View attachment 260432
Offense:
Tyler Van Dyke - 24/36 288yds 1TD & 3INT’s
Don Chaney - 23car 103yds
Xavier Restrepo - 12rec 123yds
Colbie Young - 4rec 56yds
Jacolby George - 2rec 45yds
Riley Williams - 1rec 22yds & 1TD
Offense gained 454 total yards (288 passing & 166 rushing) off 82 plays at 5.5 yards per play, getting 23 1st downs, going 8/16 on 3rd downs, with 35:18 in time of possession.
First half was a defensive stalemate. GTech playing with house money came out with nothing to lose & played inspired. They sold out to stop the pass & played with a chip on their shoulder coming off an embarrassing loss last weak. They were giving it everything they had & we were mostly on cruise control in the first half...
Really bad decisions by TVD on the INT by the Jacksonville kid LaMiles Brooks. (He had a good game, played very well in coverage against us). Then again, Amhari Harvey the Tallahassee kid made a great play on the ball to get the 2nd pick for GTech’s Defense. Their Secondary did a good job with our WR’s for most of the game, with the exception of Restrepo in the Slot.
TVD ‘s biggest flaw in his game is undisciplined eyes, he tends to stare down his WR’s & will lock in one target early in the route & will let it rip even when the throw isn’t always there. Most of time it works, but sometimes, we get games like tonight...
Nice play call on the 47yd post route by Restrepo at the end of the 3rd quarter, unfortunately the momentum from that play was negated by another bad decision by TVD throwing his 3rd pick of the game. Again, he didn’t see the CB & made a bad throw.
Very good play call by Dawson to dial up the 57yd Deep shot to Colbie Young.
We had a TE sighting, Riley Williams with a nice run after the catch to score the first TD of the game. Nice to see a TE do something other than Block.
Don Chaney played the best game of his career, he ran hard & was the most consistent in finding running lanes & getting positive net gain yardage, props to him.
But overall the DC change worked for GTech, Kevin Sherrer put together a very good game plan against us & slowed down everything we liked to do. Even with the turnovers & mistakes made, we still had the game won, but of course like it always happens against GTech in Miami we figured out a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Congrats to Mario, he’s joined an illustrious group of 3 other previous Miami coaches that had inexplicable gut-wrenching losses to GTech. He’s a true Canes Coach now, it’s a rite of passage...
Defense:
Kam Kinchens - 7tks & 1PD
Francisco Mauigoa - 4tks 1.5TFL’s & 1INT
KJ Cloyd - 4tks & 0.5TFL’s
Branson Deen - 4tks 1.5TFL’s & 0.5 sacks
Wesley Bissainthe - 3tks
Rueben Bain - 3tks 1 sack & 1TFL
Jaden Davis - 3tks
Nyjalik Kelly - 2tks
Jahfari Harvey - 2tks
Daryl Porter Jr - 2tks
Te’Cory Couch - 1tk
Keontra Smith - 1tk
James Williams - 1tk & 1INT
Jared Harrison-Hunte - 1tks & 1TFL
Defense was absolutely stout, holding GTech to just 61yds in the 1st half & 250yds total for the game. Allowing just 4,3 yards per play, keeping them at 5/13 on 3rd down while getting 5TFL’s & forcing 2 turnovers.
Defensive chess match in the 1st half, we played a lot of Double High Safeties on the backend to keep everything in front of us & allow the DL time to get to the QB. The DLine played excellent, Run Defense once again held another team under 100yds rushing; in fact, we haven’t allowed a single 100yd rusher all season long.
Leonard Taylor didn’t rack up a bunch of stats, but his impact was noticeable. He created a ton of interior pressure & was collapsing the pocket all game long. Great job by Kelly, Bain & Deen in flushing King out of the pocket which forced him to make a bad erratic throw getting Mauigoa the INT. Bain, Deen, Taylor, Kelly & Harvey all had great games in disrupting King’s rhythm & keep him off schedule for the most part.
Mauigoa & Cloyd played really well IMO, they were active all over the field assisting in stopping the run game & did a good job dropping back in coverage against the pass.
I’m not allowed to give my honest critique of the CB’s, so we’ll save that for another day...
James Williams with a great read out of the deep 3rd shell in Single-High to get the pick.
Kam Kinchens got cooked really bad & misread the route on the Leary TD, he was supposed to maintain depth in his shell & play over top, for whatever reason he panicked trying to make a play & came in way too steep on a bad angle & got worked. Glad to see him come back from his injury, but that was a bad play & big mistake on his part.
Overall Defensively, we did enough to win, the only thing I think went unaccounted for was King’s running. He was given way too much respect with our LB drops & allowed free reign to run as much as he wanted. Now a lot of his runs were out of necessity due to the pocket being collapsed by our aggressive DLine, but some of his other designed runs were easy pick ups for him because we simply weren’t playing to contain him & I’m not sure why that adjustment wasn’t made. It was the only aspect of their Offense that was really working.
Now to how this thing was lost...
One of the most boneheaded decisions made by a Miami Coach since the Onside kick against UVA in 2018. GTech has no timeouts & the game is over, all we had to do is kneel it, but of course the most Miami thing ever happens; Yes I believe we got screwed by the refs on a bad call where the runner is clearly down, but then we go full prevent Defense & in 3 plays give up a Deep ball TD. The decision to run it was made because they were trying to get Chaney over a 100yds & congratulations, because they did.
However, we should’ve never been put in that position, there was really no other choice to be made other than to take a knee & get the win, but this is something that has happened before to our patron Saint HC
Really tough loss, but this falls squarely on the HC’s shoulders. What matters more than anything will be how we respond to this moment; there should be no pointing fingers & NO EXCUSES made, just be accountable & FIX IT.
@ball915 called it, this was the classic Canes trap game, 17.5 point favorite, coming off a bye week debuting new Miami Nights jersey’s against a bad GTech team that had to change their DC for getting embarrassed by Bowling Green the week before & we figured out a way to lose...
I’ve been saying it a lot & I’ll repeat it again, @ UNC is going to be the toughest game we play this year & now coming off a crushing loss like this just intensifies the circumstances surrounding the game even more. We’re going to go up against the best QB we’ll play all year with an impactful Offense loaded with playmaker WR’s & a really good RB. The Defense is going to have to play well above their means in order to slow down that high-octane attack & their best strength is our biggest weakness Defensively, the Deep ball.
Either way, we’re going to have regroup go back to the drawing board & get it corrected, because next week will be a season defining game; it’s time to put the big boy pants on & man up. Whether you believe it or not, the season hinges on it, we lose to UNC & the Clemson, NC ST, FSU & LVille games will carry that much more weight on the morale & confidence of the team to perform in big moments which can affect the tenor of the rest of the season adversely.
The only option to get beyond this loss is to beat UNC, so we’re going to see exactly what this team is made of, this one’s on you Mario, show us what ya got...
Go Canes
