The Miami Hurricanes honored Jim Kelly and the new entrants to the Ring of Honor in the best possible way...by playing probably the most complete game of the Al Golden era.
The 47-20 score of yesterday's win doesn't do justice to how much of a blowout this game was. This was the most thorough beat down of an FBS team since Golden has been here. We dominated in all 3 phases, something I don't think has happened since he got here either. We all kind of expected to put up points because we knew their defense was bad, but their offense is one of the best in the nation in both total yards and scoring points. You wouldn't know it though because they were held in check until Golden called off the dogs midway through the 3rd quarter.
The Tar Heel's lone score of the 1st half came from their defense via a sack fumble, and they had just 57 yards of offense in the first 30 minutes. Duke had nearly double that on one of his touchdown runs. Chew on this stat, The 258 total yards and 3.7 yards per play for UNC yesterday are the lowest totals EVER for a Larry Fedora coached team. We came into this game ranked 15th in total defense, and if you really thought we were that good you are lying. We looked every bit of that ranking yesterday, giving me just the slightest glimmer of hope for November 15th and the future.
Picture of the game:
tjl1388/TK Photography
R.I.P. CMar
Highlights:
[video=youtube;op9KkxmP1cc]www.youtube.com/watch?v=op9KkxmP1cc[/video]
[video=youtube;sRCkM9ULoRY]www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRCkM9ULoRY[/video]
Because Carolina is so awful against the run, I said in the gameday post that we needed to make sure we ride Duke to victory. They did, and as a result Duke is that much closer to becoming the schools all-time leading rusher.
@MiamiHurricanes
He needs just 252 yards to move passed Ottis Anderson. Considering the fact that we just became bowl eligible, he still has 4 (5 if we win the Coastal) games left to do it. A healthy Duke Johnson should break that record on the 22nd of November against UVA. I might have to go to that game.
Pre-game nuggets:
-Before the game the guys over at Canes Warning noticed that players from both teams had to be separated at the tunnel prior to kickoff.
- After Miami won the toss and deferred to the 2nd half, Jim Kelly approached Kaaya and gave him some words of encouragement. K9 already mentioned it, but Kelly started the whole, players coming back to the sidelines, thing. So it's pretty cool to see him pump Kaaya's tires a bit before the game.
....lets recap.
1st Quarter:
UM deferred to the 2nd half, which I thought was pretty ballsy at the time. It gives a high powered offense the opportunity to get an early lead. The coaches were obviously confident they could stop them and they did. Once UNC got to midfield Artie Burns came down on a corner blitz for a loss of 8, killing the drive.
@CanesFootball
After forcing UNC to punt, Miami takes over inside their own 20. The Canes proceed to go on a 13 play, 84 yard drive that gobbles up 7:10 on the clock. Only 2 of those plays were passes. Duke Johnson, Gus Edwards, and Joe Yearby each had a carry of at least 10 yards during the drive. UNC's run defense is in fact as bad as we were led to believe. The drive culminates with a short TD run by Duke on 4th and goal from inside the 1. Check out the great block by Walter Tucker as he jumps on some guy who was trying to go low on Duke.
tjl1388/TK Photography
7-0 Miami
On UNC's next possession Corn Elder came down on another corner blitz that would have set up 3rd and 11.
tjl1388/TK Photography
However, after the play Michael Wyche was called for a personal foul which allowed the Heels to move the chains. UNC ended up punting 4 plays later so it ended up not hurting that much. The punt went out of bounds at the 2 though, so Miami was in the shadow of their own goal line when their offense came out on the field. Kaaya completes a pass to Clive Walford to move the chains on 3rd and long, and the 1st quarter ends a few plays later with UM still leading 7-0.
During the break, UM formally inducted Jerome Brown and Russell Maryland into the Ring of Honor.
2nd Quarter:
Miami's drive ends shortly after the teams switched sides, and Justin Vogel drops a punt inside the 10 yard line. After 2 short runs that went nowhere, Williams dropped back to throw a pass to some guy who got absolutely destroyed by Antonio Crawford.
@CanesFootball
The crowd started going nuts because they noticed the defense was putting on a clinic. On the very next play, the long snapper fired the ball over the punter's head and out of the back of the endzone. Safety!
9-0 Miami
Stacy Coley retuns the free kick 30 yards and Miami begins their next drive inside Carolina territory. With Ereck Flowers out, Trevor Darling got the start at right tackle yesterday. Although by this time the coaches wanted him to take a breather and Sunny Odogwu came out with the offense on this drive. After taking a delay of game penalty on the 1st play, Kaaya dropped back to throw a pass. Sunny proceeded to get beat around the edge by a person named Mikey Bart. I can't believe that's a real name. Bart drills Kaaya for the sack-fumble, and Cayson Collins is there for the scoop and score. They miss the extra point, but it didn't matter to anyone at the time.
9-6 Miami
After that, Miami and North Carolina exchanged punts. When Miami gets the ball back, Kaaya finds Standish Dobard for an 18 yard gain that moves the team across midfield. A few plays later Duke had back-to-back carries of 8 and 16 yards respectively. The two carries moved him ahead of Edgerrin James for 2nd place in UM history. Two plays later Kaaya throws a dart to Walford, and the War Lord stretches out to score the touchdown. Kaaya threw it where only Clive could go up and catch it.
tjl1388/TK Photography
16-6 Miami
North Carolina goes 3 and out, and their punter pins Miami at their own 10 yard line again. The wind was so crazy yesterday that the ball was sailing for both teams whenever they punted. It's about this time that everyone starts looking at the play clock and wondering if we can move 90 yards down field in just 3 minutes. Everyone except for Duke. After having already moved into 2nd place in school history for rushing yards, Duke felt like becoming just the second player to ever reach 3,000 career yards, so he did. On the first play of the drive he ran 90 yards, practically untouched, for the score.
@CanesFootball
23-6 Miami
The rout was on. That carry tied Jack Losc from 1955 for the longest run in school history. The crowd went nuts and on the 2nd play of UNC's ensuing drive it got crazier. Williams' pass was deflected and Deon Bush came up with the interception.
tjl1388/TK Photography
After Yearby picked up a first down on a 3rd and 7 draw, Kaaya thew a pass to Yearby for a gain of 26 yards. Three plays later is was 3rd and 7 again, this time Kaaya threw a jump-ball to Walford. Clive highpoints the ball to come down with the score with less than 30 seconds remaining in the first half.
tjl1388/TK Photography
30-6 Miami
This ended a stretch were Miami scored 21 points in less than 5 minutes of play. That's also the 2nd week in a row that we scored right before the end of the 1st half. To make it even better, we were getting the ball to open the 2nd half since we deferred after the coin toss. UNC wasted the remaining time left to bring the half to a close.
Halftime:
[video=youtube;7QzWAYT-OJo]www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QzWAYT-OJo[/video]
tjl1388/TK Photography
Kelly made a speech about how happy he was to get such a warm reception. "I really haven't heard that kind of cheer in this stadium for a long time, and I think you all know what I'm talking about." He went on to say he wants to see more banners at the stadium, "National Championship banners," that is. He thanked the crowd one more time before leaving to a chant of, "Kelly! Kelly! Kelly!" Pretty awesome moment. The personalized jersey with his late son Hunter's name on it was a nice touch. UM also gave him a check for $10,000 written out to the foundation that bares his son's name.
3rd Quarter:
On the 2nd play of UM's drive, Kaaya throws it to Walford, who then proceeds to break a couple of tackles. Then Duke Johnson lays a great downfield block to spring the War Lord for a 42 yard gain. Kaaya was sacked on the next play by Norkeithus Otis, which set up 3rd and 7 two plays later. UNC's defensive coordinator rushed 6, but Kaaya sniffed it out. He dumped it off to Duke on a middle screen, who had Herb Waters, Phillip Dorsett, Jon Feliciano and Shane McDermott as a convoy all the way to the endzone.
tjl1388/TK Photography
37-6 Miami
UNC finally started to move the ball, getting across midfield in no time. A sack by Denzel Perryman backs them up and leads to a 4th and 1 situation. Williams quickly snapped it before the Canes could make personnel changes and they got caught with too many men on the field. Carolina got as far as the Miami 36 before getting backed up by an illegal formation penalty. This led to a 3rd and 14 where Tyriq McCord came through with a blindside sack to end the drive.
tjl1388/TK Photography
Now at midfield UNC had to punt, and Carolina's long snapper once again fired it over the punter's head.
McCord was there for the recovery all the way down to the UNC 12 yard line.
Charles Trainor/Miami Herald
Golden learned his lesson from last week and took Duke out of the game. 3 straight carries by Yearby gave Miami another touchdown.
Charles Trainor/Miami Herald
44-6 Miami
UNC once again started moving the ball with big passing plays to Bug Howard that picked up 21 and 19 yards respectively. This led to a 10 yard touchdown run by Williams to give their offense its first points of the game.
Lynne Sladky/AP
44-13 Miami
Miami went 3 and out and the ensuing punt was returned by Ryan Switzer for a touchdown. Thankfully UNC was called for holding on the return. On the first play of the drive Deon Bush came through with a sack fumble, but the Heels recovered it.
Lynne Sladky/AP
Three plays later it was 4th and 2 at the 50, and Perryman broke up the pass to force a turnover on downs. The quarter ended with Coley picking up a 1st down on jet sweep, and Miami still leading 44-13.
4th Quarter:
Miami's drive stalls in the redzone and they settle for a 37 yard field goal by Michael Badgley.
47-13 Miami
Carolina marches down the field with 3 straight completions to T.J. Thorpe, including one that went for a 43 yard gain. A few plays later it was 3rd and goal from the 1, and Calvin Heurtolou came up with sack. He also got flagged for a face mask which gave UNC another set of downs. Two plays later Williams got his 2nd touchdown run of the game.
47-20 Miami
The last 9 minutes of the game was meaningless as neither team could muster anymore points
Final Score:
North Carolina 20
Miami 47
Lynne Sladky/AP
Duke Johnson after the game:
[video=youtube;J-aZQF40l-A]www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-aZQF40l-A[/video]
I expected the offense to go crazy yesterday. What I didn't expect was the defense to shut down UNC like that. That was one of the best offenses in the nation that they smothered. There's some legitimate good juju with this team right now. Next up is Florida State who comes to town in 2 weeks. Win that game, and it's time for me and several others to eat a healthy plate of crow.
The 47-20 score of yesterday's win doesn't do justice to how much of a blowout this game was. This was the most thorough beat down of an FBS team since Golden has been here. We dominated in all 3 phases, something I don't think has happened since he got here either. We all kind of expected to put up points because we knew their defense was bad, but their offense is one of the best in the nation in both total yards and scoring points. You wouldn't know it though because they were held in check until Golden called off the dogs midway through the 3rd quarter.
The Tar Heel's lone score of the 1st half came from their defense via a sack fumble, and they had just 57 yards of offense in the first 30 minutes. Duke had nearly double that on one of his touchdown runs. Chew on this stat, The 258 total yards and 3.7 yards per play for UNC yesterday are the lowest totals EVER for a Larry Fedora coached team. We came into this game ranked 15th in total defense, and if you really thought we were that good you are lying. We looked every bit of that ranking yesterday, giving me just the slightest glimmer of hope for November 15th and the future.
Picture of the game:
tjl1388/TK Photography
R.I.P. CMar
Highlights:
[video=youtube;op9KkxmP1cc]www.youtube.com/watch?v=op9KkxmP1cc[/video]
[video=youtube;sRCkM9ULoRY]www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRCkM9ULoRY[/video]
Because Carolina is so awful against the run, I said in the gameday post that we needed to make sure we ride Duke to victory. They did, and as a result Duke is that much closer to becoming the schools all-time leading rusher.
@MiamiHurricanes
He needs just 252 yards to move passed Ottis Anderson. Considering the fact that we just became bowl eligible, he still has 4 (5 if we win the Coastal) games left to do it. A healthy Duke Johnson should break that record on the 22nd of November against UVA. I might have to go to that game.
Pre-game nuggets:
-Before the game the guys over at Canes Warning noticed that players from both teams had to be separated at the tunnel prior to kickoff.
- After Miami won the toss and deferred to the 2nd half, Jim Kelly approached Kaaya and gave him some words of encouragement. K9 already mentioned it, but Kelly started the whole, players coming back to the sidelines, thing. So it's pretty cool to see him pump Kaaya's tires a bit before the game.
....lets recap.
1st Quarter:
UM deferred to the 2nd half, which I thought was pretty ballsy at the time. It gives a high powered offense the opportunity to get an early lead. The coaches were obviously confident they could stop them and they did. Once UNC got to midfield Artie Burns came down on a corner blitz for a loss of 8, killing the drive.
@CanesFootball
After forcing UNC to punt, Miami takes over inside their own 20. The Canes proceed to go on a 13 play, 84 yard drive that gobbles up 7:10 on the clock. Only 2 of those plays were passes. Duke Johnson, Gus Edwards, and Joe Yearby each had a carry of at least 10 yards during the drive. UNC's run defense is in fact as bad as we were led to believe. The drive culminates with a short TD run by Duke on 4th and goal from inside the 1. Check out the great block by Walter Tucker as he jumps on some guy who was trying to go low on Duke.
tjl1388/TK Photography
7-0 Miami
On UNC's next possession Corn Elder came down on another corner blitz that would have set up 3rd and 11.
tjl1388/TK Photography
However, after the play Michael Wyche was called for a personal foul which allowed the Heels to move the chains. UNC ended up punting 4 plays later so it ended up not hurting that much. The punt went out of bounds at the 2 though, so Miami was in the shadow of their own goal line when their offense came out on the field. Kaaya completes a pass to Clive Walford to move the chains on 3rd and long, and the 1st quarter ends a few plays later with UM still leading 7-0.
During the break, UM formally inducted Jerome Brown and Russell Maryland into the Ring of Honor.
2nd Quarter:
Miami's drive ends shortly after the teams switched sides, and Justin Vogel drops a punt inside the 10 yard line. After 2 short runs that went nowhere, Williams dropped back to throw a pass to some guy who got absolutely destroyed by Antonio Crawford.
@CanesFootball
The crowd started going nuts because they noticed the defense was putting on a clinic. On the very next play, the long snapper fired the ball over the punter's head and out of the back of the endzone. Safety!
9-0 Miami
Stacy Coley retuns the free kick 30 yards and Miami begins their next drive inside Carolina territory. With Ereck Flowers out, Trevor Darling got the start at right tackle yesterday. Although by this time the coaches wanted him to take a breather and Sunny Odogwu came out with the offense on this drive. After taking a delay of game penalty on the 1st play, Kaaya dropped back to throw a pass. Sunny proceeded to get beat around the edge by a person named Mikey Bart. I can't believe that's a real name. Bart drills Kaaya for the sack-fumble, and Cayson Collins is there for the scoop and score. They miss the extra point, but it didn't matter to anyone at the time.
9-6 Miami
After that, Miami and North Carolina exchanged punts. When Miami gets the ball back, Kaaya finds Standish Dobard for an 18 yard gain that moves the team across midfield. A few plays later Duke had back-to-back carries of 8 and 16 yards respectively. The two carries moved him ahead of Edgerrin James for 2nd place in UM history. Two plays later Kaaya throws a dart to Walford, and the War Lord stretches out to score the touchdown. Kaaya threw it where only Clive could go up and catch it.
tjl1388/TK Photography
16-6 Miami
North Carolina goes 3 and out, and their punter pins Miami at their own 10 yard line again. The wind was so crazy yesterday that the ball was sailing for both teams whenever they punted. It's about this time that everyone starts looking at the play clock and wondering if we can move 90 yards down field in just 3 minutes. Everyone except for Duke. After having already moved into 2nd place in school history for rushing yards, Duke felt like becoming just the second player to ever reach 3,000 career yards, so he did. On the first play of the drive he ran 90 yards, practically untouched, for the score.
@CanesFootball
23-6 Miami
The rout was on. That carry tied Jack Losc from 1955 for the longest run in school history. The crowd went nuts and on the 2nd play of UNC's ensuing drive it got crazier. Williams' pass was deflected and Deon Bush came up with the interception.
tjl1388/TK Photography
After Yearby picked up a first down on a 3rd and 7 draw, Kaaya thew a pass to Yearby for a gain of 26 yards. Three plays later is was 3rd and 7 again, this time Kaaya threw a jump-ball to Walford. Clive highpoints the ball to come down with the score with less than 30 seconds remaining in the first half.
tjl1388/TK Photography
30-6 Miami
This ended a stretch were Miami scored 21 points in less than 5 minutes of play. That's also the 2nd week in a row that we scored right before the end of the 1st half. To make it even better, we were getting the ball to open the 2nd half since we deferred after the coin toss. UNC wasted the remaining time left to bring the half to a close.
Halftime:
[video=youtube;7QzWAYT-OJo]www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QzWAYT-OJo[/video]
tjl1388/TK Photography
Kelly made a speech about how happy he was to get such a warm reception. "I really haven't heard that kind of cheer in this stadium for a long time, and I think you all know what I'm talking about." He went on to say he wants to see more banners at the stadium, "National Championship banners," that is. He thanked the crowd one more time before leaving to a chant of, "Kelly! Kelly! Kelly!" Pretty awesome moment. The personalized jersey with his late son Hunter's name on it was a nice touch. UM also gave him a check for $10,000 written out to the foundation that bares his son's name.
3rd Quarter:
On the 2nd play of UM's drive, Kaaya throws it to Walford, who then proceeds to break a couple of tackles. Then Duke Johnson lays a great downfield block to spring the War Lord for a 42 yard gain. Kaaya was sacked on the next play by Norkeithus Otis, which set up 3rd and 7 two plays later. UNC's defensive coordinator rushed 6, but Kaaya sniffed it out. He dumped it off to Duke on a middle screen, who had Herb Waters, Phillip Dorsett, Jon Feliciano and Shane McDermott as a convoy all the way to the endzone.
tjl1388/TK Photography
37-6 Miami
UNC finally started to move the ball, getting across midfield in no time. A sack by Denzel Perryman backs them up and leads to a 4th and 1 situation. Williams quickly snapped it before the Canes could make personnel changes and they got caught with too many men on the field. Carolina got as far as the Miami 36 before getting backed up by an illegal formation penalty. This led to a 3rd and 14 where Tyriq McCord came through with a blindside sack to end the drive.
tjl1388/TK Photography
Now at midfield UNC had to punt, and Carolina's long snapper once again fired it over the punter's head.
McCord was there for the recovery all the way down to the UNC 12 yard line.
Charles Trainor/Miami Herald
Golden learned his lesson from last week and took Duke out of the game. 3 straight carries by Yearby gave Miami another touchdown.
Charles Trainor/Miami Herald
44-6 Miami
UNC once again started moving the ball with big passing plays to Bug Howard that picked up 21 and 19 yards respectively. This led to a 10 yard touchdown run by Williams to give their offense its first points of the game.
Lynne Sladky/AP
44-13 Miami
Miami went 3 and out and the ensuing punt was returned by Ryan Switzer for a touchdown. Thankfully UNC was called for holding on the return. On the first play of the drive Deon Bush came through with a sack fumble, but the Heels recovered it.
Lynne Sladky/AP
Three plays later it was 4th and 2 at the 50, and Perryman broke up the pass to force a turnover on downs. The quarter ended with Coley picking up a 1st down on jet sweep, and Miami still leading 44-13.
4th Quarter:
Miami's drive stalls in the redzone and they settle for a 37 yard field goal by Michael Badgley.
47-13 Miami
Carolina marches down the field with 3 straight completions to T.J. Thorpe, including one that went for a 43 yard gain. A few plays later it was 3rd and goal from the 1, and Calvin Heurtolou came up with sack. He also got flagged for a face mask which gave UNC another set of downs. Two plays later Williams got his 2nd touchdown run of the game.
47-20 Miami
The last 9 minutes of the game was meaningless as neither team could muster anymore points
Final Score:
North Carolina 20
Miami 47
Lynne Sladky/AP
Duke Johnson after the game:
[video=youtube;J-aZQF40l-A]www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-aZQF40l-A[/video]
I expected the offense to go crazy yesterday. What I didn't expect was the defense to shut down UNC like that. That was one of the best offenses in the nation that they smothered. There's some legitimate good juju with this team right now. Next up is Florida State who comes to town in 2 weeks. Win that game, and it's time for me and several others to eat a healthy plate of crow.
