Any mention of Canes’ football history inevitably includes a passage that mentions the Notre Dame-Miami rivalry of yesteryear. Catchy phrases that paint Notre Dame as the white hat and Miami as the black hat have lived on to this day. The brands of both schools are large, and the history is rich. As a Cane fan who grew up in the 80’s, any matchup with Notre Dame still gets my nostalgia going because that is what both programs are trying to get back to (with ND appearing in the national championship game last year, I’d say they are already back to prominence). This game lived up to the hype and the good guys won (again) over the domers. How did it look on tape and was it as close as the score? Find out with me only at Upon Further Review.
Miami opens up in a typical Hetherman defense, so nothing exotic or surprising in how they looked to open the game. Blay is a grown man on the center and resets the middle of the LOS by two yards. Nickel blitz gets free to side opposite RB as Bain draws a double. Mesidor to the field is rushing outside with contain, you can even see him looking to control the blocker and with eyes on the QB to disrupt that quick pass. Finally, Miami has numbers in coverage to both sides (11th man off-screen).
Toure will need to get more comfortable in coverage as the season goes along as he had some meh moments in coverage in this game. Here, he is on his left leg as he anticipates #1 on the shallow cross coming into his zone, but he hasn’t even gotten into the Mike’s zone yet and he is threatened in the flat by the TE and the QB is staring that way. Easy completion.
It’s up to you to decide if I present myself as unbiased when critiquing officials, but I certainly try to say when Miami was fortunate when I see it. Here, this is a blatant miss by the officials. The blocker grasps his facemask and completely turns his head, which is the only reason Lucas isn’t tackling Faison right here. After getting his head yanked around it took him a second to gather himself and find where the receiver was. Penalty called and ND punts. No facemask to begin with and ND punts. This wasn’t a graze, this was a grasp and turn and it directly impacted the play result.
That’s how it’s supposed to look with RG/RT on DT. Kickout on the edge and Lyle has five. Loften on the edge is on the wrong shoulder, he needs to have that leg between the legs of the defender and on the right shoulder of the defender rather than the left (Loften ducked his head on contact and that allowed the edge to rebound from initial contact). Edge helps make this tackle.
Lyle picks up the blitz nicely, Marion threatens their dude at CB Leonard Moore and makes the reception. Nice job. (Not pictured)
This was a read by Beck as he takes the off-cushion throw. At the bottom of the screen you can see they had a screen call in place. Miami is blocking two yards downfield, which is right at the max as the ball comes out. This is why timing matters so much on plays like this. If Beck pumps or holds it this would be a penalty for blocking downfield *** the ball wasn’t caught behind the LOS.
That’s a physical mauling up front by the Canes. RB just rides behind this push for a 1st down.
ND fans screamed for a hold here, but when the defender rips under a blocker as the blocker isn’t using it to turn or stop engagement, they can hold that arm and push you wide. This is fine by Bell. You can stay on as the rusher rips/turns—even if your hands slide to the back or rise a bit the usual “at or below the shoulders” limit has an explicit exception in that case —as long as the blocker doesn’t grab him. Continuous “ride” (which is what Bell is doing) = OK; clamp, tug, or twist = holding (A.R. 9-3-3-V & VI; Rule 9-3-3-b). Beck stands tall and completes another one.
87 is a slicer and supposed to kick out the edge here I think. It’s possible that Miami believes the jet motion will get the edge to take himself out of the play here and 87 is a lead blocker but watching it back it doesn’t seem like it. It seems like 87 is a wham and he flattens far too much here and should be following the 40 out to get to that defender. He doesn’t and it’s blown up.
In my mind, what separates good DT’s from elite ones is their motor. Big guys with athletic ability either have the desire and discipline to run to the football or they don’t in most cases. Justin Scott is trying to prove that he does with this play. Once your blocker vacates and lets you go you need to be finding the football. Boom. Fumble recovered by Jakobee Thomas. Canes ball.
We’ve gotta get 9 into some OL meetings with Mirabal because this is the second time with just really poor technique trying to block. Completely whiffs here as he’s trying to block with his shoulder/forearm again.
Very next play we use 9 as a slicer and try to wham the edge and it is just bad again. Quickest way to lose snaps is by being unable to handle your assignments like this. Defender tackles him in the backfield when if 9 simply walls him off there’s a lane of 61’s hip to get inside the five rather than a loss of three.
Notre Dame played kick-safe, so any normal snap would’ve been fine here. You continuously see people say Miami was +2 in turnover margin, but this is a turnover and directly took points off the board.
G/T counter and this is how you play it up front. 4 is chasing the hip of his blocker, NT is driving the C into the path of the pullers so they have to bubble and be concerned with the C (you can even see the LG puts his hand on the back of the C as he pulls). NT is trying to peek so he can dislodge if that RB cuts off his right hip. The problem is 3 gets way too wide here and put on skates. He needs to take one more step to his left and upfield to ROSCOE the play (rush outside contain edge). Love spins by him outside on what was a nice run.
Same drive, 3rd & 1 and Mesidor is pinching better and coming out to in to keep contain. Blay does what he should do here and shoots the gap once the C steps down and the LG wraps (it was a bust by the RG not to slide but he wasn’t making that block from that distance in my mind). TFL and drive over.
As I suspected, the coaches also note the trouble with blocking from 9 thus far and have replaced him with 87 as the slicer to do the wham. Mauigoa with textbook wash and release technique on the DT as he washes down with his left arm but keeps head up on the release and gets to second-level. Cooper just steals that DT’s soul as he kicks him out the club. Big run.
Ray Ray certainly isn’t moving to OL any time soon, but he’s going up against a monster CB here and helps open the lane. If you’re yelling hold on Mauigoa, reminder that the defender is ripping which allows you to ride the defender if you’re already attached. Holding is the most misunderstood call in football in my experience.
McCoy sent flying by an E/T twist. Literally lifted off his feet on this rep. Toney with the whip route you saw all over to get the 1st down. The route was dirty.
On the TD to Toney, Beck flips the football twice in his hands. Not spins it, but end-over-end flips it. I’ve watched a lot of football clips, and I don’t have one that stands out as a QB doing that twice on one rep. Doesn’t matter, TD. If you watch the video clip below, just watch Toney as he flattens to the football. WR’s/DB’s got GET the ball, do not drift or fade. Most guys keep rounding into the end zone on this play and lose awareness of where the football is. It’s a small thing and it seems like it would be normal, but it is so not normal from my film watching. Beautiful and a natural receiver on display.
Awesome throw, Carson? Ball is gone, WR catches this at the two outside the numbers. This throw will be on his NFL draft tape. It’s the 2nd quarter and we’ve already seen the best catch in this game, probably, right?
Ahmad Moten had some nice moments in this game. Yes, in some ways he got put on a poster later in this game, but he was in the QB’s face even on that play. Here, he’s split a gap and into the backfield before ND knew where he was. Blows this play up and RB does well to avoid him and gain two.
Blay does the dirty work here and gets upfield to disrupt G/C as they T/T twist. You’d like to see Moten find the ball here as he’s free to get upfield thanks to Blay and stops his feet. This goes for a big run and some of his teammates are ticked as I think the Mike (Chase Smith) is supposed to be in the B-gap here. McElroy called out they lost leverage and I think it’s on the MLB.
Good job by CJ Carr here, who uses his eyes to get the nickel to jump the flat to the RB and Carr then just hits the in-cut behind the nickel when he vacates. Toure has to get into that zone and take the in-breaker quicker but he’s flat-footed (don’t love to say that our LB play has been rough to this point, especially Toure).
Cristobal called this play out saying the nickel has to be the force player here. 0 is typically the nickel, so he’s saying that he needs him to be the force here against a LT. Tough ask. Not sure if that is what he really meant, as it looks to me like Frederique might have taken an inside angle here and then let the RB get outside of him and down the sideline. I don’t know the call and Mario said nickel, so maybe he expects Scott to squeeze this one in more? RB gets to the two as he outruns Poyser (who also had a rough game).
Announcer credited Bissainthe, but the forced fumble was from Bain, who put his helmet right on the ball and knocked it out. It was just good fortune that ND recovered.
On the play where Moten defeats a double team and Carr makes a play, I wondered why #8 was running the wrong way at the throw, but I see now it was a sick play by Carr as he does a no-look to his receiver while staring at 9.
Miami used their WR’s as a lead blocker a couple of times. Lofton did a much better job here of blocking an edge as well (defender gets his hands up into his face, but that happens on a lot of plays and he gets it down quickly). Daniels is essentially the FB onto the Mike here and gets the job done.
McCoy whipped at the snap, but a two-way go for Toney and Beck gets the ball out as soon as that back foot hits.
Saw more holding asks on my timeline here. This is textbook riding in half-man as the defender tries to rip under the blocker. You rip and I’m riding, perfectly legal if it’s while I’m still engaged with the rip.
Speed buys you cushion. Marion drives the CB into opening his hips and bailing and then stops. Beck is on time and this is easy money.
Oh. I guess Toney’s catch wasn’t even the best catch of the 2nd quarter after all. To the domers, fine, it’s a pretty fortunate catch, but this wasn’t going to be an interception. If he doesn’t catch it, he tips it away. Probably an ill-advised throw, in all honesty, but it was one heck of a catch.
Really questionable clock management by Mario turns into gold as they get the TD with only a few seconds remaining in the half and get the ball first in the 2H.
To go the entire night and never get one of these called was pretty wild. DB’s going upside the head of a WR seems pretty easy to call and see. Stack LB is sitting in zone, deep safety over the top, but this corner route for Lofton is easy money on 3rd down.
Again, they ask WR to slice and lead into the hole against a LB. Trader gave everything in his soul on this block. That gets you playing time if you’ll lay it on the line for your teammates like this.
He’s dragging a guy by his facemask. How was this allowed all game? Not called one time and I’m not even highlighting all of them because as I mentioned the hand gets up into the face at the LOS all the time, it has to linger to be a penalty. This is egregious and should be a call 10-out-of-10. At the end he hits him in the face in front of an official.
Toney on the whip is deadly. 1st down. Kudos to 6 who runs downfield from here and leads Toney from this far away. Brown has been great in this game even if he didn’t have a bunch of flash plays. Effort is culture.
Next play is the rugby scrum run where they pushed him across, but the effort and power to get to the 6” line was all from Brown. (Not pictured)
Bad penalty call on David Blay on the punt wipes off 15 yards, which, again, you’ve seen the film evidence and not once has anything on Notre Dame been called. Even McElroy and the rules analyst said it was a bad call as two players are tied up previously, coverage player runs in path of Blay who is trying to avoid him, extends an arm and they call a personal foul. Miami player with his arms out knows it was a bad call already. You can see how Blay is trying to avoid the contact altogether.
This is football. I like it. But if ND can supplex guys out-of-bounds after they just called Miami for a very soft personal foul penalty we have one-sided officiating on the physicality allowed.
Film for Moten is starting to wane a bit. You can’t get washed out here. He has to stay on the left shoulder of the C and peek if the QB takes off. Gets washed out and there is no one in the A-gap to replace and it’s an easy QB scramble for a 1st down. In this defense, the C cannot be able to block the NT 1-on-1 and wash him out, you’ll get gashed.
Hat tip. Heck of a catch.
Again, you just can’t have Moten diving inside in this defense. He’s leaving the B-gap completely exposed on this play and a QB run has a RB as a lead blocker on the Mike who has to cover both A-gaps and then get to the B as the DT dives inside. I’ve watched a lot of Hetherman defense’s and he doesn’t leave the B exposed like this intentionally.
#8 beats this block inside and runs this all the way down outside of #2 here. Just an unreal play by him. ND had an opportunity to score a TD on this drive all on their own, but the officials were egregiously bad in this stretch between the fake pass interference on Thomas and the helmet popping off a defender who never engaged in the pile. It was bad enough that the ACC condensed game completely skipped all of those plays in their replay.
Miami opens up in a typical Hetherman defense, so nothing exotic or surprising in how they looked to open the game. Blay is a grown man on the center and resets the middle of the LOS by two yards. Nickel blitz gets free to side opposite RB as Bain draws a double. Mesidor to the field is rushing outside with contain, you can even see him looking to control the blocker and with eyes on the QB to disrupt that quick pass. Finally, Miami has numbers in coverage to both sides (11th man off-screen).
Toure will need to get more comfortable in coverage as the season goes along as he had some meh moments in coverage in this game. Here, he is on his left leg as he anticipates #1 on the shallow cross coming into his zone, but he hasn’t even gotten into the Mike’s zone yet and he is threatened in the flat by the TE and the QB is staring that way. Easy completion.
It’s up to you to decide if I present myself as unbiased when critiquing officials, but I certainly try to say when Miami was fortunate when I see it. Here, this is a blatant miss by the officials. The blocker grasps his facemask and completely turns his head, which is the only reason Lucas isn’t tackling Faison right here. After getting his head yanked around it took him a second to gather himself and find where the receiver was. Penalty called and ND punts. No facemask to begin with and ND punts. This wasn’t a graze, this was a grasp and turn and it directly impacted the play result.
That’s how it’s supposed to look with RG/RT on DT. Kickout on the edge and Lyle has five. Loften on the edge is on the wrong shoulder, he needs to have that leg between the legs of the defender and on the right shoulder of the defender rather than the left (Loften ducked his head on contact and that allowed the edge to rebound from initial contact). Edge helps make this tackle.
Lyle picks up the blitz nicely, Marion threatens their dude at CB Leonard Moore and makes the reception. Nice job. (Not pictured)
This was a read by Beck as he takes the off-cushion throw. At the bottom of the screen you can see they had a screen call in place. Miami is blocking two yards downfield, which is right at the max as the ball comes out. This is why timing matters so much on plays like this. If Beck pumps or holds it this would be a penalty for blocking downfield *** the ball wasn’t caught behind the LOS.
That’s a physical mauling up front by the Canes. RB just rides behind this push for a 1st down.
ND fans screamed for a hold here, but when the defender rips under a blocker as the blocker isn’t using it to turn or stop engagement, they can hold that arm and push you wide. This is fine by Bell. You can stay on as the rusher rips/turns—even if your hands slide to the back or rise a bit the usual “at or below the shoulders” limit has an explicit exception in that case —as long as the blocker doesn’t grab him. Continuous “ride” (which is what Bell is doing) = OK; clamp, tug, or twist = holding (A.R. 9-3-3-V & VI; Rule 9-3-3-b). Beck stands tall and completes another one.
87 is a slicer and supposed to kick out the edge here I think. It’s possible that Miami believes the jet motion will get the edge to take himself out of the play here and 87 is a lead blocker but watching it back it doesn’t seem like it. It seems like 87 is a wham and he flattens far too much here and should be following the 40 out to get to that defender. He doesn’t and it’s blown up.
In my mind, what separates good DT’s from elite ones is their motor. Big guys with athletic ability either have the desire and discipline to run to the football or they don’t in most cases. Justin Scott is trying to prove that he does with this play. Once your blocker vacates and lets you go you need to be finding the football. Boom. Fumble recovered by Jakobee Thomas. Canes ball.
We’ve gotta get 9 into some OL meetings with Mirabal because this is the second time with just really poor technique trying to block. Completely whiffs here as he’s trying to block with his shoulder/forearm again.
Very next play we use 9 as a slicer and try to wham the edge and it is just bad again. Quickest way to lose snaps is by being unable to handle your assignments like this. Defender tackles him in the backfield when if 9 simply walls him off there’s a lane of 61’s hip to get inside the five rather than a loss of three.
Notre Dame played kick-safe, so any normal snap would’ve been fine here. You continuously see people say Miami was +2 in turnover margin, but this is a turnover and directly took points off the board.
G/T counter and this is how you play it up front. 4 is chasing the hip of his blocker, NT is driving the C into the path of the pullers so they have to bubble and be concerned with the C (you can even see the LG puts his hand on the back of the C as he pulls). NT is trying to peek so he can dislodge if that RB cuts off his right hip. The problem is 3 gets way too wide here and put on skates. He needs to take one more step to his left and upfield to ROSCOE the play (rush outside contain edge). Love spins by him outside on what was a nice run.
Same drive, 3rd & 1 and Mesidor is pinching better and coming out to in to keep contain. Blay does what he should do here and shoots the gap once the C steps down and the LG wraps (it was a bust by the RG not to slide but he wasn’t making that block from that distance in my mind). TFL and drive over.
As I suspected, the coaches also note the trouble with blocking from 9 thus far and have replaced him with 87 as the slicer to do the wham. Mauigoa with textbook wash and release technique on the DT as he washes down with his left arm but keeps head up on the release and gets to second-level. Cooper just steals that DT’s soul as he kicks him out the club. Big run.
Ray Ray certainly isn’t moving to OL any time soon, but he’s going up against a monster CB here and helps open the lane. If you’re yelling hold on Mauigoa, reminder that the defender is ripping which allows you to ride the defender if you’re already attached. Holding is the most misunderstood call in football in my experience.
McCoy sent flying by an E/T twist. Literally lifted off his feet on this rep. Toney with the whip route you saw all over to get the 1st down. The route was dirty.
On the TD to Toney, Beck flips the football twice in his hands. Not spins it, but end-over-end flips it. I’ve watched a lot of football clips, and I don’t have one that stands out as a QB doing that twice on one rep. Doesn’t matter, TD. If you watch the video clip below, just watch Toney as he flattens to the football. WR’s/DB’s got GET the ball, do not drift or fade. Most guys keep rounding into the end zone on this play and lose awareness of where the football is. It’s a small thing and it seems like it would be normal, but it is so not normal from my film watching. Beautiful and a natural receiver on display.
Awesome throw, Carson? Ball is gone, WR catches this at the two outside the numbers. This throw will be on his NFL draft tape. It’s the 2nd quarter and we’ve already seen the best catch in this game, probably, right?
Ahmad Moten had some nice moments in this game. Yes, in some ways he got put on a poster later in this game, but he was in the QB’s face even on that play. Here, he’s split a gap and into the backfield before ND knew where he was. Blows this play up and RB does well to avoid him and gain two.
Blay does the dirty work here and gets upfield to disrupt G/C as they T/T twist. You’d like to see Moten find the ball here as he’s free to get upfield thanks to Blay and stops his feet. This goes for a big run and some of his teammates are ticked as I think the Mike (Chase Smith) is supposed to be in the B-gap here. McElroy called out they lost leverage and I think it’s on the MLB.
Good job by CJ Carr here, who uses his eyes to get the nickel to jump the flat to the RB and Carr then just hits the in-cut behind the nickel when he vacates. Toure has to get into that zone and take the in-breaker quicker but he’s flat-footed (don’t love to say that our LB play has been rough to this point, especially Toure).
Cristobal called this play out saying the nickel has to be the force player here. 0 is typically the nickel, so he’s saying that he needs him to be the force here against a LT. Tough ask. Not sure if that is what he really meant, as it looks to me like Frederique might have taken an inside angle here and then let the RB get outside of him and down the sideline. I don’t know the call and Mario said nickel, so maybe he expects Scott to squeeze this one in more? RB gets to the two as he outruns Poyser (who also had a rough game).
Announcer credited Bissainthe, but the forced fumble was from Bain, who put his helmet right on the ball and knocked it out. It was just good fortune that ND recovered.
On the play where Moten defeats a double team and Carr makes a play, I wondered why #8 was running the wrong way at the throw, but I see now it was a sick play by Carr as he does a no-look to his receiver while staring at 9.
Miami used their WR’s as a lead blocker a couple of times. Lofton did a much better job here of blocking an edge as well (defender gets his hands up into his face, but that happens on a lot of plays and he gets it down quickly). Daniels is essentially the FB onto the Mike here and gets the job done.
McCoy whipped at the snap, but a two-way go for Toney and Beck gets the ball out as soon as that back foot hits.
Saw more holding asks on my timeline here. This is textbook riding in half-man as the defender tries to rip under the blocker. You rip and I’m riding, perfectly legal if it’s while I’m still engaged with the rip.
Speed buys you cushion. Marion drives the CB into opening his hips and bailing and then stops. Beck is on time and this is easy money.
Oh. I guess Toney’s catch wasn’t even the best catch of the 2nd quarter after all. To the domers, fine, it’s a pretty fortunate catch, but this wasn’t going to be an interception. If he doesn’t catch it, he tips it away. Probably an ill-advised throw, in all honesty, but it was one heck of a catch.
Really questionable clock management by Mario turns into gold as they get the TD with only a few seconds remaining in the half and get the ball first in the 2H.
To go the entire night and never get one of these called was pretty wild. DB’s going upside the head of a WR seems pretty easy to call and see. Stack LB is sitting in zone, deep safety over the top, but this corner route for Lofton is easy money on 3rd down.
Again, they ask WR to slice and lead into the hole against a LB. Trader gave everything in his soul on this block. That gets you playing time if you’ll lay it on the line for your teammates like this.
He’s dragging a guy by his facemask. How was this allowed all game? Not called one time and I’m not even highlighting all of them because as I mentioned the hand gets up into the face at the LOS all the time, it has to linger to be a penalty. This is egregious and should be a call 10-out-of-10. At the end he hits him in the face in front of an official.
Toney on the whip is deadly. 1st down. Kudos to 6 who runs downfield from here and leads Toney from this far away. Brown has been great in this game even if he didn’t have a bunch of flash plays. Effort is culture.
Next play is the rugby scrum run where they pushed him across, but the effort and power to get to the 6” line was all from Brown. (Not pictured)
Bad penalty call on David Blay on the punt wipes off 15 yards, which, again, you’ve seen the film evidence and not once has anything on Notre Dame been called. Even McElroy and the rules analyst said it was a bad call as two players are tied up previously, coverage player runs in path of Blay who is trying to avoid him, extends an arm and they call a personal foul. Miami player with his arms out knows it was a bad call already. You can see how Blay is trying to avoid the contact altogether.
This is football. I like it. But if ND can supplex guys out-of-bounds after they just called Miami for a very soft personal foul penalty we have one-sided officiating on the physicality allowed.
Film for Moten is starting to wane a bit. You can’t get washed out here. He has to stay on the left shoulder of the C and peek if the QB takes off. Gets washed out and there is no one in the A-gap to replace and it’s an easy QB scramble for a 1st down. In this defense, the C cannot be able to block the NT 1-on-1 and wash him out, you’ll get gashed.
Hat tip. Heck of a catch.
Again, you just can’t have Moten diving inside in this defense. He’s leaving the B-gap completely exposed on this play and a QB run has a RB as a lead blocker on the Mike who has to cover both A-gaps and then get to the B as the DT dives inside. I’ve watched a lot of Hetherman defense’s and he doesn’t leave the B exposed like this intentionally.
#8 beats this block inside and runs this all the way down outside of #2 here. Just an unreal play by him. ND had an opportunity to score a TD on this drive all on their own, but the officials were egregiously bad in this stretch between the fake pass interference on Thomas and the helmet popping off a defender who never engaged in the pile. It was bad enough that the ACC condensed game completely skipped all of those plays in their replay.
