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Losing in winning? (Miami-Vatech thoughts)

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OldhamA said:
I can't help but chuckle at this fan base complaining about a 9 (possibly 10) win season, on the back of a 10 win season last year only beating VT by 17 in Blacksburg.

I'd love to bottle the feeling we had after losing to Middle Tennessee St (**** you could name a dozen games in the last 20 years like that) and open it up in a thread. That was inexcusable. This is just a very good football team that isn't quite elite enough to overcome refereeing yet.

Calm down and enjoy the ride. Good lord.
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I hate calling it overcoming refereeing when there's a more or less direct line from that bias to bigotry.
 
k9cane said:
Miami wins 34-17, but really, based on what they needed -- a real convincing blowout -- this kinda felt like a... well, not sure. Louis Riddick, who called the game for ESPN seemed to understand the assignment better than the team or Mario Cristobal. Hey, it is what it is. It was interesting to see Miami score a last minute TD (Malware Toney, infecting secondaries all over the country) and I wonder if that will sway the perception any.

Yeah. it's come to this. But that's what happens when you drop ACC games you are favored in.

Today, there was losing in winning. Now, it seems like UM needs a ton of help to make the tournament.

- While Shannon Dawson will tell you that he hasn't drawn up anything new in the past few weeks, the reality is that this offense does look different. They came out in the first play with a full house backfield look and a hand off to Elija Lofton. You saw a lot more of the pistol formation, jet sweep action and continuing to utilize Malachi Toney as a throw off the end-around motion

It was all set up at the half. Miami put forth a dominating, up 20-3. But in a game where every point mattered and a convincing blowout was needed, the Canes sputtered in the second half. They not only failed to 'pour it on' as Jimmy Johnson said so famously, they actually had to hold off a hard charging Hokie squad that didn't quit.

- Again, the tempo that Cristobal plays with limits possessions and plays. Not sure why you would ever want to do that when you have the superior team and some of the offensive weapons Miami has. I love the new-found creativity, just wish there was a quicker tempo attached to it at times.

- Miami freshman continue to stand out, from Toney, to Josh Moore, to Daylen Upshaw and Girard Pringle, they all made key plays. This is a really good foundation on this side of the ball. The question is, who will be their QB?

- Speaking of which, Carson Beck has been really sharp the past few weeks. Just steady and accurate.

- Run defense wasn't good early on, and wasn't really good for much of this contest. The Hokies gashed them a bit in the first half, Marcellus Hawkins broke off a long run as Miami had issues getting off blocks and setting the edge. The VaTech offense was really handcuffed when they were in 3rd and long, but then late in the game they gave up some key conversions. This unit has been really good for most of the season, but today they weren't good enough for what Miami needed. To be fair, injuries have stripped this unit of key depth and solid polayers

- Near the end of the first half as Miami got the ball back, that series before as the Hokies had the ball, is exactly why fans flat out question the integrity of ACC officiating. Basically, they got 3 tries on 4th and 1, and they eventually got it as Kyrone Drones made a great individual effort as it looked like Chase Smith stuffed him. ACC officiating is beyond bad. I wonder if its flat out corrupted at times

- The Brockemeyer botched snap in the 3rd quarter was key. Miami had just gotten a first down deep in their territory and then that play put Miami way behind the sticks .The offense never recovered their mojo

- Is it just me or has Akheem Mesidor outplayed Ruben Bain the past few weeks?
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My biggest beef:

Why did it take a few bad half’s vs terrible teams and 2 loses to finally open up this offense they it should’ve been running since the get go?

Thats my biggest frustration because we don’t lose vs Louisville or SMU calling plays and involving players they way we are now.
 
PIPO said:
My biggest beef:

Why did it take a few bad half’s vs terrible teams and 2 loses to finally open up this offense they it should’ve been running since the get go?

Thats my biggest frustration because we don’t lose vs Louisville or SMU calling plays and involving players they way we are now.
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I don't disagree...
 
Bain is 10000% a DT. Been a liability out there in contain and can’t get home to the QB for actual production.
 
Gocanes1990 said:
Thought they did a good job of playing for points. Hard to cover vs that crooked officiating crew.

This level of creativity probably beats magnalles and smh
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go, I don't disagree with this either. The structure of the offense and play-calling is fine with me. My only quibble is our pace. I really hope a few things break our way next week. This is a playoff caliber team
 
PIPO said:
My biggest beef:

Why did it take a few bad half’s vs terrible teams and 2 loses to finally open up this offense they it should’ve been running since the get go?

Thats my biggest frustration because we don’t lose vs Louisville or SMU calling plays and involving players they way we are now.
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I think part of the problem is continuity - which every College team struggles with anyway - especially at QB.

We've plugged in a 1 year guy this season who operates very differently from the 1 year guy we plugged in last year.

They've definitely opened the playbook up more of late - some of that is obviously a reaction to the noise, but I'm sure some of it is also Beck getting more comfortable in the system, Pringle / Upshaw / Moore / Trader now being ready etc.

It's frustrating, but it's also why we need to find a 2-year solution at QB for next year so we don't continue to spend 5/6 games a season working out who we are.
 
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Canefrom1991 said:
Watching Utah on ESPN2 and they had a segment with a title “Miami survives scare”…I understand that we could’ve played better in the second half, but “survived scare” is a very ESPN take.

I guess it just proves that we can’t take any plays off.
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Why didn’t we play better? That’s the question every week during the second half of the season.
 
College football world basically said 'show us what you got Miami' and we did. A pretty good team that struggles with penalties and mental errors. A team that's hampered by a conservative philosophy. Show us what you got and we showed stupid penalties, dropped td passes, hikes into the sticks.. all at a slow *** pace. Did anyone watch the other bubble teams play? Those teams played with a lot more intensity imo.
We need to face it as fans. This is our ceiling with Mario. Needing other teams to lose because we can't beat mid acc teams while being double digit favorites.
 
scrantoncane said:
To me, it seemed like we started going to Fletcher in the A-gap in the 2nd half and it just sucked the wind out as it usually does.

Long, time consuming drives. No explosive plays. No tempo.

It’s just who our meathead coach is. That said, it’s a 17 point win on the road in November. Spread was -17.5 and we won by 17. Yeah, it didn’t pass the eye test like it did last week. Esp with ND currently up 28-0 halfway through the 1st quarter.

So yeah, root for someone ahead of us to drop one. Auburn over bama or lsu over Oklahoma. That happens and we beat Pitt and we are in. It ain’t over yet.
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That’s exactly what happened. Mario went back to his Mario-Ball with Fletcher. We saw very little of the pulling and counters that we saw the previous week with Pringle as the main RB.

Also, it seemed like they were trying to use Toney on the end around as a way to run the ball. We had a grand total of 83 rushing yards against a terrible VT defense, and the incessant WR screens that always seem to go for either 2 to 3 yards of negative yardage are buns.

We were attacking the middle deep third of the field early and stopped doing it after the first couple of drives. It’s bonkers.
 
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PRcane787 said:
8-4
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You Are Dumb Mario Lopez GIF
 
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