It was maybe a bit more fraught than we’d have liked, but Miami got back to their winning ways on Saturday afternoon with a 36-25 homecoming win over the Duke Blue Devils.
Craig T. Smith has your game recap, and Mike Schiffman has your 3 stars. Links below!
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And now, let’s dive into The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
The Good
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A win! Winning isn’t easy, and I will never take it for granted, regardless of opponent.
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QB Darian Mensah. The #HeisMensah campaign continues. 30/41 passing (73.2% completions) for 382 yards with 1 touchdown and 0 interceptions, 4 carries, 7 yards rushing.
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Mensah’s cumulative stats: 241/317 passing, 76.0% completions, 3,083 yards, 29 touchdowns, 2 interception, 39 carries, 144 yards, 2 touchdowns.
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RB Javian Mallory. Mark Fletcher Jr. didn’t play after halftime, and the superstar stepped up huge. 10 carries for 71 yards and 2 touchdowns, and 3 catches for 79 yards and a touchdown. Just a monster performance, with nearly all his yards and all 3 touchdowns coming in the 2nd half.
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WR Cooper Barkate. 8 catches for 134 yards. Looked like the Barkate we saw at Duke last year…just AGAINST Duke this year.
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RB Jordan Lyle. 7 carries for 54 yards. And, more importantly, he’s starting to look like HIMSELF again, not this shell of a player we’ve seen for the last 25 games across 2 years. That’s big for Miami moving forward.
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WRs Daylyn Upshaw and Vandrevius Jacobs, and TE Elija Lofton all had 5+ catches as well, and solid (if imperfect) play.
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LB Mo Toure. 11 tackles on the day.
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S Dylan Dyan and JJ Dunnigan both had 6 tackles, and Dunnigan had a TFL. Again, solid if imperfect.
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S Bryce Fitzgerald had 3 tackles, a TFL, and a PBU (but the latter should have been a pick-6. I still can’t believe he dropped that).
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EDGE Third Scroggins with one of the only pressures of the day. Great rush by him. Needs more snaps.
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K Jake Weinberg. 3/3 on FGs, perfect on PATs, and good kickoffs. The one kickoff that was returned was because the kick came from our 20 after a penalty to end the previous drive. Not his fault.
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P Dylan Joyce. 2 punts, 46 yard average. Ho hum.
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Duke RB Nate Sheppard. He’s so good, he’s one of the few opposing players ever to make it here on The Good. But Duke’s offense is a one-man band, and Sheppard is him. 16 carries for 131 yards and 2 touchdowns rushing, 12 catches for 93 yards receiving, and 2/2 passing (100% completions) for 16 yards. He did everything he could, and it was a tour de force performance. He’s a Heisman finalist in my eyes. Incredible player. Bravo.
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Nice coverage and PBU by Xavier Lucas on to end Duke’s first drive. That’s what I’m talking about, defense!
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DBs Damari Brown, Xavier Lucas, and Ethan O’Connor playing through the whistle to get late PBUs on Duke’s first few drives.
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S J.J. Dunnigan with a solid tackle (for a loss even!) on a shallow crosser to end Duke’s second possession.
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EDGE Herbert “Third” Scroggins III with a nice rush move to get pressure on the play that ended with the Dunnigan TFL. Good to see someone start winning up front along the DL.
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Touchdown, Mark Fletcher Jr! And with this run, he’s now Miami’s all-time leader in rushing touchdowns. He was already the all-time leader in total touchdowns, and extends that record with every score as well.
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This 63 yard touchdown reception by Javian Mallory. The pass was very short, the run after catch was long and incredible. My goodness, 21 can hoop!
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Another Javian Mallory touchdown!
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A story in 2 tweets:
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The Javian Mallory era is here. This 39 yard touchdown fully put the game out of reach. Elite.
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532 yards of offense
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382 yards passing
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150 yards rushing
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12.7 yards per completion
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4.7 yards per carry
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7.3 yards per play
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73 plays (T-3rd most in a game this year)
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26 first downs
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6/12 on 3rd down
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1/1 on 4th down
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4/4 redzone scoring — 2 TD, 2 FG
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11 chunk plays — 8 passes (15+), 3 runs (10+)
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4 QB hurries
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1 turnover caused — interception (Lucas)
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Allowed 341 yards of offense
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Allowed 5/12 on 3rd down
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Only allowed 4 TFL
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Allowed 0 sacks
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Won time of possession 34:09 to 25:51.
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Advanced stats show a game with 61 total points, but one team being about 2 scores better. Which was what happened.
The Bad
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Settling for field goals. This should have been a 50+ burger easy.
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The pass rush. If I can count a single Scroggins rep as the pass rush today, that’s a bad thing. So, bad.
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Some of the angles taken by defenders trying to make tackles. We’re athletic, but contextually stupid. Situation, location, leverage. None seem to be considered when trying to stop the opposition, and I ‘d like that to change.
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The offensive line overall. Wild to say this in a game with 36 points and 500+ yards of offense….but true.
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The blocking on this Barkate screen. This. Should. Have. Scored. There are 2 defenders and 3 OL leading the way and none of them touched a defender, allowing the tackle. Sure, it converted a 1st down, but this should have been a touchdown.
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Specifically, Rodriguez, Woodrow, and Okunlola all missed blocks here. Fletcher was intentionally slowing down to allow for the running lane for Barkate behind the OL, so he’s where the tackle occurred, but he didn’t miss a block. Video below.
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The refs giving Duke several free timeouts for reviews that were obvious calls the first time.
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The refs THEN ruling a Duke player down when Miami’s defense was contending they punched the ball out after a 4th down completion and recovered the fumble. And the refs let Duke go tempo to the line to run a play to negate any chance of a review. Really fucking cool. Great shit.
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This Duke 47 yard touchdown run. Great for them, terrible for us.
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Another Elija Lofton touchdown catch overturned on review. This one was clearly out of bounds, but the mugging for DPI that he endured and was uncalled is quite egregious, in my humble opinion.
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Holding on the defense (look at the back of Wingo’s jersey). Clear and obvious and uncalled.
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4 TFLs. It’s fine, but should have been more if not for missed tackles.
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Allowed 20 first downs
The Ugly
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The pass rush. Seriously, it’s at 5-alarm fire status now. 0 sacks yet again.
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Allowed 130 yards rushing. 2nd worst number of the season, only behind the FSU game.
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Allowed 7.6 yards per rush. Unacceptable, regardless of the RB on the opposing team.
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Allowed 20 first downs, including several long disatance 3rd down conversions.
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Allowed 5.6 yards per play. Needs to be lower than this.
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Allowed 2/2 4th down conversions, including one for the final Duke touchdown of the game.
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Allowed 3/3 red zone scoring — 2 TD, 1 FG
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Allowed 7 chunk plays — 5 passes (15+), 2 runs (10+….and both went for exactly 47 yards lol)
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10 penalties for 69 (not nice) yards. As per usual, I will be listing each one here in The Ugly.
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Offsides with contact, Justin Scott. Gave Duke a 1st down on their initial 3rd down of the game.
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Holding, SJ Alofaituli. On Miami’s 1st offensive play. He was kinda hung out to dry because the quick pass concept wasn’t thrown and Mensah held the ball………but still.
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Holding, Cooper Barkate. Negated a nice Fletcher run.
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The entire first offensive possession. Holding on the 1st play. Holding on another play. Referee stopped a play to re-spot the ball THAT THEY’D JUST SPOTTED. Snapped it 5 times, but go 3-and-out with the penalties. The definition of Ugly.
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False star, SJ Alofailtuli. Turned 2nd and 3 into 2nd and 8 in the red zone.
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Miami settling for a pair of field goals after reaching the red zone. Need 7’s.
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True Freshman LG Ben Congdon getting manhandled on 3rd and goal for a sack before the final FG of the first half.
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Oh joy! That was actually a sack on a 3 man rush. Terrific!
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Allowing a 4 yard checkdown on 3rd and 18 convert. That’s piss poor.
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Missed a sack AND an interception (likely pick-6) on the same play. Weeeee!
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This is absolutely targeting with the crown of the helmet by the Duke. Refs refused to call it.
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After the failed 2pt play, unsportsmanlike conduct, Elija Lofton.
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This might be the softest penalty I’ve ever seen. Duke player flopped like a fish from the lightest of touches by Lofton to get him up off of Mensah. SMH.
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The ensuing kickoff came from the Miami 20. Duke returned it to their 35, and scored 5 plays and 1:56 later. Direct correlation to the above penalty.
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False start, Ben Congdon.
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A HORRIBLE missed tackle by Ethan O’Connoor on Duke star RB Nate Sheppard. Ball was caught at about 4 yards, but O’Connor whiffed the play BADLY and let Sheppard run for 20. Unacceptable.
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Duke’s QB lateral’d the ball to Sheppard, and it bounced off him for a fumble. Replay overturned it based on nothing. Total bullshit.
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Pass interference, Ethan O’Connor. More ref bullshit. Fuck this guy, man.
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Illegal substitution, defense. Too many men on the field. Half the distance to the 2 yard line, 2nd and goal.
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Offsides, Dylan Day. Half the distance. 3rd and goal on the 1.
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Offsides, defense (player unspecified). Half the distance. 4th and goal inside the 1.
Team Grades
Offense: B-
The counting numbers for yards got real big, and the points got to a nice place, but Miami left tons of meat on the bone and points on the field today. This should have been a 50 burger easy. Settling for 3 FGs, dropping a pick-6 (not on the offense, but still matters to the point total), some bad OL play, and a passing game that was effective but lacked explosion are all factors affecting this grade. On the flip side, 36 points 532 yards and a win on homecoming over a team looking for revenge on multiple levels who had just won their previous 2 games by a combined score of 88-5 is pretty damn good. Still, we’ll need to be better to accomplish our goals, so this is the grade.
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Defense: C-
Look. Nate Sheppard is good, but he’s a 1 man team. Allowing him to go crazy the way we did/he did is just bad. Holding Duke to 4 scores on 9 offensive possessions is good, but I’d like that number to be lower. Miami was robbed of a turnover on one drive where the player who fumbled didn’t even try to say he didn’t, but the refs gave Duke the ball, and the Blue Devils went with tempo so there was no chance for a review. If that, and the last touchdown, come off the board, I’d have felt better with 10-13 points allowed being the result. But it wasn’t. So I have to grade what happened. And I did.
Special Teams: B+
3/3 FGs. Great punts. Good coverage. The only thing keeping this from being an A was the long KR on the kickoff from the 20 after the Lofton Unsportsmanlike penalty. When given room, opposing returners and return teams continually crease Miami’s kick coverage unit. I don’t like it. Oh, and the hands team for the final kickoff was prepared for an onside kick, and the returner (Fitzgerald) fielded the squibbed kick flawlessly to possess the ball and allow Miami to go with Victory Formation. MUCH better here.
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Coaching: B
There were good moments and bad moments, but overall I think this was a strong showing. The coaches had the team dialed in and ready to compete, looking to bounce back from the Notre Dame loss. There was some lethargy early, and the offense took a while to get going, but the defense got 3 straight punts to start the game, so that’s good! The big thing here with the demerit were the penalties and lack of performance from the players. At a certain point, guys just need to make plays. That’s on the players, not the coaches. So for those who are reading this and thinking “OMG Shannon Dawson is stupid”, consider that for like the 6th game out of 10 this year, Miami had a penalty before the first offensive snap of the game. And consider, if you will, that he’s not calling plays with the intent of OL whiffing blocks. AND, also consider that Corey Hetherman is not designing his defense to intentionally and continually miss tackles. So, I say that to say that, coming off the Notre Dame loss, on Homecoming, at Noon, against a team that’d just won consecutive games by an aggregate 88-5, with a program whose coach and multiple staffers have personal grudges against Miami, this was a solid performance and 2 score win. I’ll take it.
That’s it for this installment of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
Hop in the comments and share your thoughts.
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