Defense And Special Teams Are Still A Liability
In the aftermath of Miami's dramatic 52-45 victory at Louisville Saturday afternoon, I had two visions pop in my head.
Al Golden and Mark D'Onofrio.
Golden, the former coach for the Hurricanes who assumed special teams' duties, could not control fourth down and was responsible for missed tackles, extra points and blocked field goals. He always said fourth down and special team blunders were on him.
D'Onofrio was his defensive coordinator who Golden always protected by saying you had to trust the process. The process was trusted too long and Golden and D'Onofrio were fired midseason after a 58-0 blowout loss at home to Clemson.
On Saturday, I had Golden and D'Onofrio flashbacks. Miami's defense and special teams was so futile they would have lost the game, but for the offense and Cam Ward.
Miami gave up 448 yards of offense and 38 points to a Louisville team that now lost three games this season. Louisville quarterback Tyler Slough threw for 342 yards against Miami and in the first half you would have thought he was he Heisman candidate. The only game Slough had more yards this season was against Jacksonville State in a 49-14 win.
The Hurricanes also gave up big plays on defense and special teams which resulted in touchdowns. Isaac Brown scored on a 43-yard run in the first quarter to give the Cardinals a brief 7-3 lead. He outraced the Miami secondary which looked like he was going half speed.
"We play with resiliency and made some really key plays when it mattered. We were aggressive on fourth downs, which helped us, and we got some key stops when we had to as well," Miami coach Mario Cristobal said. "It felt like we pressured their quarterback more. He's a really good player, you know, again, he was our quarterback back in Oregon, back in the day. So it's a lot of good stuff."
Louisville also scored on a 100-yard kickoff return after a Miami touchdown. Miami cannot continue to give up those tremendous chunk plays when they get ready for a possible showdown in the ACC Championship Game.
It appeared as though the middle of the defense and the secondary played poorly. There were many big plays given up in the middle of the field. Perhaps Miami has to use another linebacker next to Kiko Mauigoa to try and contain the middle of the field.
On the long kickoff return, it seemed as though everyone missed a tackle and then got outraced to the end zone.
"Well, you want to, but you cover every kick. You cover every kick…One guy went down to the ground and knocked off the other guy and just opened a massive hole," Cristobal said. "And both safeties couldn't get over therein time to squeeze that ball out. Just absolutely horrible, horrible job covering that kick."
Miami also gave up a big play on special teams when the punt team failed to recognize a fake punt and Louisville picked up a first down. With the formation they had, you could tell it was set up to be a fake. There was no other option.
"And the other one, there was another one that wasn't very good either," Cristobal said. "So we've been giving a lot of guys opportunities on that and they better earn that crap because if you get playing time at the University of Miami, it's a tremendous privilege.
"So that's going to be a rough meeting, and it needs to be a rough meeting because our expectations were not met in that department."
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Scott Salomon joined On SI in April 2024 covering breaking news and analysis for the Miami Dolphins site, and has since contributed to the Miami Heat, Back in the Day NBA, Miami Hurricanes and San Antonio Spurs sites. Scott is based in South Florida and has been covering the local and national sports scene for 35 years. He's covered and has been credentialed for the Super Bowl, the NFL Combine, various Orange Bowls and college football championship games. Scott was also credentialed for the NBA All-Star game and covered the Miami Heat during their first six seasons for USA TODAY. Scott is a graduate of the University of Miami School of Communication and the St. Thomas University School of Law. Scott has two sons and his hobbies include watching sports on television and binge watching shows on various streaming services.