The Canes Stagger to the Finish vs Wake Forest..

[MedleyCane]

Miami wins 33-20, but did anyone else get East Carolina 1999 vibes? That was a game that they lead 24-7 in the second half and then fell apart. Or a bit like last years FSU game, where they nearly squandered a 28-3 4th quarter lead. Again, these Cristobal teams still have to learn how to truly finish. They won, but in truth it's a game where the coaches will have a lot to say this week.

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I definitely got the 1999 ECU vibes during this game. If I recall we entered game with several defensive starters, plus 1 or 2 getting hurt in the contest. We dominated early but then ECU started exploiting our backups in game including, I believe, 1-2 walkons in the back end of defense.

 

[TheATLCane]

This felt more like the victories we had in the first half of last year. Wins that have some traits of a loss

ECU was same state, weekday night game (Thursday) but as rough as tonight was, it didn't feel like that ECU loss

 

[jmiller]

Struggled is putting it kindly. We look incredibly inept on the OL. We overlooked **** recruiting under the guise of "Mirabal will develop" Bull****

Been saying this but everyone kept telling me I was crazy. Its like after the 2023 class we stopped going all out for elite o-line recruits and started recruiting projects until last years class. Im afraid we've done the samething with defensive tackle position, we haven't signed a elite prospect there since Justin Scott

 

[CalmBTheStorm]

The good news about all these injuries is that next week is basically a quasi bye week. Then Clemson and then a real bye week until fsu. So we basically have 1 real game for the next month. Get out of Clemson with a win and we should start to heal up before fsu

 

[Allabouttheu95]

Best team we’ve had since 02, and all you guys do is complain. It’s pretty embarrassing. Heard the same thing before the playoffs last year too

Brother you can stamp this. Bookmark this, do whatever you need to do. This team ain’t better than last year. Not better than 24. Not even close to 04. And I’m not even sure it’s much better than 17 or 08

Keep dreaming for us though as it’s good to have some dreamers in the fanbase even though there ain’t no way in ****.

 

[bdub2284]

You'd like to see us be able to run the ball consistently for four quarters. Even a great QB like Mensah doesn't want to operate out of 3rd & long consistently. I thought Dawson's play calling in the 2nd half was too conservative. How much of that was because WF was able to get some pressure up the middle on Mensah? I would like to see more RPO concepts and make teams pay for selling out to stop the run, it was effective the few times we ran it in the first half.

I thought the DLine played very well and they were getting consistent pressure on Lopez. You do have to give him credit, he must have escaped at least 3 sacks and was able to make plays down the field. I think the secondary held up considering the injuries in that room, but I would like to see more snaps at linebacker for Wiley & Pruitt, those guys bring a level of athleticism that's really needed.

 

[nvlahos]

We are big time banged up but we have some flaws that are being exposed

Guards are not good.

Concerns about run game scheme are here again

And Mario/Dawson tightening up on the playcalling when things get tough

 

[Handsome Squidbum]

We are big time banged up but we have some flaws that are being exposed

Guards are not good.

Concerns about run game scheme are here again

And Mario/Dawson tightening up on the playcalling when things get tough

Defense- I can’t fairly judge until we get back our top DBs. Having better DBs means QBs have to hold the ball longer, meaning more pressure can get to QB. The tackling was bad. I think that can get cleaned up.

Offense- I don’t see how you fix the interior OL situation. I want to be optimistic, but if there was a solution on the roster it would already be implemented. Even if we saw Cantwell at G making rookie mistakes, I could rationalize he will improve with reps. But he didn’t get in the game so clearly he’s not ready. Saying the interior OL play scraped the bottom of the barrel is insulting to barrels.

 

[Calinative]

- The run game was there at times, but then it bogged down late. Mirabal is still probably looking for his best five.

.... Yeah that explains why for the first time in 3 seasons Mirabal didn't rotate a single lineman every other drive...