The storybook ending was within our grasp, but unfortunately not all stories have happy endings.
Despite a valiant effort, the Miami Hurricanes were defeated in the College Football Playoff Championship Game, losing to the Indiana Hoosiers 27-21.
I hopped in with your game recap, and Mike Schiffman had your 3 stars:
Let’s get into this edition of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly:
The Good
- Miami played their hearts out until the final snap. Never backed down. Never gave up. That is unquestionably good.
- RB Mark Fletcher Jr. He is the only back to eclipse 100 yards against the vaunted and talented Indiana defense this season. 17 carries for 112 yards and 2 touchdowns rushing, and 1 catch for 8 yards receiving on the night.
- WR Malachi Toney. Another standout performance for the freshman superstar, in which he set the Miami Hurricanes single-season receiving yardage record. 10 catches for 122 yards and a touchdown. Toney also had 23 yards in punt returns.
- EDGE Rueben Bain Jr. 8 tackles, 2.5 TFLs, and a sack.
- EDGE Akheem Mesidor. 3 tackles, 2 TFLs, 2 sacks, and a QB hurry.
- LB Mo Toure. 11 tackles, a PBU, and a QB hurry.
- LB Wesley Bissainthe. 8 tackles, 0.5 TFLs, and 2 HUGE run stops on outside runs that, if not for his run fit and solid tackling, likely go for huge gains, if not touchdowns.
- Safeties Zechariah Poyser and Jakobe Thomas both had 6 tackles.
- DT Ahmad Moten Sr. 5 tackles and a TFL
- CB Ethan O’Connor. 5 tackles and a PBU.
- P Dylan Joyce. 5 punts for 234 yards, a 46.8ypp average. Very good on the kicks he actually got off his foot.
- Miami’s defense. They absolutely kept the Canes in the game in the first half when the offense was doing nothing, or worse.
- P Dylan Joyce pinned Indiana on their 5 on the opening kick of the night.
- EDGE Marquise Lightfoot with a DESTRUCTIVE rush on 3rd down, forcing a throw away and an Indiana punt.
- Great job defense holding Indiana to a FG on their 2nd possession. Hoosiers were walking down the field until the defense tightened up in the red zone.
- EDGE Rueben Bain Jr. with a huge run stop. He’s a well rounded player, and he affects the game in multiple ways. Gonna miss him.
- Indiana’s drive after Miami punted for a 2nd time: TFL in the run game (Bain, shown above), run stop for 1 yard by Moten Sr., screen tackled after 3 yards by Lightfoot. HUGE stand when Miami needed it desperately.
- Another good run stop by Moten Sr.
- Bain gets home for a sack on 3rd down early in 3Q. Indiana’s LT hadn’t allowed a sack all season prior to that.
- BANG!!! GOT ‘EM, COACH!!!! RB Mark Fletcher Jr. takes an outside zone from pistol off the right side, and scores untouched from 56 yards out!
- Mark Fletcher Jr. scored again on the first play of the 4th quarter to cut the deficit to 17-14.
- Malachi Toney took a jet touch pass 22 yards to the house to make it 24-21 Indiana. NOT DONE YET!!!
- 342 yards of offense — 25 more than Indiana had on the night
- 6.45 yards per play — 2nd highest allowed by Indiana this season
- 232 yards passing
- 110 yards rushing — 3rd most allowed by Indiana this season
- 5.2 yards per rush — 2nd highest allowed by Indiana this season
- 12.2 yards per completion
- 8 chunk plays — 6 passes (15+), 2 runs (10+)
- 1/1 on 4th down
- Only allowed 1 TFL — a sack of Carson Beck
- Held Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza to a pedestrian 16/27 passing (59% completions) for 186 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions. Mendoza ran 7 times for -8 yards, but had a 12 yard touchdown on a key 4th down.
- That was Mendoza’s 4th lowest completion percentage and lowest yardage total of the season.
- 6 TFLs
- 3 sacks
- 4 PBUs
- 3 QB hurries
- Held Indiana to 317 yards of offense — lowest total of the season
- Held Indiana to 131 yards rushing — 6th lowest total of the season
- Held Indiana to 2.9 yards per carry — 3rd lowest total of the season
- Held Indiana to 4.4 yards per offensive play — lowest total of the season *BY FAR*
The Bad
- Losing. It sucks horribly.
- Losing *THIS WAY*. Miami had the ball 41 yards from a Championship-winning touchdown and turned it over. An absolute gut punch.
- QB Carson Beck. 19/32 passing (59% completions) for 232 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT. Beck missed some throws, forced some others, and with the game on the line and a Championship 41 yards away, threw the interception on Miami’s final offensive play. Yes, this might be a harsh grade, but I stand by it.
- Indiana’s playmaking ability. This team was a collection of cyborgs. They’re good, sure, but they made every single play in moments that counted. Back shoulder fade on 3rd or 4th down? Complete. Tackle to keep Miami short of the sticks on 3rd down? Got it. Time and time and frustrating time again, Indiana won the big moments. And in doing so, they won the National Championship at Miami’s expense.
- Miami with a short opening possession. A quick first down, then immediate stall. Indiana did well to match the patterns on both of Miami’s passes after the initial first down to force the early punt.
- Missed tackles, especially on an early RPO that allowed Indiana to get out from deep in their end behind the sticks.
- 3/11 on 3rd downs
- Only ran 53 offensive plays — 2nd lowest total this season behind the A&M playoff opener
- Allowed 6.6 yards per play
- Allowed 10 chunk plays — 5 passes (15+), 5 runs (10+)
- Allowed 11.6 yards per completion
- Allowed 20 first downs
- Allowed 6/15 on 3rd downs
- 4/4 red zone scoring
- Lost the turnover battle 1-0
- The advanced stats actually tell the story of a very close game that Miami could, and likely should, have won. More salt in the wound. Cuz we didn’t do it.
The Ugly
- Again: the loss. In the National Championship Game. In our home stadium.
- And the WAY we lost. Devastating. The Championship was there to be won, ball in our hands, 41 yards away from greatness, and we couldn’t seal the deal.
- 7 penalties for 60 yards.
- The penalties were right at Miami’s averages of 7 per game for 53 yards. That was nowhere near clean enough of a game to beat Indiana.
- And furthermore, WHEN those penalties happened. Many on the few times that Miami won key moments in the game. Plain and simple, that’s how you lose. And we lost.
- 2 of those penalties gave Indiana first downs, and a 3rd negated a 3rd down stop….which Indiana followed up by converting the shorter play after the penalty was assessed.
- Allowed 2/2 on 4th down
- Allowed 36:24 time of possession to Indiana
- Allowed Indiana to have 72 offensive snaps
- A 3-and-out on the 2nd offensive drive. Don’t love that.
- Miami with consecutive 3-and-outs on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th offensive possessions. No answer for Indiana’s defense whatsoever.
- Don’t love being part of a stat such as this one, for offensive futility.
- A HORRIBLE FUCKING CALL on OJ Frederique for DPI on 3rd down. Miami was off the field then they called that bullshit.
- Bain offside on the NEXT 3rd down, which negated an incompletion, made it 3rd and 8, and allowed Indiana to subsequently convert.
- Indiana would score a touchdown on this drive that was extended by the DPI and offsides penalties.
- K Carter Davis missed a 50yd FG just before the half.
- Miami committed a facemask on Indiana’s first 3rd down of the 2nd half, giving the Hoosiers a conversion instead of being off the field in 3 plays.
- Miami gave up a blocked punt for a touchdown and all the momentum went to Indiana. Devastating.
- Drilling down on this further: Indiana was in punt safe and STILL got home for the block. Alex Bauman inexplicably eschewed his blocking assignment and let his man through clean. A senior with 3 years’ starting experience at 2 schools. You absolutely CANNOT have this. It was a key play that cost Miami a championship.
- Miami allowed a pair of 4th down conversions on a key 4th quarter drive, including this 12-yard touchdown run by Fernando Mendoza. If the awards hadn’t already been given, this would have been a Heisman moment. Instead, it was a Championship moment.
- Allowed 4/4 red zone scoring
- The final play. Indiana baited Beck into a throw into coverage, and it was intercepted to end Miami’s final drive and seal the Championship for Indiana. Devastating. Gutting. Heart wrenching.
Team Grades
Offense: C-
One of my Keys to Victory was running the ball. As you see from the narrative above, Miami did run the ball, and ran it well. Mark Fletcher Jr. was the entire rushing offense, but when you’re getting 6+ yards a carry, and creasing the defense for damn near 60 yards, that will work!
Miami had 18 yards in the 1st quarter, and hardly any answer for the Indiana defense in the first half overall. The only drive that was worth anything ended with a missed FG just before the half.
Now, the second half was a different story. Fletcher had the long touchdown run. Toney got loose. The Canes had 234 of their 324 offensive yards — 72.2% of their yards on the night — on a trio of second half possessions. That kind of performance is great, but the absence of sustained success was a glaring issue.
Miami got bullied in 3rd and short situations repeatedly, and with that being a foundational strength of the team, it was a killer. I don’t know what else to say. There was some quality in the second half, but not enough of it to overcome the myriad mistakes from early in the game.
Defense: B
The raw numbers, and even the advanced stats, tell the story of a strong, physical, dominant performance by the Canes defense. But, when you look closer, there were enough issues to tilt the game in Indiana’s favor.
First up, 6/14 on 3rd down, and 2/2 on 4th down for Indiana. That’ll get you beat. And, the Indiana run game, while pedestrian, was consistent with Black going for 79 yards and Hamby going for 60.
Those numbers allowed Indiana to hold on to the ball for more than 36 minutes of the game. So, basically, Indiana out Miami’d Miami in time of possession because the defense couldn’t get off the field.
While there were plenty of star performances (check the Good), there was one player whose absence was quite conspicuous: Nickel Keionte Scott. He did a lot, was used a lot, but barely impacted the stat sheet or the game. His low impact on the night was a major win for Indiana to scheme him out of the game, and a major demerit for Miami’s defense.
Even with those issues, Miami’s defense kept the team in the game. They were the most successful against Indiana of any team this year, and held the Hoosiers to just 20 offensive points. It was a good effort, with lots of good plays. But not enough of them in big moments to turn the tide and get a Miami victory.
Special Teams: F-
Joyce’s punting was incredible….on the ones he got off his foot. Davis’s kickoffs were great. And the returners — Malachi Toney on PR, and Kellan Marion and Chris Wheatley-Humphrey — were…..fine. But, nothing to write home about.
The issues on special teams however cost Miami a Championship. Davis missed his only FG attempt off the right upright. And, the blocked punt for a touchdown literally changed the game. Without those points, Miami would have had a 21-20 advantage. While the case is there that the play cost Miami a championship, I don’t think that’s directly true…..but it’s not far off target. That mental error — allowing a man to run free when the other team WASN’T EVEN TRYING FOR A PUNT BLOCK — is inexcusable. That’s a find the bench until the end of the season when we pull your scholarship type of mistake. No matter whether you think it cost Miami a championship by itself or not, it is inarguably true that it was a killer moment and helped sustain an Indiana team that was having PLENTY of trouble scoring on their own.
Those 10 points — 3 from the missed FG and 7 from the gifted punt block touchdown — turned the tide in this game. Horrific stuff. And it only takes a moment to ruin everything.
Coaching: A-
In spite of the loss, there was a lot of great work from the staff.
Mario Cristobal had this team ready to go, and he managed this game well. The main issue, for me, was going for the FG late in the 2nd quarter on 4th down. Miami had already gone for it on another 4th down DEEP in their own territory. But then you get another 4th down inside the Indiana 35…..and you decide to kick? Nope. Hated it. You were already going aggressive to score a touchdown before the half. Changing course to go conservative with a kick attempt there never sat right with me, and I’m talking about the decision/process, not even the horrible result (a missed kick).
The late 4th quarter run defense/timeout management to get Miami the ball back down 6 with nearly 2 minutes to go was expertly executed. That was an area of game management that has seen incredible growth from Cristobal in recent years. Bravo.
In the end, the team was here for the moment, but they just couldn’t make enough plays to earn victory. But they clearly showed they can play with anybody, and with a couple plays going their way, could have won the National Championship. And that is a credit to Mario Cristobal. Salute.
OC Shannon Dawson struggled mightily in the first half, with his offense getting DOMINATED by the Indiana defense. But, as the game went on, both he and the offense found their footing, and were able to make a lopsided contest turn into a battle. Dawson did some nice things with pistol stretch/outside zone to get the run game going (something I noted early in the game as maybe being an area to look for him exploiting), and it paid off with the Fletcher 57 yard TD run. The pass game was kinda meh, but then Dawson spammed the “get the ball to Malachi Toney” button, and things started clicking. Funny how that happens!
In any event, we needed to see adjustments on offense earlier in the game — there were 3 consecutive 3-and-out drives, and the one before those was 5 plays and a punt. Miami was only able to run 53 offensive plays, which isn’t enough. AND, Miami went 0 for their first 8 3rd down attempts. AND they turned the ball over on the final drive. That’s how you lose.
DC Corey Hetherman continues to show himself as an elite coach on the fast track to a head coaching job. Holding the Indiana offense to their lowest (or near lowest) output in a number of areas, including points, is a testament to this. The key here, again, were money downs. Indiana just kept winning them time and time again, and held the ball for over 36 minutes.
Miami got great pressure on Fernando Mendoza and the Indiana run game, racking up 6 TFLs and 3 sacks (these numbers were higher but they reclassified several sacks into no yardage scrambles instead). Rueben Bain and Ahamad Moten Sr. were dominant in the run game with multiple run stops and TFLs. But, when there was a big moment, Indiana found a way to make the play in the run game. Which was a killer.
After going down 10-0, Miami’s defense stiffened noticeably, and kept Miami in the game. That is a credit to Hetherman for his adjustments, and the team for playing to a high standard.
That’s it for this installment of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
Hop in the comments and let me know your thoughts.
