By the standards and expectations of Miami's delusional fanbase this game was a mixed bag. But from a realist perspective it was a massive win, beating a BCS league opponent on the road in one whale of a place to play. The Hurricanes offense had their best performance against a decent opponent since 2004: seriously it's been that long. The defense needs work and gets caught too often over pursuing plays. Another concern is that Miami has been since 2006 really bad late in games and that continued today despite having a 31 point lead in the 3rd quarter.
Thoughts:
- Good things happen when plays are called that put Graig Cooper in a position to make plays. The kid has amazing vision and cut back ability in the open field in addition to his speed. I've been calling for more of Coop and less of everyone else and it seems Pat Nix has FINALLY gotten the memo.
- Miami has had a bad habit of over pursuing against running QBs for many years now. Even in the early part of this decade when Miami was beating up on people, running QBs like Rasheed Marshall of West Virginia and Bryant Randall of Virginia Tech.
- Pat Nix called a good game. Robert Marve looked comfortable and composed in the offense, something we never saw from Kyle Wright on the road in his Miami career.
- Miami's defense tackled poorly and seemed genuinely confused at times by the pro style/west coast offense Mike Sherman is running with Texas A&M. You won't see that offense much in the ACC, but Miami used to run something similar for years so its a bit bothersome to see so much difficulty defending it.
- I was very impressed by the blocking down field by Miami's WRs. LaRon Byrd the freshman from Louisiana was the most impressive of the bunch.
- Theoron Collier looks like a potential game breaker. As we've discussed for four years now on the site, Miami lacks big play threats at the Wide Receiver position. Maybe this guy could emerge as the first home run hitter for UM since Roscoe Parrish?
- The Hurricanes need to learn how to close out games. I know the coaching staff has emphasized this but it doesn't seem to be taking hold with these young kids just yet. You could see by Coach Shannon's frustration in the defensive huddle during the timeout he took in the 4th quarter, the kids have not gotten the message.
- Bottom line: Great road win. Now gear up for the ACC season and North Carolina who despite lots of talent blew today's game against Virginia Tech in Chapel Hill. No word on whether TJ Yates who was knocked out today will be ready next Saturday for the Tar Heels.
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19 comments:
The tackling is all on the guys who don't do it. Cook, Grant, Davis, etc. need to get their shyt together or they'll be watching from the bench.
Damn Marve could have had 3TD, but he gets a game ball. The kid just plays with so much confidence. Maybe Im getting too excited but after Kirby and Kyle I cant help it
A&M has so little speed. We match up well with them, but the way they gashed our D, I want to see the game against UNC before passing judgment. m
BTW, Shannon is pissed after the game per the papers. He's upset about your last point, not closing games out.
We were blitzing, but were not finishing on the sack. I saw like five plays that could have been sacks but instead became positive plays for T A&M.
Good offensive performance today but all the missed tackles and also the missed assignments on defense have me worried.
I think the AD needs to sign a yearly contract to play A & M every year
great performance today from the baby canes.
aldarius johnson also blocked well downfield today. the team was outstanding in general.
collier is our fastest wr. i'd still like to see more out of hankerson and also shields, but today we didn't need them.
what are your thoughts on how harris looked when he came in the game?
He needs to be mad the way some of those guys were trying to "tackle". Hopefully Futch and Brown develop quickly so we can gt some of these guys of the field.
Today was a big win for the Canes. I personally have been taking all the Marve hype with a grain of salt for the past year or so, and I think rightfully so. But today I saw somethings from that kid that really impressed me. He's a natural leader and he's fearless. It doesn't hurt that he's a hell of a football player on top of that.
The thought actually crossed my mind more than once today that the Miami offense could be really good in the not to distant future. Teams may actually have to gameplan for how to contain them; something that hasn't happened around here in 5+ years.
On to some of the critique. The glaring weakness is of course the missed tackles, both on defense and on special teams. It's frustrating to have to hold your breath everytime Miami kicks off because you don't know if your kicker can continue to lead the special teams in tackles all year. He's bound to miss a tackle at some point, and when he does we're screwed. The most frustrating miscues on defense, aside from Goodson's 62yd pass would be the missed sacks. It's bound to happen with a mobile QB, but it happened far too frequently today. When it did the result was typically a big play for A&M. The good thing about those plays though is that they show the defense was in the right place at the right time. Fundamentals like finishing your tackle can be worked on more easily than being out of place.
what are your thoughts on how harris looked when he came in the game?
He looked fine but he also looked like a backup QB whose coaches didn't want him to lose the game.
collier is our fastest wr. i'd still like to see more out of hankerson and also shields, but today we didn't need them.
Hankerson didn't play much today but he had the costly penalty that called back Collier's TD on the bubble screen.
Sheilds blocked REALLY well downfield yesterday. Shannon cannot dog him for that.
Overall a very good game for the Canes. I like that Nix let Marve throw a little more on first down and it seemed to work. Only downside was for the 2nd game in a row the D unravelled a bit in the final quarter.
An impressive win, including another touchdown that was called back, Da U is starting to show why it was ranked number one in recruiting. We have so many playmakers on offense, but let me single out true freshmen Theron Collier from State Champ Booker T. Washington and Travis Benjamin from Glades Central. Did you see Micanor Regis from Pahokee tearing up the Texas A&M offensive line: the kid is a beast and continues our Glades connection with Benjamin. The game against very tough North Carolina and Butch is going to be a classic!
I must say, all the Nix haters better be glad we don't have Jimbo Fisher as our O-Coordinator. I am surprised Weatherford wasn't named the starter at the beginning of the season, because his 2 kids clearly weren't ready for non division 1-AA competition. 6 INTS to wake and both young Qb's got yanked once for the other one. Gotta be great for their confidence and at least Nix and Shannon recognized that in the Florida game. Not saying they shouldn't have taken a couple of shots downfield, but at least our qb's aren't sitting their this morning wondering what the hell happened like Fisher's qbs are.
THE U LOOKED GREAT, BUT PLEASE REMEMBER THIS IS TEXAS A&M WHICH WE BEAT LAST YEAR WITH KYLE WRIGHT.
I STILL THINK COOPER IS NOT AN EVERY DOWN BACK AND I AM NOT GOING TO GET EXCITED UNTIL NEXT WEEK WHEN WE KICK UNC'S A**.
I AM ALSO HAPPY WE DONT LOOK LIKE FSU. THEY LOOK HORRIBLE!
Good win yesterday but our cornerbacks and db's in general were getting smoked in the second half. They were letting them get way to many completions. That qb was a freshman and he threw for like 300 on us.
Lots of wiffs on tackles. We need to wrap up and run through the mofo with the ball. Not this b/s hit em with your shoulder. Barrow needs to show these fools his old film. This is how you hit boys.
Thank god Travis Benjamin didn't follow Deonte Thompson to the scummy swamp!
I've got no problem with shannon jumpin' on the squad(namely the D) It's our job as fans to applaud every positive and hope the negatives work themselves out. However, dispite how bad or good the canes perform, we still get to go back mcdonalds or GM,or wherever we work. The coaching staff has to address every pos. & neg. because, well most of them don't have a part time gig.
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