Series:
Welcome back to Upon Further Review, where we will review the plays for each Miami game this season. This week we focus on the ‘Canes ACC opener against North Carolina (UNC). Miami comes out in my favorite uniforms in sports; their ‘Miami Nights’ black uniforms. What does the film tell us about this game? I’m trying something new this time and splitting it into offense/defense posts. Feel free to leave any feedback.
1st down UNC runs that jet sweep motion they like. If you read the game preview of them you know they run the dive out of the setup almost every time. They faked it and the QB kept to the edge. Joe Jackson forced the QB to have to run wide and Pinckney did a good job of attacking the blocker rather than trying to play patty-cake with an OL. Forces the QB to adjust and Joe Jackson makes the tackle from behind.
I have no idea why we lined up so far off the slot, why we are bailing at the snap, why we are respecting his speed like this, and why the defender isn’t reading the QB here who stares this down the whole way. He just stops at the first down marker and makes a catch without Redwine in the screen.
When I reviewed UNC they threw the screen to the opposite side of the stack every single time they threw the ball. One time they ran a dive. They lined up like this and I told my friend, “screen to opposite side.” It was, and Jackson was moving towards the blocker just as it was snapped and made a tackle after a couple. I like to see that, because if I can see that on tape, they definitely should be.
Next play they run double slants and we are actually robbing the slant with McCloud but the QB correctly went to the outside slant on 3rd & 2. Bandy hits him hard, but it’s just enough for a first down. (Not pictured)
If you read these weekly, you know that sometimes Pinckney guesses sometimes or overruns a gap in run defense. He does that here. Jackson has the edge, Quarterman has the B gap. Pinckney needs to be crashing the cutback lane here instead of helping Shaq in his gap. To be fair, he’s reading the pulling G and T on this play and expecting it to go that way but the RB hits the cutback and has a huge hole. Easy first down. All three of your LB’s together in a cluster is a recipe to get gashed on a cutback run. Amari Carter comes up and whiffs on the tackle, which is why you hear Coach saying the most important thing a S needs to do is tackle on the back-end. Redwine saves the TD.
We send a blitz with Pinckney and Romeo. Bandy gets beat on the back-shoulder along the sideline but it’s out-of-bounds barely. (Not pictured)
2nd down they go to the diamond formation for the first time and Miami struggled with it all game. Pinckney gets upfield on it and forces the runner wide, but Amari Carter takes a poor angle and gets blocked by a RB on the edge and lets him by. I’d have liked for Pinckney to try and string this play out rather than just flying upfield but you can’t fault aggression most of the time. This play should not have worked. Carter is there to run to the sideline and force it back inside. Pinckney is there to string it out. Shaq is there to crash down. Carter getting sealed inside let this get wide. Bandy saved the TD with a tough tackle.
UNC tried slants on 1st down and it was well covered. Next play the QB tries to keep. Garvin smacks the RB and sets an edge. Shaq comes and plays it perfectly. On 3rd down the QB has #19 in the corner of the end zone but doesn’t have the arm to get it there. Redwine played it well but I think the WR catches a fade if the QB had the arm. Not an easy throw. (Not pictured)
UNC kicks a FG to make it 3-0.
Blades does a great job here of controlling this blocker. He locks him out and basically two gaps him, waiting for the returner to pick a lane. He bounces this outside and Romeo needs to attack his blocker a little better. He misses the block and Carter does a good job coming off his block and making the tackle at about the 27.
Dive play, then a comeback run for a few yards. (Not pictured)
On 3rd down Miami does something I haven’t seen them do much. They line Shaq up as an edge rusher. He’s at the top of the screen and he fakes as if he is going to rush straight up field and the G slides to take the DE and the T slides to take Shaq. We backed Joe Jackson out and dropped him into the flat. Pinckney takes the seam on the hash where the MLB would ordinarily drop into. Shaq takes that first step into an outside pass rush and then ducks inside of the shoulder of #56 and is never touched on his way to the QB. Asked to voice a defensive assessment of the players last week I stated I wanted to see Shaq force more fumbles. Well, ask and you shall receive. Shaq forces a fumble, Garvin picks it up and runs it into the end zone. Great timing on a new blitz wrinkle that put points on the board.
1st down and Mike Smith has a nice pass defensed. This may be the first play in coverage I’ve seen from Mike since I’ve started doing these. Shows the work he’s putting in to improve. If you read the preview you’ll remember that #80 was the key to their offense and when they lined him on the end they liked to take him over the middle. Good preparation Mike.
Few interesting things on this shot. First, the LB’s have completely disregarded the threat of a pass out of this formation with Surratt in the game. This despite the fact they ran on all but one play when they setup in this formation last week. Pinckney attacks his gap and brings the QB down in the backfield. LB’s read their keys on this one. The second interesting thing is the fact that Derrick Smith and Romeo Finley are absolutely staring at the QB on this play rather than focusing on their receivers. Even Bandy is watching Surratt. Something UNC did here tipped Miami off to a run.
3rd down play and this is another play where when they lined up in this formation and sent the slot man in motion behind the QB you knew it was a swing pass to him if you read the preview. They threw this swing pass every single time last week when they sent #48 in motion and they do it here. Bad pass, incomplete. This is the unsportsmanlike penalty on Willis for shooting a finger gun.
Ivey, you’ve got to make this play. I know you want to get that double reverse if they decide to give the ball, but you’ve got edge. This is on you. Make the play. If he gives the ball turn and chase and you’ve got a cavalry over there. He lets the RB just run right by him here. McCloud needs to be filling downhill into this gap right now instead of squatting. Miami has this play defended well, they just didn’t do their assignments. Amari Carter misses the tackle and McCloud runs him down after a big gain. We miss Jaquan early.
UNC gets leverage on every Miami DL on this play. They lined a TE up on the end and released him down the field and pulled the RT. Garvin took the cheese and dipped inside. The RT turned his shoulders and pushed him inside. Bethel and Willis are both turned inside as well. McCloud is in no man’s land because he has to defend that slot receiver and try to contain the edge. The problem is Garvin losing the edge and the TE getting on Shaq.
They’re picking on Garvin in run defense. Here he is again taking the cheese. His responsibility is the cutback from the QB. He is looking at the RB only and chases him completely vacating his responsibility. He has to force the give to the RB and then chase. Shaq gets blocked by the OL and Redwine misses an open field tackle. TD. This diamond formation gave us fits. Willis is on the LOS here and actually tackles Surratt into the end zone. That’s the kind of motor (and athleticism) I absolutely admire from Gerald Willis.
Miami kicks a FG to make it 17-10.
1st down for UNC and Gerald Willis got pancaked. First time I’ve seen that this year. Surratt escapes the pocket and Amari Carter has him after a gain of 5 but misses the tackle and he goes for 20.
Michael Jackson makes a mistake here and while in press coverage he lets the boundary WR cross his face and get back inside. When you’re the boundary and you are in press you can’t let that guy have a free release because you aren’t going to have much help inside. This goes for 13.
Shaq has had a tough game thus far. He overruns this play a bit instead of staying in his gap and then filling inside-out. He tries to jump outside and gets put on his back here. In fairness, Patchan may have stepped on his foot.
UNC runs diamond formation on next play and Shaq gets washed out. Patchan had pursuit down the line but Surratt gets the 1st down. (Not pictured)
1st down they stunt Garvin and Willis. Shaq does an excellent job of slipping the block this time and knifes into the backfield. Garvin and Shaq combine on the TFL.
Willis blows up the handoff out of the Wildcat. Big play here.
Some great things on this next play. Willis splits a pulling OL and goes straight after the QB. Joe Jackson is rushing the QB as well, but realizes that it seemed too easy and slows up and drops back for a possible screen. Pinckney grabs the RB because behind the LOS that’s legal. Joe Jackson intercepts this and shows his athleticism to make it a house call. To be a great defense you have to score and Miami is doing that.
24-10 Miami now.
Getting Mike Smith downhill is when he’s at his best. He sees this swing pass immediately and is all over it now. The problem is that when he gets to the ballcarrier in the backfield, he misses the tackle. Bandy beats his block and gets the TFL. If Smith can just finish the play a bit better he can be a nice player.
This has been a problem in this game and hopefully the coaches clean it up before FSU. The edge is taking the cheese and leaving a lane for the QB. Here he is actually tackling the RB while the QB is taking off downfield. He goes for 20 here. Eye discipline.
Miami scores a TD but misses extra point. 30-10 Miami.
1st down and they run that sprint option out of shotgun that gave us some trouble. Shaq here tries to jump this gap. He really needs to stay outside of the QB at all times as he has Pinckney flowing to the ball as backside support. #86 seals him inside here and Surratt keeps and gets through that alley. Finley does a great job of making a shoestring tackle or Surratt might be out the gate. This is the importance of keeping the edge as a defense and Shaq gives it up too easily here.
2nd down and Garvin stops his feet here. If he keeps flowing down the line and controlling this blocker he closes this lane and forces the cutback, where he has Bandy and Pinckney to support. We blitzed Bandy off the edge and sent Garvin down the line to really defend the A-gap. He just stops right there and the RB runs right through the gap and gets a big gain. Shaq jumped outside of #55 here and you can understand why because if he jumps inside and gets sealed there is no contain out there.
I don’t really know why Surratt doesn’t throw this bubble here (maybe Jackson moving forward here spooks him). They have a couple of blockers to match our two defenders. He decides not to throw it and tries to run around the edge where Shaq gets an easy sack.
1st down and Elliott came in for Surratt after his helmet came off. He throws the swing pass outside and it picks up a 1st down. This is the play that Shaq got hurt. (Not pictured)
Next play and I have to give some props to Mike Smith here. He’s doing two things on this play, he’s taking a shallow angle to the RB here. What that does is take away that quick hitter to the outside WR that Surratt wants to hit here. Second, he’s staying as wide as the RB to protect the edge. You couldn’t ask him to do it any better than this. He comes up and makes a big TFL when Surratt drops it off to the RB out of desperation. Not a great look for #96 here as he is knocked on his knees and then falls back onto the seat of his pants and is about to get steamrolled for his troubles.
Next play and Patchan beats the RT cleanly on his first step. He gets into the passing lane and Joe Jackson drills the QB from the backside just as he releases it. Great rep. (Not pictured)
3rd down and a great play from Dean. We run a fire zone blitz and drop Joe Jackson out. Dean carries his receiver to a certain depth and lets him go as he has help deep. The underneath WR is running the out into the shallow corner and Dean drops down after releasing the WR and seeing the QB release the ball and makes a nice interception. The QB can’t throw this route against zone coverage since all of the DB’s have their eyes on the QB.
Miami kicks that FG before half and now it's 33-10 Miami.
1st down and Shaq is back in but not moving well. McCloud gets kicked out on a down block. Pinckney has pursuit to stop the run from being a bigger play. Pinckney knocked his shoe off. Swing pass to the slot who gets the first down. (Not pictured)
This is perfect coverage on a double move to the outside. Jackson tips this away at his highest point. The WR made a great effort and actually caught this at the end, but was just incomplete.
Next play and UNC runs that boundary WR behind the QB in motion again. A play that they’ve thrown the swing pass probably 90% of the time this season. The QB is making a play fake to the RB and the ball is fumbled back to Miami. (Not pictured)
Want to continue to give props to Mike Smith. He is reading his keys here and immediately picks the exact right gap to fill and makes this TFL. He’s at the 34 and already going downhill here.
Give the dive with jet sweep motion and Willis and Joe Jax eat it up. (Not pictured)
1st down and Garvin beats the RT. Willis gets his hands up and tips the ball. They called Willis for a personal foul hands to the face penalty (He did it). (Not pictured)
1st down and Patchan gives up the edge way too easily. He goes for the QB on the read-option and it’s a quasi-end-around off of read-option. Mike Smith got absolutely put on his back by a RB. The RB gets the edge and is down to the 8. Knowles overran the play but Romeo re-traced and makes a tackle. (Not pictured)
Knowles makes a nice read, gets to where he needs to be and…he will catch some chatter for this one. #20 is putting him on his backside here. To be fair, Knowles grabs his leg and gets him down.
Pinckney makes an excellent read on a TE out-route and knocks the ball away. Patchan with a nice rush. They called offensive pass interference as well. (Not pictured)
On defense I always want to see guys running to the ball. Here, Redwine recognizes the pass immediately and is already coming downhill to hit the outlet WR. He doesn’t wrap up though. Then Mike Smith misses the tackle. It ends up working out though because the WR runs backwards and gets tackled at the 31 on this play.
3rd down is thrown to nobody in particular. They attempt a 48-yard FG and it hits the upright after having 1st-and-goal from the 8. (Not pictured)
Joe Jackson forces the give on a read-option. RB bounces wide and once again Miami is running to the football. Here, Joe Jackson chases the play from the backside rather than just watching and drills this RB, forcing a fumble (UNC recovers). Turnovers have a lot of randomness to them, but teams that run to the football and hit with bad intentions when they get there tend to force a lot of turnovers.
Blitz Romeo off-the-edge on 2nd down but Amari Carter has pretty good coverage on a crossing route and it’s incomplete. (Not pictured)
We overload blitz to the QB’s strong hand (left-hand) and hit the QB who has to get rid of it. Amari Carter is a pretty good blitzer. (Not pictured)
4th-and-12 and they stack the WR’s to both sides for 4-wide. They do that to get their stacked WR’s a free release off the LOS. We run a pattern-match coverage where the DB that is up on line in press takes whichever receiver releases outside. In this case it’s a four verts pattern where the WR’s cross and the front WR’s duck inside and the stacked WR’s run vertical down the sideline. Jackson has perfect coverage, but a back-shoulder throw is hard to defend if executed perfectly and it was. 1st down. (Not pictured)
1st down and they run the same overload blitz. Hit the QB again who has to throw it away. DL seems gassed on this drive. (Not pictured)
2nd down and this was an excellent play by McCloud. He has to cover the slot WR to the short seam and protect that throw first. Once the slot moves inside to another zone or deep and out of his zone he has the flats to the RB as well. He handles his first responsibility and then moves to his second immediately. He’s already firing his gun and running to the swing pass and the QB still has the ball. He makes a TFL here (He’s just above the Miami score at bottom of screen). Good job.
3rd down and Dean does a nice job in coverage and makes a tackle. Whatever the coaches have done since the Toledo game, Dean has played a very nice game.
4th down and the Canes rob the slant with the striker position. Basically, the striker is shading towards the slant and if the slot WR runs the slant the striker is baiting the QB to make the throw, or “robbing.” Instead, the slot releases down the seam. Romeo just stands there and watches the QB after the slant is not run he is “spying” the QB here. UNC runs a shallow drag route and Romeo just steps right in front and takes it to the house. Excellent defensive call and excellent play.
The 3rd stringers are in for the most part on the next UNC drive. Charles Perry meets the RB in the hole but doesn’t bring him down. The RB squirts through and it’s a shoestring tackle from being out the gate. (Not pictured)
Swing pass to the RB forces a couple missed tackles and gets the 1st down. Play bail coverage on the outside and it’s a post route is wide open for a 1st down against Bandy (who delivers a big hit). (Not pictured)
Bandy is definitely fired up. My guess is #17- who is UNC’s best receiver- had some things to say throughout the game because Bandy has turned it up on this drive. I really enjoy the physicality, but this is not how you jam a WR. This is the play Bandy comes off of this and then blows up the swing pass and does the dead leg on the sidelines. I’ve seen Bandy miss a jam several times this year and you can see why if that’s his technique. Maybe he just wanted to hit the guy legally.
2nd down and the defense has a substitution issue as Jennings is late to come onto the field. I believe the fault was on Bandy, who was celebrating his hit. They throw a swing pass right into where Jennings would be but McCloud makes an excellent play out on the edge by himself as he beats a TE block and makes a TFL. (Not pictured)
3rd down they run the motion behind shotgun and throw the swing pass again. Blades makes the tackle after a few yards. UNC is not even trying with this play calling. 4th down we run the SS delayed blitz with Amari and Blades has the TE blanketed. (Not pictured)
There were several good performances from this Canes team. Romeo Finley was outstanding. Mike Smith had his best game as a Cane. McCloud played very well. Joe Jackson was flat dominant. The coaches knew what to do to stop the UNC offense. The tackling was poor at times. Miami struggled at times in the ground game. Amari Carter had his worst game as a Cane. The DT’s were not great and Willis had two huge penalties that need to go away. All-in-All, Miami dominated this game and if they hadn’t taken their foot off the gas in the second half could’ve won by 50.
Now Miami's defensive line gets to play against FSU's OL. I expect to see some fun things next week. Beat FSU.
1st down UNC runs that jet sweep motion they like. If you read the game preview of them you know they run the dive out of the setup almost every time. They faked it and the QB kept to the edge. Joe Jackson forced the QB to have to run wide and Pinckney did a good job of attacking the blocker rather than trying to play patty-cake with an OL. Forces the QB to adjust and Joe Jackson makes the tackle from behind.
I have no idea why we lined up so far off the slot, why we are bailing at the snap, why we are respecting his speed like this, and why the defender isn’t reading the QB here who stares this down the whole way. He just stops at the first down marker and makes a catch without Redwine in the screen.
When I reviewed UNC they threw the screen to the opposite side of the stack every single time they threw the ball. One time they ran a dive. They lined up like this and I told my friend, “screen to opposite side.” It was, and Jackson was moving towards the blocker just as it was snapped and made a tackle after a couple. I like to see that, because if I can see that on tape, they definitely should be.
Next play they run double slants and we are actually robbing the slant with McCloud but the QB correctly went to the outside slant on 3rd & 2. Bandy hits him hard, but it’s just enough for a first down. (Not pictured)
If you read these weekly, you know that sometimes Pinckney guesses sometimes or overruns a gap in run defense. He does that here. Jackson has the edge, Quarterman has the B gap. Pinckney needs to be crashing the cutback lane here instead of helping Shaq in his gap. To be fair, he’s reading the pulling G and T on this play and expecting it to go that way but the RB hits the cutback and has a huge hole. Easy first down. All three of your LB’s together in a cluster is a recipe to get gashed on a cutback run. Amari Carter comes up and whiffs on the tackle, which is why you hear Coach saying the most important thing a S needs to do is tackle on the back-end. Redwine saves the TD.
We send a blitz with Pinckney and Romeo. Bandy gets beat on the back-shoulder along the sideline but it’s out-of-bounds barely. (Not pictured)
2nd down they go to the diamond formation for the first time and Miami struggled with it all game. Pinckney gets upfield on it and forces the runner wide, but Amari Carter takes a poor angle and gets blocked by a RB on the edge and lets him by. I’d have liked for Pinckney to try and string this play out rather than just flying upfield but you can’t fault aggression most of the time. This play should not have worked. Carter is there to run to the sideline and force it back inside. Pinckney is there to string it out. Shaq is there to crash down. Carter getting sealed inside let this get wide. Bandy saved the TD with a tough tackle.
UNC tried slants on 1st down and it was well covered. Next play the QB tries to keep. Garvin smacks the RB and sets an edge. Shaq comes and plays it perfectly. On 3rd down the QB has #19 in the corner of the end zone but doesn’t have the arm to get it there. Redwine played it well but I think the WR catches a fade if the QB had the arm. Not an easy throw. (Not pictured)
UNC kicks a FG to make it 3-0.
Blades does a great job here of controlling this blocker. He locks him out and basically two gaps him, waiting for the returner to pick a lane. He bounces this outside and Romeo needs to attack his blocker a little better. He misses the block and Carter does a good job coming off his block and making the tackle at about the 27.
Dive play, then a comeback run for a few yards. (Not pictured)
On 3rd down Miami does something I haven’t seen them do much. They line Shaq up as an edge rusher. He’s at the top of the screen and he fakes as if he is going to rush straight up field and the G slides to take the DE and the T slides to take Shaq. We backed Joe Jackson out and dropped him into the flat. Pinckney takes the seam on the hash where the MLB would ordinarily drop into. Shaq takes that first step into an outside pass rush and then ducks inside of the shoulder of #56 and is never touched on his way to the QB. Asked to voice a defensive assessment of the players last week I stated I wanted to see Shaq force more fumbles. Well, ask and you shall receive. Shaq forces a fumble, Garvin picks it up and runs it into the end zone. Great timing on a new blitz wrinkle that put points on the board.
1st down and Mike Smith has a nice pass defensed. This may be the first play in coverage I’ve seen from Mike since I’ve started doing these. Shows the work he’s putting in to improve. If you read the preview you’ll remember that #80 was the key to their offense and when they lined him on the end they liked to take him over the middle. Good preparation Mike.
Few interesting things on this shot. First, the LB’s have completely disregarded the threat of a pass out of this formation with Surratt in the game. This despite the fact they ran on all but one play when they setup in this formation last week. Pinckney attacks his gap and brings the QB down in the backfield. LB’s read their keys on this one. The second interesting thing is the fact that Derrick Smith and Romeo Finley are absolutely staring at the QB on this play rather than focusing on their receivers. Even Bandy is watching Surratt. Something UNC did here tipped Miami off to a run.
3rd down play and this is another play where when they lined up in this formation and sent the slot man in motion behind the QB you knew it was a swing pass to him if you read the preview. They threw this swing pass every single time last week when they sent #48 in motion and they do it here. Bad pass, incomplete. This is the unsportsmanlike penalty on Willis for shooting a finger gun.
Ivey, you’ve got to make this play. I know you want to get that double reverse if they decide to give the ball, but you’ve got edge. This is on you. Make the play. If he gives the ball turn and chase and you’ve got a cavalry over there. He lets the RB just run right by him here. McCloud needs to be filling downhill into this gap right now instead of squatting. Miami has this play defended well, they just didn’t do their assignments. Amari Carter misses the tackle and McCloud runs him down after a big gain. We miss Jaquan early.
UNC gets leverage on every Miami DL on this play. They lined a TE up on the end and released him down the field and pulled the RT. Garvin took the cheese and dipped inside. The RT turned his shoulders and pushed him inside. Bethel and Willis are both turned inside as well. McCloud is in no man’s land because he has to defend that slot receiver and try to contain the edge. The problem is Garvin losing the edge and the TE getting on Shaq.
They’re picking on Garvin in run defense. Here he is again taking the cheese. His responsibility is the cutback from the QB. He is looking at the RB only and chases him completely vacating his responsibility. He has to force the give to the RB and then chase. Shaq gets blocked by the OL and Redwine misses an open field tackle. TD. This diamond formation gave us fits. Willis is on the LOS here and actually tackles Surratt into the end zone. That’s the kind of motor (and athleticism) I absolutely admire from Gerald Willis.
Miami kicks a FG to make it 17-10.
1st down for UNC and Gerald Willis got pancaked. First time I’ve seen that this year. Surratt escapes the pocket and Amari Carter has him after a gain of 5 but misses the tackle and he goes for 20.
Michael Jackson makes a mistake here and while in press coverage he lets the boundary WR cross his face and get back inside. When you’re the boundary and you are in press you can’t let that guy have a free release because you aren’t going to have much help inside. This goes for 13.
Shaq has had a tough game thus far. He overruns this play a bit instead of staying in his gap and then filling inside-out. He tries to jump outside and gets put on his back here. In fairness, Patchan may have stepped on his foot.
UNC runs diamond formation on next play and Shaq gets washed out. Patchan had pursuit down the line but Surratt gets the 1st down. (Not pictured)
1st down they stunt Garvin and Willis. Shaq does an excellent job of slipping the block this time and knifes into the backfield. Garvin and Shaq combine on the TFL.
Willis blows up the handoff out of the Wildcat. Big play here.
Some great things on this next play. Willis splits a pulling OL and goes straight after the QB. Joe Jackson is rushing the QB as well, but realizes that it seemed too easy and slows up and drops back for a possible screen. Pinckney grabs the RB because behind the LOS that’s legal. Joe Jackson intercepts this and shows his athleticism to make it a house call. To be a great defense you have to score and Miami is doing that.
24-10 Miami now.
Getting Mike Smith downhill is when he’s at his best. He sees this swing pass immediately and is all over it now. The problem is that when he gets to the ballcarrier in the backfield, he misses the tackle. Bandy beats his block and gets the TFL. If Smith can just finish the play a bit better he can be a nice player.
This has been a problem in this game and hopefully the coaches clean it up before FSU. The edge is taking the cheese and leaving a lane for the QB. Here he is actually tackling the RB while the QB is taking off downfield. He goes for 20 here. Eye discipline.
Miami scores a TD but misses extra point. 30-10 Miami.
1st down and they run that sprint option out of shotgun that gave us some trouble. Shaq here tries to jump this gap. He really needs to stay outside of the QB at all times as he has Pinckney flowing to the ball as backside support. #86 seals him inside here and Surratt keeps and gets through that alley. Finley does a great job of making a shoestring tackle or Surratt might be out the gate. This is the importance of keeping the edge as a defense and Shaq gives it up too easily here.
2nd down and Garvin stops his feet here. If he keeps flowing down the line and controlling this blocker he closes this lane and forces the cutback, where he has Bandy and Pinckney to support. We blitzed Bandy off the edge and sent Garvin down the line to really defend the A-gap. He just stops right there and the RB runs right through the gap and gets a big gain. Shaq jumped outside of #55 here and you can understand why because if he jumps inside and gets sealed there is no contain out there.
I don’t really know why Surratt doesn’t throw this bubble here (maybe Jackson moving forward here spooks him). They have a couple of blockers to match our two defenders. He decides not to throw it and tries to run around the edge where Shaq gets an easy sack.
1st down and Elliott came in for Surratt after his helmet came off. He throws the swing pass outside and it picks up a 1st down. This is the play that Shaq got hurt. (Not pictured)
Next play and I have to give some props to Mike Smith here. He’s doing two things on this play, he’s taking a shallow angle to the RB here. What that does is take away that quick hitter to the outside WR that Surratt wants to hit here. Second, he’s staying as wide as the RB to protect the edge. You couldn’t ask him to do it any better than this. He comes up and makes a big TFL when Surratt drops it off to the RB out of desperation. Not a great look for #96 here as he is knocked on his knees and then falls back onto the seat of his pants and is about to get steamrolled for his troubles.
Next play and Patchan beats the RT cleanly on his first step. He gets into the passing lane and Joe Jackson drills the QB from the backside just as he releases it. Great rep. (Not pictured)
3rd down and a great play from Dean. We run a fire zone blitz and drop Joe Jackson out. Dean carries his receiver to a certain depth and lets him go as he has help deep. The underneath WR is running the out into the shallow corner and Dean drops down after releasing the WR and seeing the QB release the ball and makes a nice interception. The QB can’t throw this route against zone coverage since all of the DB’s have their eyes on the QB.
Miami kicks that FG before half and now it's 33-10 Miami.
1st down and Shaq is back in but not moving well. McCloud gets kicked out on a down block. Pinckney has pursuit to stop the run from being a bigger play. Pinckney knocked his shoe off. Swing pass to the slot who gets the first down. (Not pictured)
This is perfect coverage on a double move to the outside. Jackson tips this away at his highest point. The WR made a great effort and actually caught this at the end, but was just incomplete.
Next play and UNC runs that boundary WR behind the QB in motion again. A play that they’ve thrown the swing pass probably 90% of the time this season. The QB is making a play fake to the RB and the ball is fumbled back to Miami. (Not pictured)
Want to continue to give props to Mike Smith. He is reading his keys here and immediately picks the exact right gap to fill and makes this TFL. He’s at the 34 and already going downhill here.
Give the dive with jet sweep motion and Willis and Joe Jax eat it up. (Not pictured)
1st down and Garvin beats the RT. Willis gets his hands up and tips the ball. They called Willis for a personal foul hands to the face penalty (He did it). (Not pictured)
1st down and Patchan gives up the edge way too easily. He goes for the QB on the read-option and it’s a quasi-end-around off of read-option. Mike Smith got absolutely put on his back by a RB. The RB gets the edge and is down to the 8. Knowles overran the play but Romeo re-traced and makes a tackle. (Not pictured)
Knowles makes a nice read, gets to where he needs to be and…he will catch some chatter for this one. #20 is putting him on his backside here. To be fair, Knowles grabs his leg and gets him down.
Pinckney makes an excellent read on a TE out-route and knocks the ball away. Patchan with a nice rush. They called offensive pass interference as well. (Not pictured)
On defense I always want to see guys running to the ball. Here, Redwine recognizes the pass immediately and is already coming downhill to hit the outlet WR. He doesn’t wrap up though. Then Mike Smith misses the tackle. It ends up working out though because the WR runs backwards and gets tackled at the 31 on this play.
3rd down is thrown to nobody in particular. They attempt a 48-yard FG and it hits the upright after having 1st-and-goal from the 8. (Not pictured)
Joe Jackson forces the give on a read-option. RB bounces wide and once again Miami is running to the football. Here, Joe Jackson chases the play from the backside rather than just watching and drills this RB, forcing a fumble (UNC recovers). Turnovers have a lot of randomness to them, but teams that run to the football and hit with bad intentions when they get there tend to force a lot of turnovers.
Blitz Romeo off-the-edge on 2nd down but Amari Carter has pretty good coverage on a crossing route and it’s incomplete. (Not pictured)
We overload blitz to the QB’s strong hand (left-hand) and hit the QB who has to get rid of it. Amari Carter is a pretty good blitzer. (Not pictured)
4th-and-12 and they stack the WR’s to both sides for 4-wide. They do that to get their stacked WR’s a free release off the LOS. We run a pattern-match coverage where the DB that is up on line in press takes whichever receiver releases outside. In this case it’s a four verts pattern where the WR’s cross and the front WR’s duck inside and the stacked WR’s run vertical down the sideline. Jackson has perfect coverage, but a back-shoulder throw is hard to defend if executed perfectly and it was. 1st down. (Not pictured)
1st down and they run the same overload blitz. Hit the QB again who has to throw it away. DL seems gassed on this drive. (Not pictured)
2nd down and this was an excellent play by McCloud. He has to cover the slot WR to the short seam and protect that throw first. Once the slot moves inside to another zone or deep and out of his zone he has the flats to the RB as well. He handles his first responsibility and then moves to his second immediately. He’s already firing his gun and running to the swing pass and the QB still has the ball. He makes a TFL here (He’s just above the Miami score at bottom of screen). Good job.
3rd down and Dean does a nice job in coverage and makes a tackle. Whatever the coaches have done since the Toledo game, Dean has played a very nice game.
4th down and the Canes rob the slant with the striker position. Basically, the striker is shading towards the slant and if the slot WR runs the slant the striker is baiting the QB to make the throw, or “robbing.” Instead, the slot releases down the seam. Romeo just stands there and watches the QB after the slant is not run he is “spying” the QB here. UNC runs a shallow drag route and Romeo just steps right in front and takes it to the house. Excellent defensive call and excellent play.
The 3rd stringers are in for the most part on the next UNC drive. Charles Perry meets the RB in the hole but doesn’t bring him down. The RB squirts through and it’s a shoestring tackle from being out the gate. (Not pictured)
Swing pass to the RB forces a couple missed tackles and gets the 1st down. Play bail coverage on the outside and it’s a post route is wide open for a 1st down against Bandy (who delivers a big hit). (Not pictured)
Bandy is definitely fired up. My guess is #17- who is UNC’s best receiver- had some things to say throughout the game because Bandy has turned it up on this drive. I really enjoy the physicality, but this is not how you jam a WR. This is the play Bandy comes off of this and then blows up the swing pass and does the dead leg on the sidelines. I’ve seen Bandy miss a jam several times this year and you can see why if that’s his technique. Maybe he just wanted to hit the guy legally.
2nd down and the defense has a substitution issue as Jennings is late to come onto the field. I believe the fault was on Bandy, who was celebrating his hit. They throw a swing pass right into where Jennings would be but McCloud makes an excellent play out on the edge by himself as he beats a TE block and makes a TFL. (Not pictured)
3rd down they run the motion behind shotgun and throw the swing pass again. Blades makes the tackle after a few yards. UNC is not even trying with this play calling. 4th down we run the SS delayed blitz with Amari and Blades has the TE blanketed. (Not pictured)
There were several good performances from this Canes team. Romeo Finley was outstanding. Mike Smith had his best game as a Cane. McCloud played very well. Joe Jackson was flat dominant. The coaches knew what to do to stop the UNC offense. The tackling was poor at times. Miami struggled at times in the ground game. Amari Carter had his worst game as a Cane. The DT’s were not great and Willis had two huge penalties that need to go away. All-in-All, Miami dominated this game and if they hadn’t taken their foot off the gas in the second half could’ve won by 50.
Now Miami's defensive line gets to play against FSU's OL. I expect to see some fun things next week. Beat FSU.
