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4th quarter game management

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sfcane2

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I love this team. They’re complete and can make a deep playoff run. Beck + the young WRs = dangerous once they click. And when Miami actually ran a balanced offense? We cooked one of the top 2–3 defenses in the country. Couple that with pass rushers who can close out a game and it is a team that can beat anybody.

But then… fourth quarter Mario showed up. 🐢

It was like Oregon–Auburn déjà vu: dominate for three quarters, then go full “turtle mode.” ND stacks the box, begging us to pass, and Mario says: “What if… hear me out… we run it straight into the teeth of their defense three times in a row?” Meanwhile Carson Beck — aka the best play-action QB in America — is just chilling like an Uber driver waiting for his next ride.

And THEN the grand finale: let’s play for a 47-yard field goal with a kicker whose résumé so far is ‘owns a pair of cleats.’ That’s not strategy. That’s not a 50/50 decision, that’s closer to playing roulette with half your chips on double zero.

Somebody online summed it up best:

“The before and after splits of when Miami went into turtle mode are hilarious. Mario Cristobal tried so hard to give that game away.”

user generated

Anyway it all worked out and you can have a season where a lot of low probability events go your way similar to when Auburn and Nick Marshall kept hitting those hail Mary’s but it’d be a lot easier if we just played with better odds.
 
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When we went up 21-7 out of the half on that long drive and then got them 3 and out, in their worst looking drive of them game by a mile, I thought we were about to put belt to *** and run away with it.

Charmar Brown slipping on 3rd and 1 and rolling up on Bell is where everything changed. Another example of where you’d like a better playcall in that situation. Some flavor. It was Mario and Dawson trying to assert dominance and nothing more. But that play killed it and threw our D back out there quick and they got gassed and ND got new life.

Same exact thing happened multiple times a year ago, I remember Louisville specifically, right after the half. Could have put it away and didn’t because we went into a shell of what we had been doing on offense to try to run for 3rd and short up the *** and failed.
 
407cane said:
its hilarious how dumb this mindset is

when the plays work, you and everyone else credit Dawson

when the plays don't work, it's on mario

does anyone on here REALLY believe that Mario doesn't give Dawson full control?
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No matter how many times people with knowledge of the program say that Mario doesn't meddle in-game with Dawson fans will continue to push a false narrative in order to take shots at Mario.

Mario has his issues as with every coach in college football, but can't slurpers and mopes universally acknowledge that Mario has been the best head man for this job since Butch Davis? From the program to the talent to the national relevance, no one in the last 20 some odd years has had Miami remotely close to this current iteration of the program.
 
I’m not saying he hasn’t done a great job building the program up but the 4th quarter play calling and decision making has been pretty shaky. It’s not just Mario. It seems pretty prevalent in CFB. Kirby has some well documented blunders like the Justin fields fake punt. Even Saban ended his career on a bizarre qb draw from the 3 yard line straight at a team that had 3 DTs 2 of whom were 1st round picks and the other a 2nd.
 
JayCane20 said:
When we went up 21-7 out of the half on that long drive and then got them 3 and out, in their worst looking drive of them game by a mile, I thought we were about to put belt to *** and run away with it.

Charmar Brown slipping on 3rd and 1 and rolling up on Bell is where everything changed. Another example of where you’d like a better playcall in that situation. Some flavor. It was Mario and Dawson trying to assert dominance and nothing more. But that play killed it and threw our D back out there quick and they got gassed and ND got new life.

Same exact thing happened multiple times a year ago, I remember Louisville specifically, right after the half. Could have put it away and didn’t because we went into a shell of what we had been doing on offense to try to run for 3rd and short up the *** and failed.
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If Marty doesn’t slip and gets the first down, the final score looks much different. That stop breathed life into a reeling ND. Put us on the back of our heels for the next few possessions (thank god for the Bain pick!). No doubt it’s a double digit cruise control win if Marty gets the first there.
 
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The play-calling after the INT I have a problem with. I expect Dawson to put his hand up in the midweek presser and admit he screwed that series up. I would have liked to see us try to get a first down through the air too, after #6's 6 yard gain on first down before the field goal, then take a shot or two at the end zone. Coach obviously has a ton of confidence in the kicker, so am not going to kill him for not trying harder to risk a couple 25 yard passes against what's probably the best secondary in the country.

Rest of it, I don't think is a big deal. Drive up 21-7 with a chance to blow them out we had ****** field position cause of the b.s. penalty on PR, and we were just trying to get a 1st down on 3rd and 1, and #6 cut for no reason and slipped.

Next drive was screwed up cause of the offensive holding penalty.

The final 3 and out we were aggressive and we ended up holding the ball for just 50 seconds, which wasn't great.
 
I think there’s some when a play works it’s a great play and when it doesn’t it’s a bad play hindsight here.

In the 4th we went 2/6 passing and got a holding penalty. So it’s not like that was working great that quarter.

I get the logic of it’s the 4th quarter. It’s hot, they’re tired and we believe we got the best line in America and a couple great backs. Plus hopefully can shorten the game by draining the clock and forcing Carr to start pushing.

So I see the logic in going run heavy. But our execution just wasn’t there. In fairness tho we got screwed by a missed PI and a bad holding call. The only thing I hated was settling for such a long FG at the end
 
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LuCane said:
Has to be Dawson, right?

The clock management at the end of the first half was suboptimal, though. Worked out, but shaky stuff.
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Miami's strategic philosophy is:

- When our offense has the ball, their offense does not
- Our offense holds the ball behind/thru superior OL play
- Our best chance of controlling the clock, and therefore keeping the other offense off the field, is by running the ball

When it works, Mario ball is essentially the Irresistable Force.

When it doesn't, especially coupled with timely penalties, the opposing team can close 14 point gaps in 2-3 drives.

Last night there were several comments, "Miami isn't playing to win" on that last drive.

I would offer a counter...they were 100% playing to win, just from a much more conservative + defensive-minded posture than some would like.

Mario ball:

- We grind and control the clock
- We score a TD, awesome, defense holds we win,they don't and here comes OT
- We score a FG, good enough because I believe our defense holds them, if not, I believe our defense holds them to FG and here comes OT
- We don't get into FG range, they get ball back and score and we lose, catastrophic
 
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Dawson had a ton of bad feel last year that cam bailed him out of. We stalled many a drive with the stacked box runs coupled with easy to read bubble screens. He needs to improve and gain some killer instinct.
Mario still manages the clock like he has never played football before
 
dirtyred786 said:
That third and three after the pick was way too conservative. However I have no problem with our last possession. Getting ND to use their timeouts was the way to go.
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Agreed but everyone assumes Beck could have thrown for a first down on the last drive and game over.

We threw 3 passes on the last drive - one completion (9y)-----one 15 y pass int penalty on ND on a deep throw and ----one incomplete. So not as conservative as nearly everyone is saying.

During that last drive we had runs of 4--8--3--and 6 yards. You are burning clock and getting first downs--yeah, I would keep running the ball too. Everyone just wants to remember the last 2 runs of 0 and 1 yard.

If Beck throws an incomplete pass the last play of that last drive then ND has a timeout left and 30+ seconds.
 
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Silentobserver said:
No matter how many times people with knowledge of the program say that Mario doesn't meddle in-game with Dawson fans will continue to push a false narrative in order to take shots at Mario.

Mario has his issues as with every coach in college football, but can't slurpers and mopes universally acknowledge that Mario has been the best head man for this job since Butch Davis? From the program to the talent to the national relevance, no one in the last 20 some odd years has had Miami remotely close to this current iteration of the program.
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What do you expect from a fanbase that used to boo Howard Schnellenberger's play-calling back in the day and paid for an anti-Butch banner to be flown during his era....an era where he was dealing with the loss of 47 scholarships.
It is what it is with these folks.
 
Beck was solid, I would have put the game in his hands up 21-7 and said "finish them," but that's just not how this staff operates.

They have one way they want to do things and they don't deviate.

A flea flicker, a middle screen, or an end around would have kept ND honest.

A bootleg to Lofton with Daniels or Toney on a deep route behind it would have forced them to stop or slow crashing the run.

If playing for a FG, snapping the ball with less than 5 sec instead of 15 would eliminate the full minute.

There’s a LOT left on the field which makes things easier on us, every game.
 
sfcane2 said:
I love this team. They’re complete and can make a deep playoff run. Beck + the young WRs = dangerous once they click. And when Miami actually ran a balanced offense? We cooked one of the top 2–3 defenses in the country. Couple that with pass rushers who can close out a game and it is a team that can beat anybody.

But then… fourth quarter Mario showed up. 🐢

It was like Oregon–Auburn déjà vu: dominate for three quarters, then go full “turtle mode.” ND stacks the box, begging us to pass, and Mario says: “What if… hear me out… we run it straight into the teeth of their defense three times in a row?” Meanwhile Carson Beck — aka the best play-action QB in America — is just chilling like an Uber driver waiting for his next ride.

And THEN the grand finale: let’s play for a 47-yard field goal with a kicker whose résumé so far is ‘owns a pair of cleats.’ That’s not strategy. That’s not a 50/50 decision, that’s closer to playing roulette with half your chips on double zero.

Somebody online summed it up best:

“The before and after splits of when Miami went into turtle mode are hilarious. Mario Cristobal tried so hard to give that game away.”

user generated

Anyway it all worked out and you can have a season where a lot of low probability events go your way similar to when Auburn and Nick Marshall kept hitting those hail Mary’s but it’d be a lot easier if we just played with better odds.
Click to expand...
We won the game , Next.
 
sfcane2 said:
I love this team. They’re complete and can make a deep playoff run. Beck + the young WRs = dangerous once they click. And when Miami actually ran a balanced offense? We cooked one of the top 2–3 defenses in the country. Couple that with pass rushers who can close out a game and it is a team that can beat anybody.

But then… fourth quarter Mario showed up. 🐢

It was like Oregon–Auburn déjà vu: dominate for three quarters, then go full “turtle mode.” ND stacks the box, begging us to pass, and Mario says: “What if… hear me out… we run it straight into the teeth of their defense three times in a row?” Meanwhile Carson Beck — aka the best play-action QB in America — is just chilling like an Uber driver waiting for his next ride.

And THEN the grand finale: let’s play for a 47-yard field goal with a kicker whose résumé so far is ‘owns a pair of cleats.’ That’s not strategy. That’s not a 50/50 decision, that’s closer to playing roulette with half your chips on double zero.

Somebody online summed it up best:

“The before and after splits of when Miami went into turtle mode are hilarious. Mario Cristobal tried so hard to give that game away.”

user generated

Anyway it all worked out and you can have a season where a lot of low probability events go your way similar to when Auburn and Nick Marshall kept hitting those hail Mary’s but it’d be a lot easier if we just played with better odds.
Click to expand...

UM football literally spent hundreds of thousands recruiting and signing highly-sought after OLmen and RBs to do what they were supposed to do in closing out games. I see no problem with the playcall. It was on the players to get it done.
 
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