Miami scores to go up 28-3 with 3:53 left in the 3rd quarter. The game is over at this point, and your whole gameplan changes, essentially. Yeah yeah, we wanna win 50-3. Sounds cool. That's not how anyone on earth coaches or plays.
We still go out after this and force ANOTHER punt. Now the game is really, really over. We take over with 1:38 left in the 3rd quarter, deep in our own territory. You literally have ONE goal at this point. Don't turn the ball over. That's it. To this point, your defense has given up 3 points. You've won the game. The only way to lose it is to turn the ball over. This isn't Syracuse 2024, guys. The other ******* team had 3 points.
And for those of you saying, "LeeN oN yER RunnINg GamE"....**** do you think they did?
- Run by Lyle for 6
- Run by Lyle for 3
- Run by Brown for 2, first down, end of the 3rd quarter. Put your "fours" up, we won
- Run by Lyle for 2, but we get a holding call. Guess what? That probably ends this drive unless you get lucky, because you're not going to do anything dumb, and it's 1st and 18. That's not ******* caveman ball. That's not dumb coaching. That's not going into a shell. That's just an unfortunate penalty that stunts a drive. It happens. And guess what, because you're up Twenty-Eight to mother****ing Three, who cares?
- Another run, Lyle for 4 (We have now called 5 straight runs by the way, for those of you crying to lean into your run game. They've gained 17 yards, with a holding call mixed in)
- Safe pass to Daniels, doesn't work, loss of 2, clock runs
- Safe throw to Marion on an out route with no chance of getting the first down, I'd have actually liked to have seen another run here or safer throw to run clock but the ball is thrown well outside because our QB is smart, and won't turn it over
- We punt, and get a targeting call, so FSU gets a short field, and they score. Whoopty ******* do, it's the first TD of the night.
After the TD, they onside, and we have the ball at the FSU 43. This is the only drive where *maybe* I'll be 1% critical, but again, the only intention here is to burn clock and don't make a mistake. You're up by THREE scores, with your defense playing great. We run it twice, for basically nothing, and then get another holding call on a 3rd down throw, but the intention here is simply pin them deep. You got the ball on their 43, best case you get a couple first downs, worst-case you pin them deep. And we do, they get the ball at the 4. Again, if you want to nitpick this one a little, I'll listen. Could we have been a little more creative to try to get a couple first downs? The run game wasn't working all night. But under no circumstances are you putting the ball in harm's way
They go 96 yards, but it takes 5 minutes. Now it's a 2-score game. Get another onside kick, you're at the 39
- Run for Brown for 4, timeout #1
- I actually like this next decision, you know another interior run likely doesn't get you much and they still have 2 timeouts and the 2-minute, so they throw it. Incomplete
- Throw it again on 3rd down. Again, what do some of you want? You want to lean on the run? We did that. It did it's job, ran clock, but we didn't get first downs. You want to be aggressive. WE ARE, RIGHT HERE! A TON of coaches run it 2 more times, make them call timeouts, and maybe kick a FG if they have to. We didn't. We threw the ball twice, got into a 4th and 1, and went for it. And got it, on a penalty but I'm pretty sure Brown got the first down on the run anyway. 3 more runs, and you go for it on 4th and 8 with 1:10 left. Your win percentage is about 99.8% at this point. Strike up the band.
So, we were aggressive at times, but not too aggressive. If Mario kicks a FG there, and it gets blocked and returned for a TD, he would be skewered alive on this board. And rightfully so. Your defense is great, you take a shot to end the game, if you don't get it, they need to score TWICE on you in a minute with no timeouts. I'll take my chances.
Well played all around by the staff. We won the game at the end of the 4th quarter. Not a single impartial observer of this game thinks this was anything other than a Miami ***-whipping. Only on this board or FSU twitter will you find a single human who puts 0.1% stock into that "comeback". We kicked the **** out of them, period. And we coached very well in the process, in all facets, including managing the game.
