For the 2nd game in a row, Miami scores a game winning touchdown in the final minute to extend their record to 7-0.
Remember back in September when everyone was impressed with the fact that UM had yet to trail in a game all year? Well for the 3rd straight game, UM overcame a double digit deficit and escaped with a victory. According to ESPN, Miami is the first FBS team since 2007 to win 3 straight games after having trailed by double digits in each game. The last time it happened was the 2007 Michigan team. That was the team that lost to Appalachian St. and got Lloyd Carr canned.
The good thing about these close games is that they build character. You never know what your players are made of until they face a little adversity. The flipside is that come from behind football is losing football. You can only expect so much from your players when they are constantly overcoming poor starts and/or sloppy play. Eventually it bites you in the ***.
We've been a team that has thrived off of explosive plays all season, be it on offense, defense, or special teams. We didn't have much in any of those facets. Mix that with another lackluster performance from Stephen Morris and we have a near disaster. Despite all that we still won. We did so by once again relying on our offensive line and rushing attack to take over the game and run the ball down the opponents throat in the 4th quarter. That won't be an option against our next 2 opponents, but it's pretty cool that we can do it against some teams if need be.
Highlights:
[video=youtube;U91aNlr8iGc]www.youtube.com/watch?v=U91aNlr8iGc[/video]
Here is what I said were the main story lines in the game day post.
1. Can Miami contain Mike Campanaro?
The guy had 10 catches for 88 yards and 1 touchdown. For a while I was keeping tracking of how many of his catches were converting 1st downs, but then I had a sad and stopped caring. He's the only guy worth a **** on that entire side of the ball for Wake, and he was still able to make plays. It didn't help that he was being covered by Tyrone Cornileus on some plays. Watching Tyrone in space trying to cover Campanaro was one of the worst mismatches I've ever seen.
2. Can Miami's OL block Nikita Whitlock?
Every time Morris dropped back to pass, this guy seemed like he was getting pressure. In the 1st half we weren't having much success running the ball. Mainly because of him. He was shooting gaps all day and disrupting most of our stretch running plays. He's got such a low center of gravity, and great instincts that he's tough to block. It doesn't matter that we outweighed him and his whole unit by over 50 lbs.
It wasn't until the 4th quarter when our OL really started to lean on Wake Forest that we had success blocking their front.
3. Can Miami avoid coming out flat?
Dude. Remember when everyone freaked out about the time of possession against Georgia Tech? Well it was worse in this game. 21 seconds worse. On their opening drive they converted like 4,000 3rd downs and ate up over 8 minutes of clock. Wake ended up holding the ball for 13:22 in the opening frame because of the 3 and out on our 1st possession. Against GT you could blame it on 3 turnovers. Today the offense was just plain old ordinary awful. Morris was out of sorts all game. He only had 77 yards passing at the half, with 57 of those yards coming on 2 plays on our last drive before halftime. The whole team looked sluggish as well, and didn't show any urgency until our final 2 possessions of the game.
4. Can Miami stop it with the turnovers already?
No turnovers guys! Time to celebrate. 1st time since Savannah State that we managed to go a whole game without turning it over. As bad as the offense was throughout the game, imagine what would have happened if they had multiple turnovers? We'd probably lose by 2 touchdowns. Not sure how long I could survive in a world where Miami gets beat by Wake Forest in football. I'd probably last about as long as these Virginia Tech fans can manage to survive after losing to Duke.
Just another argument for rolling with the punches and just being ok with the W. No matter how it came to be.
Let's recap.
Before the game we all got just a little bit more famous because of the banner that we flew over Sun Life Stadium. Chris Freet and Chris Yandle from the Athletic Department each took note of it and thanked us for the gesture. Members of the national media like Bruce Feldman of CBS, and Brett McMurphy of ESPN spread the word of what we did as well. Even better, they showed a clip of it during the game's broadcast:
/bucCANEers
One more tip of my cap to all of you that helped get that done.
1st Quarter:
UM deferred to the second half and kicked off to Wake to start the game. During the return I could here what sounded like a referee's whistle, but I ignored it (remember this for later). The Deacons take over at their own 21, and on their 2nd play Josh Harris jukes Perryman out of his jockstrap on his way to 14 yard gain. That should've been the sign that let you know how this game was going to go.
The announcers kept going on about how wide Wake's splits were on their offensive line, and how it opened up passing lanes for Price. Funny, I didn't know wide splits caused defenses to not tackle or defend the pass worth a ****. Anyways Tanner Price proceeded to dink and dunk his way down the field on a drive that had four 3rd down conversions. It also ate up 8:34 off the clock. It was capped off by a 12 yard touchdown run from Josh Harris where he went untouched up the middle.
7-0 Wake Forest.
Jamal Carter gets flagged for holding on the return so Miami takes over from their own 9. Asante Cleveland makes his 1st catch of the year, but it doesn't matter because the Canes went 3 and out. On Wake's next possession President Perryman makes a big hit on Dominique Gibson:
The crowd was impressed. It would have actually meant something if it didn't happen 15 yards down field. It went down in the books as just another Wake Forest 1st down. After a Wake holding penalty, Chickillo ends the 1st quarter by getting a tackle for loss when Price tried to scramble out of the pocket. Still 7-0 Wake Forest.
2nd Quarter:
It's 3rd and 22 and the Deacs fail to convert this time. Chad Hedlund attempts a 47 yard field goal but misses. UM gets the ball back and starts to get the running game going with Duke. After he picks up a 1st down, a penalty on Wake gives them another and puts them into Wake territory for the first time. On 3rd and short Dallas comes in for Duke and gets the 1st down on an 18 yard gain down to the 19 yard line. The drive stalls and Miami settles for a 34 yard field goal from Goudis.
7-3 Wake Forest.
A huge chunk of the 1st half is already over and it seems like Miami has finally gotten their legs under them. It looks like Miami is going to force a 3 and out, but Price rolls left and lobs a 56 yard pass to Tyree Harris over the heads of both Artie Burns and Rayshawn Jenkins. Wake is now in the redzone. A few plays later it's 3rd and long, and Antonio Crawford's poor attempt at tackling sets up 4th and short. Jim Grobe decides to go for it and for good reason, because no one on Miami's defense knows that Mike Campanaro is a real person. He's all alone in the endzone for the easy touchdown. He's the best player on their team and nobody marks him. Even he couldn't believe he got that open.
14-3 Wake Forest.
After that UM and Wake trade short and meaningless drives. When UM gets the ball back there's only 2:45 left in the 1st half, which is crazy because the game only feels like it's 8 seconds old. Miami is facing 3rd and short and Morris overthrows his pass to Walford. Walford must have had some stick'em for the game, because he made an amazing 1 handed grab to keep the drive alive.
The play seemed to settle everything down because on the very next play Morris connected with Herb Waters for a 35 yard touchdown pass.
14-10 Wake Forest.
Imagine for a second that Walford doesn't make that 1 handed catch...it's probably 14-3 at halftime. Think of the of chorus of boos that would have rained down in that situation. Good thing he caught it. Wake runs out the clock to end the 1st half up 14-10. Smart move by Grobe. After all, they already used up a ton of the clock and limited UM to only four 1st half possessions. You couldn't ask for a better 1st half if you were him.
3rd Quarter:
Duke has a decent return to open the 2nd half, but Carter got flagged again and UM is starting inside the 10 yard line. Morris starts out hitting intermediate passes to Hagens, Walford, and Hurns. Then Duke gets going with back to back runs where he utilized his stiff arm. The 2nd run goes for 23 yards and into Wake territory. A facemask penalty got tacked on to put Miami in the redzone. The drive stalls after that, and Miami settles for a 40 yard field goal attempt from Goudis. It hooks to the left and is no good.
Wake goes 3 and out, and Coley returns the punt 25 yards to the 48 yard line. Two plays later Morris hits Cleveland again to move the chains. Three plays later it's 3rd and long and Morris finds Hurns over the middle for a 17 yard gain. A couple of plays later it's 3rd and short. They run to the left with Duke and Whitlock blows it up. Duke doesn't get more than a couple of yards. It's now 4th and 1 and Golden decides to go for it. Dallas runs to the left again and gets nothing. Turnover on downs.
Wake Forest takes over at their own 9. The drive doesn't get past the 50, but they run 10 plays and chew another 5 minutes off the clock. Miami goes 3 and out and the 3rd quarter ends with Wake still leading 14-10.
4th Quarter:
Wake Forest chews up another 3 minutes on the clock before punting it back to Miami. Coley fair catches it at the 10 and Miami goes back to work. On 1st down Morris goes deep to Coley who makes an amazing, leaping, juggling catch for a 44 yard gain.
Unreal concentration. It made #2 on Sports Center's Top plays. Too bad that Miami has to punt 3 plays later. Artie Burns downs it inside the 5 yard line. Miami's defense wakes up and forces Wake to go 3 and out. After the snap, the punter for Wake Forest just kind of stands there, and play stops because of an apparent whistle.
Then the players realize the refs never blew anything, so McCord and Muhammed go after the punter. Miami thinks they have a safety. Turns out the jackass who was whistling on the opening kickoff was simulating a referee's whistle and distracted the players. The refs allowed Wake to punt again. Golden was all like, "WTF?".
The punt goes out of bounds and Miami starts their next drive at their own 49. Coley calls 3 straight runs for Duke that go for 6, 16, and 3 yards. Now Miami is at the 26. On the next play Stacy Coley takes a reverse 7 yards for another 1st down. Coley had to cut it upfield to avoid a defender who tried to blow it up in the back field. After a penalty on Linder, Duke carries it 9 yards and draws a facemask penalty to push the ball inside the 10 yard line.
2 plays later Duke runs it off the right side for the go ahead score. An amazing block by Walford sealed the edge and created the necessary space for Duke to scoot into the endzone.
17-14 Miami.
Wake starts out with the ball on their own 25 with 5:36 left in the game. On 1st down Price tries to hook up with Campanaro but over throws him. However Antonio Crawford gets flagged for pass interference. Pretty weak in my opinion. Now the ball is at the 40. 2 plays later Crawford makes up for his penalty by making a great pass break up on another throw intended for Campanaro. On the play after that, Howard comes up with a great pass break up of his own. It's now 4th and 5 and Miami can probably end the game with a stop. However Price is able to complete an 11 yard pass to Jared Crump to keep the game alive. On the very next play, Price tosses a throwback screen to Dominique Gibson. Cornileus was late picking him up and compounded the problem by whiffing on the tackle. Gibson rumbles 44 yards down the sideline and runs over Tracy Howard for the touchdown.
21-17 Wake Forest.
Watching that play unfold was like the scene in 8mm where Nick Cage has to watch the snuff film.
Miami takes over at their own 27 yard line with only 4:02 left on the clock. Much like last week's game, Coley dials up a run heavy drive that takes the ball out of Morris' hands and leaves it up to our running game. Before this season, I hadn't seen a Miami offensive coordinator do this (with the game on the line) since the Kirby Freeman meltdown game against NC State in 2007. We did it in back to back weeks with Morris.
The drive starts out with 3 straight Duke Johnson carries of 6, 2, and 17 yards to get into Wake Forest territory. The third one was close to being broken for a huge gain, but the defender had a hold of Duke's jersey. 2 plays later Stacy Coley gets tangled up with a DB, which draws a pass interference penalty. 2 plays after that Dallas steps in and runs 8 yards for another 1st down to get to the 16 yard line. After another 2 plays, Duke moves the chains again on a pick up of 8 yards to set up 1st and goal from the 6. Wake calls timeout because there's now only 1:05 left on the clock.
Gif that represents every fan watching the game:
Are we really going to do this again? Apparently so, because Duke bounces a run out to the left side and stretches the ball to the pylon for the score. 23-21 UM pending the point aft....wait what? The sideline ref says that Duke was out of bounds at the 1. They review it, so naturally it's going to get overtur........the play stands??!?!!?!?! Unbelievable. Take a look at this:
That's a ******* touchdown. Imagine if we turned it over on the next play...
Luckily for us, Duke Johnson put our fears to rest by scoring on the next play from 1 yard out.
24-21 Miami.
With only :53 left on the clock, The Deacs take over from their own 25 to try and mount a come back. But on 2nd down, Price's pass bounces off his receiver's hands and right into the arms of Antonio Crawford for his 1st pick of the season.
Miami wins 24-21.
We're 7-0. As bad as we looked throughout the game, it still feels good to say we're undefeated.
[video=youtube;I_izvAbhExY]www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_izvAbhExY[/video]
It feels like CMar is pulling strings for us in each game. Somebody make sure his presence is felt next week in Tally.
Remember back in September when everyone was impressed with the fact that UM had yet to trail in a game all year? Well for the 3rd straight game, UM overcame a double digit deficit and escaped with a victory. According to ESPN, Miami is the first FBS team since 2007 to win 3 straight games after having trailed by double digits in each game. The last time it happened was the 2007 Michigan team. That was the team that lost to Appalachian St. and got Lloyd Carr canned.
The good thing about these close games is that they build character. You never know what your players are made of until they face a little adversity. The flipside is that come from behind football is losing football. You can only expect so much from your players when they are constantly overcoming poor starts and/or sloppy play. Eventually it bites you in the ***.
We've been a team that has thrived off of explosive plays all season, be it on offense, defense, or special teams. We didn't have much in any of those facets. Mix that with another lackluster performance from Stephen Morris and we have a near disaster. Despite all that we still won. We did so by once again relying on our offensive line and rushing attack to take over the game and run the ball down the opponents throat in the 4th quarter. That won't be an option against our next 2 opponents, but it's pretty cool that we can do it against some teams if need be.
Highlights:
[video=youtube;U91aNlr8iGc]www.youtube.com/watch?v=U91aNlr8iGc[/video]
Here is what I said were the main story lines in the game day post.
1. Can Miami contain Mike Campanaro?
The guy had 10 catches for 88 yards and 1 touchdown. For a while I was keeping tracking of how many of his catches were converting 1st downs, but then I had a sad and stopped caring. He's the only guy worth a **** on that entire side of the ball for Wake, and he was still able to make plays. It didn't help that he was being covered by Tyrone Cornileus on some plays. Watching Tyrone in space trying to cover Campanaro was one of the worst mismatches I've ever seen.
2. Can Miami's OL block Nikita Whitlock?
Every time Morris dropped back to pass, this guy seemed like he was getting pressure. In the 1st half we weren't having much success running the ball. Mainly because of him. He was shooting gaps all day and disrupting most of our stretch running plays. He's got such a low center of gravity, and great instincts that he's tough to block. It doesn't matter that we outweighed him and his whole unit by over 50 lbs.
It wasn't until the 4th quarter when our OL really started to lean on Wake Forest that we had success blocking their front.
3. Can Miami avoid coming out flat?
Dude. Remember when everyone freaked out about the time of possession against Georgia Tech? Well it was worse in this game. 21 seconds worse. On their opening drive they converted like 4,000 3rd downs and ate up over 8 minutes of clock. Wake ended up holding the ball for 13:22 in the opening frame because of the 3 and out on our 1st possession. Against GT you could blame it on 3 turnovers. Today the offense was just plain old ordinary awful. Morris was out of sorts all game. He only had 77 yards passing at the half, with 57 of those yards coming on 2 plays on our last drive before halftime. The whole team looked sluggish as well, and didn't show any urgency until our final 2 possessions of the game.
4. Can Miami stop it with the turnovers already?
No turnovers guys! Time to celebrate. 1st time since Savannah State that we managed to go a whole game without turning it over. As bad as the offense was throughout the game, imagine what would have happened if they had multiple turnovers? We'd probably lose by 2 touchdowns. Not sure how long I could survive in a world where Miami gets beat by Wake Forest in football. I'd probably last about as long as these Virginia Tech fans can manage to survive after losing to Duke.
Just another argument for rolling with the punches and just being ok with the W. No matter how it came to be.
Let's recap.
Before the game we all got just a little bit more famous because of the banner that we flew over Sun Life Stadium. Chris Freet and Chris Yandle from the Athletic Department each took note of it and thanked us for the gesture. Members of the national media like Bruce Feldman of CBS, and Brett McMurphy of ESPN spread the word of what we did as well. Even better, they showed a clip of it during the game's broadcast:
/bucCANEers
One more tip of my cap to all of you that helped get that done.
1st Quarter:
UM deferred to the second half and kicked off to Wake to start the game. During the return I could here what sounded like a referee's whistle, but I ignored it (remember this for later). The Deacons take over at their own 21, and on their 2nd play Josh Harris jukes Perryman out of his jockstrap on his way to 14 yard gain. That should've been the sign that let you know how this game was going to go.
The announcers kept going on about how wide Wake's splits were on their offensive line, and how it opened up passing lanes for Price. Funny, I didn't know wide splits caused defenses to not tackle or defend the pass worth a ****. Anyways Tanner Price proceeded to dink and dunk his way down the field on a drive that had four 3rd down conversions. It also ate up 8:34 off the clock. It was capped off by a 12 yard touchdown run from Josh Harris where he went untouched up the middle.
7-0 Wake Forest.
Jamal Carter gets flagged for holding on the return so Miami takes over from their own 9. Asante Cleveland makes his 1st catch of the year, but it doesn't matter because the Canes went 3 and out. On Wake's next possession President Perryman makes a big hit on Dominique Gibson:
The crowd was impressed. It would have actually meant something if it didn't happen 15 yards down field. It went down in the books as just another Wake Forest 1st down. After a Wake holding penalty, Chickillo ends the 1st quarter by getting a tackle for loss when Price tried to scramble out of the pocket. Still 7-0 Wake Forest.
2nd Quarter:
It's 3rd and 22 and the Deacs fail to convert this time. Chad Hedlund attempts a 47 yard field goal but misses. UM gets the ball back and starts to get the running game going with Duke. After he picks up a 1st down, a penalty on Wake gives them another and puts them into Wake territory for the first time. On 3rd and short Dallas comes in for Duke and gets the 1st down on an 18 yard gain down to the 19 yard line. The drive stalls and Miami settles for a 34 yard field goal from Goudis.
7-3 Wake Forest.
A huge chunk of the 1st half is already over and it seems like Miami has finally gotten their legs under them. It looks like Miami is going to force a 3 and out, but Price rolls left and lobs a 56 yard pass to Tyree Harris over the heads of both Artie Burns and Rayshawn Jenkins. Wake is now in the redzone. A few plays later it's 3rd and long, and Antonio Crawford's poor attempt at tackling sets up 4th and short. Jim Grobe decides to go for it and for good reason, because no one on Miami's defense knows that Mike Campanaro is a real person. He's all alone in the endzone for the easy touchdown. He's the best player on their team and nobody marks him. Even he couldn't believe he got that open.
14-3 Wake Forest.
After that UM and Wake trade short and meaningless drives. When UM gets the ball back there's only 2:45 left in the 1st half, which is crazy because the game only feels like it's 8 seconds old. Miami is facing 3rd and short and Morris overthrows his pass to Walford. Walford must have had some stick'em for the game, because he made an amazing 1 handed grab to keep the drive alive.
The play seemed to settle everything down because on the very next play Morris connected with Herb Waters for a 35 yard touchdown pass.
14-10 Wake Forest.
Imagine for a second that Walford doesn't make that 1 handed catch...it's probably 14-3 at halftime. Think of the of chorus of boos that would have rained down in that situation. Good thing he caught it. Wake runs out the clock to end the 1st half up 14-10. Smart move by Grobe. After all, they already used up a ton of the clock and limited UM to only four 1st half possessions. You couldn't ask for a better 1st half if you were him.
3rd Quarter:
Duke has a decent return to open the 2nd half, but Carter got flagged again and UM is starting inside the 10 yard line. Morris starts out hitting intermediate passes to Hagens, Walford, and Hurns. Then Duke gets going with back to back runs where he utilized his stiff arm. The 2nd run goes for 23 yards and into Wake territory. A facemask penalty got tacked on to put Miami in the redzone. The drive stalls after that, and Miami settles for a 40 yard field goal attempt from Goudis. It hooks to the left and is no good.
Wake goes 3 and out, and Coley returns the punt 25 yards to the 48 yard line. Two plays later Morris hits Cleveland again to move the chains. Three plays later it's 3rd and long and Morris finds Hurns over the middle for a 17 yard gain. A couple of plays later it's 3rd and short. They run to the left with Duke and Whitlock blows it up. Duke doesn't get more than a couple of yards. It's now 4th and 1 and Golden decides to go for it. Dallas runs to the left again and gets nothing. Turnover on downs.
Wake Forest takes over at their own 9. The drive doesn't get past the 50, but they run 10 plays and chew another 5 minutes off the clock. Miami goes 3 and out and the 3rd quarter ends with Wake still leading 14-10.
4th Quarter:
Wake Forest chews up another 3 minutes on the clock before punting it back to Miami. Coley fair catches it at the 10 and Miami goes back to work. On 1st down Morris goes deep to Coley who makes an amazing, leaping, juggling catch for a 44 yard gain.
Unreal concentration. It made #2 on Sports Center's Top plays. Too bad that Miami has to punt 3 plays later. Artie Burns downs it inside the 5 yard line. Miami's defense wakes up and forces Wake to go 3 and out. After the snap, the punter for Wake Forest just kind of stands there, and play stops because of an apparent whistle.
Then the players realize the refs never blew anything, so McCord and Muhammed go after the punter. Miami thinks they have a safety. Turns out the jackass who was whistling on the opening kickoff was simulating a referee's whistle and distracted the players. The refs allowed Wake to punt again. Golden was all like, "WTF?".
The punt goes out of bounds and Miami starts their next drive at their own 49. Coley calls 3 straight runs for Duke that go for 6, 16, and 3 yards. Now Miami is at the 26. On the next play Stacy Coley takes a reverse 7 yards for another 1st down. Coley had to cut it upfield to avoid a defender who tried to blow it up in the back field. After a penalty on Linder, Duke carries it 9 yards and draws a facemask penalty to push the ball inside the 10 yard line.
2 plays later Duke runs it off the right side for the go ahead score. An amazing block by Walford sealed the edge and created the necessary space for Duke to scoot into the endzone.
17-14 Miami.
Wake starts out with the ball on their own 25 with 5:36 left in the game. On 1st down Price tries to hook up with Campanaro but over throws him. However Antonio Crawford gets flagged for pass interference. Pretty weak in my opinion. Now the ball is at the 40. 2 plays later Crawford makes up for his penalty by making a great pass break up on another throw intended for Campanaro. On the play after that, Howard comes up with a great pass break up of his own. It's now 4th and 5 and Miami can probably end the game with a stop. However Price is able to complete an 11 yard pass to Jared Crump to keep the game alive. On the very next play, Price tosses a throwback screen to Dominique Gibson. Cornileus was late picking him up and compounded the problem by whiffing on the tackle. Gibson rumbles 44 yards down the sideline and runs over Tracy Howard for the touchdown.
21-17 Wake Forest.
Watching that play unfold was like the scene in 8mm where Nick Cage has to watch the snuff film.
Miami takes over at their own 27 yard line with only 4:02 left on the clock. Much like last week's game, Coley dials up a run heavy drive that takes the ball out of Morris' hands and leaves it up to our running game. Before this season, I hadn't seen a Miami offensive coordinator do this (with the game on the line) since the Kirby Freeman meltdown game against NC State in 2007. We did it in back to back weeks with Morris.
The drive starts out with 3 straight Duke Johnson carries of 6, 2, and 17 yards to get into Wake Forest territory. The third one was close to being broken for a huge gain, but the defender had a hold of Duke's jersey. 2 plays later Stacy Coley gets tangled up with a DB, which draws a pass interference penalty. 2 plays after that Dallas steps in and runs 8 yards for another 1st down to get to the 16 yard line. After another 2 plays, Duke moves the chains again on a pick up of 8 yards to set up 1st and goal from the 6. Wake calls timeout because there's now only 1:05 left on the clock.
Gif that represents every fan watching the game:
Are we really going to do this again? Apparently so, because Duke bounces a run out to the left side and stretches the ball to the pylon for the score. 23-21 UM pending the point aft....wait what? The sideline ref says that Duke was out of bounds at the 1. They review it, so naturally it's going to get overtur........the play stands??!?!!?!?! Unbelievable. Take a look at this:
That's a ******* touchdown. Imagine if we turned it over on the next play...
Luckily for us, Duke Johnson put our fears to rest by scoring on the next play from 1 yard out.
24-21 Miami.
With only :53 left on the clock, The Deacs take over from their own 25 to try and mount a come back. But on 2nd down, Price's pass bounces off his receiver's hands and right into the arms of Antonio Crawford for his 1st pick of the season.
Miami wins 24-21.
We're 7-0. As bad as we looked throughout the game, it still feels good to say we're undefeated.
[video=youtube;I_izvAbhExY]www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_izvAbhExY[/video]
It feels like CMar is pulling strings for us in each game. Somebody make sure his presence is felt next week in Tally.
