pressure when they were on the field.
- Mensah Magic. Just watch the play. You’ll see what I’m talking about.
- Shortly after the previous play, Mensah hit Toney off the RPO slant for the scored and the lead.
- Miami finally getting it going on offense with this pass to Malachi Toney.
- And 2 plays later, Javian Mallory walks in for a game-tying touchdown.
- Another Javian Mallory touchdown, this one in overtime
- Then another Malachi Toney touchdown in double overtime
- AND THEN the 2pt PASS from Toney to Barkate
- AND THENNNNN the game-winning interception by Bryce Fitzgerald
- 2 turnovers gained — fumble recovery by Lucas, Interception by Fitzgerald to win the game.
- 37:11 time of possession
- 583 yards of offense
- 326 yards passing
- 257 yards rushing
- 26 first downs
- 7.5 yards per play
- 14.2 yards per completion
- 5.8 yards per rush
- 4-5 red zone scoring
- 16 chunk plays — 9 passes (15+), 7 rushes (10+)
- 8-15 on 3rd down
- Only allowed 1 TFL/sack
- Allowed 0-3 on 4th down
- Allowed 1-3 red zone scoring
- Advanced stats snapshot is a mixed bag
The Bad
- Allowing Ashton Daniels to scramble around. He’s not good. You can’t let him do the one thing he’s average at doing. C’mon man.
- Darian Mensah throwing his first interception of the season
- This game being competitive. Rivalry or not, this was an atrocious performance to allow FSU to stick around.
- Allowed 5-12 on 3rd down.
- The distances needed on the conversions allowed: 2, 8, 18, 8, 8, 5. Not good enough.
- That’s it. Everything else is ugly.
The Ugly
- 6 penalties for 58 yards.
- Several of those penalties led directly to points for FSU.
- 0-2 on 4th down.
- Allowed 443 yards of offense to FSU
- Allowed 305 yards passing to *THIS* FSU offense
- Allowed a season-high 138 yards rushing
- Allowed 18 first downs
- Allowed 13 chunk plays — 8 passes (15+), 5 runs (10+)
- More injuries. This time, DB Bryce Fitzgerald injured his shoulder on the first play of the game.
- Shortly after the above-embedded injury, ESPN’s game broadcast reported that Fitzgerald would not return to the game.
- Good news: Fitzgerald came back into the game! And boy, was he needed.
- Already missing Fitzgerald, S Zechariah Poyser had this late hit with targeting. He was ejected from the game in the 1st quarter for this infraction.
- Facemask on Chase Smith gave FSU a conversion on a 3rd down they were 11 yards short of converting. They would score a touchdown to tie the game on the very next play.
- False start, Matthew McCoy. Made it 2nd and 12 from the 2 yard line.
- Facemask on Cam Pruitt during an FSU punt return gifted 15 yards.
- After that same punt, DT Keona Davis flagged for Unsportsmanlike conduct. That 15 yard penalty was ALSO enforced on the same play.
- Holding on Samson Okunlola. Declined.
- Illegal forward pass on Darian Mensah. 5 yards, loss of down, and a 10 second run off from the clock.
- Delay of game. FSU declined to make Miami punt from a worse position.
- Darian Mensah’s first interception of the year. A horrible throw that was never open.
- Mensah short arming a pass on 4th and 2. Mallory was standing by himself on the sideline for a conversion, but Mensah wasn’t able to connect with him. REALLY BAD MISS.
- FSU took the lead on the ensuing possession.
- Miami failed on 4th and 1 from the FSU 18 yard line early in 4Q. The entire OL lost their battles and were pushed into the backfield. Truly atrocious performance across the board.
- Miami allowed a 1 play, 75 yard TD “drive” to FSU after clawing back for the lead.
Team Grades
Offense: C+
Lots of yards and points in the end, but there was a large part of this game where the offense STRUGGLED. Mensah’s first interception of the year. Missed blocking assignments. Turnovers on downs. AND THE PENALTIES. It worked out in the end, but there was much to be desired here.
Defense: D-
Again, they made some plays when they were needed, but this shouldn’t have been close. Miami’s defense was victimized by screen passes repeatedly, and then hail mary bombs there after. LUCKILY the final play was broken up, but that was still inches away from disaster for Miami’s defense. Mike Norvell knew what Miami would be running on defense all night, and was coaching circles around the scheme for most of the night. And it’s time we have a conversation about the DBs, guys.
Special Teams: C-
Minor demerit for the bad punt at the end of the first half, and some shoddy coverage on punt return elsewhere. But kicking was clean. Punting was solid mostly. Oh wait. Full grade demerit for the kickoff out of bounds.
Coaching: D
This is a tough grade for me. Mike Norvell and Toney Elliott, FSU’s play callers, coached CIRCLES around Shannon Dawson and Corey Hetherman for the majority of tonight’s game. Adjustments were few and far between, and usually a series too late for my liking. And letting FSU hang around and LEAD THE GAME for the longest time of any opponent all season is deplorable.
BUT.
Things turned. Miami found their footing, and FINALLY were able to make the scoreboard reflect the state of the game with Miami as the superior team. But it shouldn’t have takent that long, and it DEFINITELY shouldn’t have come down to a ref’s call on the last play.
I know the mantra is 1-0. I know we need to focus on ourselves. But MAN. There was just a lot of bad and ugly here tonight, and that’s on the coaches in a variety of ways. Especially the penalties, which will cost Miami a game if they’re not fixed. So fix them. Now.
That’s it for this installment of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
Hop in the comments and let me know your thoughts.
