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OK, we can all breath. Some thoughts on surviving Chapel Hill...

BeastMode said:
Bot sure what heatherman can come up with at this point. The talent is the talent. Gus defense it’s when he has nfl talent, not so much when you got maybe a couple nfl guys and then a bunch of above average guys. Miami needs to hit the portal hard next year for LB that can play in space. 1 and 9 are great against the run but that’s it. The secondary is a mess. No clue what Poyser is doing. Hopefully Scott and Moten can come alive cause Lightfoot can’t carry the whole line. Blount has been non existent this year. Wilson hasn’t done anything since Clemson.
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He needs to run a Manny Diaz scheme with stunts, twists, slants and tight coverage outside - if we get beat for an 80 yard TD, so be it. Much better than keeping our offense off the field, shortening the game by ~20 minutes of game clock, and still not getting many stops...we just can't run this scheme any longer this year - the results are garbage with the personnel we have.
 
k9cane said:
Admit it, you're a bit breathless right now as a #Canes fan. I know I am. The Hurricanes just escaped Jason Vorhees at Chapel Hill on Halloween night. Gotta give Bill Belichick(and especially Bobby 'Olive Garden' Petrino) credit. They can still coach ball. But Miami found a way to win 38-35. Some quick thoughts:

- It's OK to admit it, this defense isn't good. The front four doesn't get the pressure it did last season, the backers are liabilities in space, and the secondary is lost. Billy Edwards had a career night (28 for 34, 341 yards and 4 touchdowns).

There are some injury issues, I get it (can OJ Fredrique go see Benny Hinn and get touched by his healing hands?) but they just look so unsound. The whole game the Tar Heels out-leveraged UM, and then there were so many missed tackles, after having their zone defense carved up.

Coach JB remarked how Petrino was out-scheming Miami with man-beaters of every kind.

It wasn't till late in the game that guys like Marquis Lightfoot got to Edwards. I really don't know if Cory Hetherman has any answers with what he's got this season. But this is very reminiscent of the 2024 unit that was routinely carved up. I get the sense that Miami will have to play a lot of shootouts moving forward. But tonight, after the first drive, they simply couldn't get off the field and allowed UNC to shorten this game. It reminded me a lot of the 2024 Gatech loss in Atlanta.

This wasn't a situation where Miami was looking ahead. This was just bad defense that was carved up by a master play-caller.

I don't see a championship caliber defensive unit this season.

- A couple of times late in the game, Miami once again gave up big screens for huge yards. Again, at a certain point you have to have a better football IQ, don't you? That 2nd and 17 late in the game, was an especially egregious lack of situational awareness.

- Offense was good but tonight, it's like they weren't allowed to be less-than-perfect. But Miami's big time players, made big-time plays when it mattered, from Darian Mensah, Mark 'Touchdown Machine' Fletcher, and of course, 'the GABOS Glider', Malachi Toney, and Javian Mallory.

But maybe the most pivotal play late was one made by Elija Lofton, who kept his feet and rumbled for a first down that extended the drive. That was an amazing play by 9. OK, has he finally ditched the 'Greentree All-American' label?

- Finally, special teams. It's clear that UNC really works on onside kicks. I mean, that was....well, it was what it was. Our special teams is something I always worry about.

- With all that said, winning is great. Miami is 8-0. Every conference road game is riskly. Look around the country. You see really good teams getting knocked off or having tough games. The Canes won tonight, and now look ahead the big one in South Bend

Hey, 1-0
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our 2026 defense is closer to 2024 defense than 2025.

offense was more than good - they scored on every drive but one punt in first quarter other than running out clock. they just didnt get the ball that much. our tempo sucks, i think we need to give them more possessions not less- this played right into UNC hands.

if this is what we got, we will need lucky matchups in cfp or just our better day vs their less than good day.

it's frustrating- the ceiling is high, but we keep bumping our heads on it
 
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Good stuff always, K9.

Some takes as I was texting w/ Cane brothers in no specific order:

We coach onside kicks like we do hail Mary’s.

Old geezer Petrino schooled our boy wizard.

A pox on Prison Mike for putting screens on film v us.

Lofton has done a 180 from his previous years in CG.

Fletch and Mali are the absolute hearts of our team. Lucky to have them.

The ghost of creating a Heisman candidate out of a journeyman QB reared its head again.

I’ll end, though, w/ the thought as an older Cane fan these days: it’s always better to wake up on this side of the soil.

Go Canes!
 
k9cane said:

OK, we can all breath. ​

Admit it...
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On that Lightfoot sack/fumble he made Billy Edward’s do one thing he hadn’t done all game and that was come off his first read. On the Dunnigan sack Edwards had no idea who was blitzing and held the ball too long. Those two plays came from disguise coverages and pressure. He needs to build off those plays going forward
 
I've seen the writing on the wall with this defense the entire season. @k9cane is absolutely right. We look so fundamentally unsound and Hetherman has no answers. Our zone is atrocious. Sure we are missing OJ and Antoine but that doesn't explain how utterly helpless we are in the secondary. How in the world does our defense not know that a screen could be coming on 2nd and 17???? I've had a few different people tell me that this is a National Championship level defense in the past week. I should think that debate is over. Something doesn't add up. I understand not being elite but we have too much talent on defense to get torched up and down the field like we saw last night.
 
Ispyin said:
our 2026 defense is closer to 2024 defense than 2025.

offense was more than good - they scored on every drive but one punt in first quarter other than running out clock. they just didnt get the ball that much. our tempo sucks, i think we need to give them more possessions not less- this played right into UNC hands.

if this is what we got, we will need lucky matchups in cfp or just our better day vs their less than good day.

it's frustrating- the ceiling is high, but we keep bumping our heads on it
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I couldn't agree with you more about our tempo. I keep saying it, we don't need to be Art Briles Baylor circa 2011, but it would really aid us to go with some quicker pace for at least a couple of drives. I didn't realize this till I was listening to some of the post-game stuff on the drive home, but Miami had only 7 drives and scored on six of them.

That's not a big margin for error when your defense is that bad
 
k9cane said:
Admit it, you're a bit breathless right now as a #Canes fan. I know I am. The Hurricanes just escaped Jason Vorhees at Chapel Hill on Halloween night. Gotta give Bill Belichick(and especially Bobby 'Olive Garden' Petrino) credit. They can still coach ball. But Miami found a way to win 38-35. Some quick thoughts:

- It's OK to admit it, this defense isn't good. The front four doesn't get the pressure it did last season, the backers are liabilities in space, and the secondary is lost. Billy Edwards had a career night (28 for 34, 341 yards and 4 touchdowns).

There are some injury issues, I get it (can OJ Fredrique go see Benny Hinn and get touched by his healing hands?) but they just look so unsound. The whole game the Tar Heels out-leveraged UM, and then there were so many missed tackles, after having their zone defense carved up.

Coach JB remarked how Petrino was out-scheming Miami with man-beaters of every kind.

It wasn't till late in the game that guys like Marquis Lightfoot got to Edwards. I really don't know if Cory Hetherman has any answers with what he's got this season. But this is very reminiscent of the 2024 unit that was routinely carved up. I get the sense that Miami will have to play a lot of shootouts moving forward. But tonight, after the first drive, they simply couldn't get off the field and allowed UNC to shorten this game. It reminded me a lot of the 2024 Gatech loss in Atlanta.

This wasn't a situation where Miami was looking ahead. This was just bad defense that was carved up by a master play-caller.

I don't see a championship caliber defensive unit this season.

- A couple of times late in the game, Miami once again gave up big screens for huge yards. Again, at a certain point you have to have a better football IQ, don't you? That 2nd and 17 late in the game, was an especially egregious lack of situational awareness.

- Offense was good but tonight, it's like they weren't allowed to be less-than-perfect. But Miami's big time players, made big-time plays when it mattered, from Darian Mensah, Mark 'Touchdown Machine' Fletcher, and of course, 'the GABOS Glider', Malachi Toney, and Javian Mallory.

But maybe the most pivotal play late was one made by Elija Lofton, who kept his feet and rumbled for a first down that extended the drive. That was an amazing play by 9. OK, has he finally ditched the 'Greentree All-American' label?

- Finally, special teams. It's clear that UNC really works on onside kicks. I mean, that was....well, it was what it was. Our special teams is something I always worry about.

- With all that said, winning is great. Miami is 8-0. Every conference road game is riskly. Look around the country. You see really good teams getting knocked off or having tough games. The Canes won tonight, and now look ahead the big one in South Bend

Hey, 1-0
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MARIO NEEDS TO HIRE A BONAFIDED SPECIAL TEAMS COACH WITH 20+ YEARS OF EXPERIENCE ON TOP OF THAT & ANALYSTS JUST FOR SPECIAL TEAMS THIS **** HAS TO STOP IT LITERALLY COST US LAST YEARS NATTY
 
ddann said:
Seriously though, why has the 2024 Carrier Dome defense suddenly reappeared???

This Billy Edwards dude became the ghost of Kenny Pickett past after barely being serviceable before tonight.

Only hope now is to keep the pedal to the metal on offense and outscore everyone. And then white knuckle hang on at the end for dear life.

I don’t know if that’ll work up in South Bend, but we’ll soon find out.
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at 38-28, I was still nervous, because there was still over 2 minutes left. And they proceeded to give up a 75 yards drive in less than a minute. I really don't know if what is taking place on defense can be fixed this season
 
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