Winning a game on the road in conference is always a good thing. It's especially good when you have not won a game in your league at home in almost thirteen months. Miami's victory over Duke was the Canes third win in the last six games on the road versus BCS conference opponents. However, Miami last won a game against a team from a BCS league at home last September, so if Miami is going to win, I suppose it will be away from Dolphin Stadium.
This is a difficult game to breakdown. The message boards are so toxic right now, I feel I must answer the misconceptions of many Miami fans with my postgame analysis every week. For example Miami being ranked 110th in the country in offense entering this game was a deceiving stat. Miami has scored points when it needed to this season and has generally been let down by a defense that collapses when games are on the line. But the misleading stat which is skewed because thanks to an excellent special teams unit, Miami often operates on a short field, has been used by bashers and haters to call for Pat Nix's firing.
Miami entered this week ranked 2nd in the ACC is rush defense and 27th in the nation in total defense. The same clowns on the message boards who have attacked Pat Nix have talked about an aggressive hungry defense. This is the same defense who minus fumbles and bad snaps gave up about 350 yards rushing to Florida State, a team that has ranked below 100th in rushing offense nationally each of the past three years. This is a defense which allowed North Carolina to go right down the field two times in the 4th quarter blowing a 10 point lead late. This is the same defense that now gave up 31 points to a team Georgia Tech shut out in their last ACC game. But yet many Miami fans keep blaming the offense for losing games, when Miami has given up 28, 41 and 31 points in ACC play. That's 101 points in three games, and that is way too many.
Pat Nix began calling plays in the 2nd half today as if he had to score on every drive. I have quarrels with many of his play calls despite scoring 42 points on offense between the last drive of the first half and the second half. However I realize it is because Nix has learned sitting on the ball when your defense is atrocious could mean a loss even if you are leading 42-24 with 7:00 left in a game. Nix learned a harsh lesson against North Carolina and it is affected every call he made in the second half today.
Bill Young on the other hand came to Miami with an established reputation as a defensive guru. However I believe Miami's schemes are vanilla like and the poor tackling and positioning of defensive starters indicates a lack of coaching on that side of the ball. Miami's defense right now is one of the worst in a BCS league. You can point to meaningless statistics talking about yards allowed per game, etc, but Miami's defense has the look of an over matched side that often is just going through the motions. The defense doesn't create turnovers and often times commits stupid penalties. But if you read the message boards you probably believe Pat Nix is responsible for this also.
49 points on the road against a conference opponents who gave up just three points in their first league game at home (a 31-3 win over UVA.) I wonder if the haters will still call for Pat Nix to be fired this week.
The good and the bad:
- Robert Marve is reckless. Sometimes a football team needs that but I get the impression the coaches are running out of patience with it. The bottom line is this: Pat Nix has gotten a lot of flack for play calling but when Jacory Harris played QB the play calling wasn't holding the team back. Perhaps Marve is improvising too much? Or did Harris just get locked into a zone? Only time will tell.
- I still don't like Miami's new found aversion to running the football. I dislike running from the shotgun even more. Why cannot we just line up under center hand the ball off to the tailback and gain positive yardage? Perhaps this is a reflection of the direction of college offenses in general which is why I am more impressed than ever with the variety of looks and formations Jimbo Fisher is using at Florida State. West Virginia, and Florida started what I believe is an awful trend in College Football or running gimmicky plays exclusively from the shotgun.
- The Miami defense looks like it is going to get gashed for the rest of the season. Each of Miami's three ACC opponents have essentially moved the ball at will for large portions of the football game against this defense. The front four are inconsistent. I know Shannon and Clint Hurtt like to shuffle linemen in and out of the game but it is hurting consistency.
- Aladrius Johnson is turning into Miami's go-to reciever.
- I could be mistaken but I do not believe Khalil Jones or Leonard Hankerson lined up at WR at all. Sam Shields had only a few snaps late in the game, and Kayne Farquason also saw limited duty. Obviously Aubrey Hill and Pat Nix have finally made the decision to let the freshman WRs win or lose games for the Canes.
- The ACC is full mediocrity. Hopefully Miami can at least join that mediocrity by winning a few more league games. Right now, Virginia is the team to watch, having won three straight against impressive opposition since being dumped by Duke 31-3 three weekends ago.
- This was an important win. Duke as I predicted the day they hired David Cutcliffe is a much improved team. In fact I think the Blue Devils will be in a Bowl game next year. For a team that has won so little the last few years and has actually struggled to beat much worse Duke teams, this was a critical win. However, the defense is in shambles and it appears like the Canes will have to outscore most of the remaining teams on the ACC schedule. Miami now can stake a claim to joining the pack in the ACC (every team other than Florida State at the top and NC State at the bottom) with a win against Wake Forest next Saturday. That of course will be easier said than done.
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