- Joined
- May 14, 2016
- Messages
- 41,706
Offense:
First offensive possession was a methodical short passing drive designed to feed Toney the ball.
Mensah gets sacked, after a missed stunt by the LG & C, which puts it at 3rd goal @ 23yd line.
Barkate beats the Palms coverage towards the Boundary side & would've had a TD, but Pitt's Safety is allowed to get away with Pass interference.
Mensah gets sacked again on the 2nd drive
But Toney saves the drive with a 3rd & long conversion catch & run for 20yds.
And then on another 3rd & Goal Toney takes a Tunnel screen to the house for a walk in TD.
Great blocking by Upshaw & Lofton.
3rd drive, Shawn Lee plays good through the hands coverage on Barkate forcing almost TD drop
But Barkate bounces back with a 16yd catch to put us in the Red Zone, leading to Mallory with a nice TD run.
Miami goes up 17-0 at this point in the 2nd quarter & the game is already over.
Mallory continues to establish himself as next year's RB1.
Pringle... Rough game. Commendable if he decides to return again, but completely understandable if he decides to Portal out. He's never going to be a feature back here & now that Lyle has climbed out of the Doghouse, it's over for Prings. The Armwood curse is undefeated.
Lofton with another hurdle, he also had one vs Wake Forest earlier this year.
He's really come into his role this season.
Loved seeing Briggs get early PT in the game. Mensah had him WIDE open on the 4th & 1 in the 2nd quarter, idk why he didn't throw it to him.
Mensah does a nice job evading pressure & using his feet buy himself more time to find Mueller in the End Zone, for the first TD of his career.
The OL had 3 false starts, a holding & gave up 3 sacks in the first half.
After a shaky performance last week vs FSU, there appears to still be some issues to iron out with the OL.
I've been wholeheartedly convinced throughout the season that there should be a significant investment via Portal in OL this offseason, if for nothing more than depth purposes. Every game since Clemson has yet to change that opinion for me. IMO, we need at least 3 OL's from the Portal, whether they're backups or not, but there needs to be some more physically adept Veteran pass protectors added to the line.
One thing I noticed this game put Mensah's leadership on display; whenever guys had inexplicable drops, Mensah would go right back to them on the next following plays. Both Barkate & Upshaw had early drops, but Mensah went right back to them to get them a catch & help build their confidence.
Van Jacobs with a nice catch while being held for DPI
Mensah with a nice bucket drop into a tight window, but it's thrown into a triple coverage & Toney is unable to hold onto it.
Had Upshaw wide open on an Out route underneath though.
Malachi with his 2nd TD of the first half off another Screen
Wingo with a nice downfield block, which gives Toney a running lane to take it to the house. All he needs is a crease & he's gone!
This kid is really Santana Moss 2.0
Had a HISTORIC first half
Raion Strader made a huge mistake talking cash sh*t while having a negative balance in his account. Whatever their supposed "great gameplan" was, it clearly didn't work. Their coverage vs Toney was rendered ineffective in the 1st quarter alone, let alone the whole game. They woke up a Demon & he set fire to their Secondary, putting up whole game total in the FIRST HALF.
He continued on to set the All-Time record for most catches in a game in Miami history!
Malachi Toney is likely going to finish his career as the All-Time leader in WR catches & TD's as well. He's a GUARANTEED 1st rounder in the 2028 draft & has catapulted himself into the top 4 Miami WR's All-Time.
Michael Irvin, Reggie Wayne, Andre Johnson & Malachi Toney, that's the 4. 5th is debatable, but that's the 4.
Toney made his case to surge up the Heisman odds ladder today. He surpassed Jeremiah Smith today & basically made this a 2-man race with him & Mensah, with both of them all but guaranteed to make trips to New York.
He's undoubtedly among the 5 best players in All of College Football & had one of the greatest games in Canes history.
Miami remains, the most unstoppable Offense in America.
Defense
The first 4 Defensive drives, the Defense was their usual selves in the run game. They kept Pitt from being able to make significant gain on run downs & forced them to beat us by stretching the field, keeping everything underneath within a 15yd hash frame.
Pitt didn't convert their first 1st down until within 5min left in the 1st quarter.
After giving up a 28yd pass, Fitzgerald responded back by getting a face-guarding PBU to save a TD.
However, Pitt was able to continue the drive & eventually punch it in for the TD.
JJ Dunnigan forces a fumble
Back to back weeks, Fitzgerald & Poyser have no clue how to play a Hail Mary.
EOC gave up his first TD of the season.
Bad technique on his part, he got beat on the Deep ball option route. The WR ran a Corner-Post to Outside leverage, but EOC misread the route at the top of the break & bit on the Inside fake thinking it was a Post.
JJ DUNNIGAN with the sack off the Safety Blitz!
This kid has only gotten better each week that he's played. With more reps & more experience his Football IQ growth is exponential. He's played like a TF All-American this season at Safety. And he's only scratched the surface.
Camdin Portis had a bad DPI in the 4th quarter. That's because he's not an Outside Corner. He's strictly a Nickelback (word to Chad Kroeger). He's much more like Keionte Scott in the sense that his strength as playing inside covering the Slot, not the outside.
Brody Jennings also had a rough DPI in the End Zone. IMO, his projection is best at Safety. And NO, that one play isn't why I think, I said it the day we flipped him from Cheatagain.
Kamal Bonner gets the stop at the Goalline on 4th &1, after the refs refused to give Pitt a clear & obvious TD on the previous down.
The Defense absolutely suffocated Pitt's run game, holding them to just 61yds for the game. Despite the hiccup against FSU last week, this continues to be a Championship level Defense.
Ahmad Moten is surging in his play as the season progresses into the 3rd quarter of the season headed towards the playoffs.
Lightfoot, Wilson, Blount & Scroggins continuously create pressure & are unheralded in the run game. They do a terrific job in Run Defense that goes mostly unnoticed, but their ability to maintain gap integrity & discipline has been the primary linchpin in why our Run Defense has been so ironclad all season. DT's always get all the credit for Run Defense, but in reality, it's been our DE's that have been the cornerstone to taking away our opponents most important offensive element.
Chase Smith has been on fire as well recently. He played great against Clemson & FSU, followed that up today as well.
It was good to see Marcelin healthy back in the lineup. His natural movement ability sticks out on film. He will absolutely be in the 2-deep & competing for starter snaps next year. He's got very good lateral speed & plays with a sense of urgency in the run game. Marcelin, Bonner (if he has more eligibility) & TF's next year IMO should be the rotation next year. Unless a big time playmaker hits the Portal, but otherwise, I like the projection of the young LB corps for next season.
The CB group I'll discuss further in the Island, but the name of the game next year needs to OPEN COMPETITION. No shoo-in starters, please.
The Safety group has a bright star with JJ Dunnigan as the leader in the future. They're going to have to decide what they wanna do with Fitzgerald. Obviously, he's Soldiering up for us playing Corner due to the mass injuries we've had all year in the CB group, but eventually, a decision will have to be made if he gets to go back to his Money position which is FS. Especially with Amir Sears coming in, who has the capability of being the next TF early contributor. While many presume he'll play CB, IMO his future is brightest at FS. Which then begs the question, where do all these Corner-Safeties go if/when OJ & XL come back? We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
The overall performance of today was needed & got us back on track to set the tone for the rest of the season heading into this next stretch, where we'll have 4 straight tough opponents in @ UNC, @ Noter, then home games vs Duke & VA Tech.
The theme for the lead up to the playoffs remains the same, DOMINATION. This game showed that. No playing with your food, or giving life to dead teams, just come out from the coinflip til the clock says triple 0's & step on these weak *** teams! That's how you do it! Bombard them in the first half with hyperspeed explosives & then unleash the Defense in the 2nd half to bury them under the rubble.
There isn't a team in the country that can play with us when we're at our best & relatively healthy. And yes, that includes them OVERRATED *** dAWgs you UGA lovers are always so scared of. We will beat the reckless driving out of that slow *** team if we see them in the playoffs & NO, it won't be done by pounding the rock.
But I digress, let's get to the man of the Hour... The scourge of the ACC himself, Mr. Crybaby Complainer, The Pat Narduzzi.
Not only did this babyback ***** bold faced LIE out of his dumb face about Miami, but, he's consistently for YEARS been a huge hater & critic of Miami in every season & offseason. Every year, when they do the offseason "anonymous" coaches quotes for the ACC about other teams in the conference, there's always one overly negative comment made about Miami & there's no mystery as to who it is, because it's always The Narduzzi. Yall know how much I hate UGA & Kirby Dumb, but there's no question Narduzzi is right up there on the ****list as a supper uptight azzhat Corch who is always talking sh*t & worried about Miami. He's another in a long line of Tuff Bro's who doesn't understand the game has evolved from what it was in the 90's & rather than adjusting to the times, he continues to stay committed to bad Football because it makes him feel better. Good for him, but in the meantime, he can't keep his fuxkin mouth shut about Miami & thus, why he's placed himself on top of the mantle for why he needs his *** kicked every time we play his sh*tty wannabe Wisconsin style teams.
Mario the Gator Breaker also doesn't like this ingrown hair of Corch either.
He made it clear that he took the sh*t talk from Duzzi & his team PERSONAL & poured it on'em by having Mali put up a generational numbers on'em, kept Mensah out there until the 4th quarter, even though they were down by 30+.
To put it succinctly, Fuxk The Narduzzi!
The Narduzzi must always be destroyed!
Now we have to get back on the grindstone & refocus. because we got Bill Belichick coming up next & that UNC Defense is a lot better than most realize. I've been watching UNC all year & they may be the most schematically complicated Defense we face this season. It will be quite the Chess match between him & Dawson's Creek.
But either way, Miami just has to do two things;
1. Get/Stay HEALTHY
2. Be Miami
We've established our identity as a team & we will continue to push towards settling our unfinished business from last year as long as we don't veer off the path to the Natty.
Each week is a new week & the motto stays the same, DOMINATE TO WIN.
1-0
Go Canes!
Last edited:
started drafting this mf at kickoff. I appreciate the hate.
.
