Takeaways from the Miami Hurricanes’ Loss to Texas A&M
A quick glance at the stat sheet and one can see it tells a different story than the scoreboard. The Texas A&M Aggies defeated the Miami Hurricanes in College Station Saturday night, but it wasn’t a dominant win. On the flip side, it wasn’t a bad loss for the Hurricanes, either. It was debatably the best defensive showdown during week three. Here are a few takeaways from the Canes’ week three loss.
There is still a disconnect between Van Dyke and the wide receivers
Miami quarterback Tyler Van Dyke was not hitting on all cylinders Saturday night. Van Dyke has struggled the past two games to find the open receivers and hit them once they are open. Van Dyke missed multiple throws, including two that hit A&M defenders in the hands that were ultimately dropped. Van Dyke completed only 51% of his 41 attempted passes.
Receivers struggled mightily in regards to creating separation between themselves and the Aggie defensive backs. The Canes caught 47% of their targets, which is very unimpressive. The offense looked to have the same struggles in the passing game against Texas A&M that was evident in the game against Southern Miss.
The Miami trenches played up to the competition
Defense or offense, it didn’t matter, the Canes played well on both fronts. For starters, the highly regarded Aggie defensive line only notched three tackles for loss and no sacks against Miami. However, they did flush Van Dyke out of the pocket from time to time as they totaled six hurries.
Tailbacks Jaylan Knighton and Henry Parrish Jr. both averaged over five yards per carry and had over 75 yards each. As a collective, Miami averaged 4.9 yards per carry, which is more than their counterpart who averaged 3.9 yards per carry.
Outside of Devon Achane, the Aggies' run game was a non-factor. Miami did a solid job of containing the run and getting to the quarterback Max Johnson, which they did three times. The Canes also had six tackles for loss and didn’t allow much chunk-yardage on the ground.
Special teams set Miami back at multiple points
The muffed punt by Tyrique Stevenson and the two missed field goals by Andres Borregales proved to be pivotal turning points in the game. Credit should go to the Aggies’ field goal block unit though.
The Aggies were seemingly able to get in Borregales’ head after the missed field goal late in the first quarter and then early in the second, they got the block. Borregales still hit three field goals and were the only scores for Miami in the ballgame.
The biggest miscue for the Canes was most notably the muffed punt. It truly seemed to impact the game from its occurrence to finish.
There need to be improvements on fielding punts and actually gaining yards thereafter. Miami is tied for dead last in the FBS at No. 129 with five returns for get this, -15 yards.
That's embarrassing.
It’s the second straight week Miami has looked bad during punt returns and if improvements don’t come, changes to the return game depth chart should.
Overall Thoughts
Miami played a close, hard-fought game against Texas A&M. But, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. While many may look at the bad from the game, there was plenty of good. There’s always going to be room to improve and get better, but Miami played up to par in a lot of ways. There are going to be growing pains in the new coaching regime.
One can also wonder, with the recent past coaching regimes, how could this game have turned out? Would it have been worse? Could it have been better?
It’s a tough loss for Miami, but the team looked more prepared for this big game than the ones of recent memory, and it's honestly not all that close.
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