The Miami Hurricanes started off their home stretch of ACC games on the right foot, defeating former Canes head coach Manny Diaz and his Duke Blue Devils 36-25 on Saturday afternoon at Hard Rock Stadium.
Former Duke QB Darian Mensah continued his Heisman Trophy campaign going 30/41 for 386 yards with a touchdown and no picks. Javian Mallory was an absolute dude, with 150 scrimmage yards and three touchdowns. Cooper Barkate had a huge day with eight catches for 134 yards. Mo Toure had a team-high 11
combined tackles.
Miami and Duke started off slowly on the offensive side of the ball, with the teams trading off five punts between them in the first quarter. Miami opened the scoring with a 39-yard Jake Weinberg field goal early in the second quarter. Duke answered with a field goal 13 plays later. Miami finally found the end zone on a four-yard run by Mark Fletcher, Jr. who left the game with an apparent injury in the first half and did not return. A 40-yard Barkate catch and run was the big play of the drive.
Duke answered on the following drive, and it was the uber-talented Nate Sheppard who broke free for a 47-yard touchdown right up the middle. Sheppard had a field day with 224 scrimmage yards and two scores. Miami would answer with a chip shot field goal shortly before the half for a 13-10 lead at the break.
The Canes got the ball first and drove down the field thanks to a 33-yard run by Jordan Lyle. And it looked like for a second Elija Lofton finally had his nifty end zone catch he was denied last week. But his one-handed grab was made just after he touched out of bounds and was reversed after review and a field goal followed.
Miami forced a punt near midfield, and minutes later, Mallory took a short pass and went 63 yards weaving through traffic and to the end zone for a touchdown and a 22-10 lead. The blocking was nifty on the play from the backfield down the field. And Shannon Dawson made a truly head-scratching call on the two-point conversion attempt with a designed run to Mensah. Mensah was clobbered just before the goal line and bent backwards. You simply can’t risk your QB like that.
Duke would answer back five plays later, with Sheppard cutting left and past Miami’s defense and getting to the corner on a five-yard run before throwing the U down over his knee (not sure why people do this).
Miami raised that U right back up on the following drive, which was a death march of over seven and a half minutes that took 17 plays and went 79 yards. Mallory tore through the line and across the goal line from two yards for a two-yard score. Three plays later, Xavier Lucas turned for the ball on a poorly thrown pass by Walker Eget, and the Canes secured their only takeaway of the game. Five plays later, Mallory broke free off the left side for a 39-yard touchdown, and church was officially out at 36-17. Duke would add some window dressing with a last second touchdown throw on fourth down with under 30 seconds left to close out the scoring.
A win, and Miami can clinch a spot in the ACC title game if UNC can knock off Louisvile this evening.
