We all have a penance to pay for the decisions we make in life. For each of us here, it was our decision to become fans of the Miami Hurricanes’ football program that we have to pay penance for today. Find out where it went wrong, how far away Miami really is, and if this can be salvaged, only here at Upon Further Review.
I think this is a bust, because it is unusual to turn an edge loose and then already make the fake without a “read” of the defensive player. Doing a read before he is anywhere near negates the entire purpose of letting the player go. Plus, the RB is going the opposite direction of the read. My guess is the OL was shifted the wrong direction and MSU just had a gift. Easy sack.
Good play design, where the RB motion holds the LB, who doesn’t hit Mallory here like he should. Not sure what technique we are teaching on the OL here, but your RT to have his butt to the sideline already is not going to hold a defender out long. C is already half-man as well. Goes for a 1st down to Mallory.
Official staring right at the hands to the face. Nothing. Mallory though, that is just poor technique on the block. He’s not rolling his hips and driving to drive that defender at all.
Very next play we run a pop pass to Harley and Mallory does the exact same thing against a S and gives up his chest and gets knocked backwards. His technique has not improved in four years. (Not pictured)
I’ve asked for rub routes against man-coverage, pop passes to make things easy on QB several times and Lashlee ran them on back-to-back plays. Hopefully, my re-watch will make me believe that Lashlee had a better game plan than I thought. I will say I wish Harley didn’t go to the ground so often on catches like this. He had a lot of room up-the-sideline if he keeps his feet.
Rambo speed opens the hips of the outside CB and an easy hitch route reception for Rambo. (Not pictured)
Justice gets smoked immediately. Forces King to rush and he doesn’t get the ball away in time. Fumble. Restrepo had a chance, but like everything else on this day, it squirted away. Wiggins then expects that Restrepo has it and just watches. Tough spot, but you have to go all out in that spot to get the ball back. I’d give him less grief if it wasn’t a career-long issue to go brain-dead in big spots.
Carter loses his man. He jumps the read on the inside give, when the Orbit motion is his responsibility. I do not understand how he starts over Frierson and Chase Smith can’t get a chance. It’s constant mistakes from #5.
#17 takes Gurvan Hall for a ride and throws him completely out of the club. Hall started at the 31-yard line and ends up out-of-bounds. The gloves are off for #5, #26, #21, #1 in this defense. All seniors. All worse than last season. Starts with Carter trying to do too much. Ends with embarrassing film for Gurvan. 17 is a sophomore, listed at 6-2, 195.
I mentioned that this UFR might be the longest or the shortest every and I’m leaning towards shortest. I could show every single play and point mistake-after-mistake on this team. Harvey ducks inside and no one replaces. What are you waiting on Carter? This is your gap outside and you have to be the force player to stop the defense from being outleveraged outside. Why are you standing there? RB beats him outside, he doesn’t force the runner back to your defense. Easy yards.
Steed comes free after Harvey goes inside, sacks QB. (Not pictured)
Steed attacks another run on next play and stuffs it. Harrison-Hunte fights off an early duo, as second defender comes off to try for Flagg, Steed cleans it up with JHH. Nice play, guys. (Not pictured)
Frierson drops into zone and lets WR catch it short and comes up and makes a solid tackle. (Not pictured)
Special teams frustrate me so much with this team. You assign a guy on the edge to come all the way back across and get the snapper? He just runs straight down the field as Kinchens can’t get there. Stevenson fields the punt at the 1-yard line, which is so easy to avoid. That LS is down there to make a tackle. Miami has another penalty on a return. It’s inevitable on almost every return. So. Many. Mistakes.
I’m happy Brinson caught this pass, but why are you going to the ground on a ball that hits you in the stomach? Get upfield and get that 1st down.
Cam Harris has to avoid two defenders in the backfield to pick this 1st down up. MSU is just splitting gaps against all of our pullers.
I talked earlier about the fact our RT is immediately turning his butt to the sideline and that will not work longterm. Here is one reason why. If the pass rusher gets your wrists and controls it, you are done. You’ve already got the gate open for the pass rusher to go past. The other reason is it exposes your chest once you get depth and the defender can drive through you pretty easily. Zion gets overpowered on his side and ends up on the ground. Easy sack.
Designed run for King. Justice loses and King has to bubble around the defender in backfield. Mallory stops his feet before contact and gets driven backwards. I will be honest; this is an absolute physical mauling against Miami. Michigan State said some things after the game and they are all over the film thus far. (Not pictured)
Michigan State does not allow our long snapper a free release.
Miami stuffs a run and Steed did a nice job of pinching the gap from outside-in. He’s played well thus far. (Not pictured)
Michigan State has a bust as the OL shifts away from where Miami stunts again. Chantz stunts inside and the C doesn’t take him. Free walk to the QB for a sack. (Not pictured)
MSU punts and Miami lets the LS run free again. Literally did not block him.
Harris ran right into Scaife. I wish Scaife got through there quicker because it was going to pop if he did. That is a big hole and you’ve got 60 getting to 2nd-level.
McElroy calling out the offense for not just throwing it to Mallory, who is uncovered. They run that dive play everyone (including Lashlee’s family) loves so much for no gain. If the opponent gives it, run the same play 15 straight times if you need to. You do not need to “setup another play” if the one you are running is working already.
3rd down and the deepest defender on Michigan State is six yards off the LOS. Love how they challenge Miami’s offense and absolutely show zero respect to the receiving group for Miami. Harley drops a slant that would’ve gone for a 1st down, but Michigan State told you after the game they didn’t respect Miami and it is all over the tape thus far.
Really nice play design by Michigan State using jet motion with a RB as eye candy on a screen that goes to the TE. Roman showed this play on his YouTube feed if you’re interested in a breakdown. Really, what made the play so successful was they caught us blitzing off that side and we dropped Chantz into coverage. Hall did a good job staying outside as the force player, coming off the block and making a tackle or it would’ve been a bigger play. (Not pictured)
It’s over and over again with Nesta, where he dips that shoulder and barrels ahead into a gap. OL are content to just wash him whichever direction he wants to go all game. Creates monster cutback lanes for the RB. If you’re going to do this you have to replace him in that gap and the LB is slow here. Hall blitzes and they let him run himself by. The defensive scheme needs to do some self-scouting because offenses have adjusted to their chaotic style.
Nesta just runs himself right out of there. OL just guided him. Gurvan runs himself right out of the play. Deandre Johnson was soft on the edge. Too. Easy.
Stevenson has to complete some plays. This is multiple times now. We see the reactions. We know you know you screwed up, but at some point, stop ******** up. Make a play young man.
Stevenson loses contain on an end-around on the next play. Bubba comes up and makes a great tackle in space. Bolden can fill run lanes. (Not pictured)
Flagg really messed this one up. Once again, a Miami contain defender loses contain. It’s continuous. It’s simple geometry. Yet, they do it all game long. Flagg loops with his rush, but has to widen his angle to stay wider than the QB to not allow him outside. QB outruns him to the edge here for a 1st down. Cannot happen.
The coaches have to teach it. I have no other explanation for the consistently poor angles they take on defense. Nesta loops here, so he was actually already headed E-W and turns N-S to run straight at the RB and is outrun. Once again, because of the stunt, Nesta replaces the edge as the force player and has to stay wider than the RB to force him back inside to the pursuit. There is no edge setter here if Nesta gives it up.
Donaldson tries a two-hand punch and the DT swats his hands away and beats him on first step. Rivers’ injury is showing up here as Donaldson cannot handle the OL slide to the right, which takes away his C help. Miami runs mesh over the middle with a comeback on the outside and King hits it.
Miami is eating on that hitch or comeback route on the outside to Rambo. He makes a man miss and gets upfield. Wish they would run a double-move on that at least once a half to keep that CB honest. (Not pictured)
This seems like a designed dumpoff to the RB, but not sure we executed it the way you’d want. Since Rambo is running a little curl here, there is no one to block that CB out there. You’d think King would read curl first to move that CB to Rambo, then come back to RB as second read, but this could be the way the play was designed and it was just a bad play call against that look. This defensive look should’ve been easy money with all that open space and we throw it to the one place where no gain was available.
Justice gets whipped. Wish Harris had recognized this and not released into pass pattern. Michigan State had a game plan of creating an umbrella around King to try and force him to scramble up-the-middle instead of letting him scramble outside. He still gets around the edge on this one and gets down the sideline.
The play happens because Harris stands in and blocks a blitzing LB’er. I get frustrated with some of the runs as much as anyone, but the importance of blocking from the RB in this offense is understated and Harris is good at that. It has to be the reason he starts even when all the RB’s are available.
Play Restrepo more. Find a role. The kid is one of the few players who has effort show up on film. Here he turns a defender inside so Rambo can get outside.
Ran sprint right option two plays in a row at the goal line. MSU overruns it and leaves Rambo wide open. TD. (Not pictured)
This defense. Sometimes I feel like this defense is trying to allow itself to be outleveraged. Carter is far too inside on this play. You cannot allow a receiver to be five yards outside of you when you’re playing off-coverage on the outside. This is just basic geometry again.
You’ve all seen it, but this happened. I can confirm it. Gurvan Hall dove out of the way of the WR and hit the blocker, which blocked his own man as well. Carter never gets there because he let himself get outleveraged and this pops down the sideline. James Williams runs it down. He gets a horse collar, but that’s a good penalty on the play because it was a TD if he didn’t. Such an egregious play, a former player asked Hall who paid him off on Twitter.
Make a tackle, Gilbert. No one on this team brings their legs with them on any contact. Look at how far over his toes he is and off-balance. He gets shrugged off.
Steed does a good job of cutting off the wheel route to the RB and QB throws it away. (Not pictured)
Flagg makes a bad play here. He comes off his receiver way too early here. He has to stay deeper and in the area of the receiver while flowing parallel to the QB. Once the QB decides to move upfield then you attack. QB makes a bad throw or this is an easy 1st down.
Michigan State misses the easy FG. Manny celebrates like he did something. Will probably promote Patke tomorrow. (Not pictured)
That is a heck of a catch by Harley.
I have no idea why Harris cuts this back inside of Zion. He has the edge and one defender to beat. Gets three.
Miami’s offense has to attack more vertically in my view. Deep to Keyshawn and he gets a PI called. If the defender didn’t grab, it’s a TD, so good play. (Not pictured)
This has to be a missed block by Mallory. You’re certainly not asking the LT to get all the way out there. TFL. Would’ve been better off throwing the slip screen to the top of the screen.
Very next play Mallory just drops a wide-open TD. Sigh. He’s been so disappointing.
Justice holds on the next play. Which makes the FG harder, of course. Miami cannot get out of their own way. Then Keyshawn holds on the next play. Declined. Brutal showing from this team. (Not pictured)
Again, are they teaching the defense this way? Frierson goes inside, instead of staying outside and staying as the force player. They aren’t designing the defense to lack a force player on the edge, I will give them the benefit of the doubt there. 1st down. Rinse. Repeat.
Steed missed tackle in space. Sigh.
Trap Steed, McCloud can’t get off a block. Easy 1st outside. The edges of the defense. My goodness. UNC is going to run for 500 again. Your MLB goes the wrong way and is fooled by something, not sure what, because the action is all to the other side. Your Striker, no clue where he is going. Again, the eye candy motion is going the other way. Ford wants out after this play. They should oblige him a long break and give Taylor a try.
The defense is getting mauled. Michigan State is letting them fly upfield on the edges and creating all kinds of room for the RB. This defense doesn’t work in the run game. If you see a tough, physical run team on the schedule the rest of this season, it’ll be 200+ yards rushing. LOS completely reset. 12 misses this tackle as well.
Carter has zero awareness in pass coverage. Outleveraged easily again. It’s incredible to me. He’s like a vacuum for blocks as well. This goes to the 3-yard line. Kinchens saves the TD for now.
Carter even pointed it out that Couch was taking inside man, while Carter has back of the stack. Motion a TE over to block. How does he think he is covering anything outside from several yards inside of him? That’s a WR named Speedy.
Something I’ve noticed is Stevenson struggles to field side when he’s singled up in the red zone. MSU had a TD earlier with a better throw on a fade. This time a back-shoulder is dropped for what should’ve been a TD. (Not pictured)
JHH shoots a gap, gets held (not called) and allows his LB’ers to clean up. (Not pictured)
Defense outleveraged again. Flagg can’t get out there and make a tackle. MSU with a smart play where they pick downfield. TD. MSU anticipated man-coverage, got it, outcoached the defense. Carter is so unsure of himself out there in coverage he runs right into the pick instead of getting out there. Even with that, just make the tackle Flagg.
I think this is a bust, because it is unusual to turn an edge loose and then already make the fake without a “read” of the defensive player. Doing a read before he is anywhere near negates the entire purpose of letting the player go. Plus, the RB is going the opposite direction of the read. My guess is the OL was shifted the wrong direction and MSU just had a gift. Easy sack.
Good play design, where the RB motion holds the LB, who doesn’t hit Mallory here like he should. Not sure what technique we are teaching on the OL here, but your RT to have his butt to the sideline already is not going to hold a defender out long. C is already half-man as well. Goes for a 1st down to Mallory.
Official staring right at the hands to the face. Nothing. Mallory though, that is just poor technique on the block. He’s not rolling his hips and driving to drive that defender at all.
Very next play we run a pop pass to Harley and Mallory does the exact same thing against a S and gives up his chest and gets knocked backwards. His technique has not improved in four years. (Not pictured)
I’ve asked for rub routes against man-coverage, pop passes to make things easy on QB several times and Lashlee ran them on back-to-back plays. Hopefully, my re-watch will make me believe that Lashlee had a better game plan than I thought. I will say I wish Harley didn’t go to the ground so often on catches like this. He had a lot of room up-the-sideline if he keeps his feet.
Rambo speed opens the hips of the outside CB and an easy hitch route reception for Rambo. (Not pictured)
Justice gets smoked immediately. Forces King to rush and he doesn’t get the ball away in time. Fumble. Restrepo had a chance, but like everything else on this day, it squirted away. Wiggins then expects that Restrepo has it and just watches. Tough spot, but you have to go all out in that spot to get the ball back. I’d give him less grief if it wasn’t a career-long issue to go brain-dead in big spots.
Carter loses his man. He jumps the read on the inside give, when the Orbit motion is his responsibility. I do not understand how he starts over Frierson and Chase Smith can’t get a chance. It’s constant mistakes from #5.
#17 takes Gurvan Hall for a ride and throws him completely out of the club. Hall started at the 31-yard line and ends up out-of-bounds. The gloves are off for #5, #26, #21, #1 in this defense. All seniors. All worse than last season. Starts with Carter trying to do too much. Ends with embarrassing film for Gurvan. 17 is a sophomore, listed at 6-2, 195.
I mentioned that this UFR might be the longest or the shortest every and I’m leaning towards shortest. I could show every single play and point mistake-after-mistake on this team. Harvey ducks inside and no one replaces. What are you waiting on Carter? This is your gap outside and you have to be the force player to stop the defense from being outleveraged outside. Why are you standing there? RB beats him outside, he doesn’t force the runner back to your defense. Easy yards.
Steed comes free after Harvey goes inside, sacks QB. (Not pictured)
Steed attacks another run on next play and stuffs it. Harrison-Hunte fights off an early duo, as second defender comes off to try for Flagg, Steed cleans it up with JHH. Nice play, guys. (Not pictured)
Frierson drops into zone and lets WR catch it short and comes up and makes a solid tackle. (Not pictured)
Special teams frustrate me so much with this team. You assign a guy on the edge to come all the way back across and get the snapper? He just runs straight down the field as Kinchens can’t get there. Stevenson fields the punt at the 1-yard line, which is so easy to avoid. That LS is down there to make a tackle. Miami has another penalty on a return. It’s inevitable on almost every return. So. Many. Mistakes.
I’m happy Brinson caught this pass, but why are you going to the ground on a ball that hits you in the stomach? Get upfield and get that 1st down.
Cam Harris has to avoid two defenders in the backfield to pick this 1st down up. MSU is just splitting gaps against all of our pullers.
I talked earlier about the fact our RT is immediately turning his butt to the sideline and that will not work longterm. Here is one reason why. If the pass rusher gets your wrists and controls it, you are done. You’ve already got the gate open for the pass rusher to go past. The other reason is it exposes your chest once you get depth and the defender can drive through you pretty easily. Zion gets overpowered on his side and ends up on the ground. Easy sack.
Designed run for King. Justice loses and King has to bubble around the defender in backfield. Mallory stops his feet before contact and gets driven backwards. I will be honest; this is an absolute physical mauling against Miami. Michigan State said some things after the game and they are all over the film thus far. (Not pictured)
Michigan State does not allow our long snapper a free release.
Miami stuffs a run and Steed did a nice job of pinching the gap from outside-in. He’s played well thus far. (Not pictured)
Michigan State has a bust as the OL shifts away from where Miami stunts again. Chantz stunts inside and the C doesn’t take him. Free walk to the QB for a sack. (Not pictured)
MSU punts and Miami lets the LS run free again. Literally did not block him.
Harris ran right into Scaife. I wish Scaife got through there quicker because it was going to pop if he did. That is a big hole and you’ve got 60 getting to 2nd-level.
McElroy calling out the offense for not just throwing it to Mallory, who is uncovered. They run that dive play everyone (including Lashlee’s family) loves so much for no gain. If the opponent gives it, run the same play 15 straight times if you need to. You do not need to “setup another play” if the one you are running is working already.
3rd down and the deepest defender on Michigan State is six yards off the LOS. Love how they challenge Miami’s offense and absolutely show zero respect to the receiving group for Miami. Harley drops a slant that would’ve gone for a 1st down, but Michigan State told you after the game they didn’t respect Miami and it is all over the tape thus far.
Really nice play design by Michigan State using jet motion with a RB as eye candy on a screen that goes to the TE. Roman showed this play on his YouTube feed if you’re interested in a breakdown. Really, what made the play so successful was they caught us blitzing off that side and we dropped Chantz into coverage. Hall did a good job staying outside as the force player, coming off the block and making a tackle or it would’ve been a bigger play. (Not pictured)
It’s over and over again with Nesta, where he dips that shoulder and barrels ahead into a gap. OL are content to just wash him whichever direction he wants to go all game. Creates monster cutback lanes for the RB. If you’re going to do this you have to replace him in that gap and the LB is slow here. Hall blitzes and they let him run himself by. The defensive scheme needs to do some self-scouting because offenses have adjusted to their chaotic style.
Nesta just runs himself right out of there. OL just guided him. Gurvan runs himself right out of the play. Deandre Johnson was soft on the edge. Too. Easy.
Stevenson has to complete some plays. This is multiple times now. We see the reactions. We know you know you screwed up, but at some point, stop ******** up. Make a play young man.
Stevenson loses contain on an end-around on the next play. Bubba comes up and makes a great tackle in space. Bolden can fill run lanes. (Not pictured)
Flagg really messed this one up. Once again, a Miami contain defender loses contain. It’s continuous. It’s simple geometry. Yet, they do it all game long. Flagg loops with his rush, but has to widen his angle to stay wider than the QB to not allow him outside. QB outruns him to the edge here for a 1st down. Cannot happen.
The coaches have to teach it. I have no other explanation for the consistently poor angles they take on defense. Nesta loops here, so he was actually already headed E-W and turns N-S to run straight at the RB and is outrun. Once again, because of the stunt, Nesta replaces the edge as the force player and has to stay wider than the RB to force him back inside to the pursuit. There is no edge setter here if Nesta gives it up.
Donaldson tries a two-hand punch and the DT swats his hands away and beats him on first step. Rivers’ injury is showing up here as Donaldson cannot handle the OL slide to the right, which takes away his C help. Miami runs mesh over the middle with a comeback on the outside and King hits it.
Miami is eating on that hitch or comeback route on the outside to Rambo. He makes a man miss and gets upfield. Wish they would run a double-move on that at least once a half to keep that CB honest. (Not pictured)
This seems like a designed dumpoff to the RB, but not sure we executed it the way you’d want. Since Rambo is running a little curl here, there is no one to block that CB out there. You’d think King would read curl first to move that CB to Rambo, then come back to RB as second read, but this could be the way the play was designed and it was just a bad play call against that look. This defensive look should’ve been easy money with all that open space and we throw it to the one place where no gain was available.
Justice gets whipped. Wish Harris had recognized this and not released into pass pattern. Michigan State had a game plan of creating an umbrella around King to try and force him to scramble up-the-middle instead of letting him scramble outside. He still gets around the edge on this one and gets down the sideline.
The play happens because Harris stands in and blocks a blitzing LB’er. I get frustrated with some of the runs as much as anyone, but the importance of blocking from the RB in this offense is understated and Harris is good at that. It has to be the reason he starts even when all the RB’s are available.
Play Restrepo more. Find a role. The kid is one of the few players who has effort show up on film. Here he turns a defender inside so Rambo can get outside.
Ran sprint right option two plays in a row at the goal line. MSU overruns it and leaves Rambo wide open. TD. (Not pictured)
This defense. Sometimes I feel like this defense is trying to allow itself to be outleveraged. Carter is far too inside on this play. You cannot allow a receiver to be five yards outside of you when you’re playing off-coverage on the outside. This is just basic geometry again.
You’ve all seen it, but this happened. I can confirm it. Gurvan Hall dove out of the way of the WR and hit the blocker, which blocked his own man as well. Carter never gets there because he let himself get outleveraged and this pops down the sideline. James Williams runs it down. He gets a horse collar, but that’s a good penalty on the play because it was a TD if he didn’t. Such an egregious play, a former player asked Hall who paid him off on Twitter.
Make a tackle, Gilbert. No one on this team brings their legs with them on any contact. Look at how far over his toes he is and off-balance. He gets shrugged off.
Steed does a good job of cutting off the wheel route to the RB and QB throws it away. (Not pictured)
Flagg makes a bad play here. He comes off his receiver way too early here. He has to stay deeper and in the area of the receiver while flowing parallel to the QB. Once the QB decides to move upfield then you attack. QB makes a bad throw or this is an easy 1st down.
Michigan State misses the easy FG. Manny celebrates like he did something. Will probably promote Patke tomorrow. (Not pictured)
That is a heck of a catch by Harley.
I have no idea why Harris cuts this back inside of Zion. He has the edge and one defender to beat. Gets three.
Miami’s offense has to attack more vertically in my view. Deep to Keyshawn and he gets a PI called. If the defender didn’t grab, it’s a TD, so good play. (Not pictured)
This has to be a missed block by Mallory. You’re certainly not asking the LT to get all the way out there. TFL. Would’ve been better off throwing the slip screen to the top of the screen.
Very next play Mallory just drops a wide-open TD. Sigh. He’s been so disappointing.
Justice holds on the next play. Which makes the FG harder, of course. Miami cannot get out of their own way. Then Keyshawn holds on the next play. Declined. Brutal showing from this team. (Not pictured)
Again, are they teaching the defense this way? Frierson goes inside, instead of staying outside and staying as the force player. They aren’t designing the defense to lack a force player on the edge, I will give them the benefit of the doubt there. 1st down. Rinse. Repeat.
Steed missed tackle in space. Sigh.
Trap Steed, McCloud can’t get off a block. Easy 1st outside. The edges of the defense. My goodness. UNC is going to run for 500 again. Your MLB goes the wrong way and is fooled by something, not sure what, because the action is all to the other side. Your Striker, no clue where he is going. Again, the eye candy motion is going the other way. Ford wants out after this play. They should oblige him a long break and give Taylor a try.
The defense is getting mauled. Michigan State is letting them fly upfield on the edges and creating all kinds of room for the RB. This defense doesn’t work in the run game. If you see a tough, physical run team on the schedule the rest of this season, it’ll be 200+ yards rushing. LOS completely reset. 12 misses this tackle as well.
Carter has zero awareness in pass coverage. Outleveraged easily again. It’s incredible to me. He’s like a vacuum for blocks as well. This goes to the 3-yard line. Kinchens saves the TD for now.
Carter even pointed it out that Couch was taking inside man, while Carter has back of the stack. Motion a TE over to block. How does he think he is covering anything outside from several yards inside of him? That’s a WR named Speedy.
Something I’ve noticed is Stevenson struggles to field side when he’s singled up in the red zone. MSU had a TD earlier with a better throw on a fade. This time a back-shoulder is dropped for what should’ve been a TD. (Not pictured)
JHH shoots a gap, gets held (not called) and allows his LB’ers to clean up. (Not pictured)
Defense outleveraged again. Flagg can’t get out there and make a tackle. MSU with a smart play where they pick downfield. TD. MSU anticipated man-coverage, got it, outcoached the defense. Carter is so unsure of himself out there in coverage he runs right into the pick instead of getting out there. Even with that, just make the tackle Flagg.
