Miami

Whew...exhale. Miami games are never easy, even when talent, stats, and impending NCAA doom are all in play. There are so many ghosts down there that the home team sells them tickets and most games they occupy about 50,000 seats. Tonight, actual humans were in the house, so the ghosts headed back to the Orange Bowl site where they have permanent residence. Usually a Miami win is a national story, and garners some respect. But times have changed and SEC teams need to evidently lose 3 games to slide significantly below us in the BCS standings (USC gets destroyed by Florida for their second loss and stays within percentage points of us..sigh), we need to just keep plugging and win em all and see how it shakes out.

Our head man was a little schizophrenic this week, but Jimbo is 5-0 against our wonderful in-state friends, so any serious criticism needs to be shelved. What I loved...3rd and a cab ride with a buck left in the first half and the score tied. Most BCS coaches stay safe and run a draw. We call an aggressive pass play to Greg Dent and move the chains. Overcoming a horrific offensive pass interference call on Rodney Smith that would have given a chance for a TD on the 20 and instead backed us up to the 10; we still went after it with attitude and a long FG just before halftime gave us the lead and momentum that we never relinquished. What I still don't understand...4th and a foot in the second half against the worst run defense in the ACC. The Canes had their hands on their hips as we had been gashing them for the entire night. I think Savannah Lee could have pirouetted through the center/guard gap for a yard at this point. We choose to kick a long FG that would have only delivered a 6 point edge, and we know how incredibly safe and secure these 6 point leads are - especially in this city. Bad decision. Well, the kick sailing wide simply made it a true Miami game.

On a night where I am sure the bus driver got lost, the cheerleaders feasted on a pregame meal of churros and boliche and could not tumble without fertilizing the Sun Life turf, and some recalcitrant Seminole Tribesman apparently made and sold a hideous orange and green jacket to the damn Ibis; of course we fumbled on the 1st play from scrimmage. Then to continue to be generous guests, we decided deep in our own territory on the road was the right time to try and teach our freshman punter to try a rugby punt. Shanks a lot. Before even the first post-dusk fire alarm sounded in Liberty City, we were down ten zip. Enter the defense. From that point until the end of the fourth quarter, we outscored Miami 33-3, and their finishing total of 26 rushing yards showed just how dominant this group was. Although I did appreciate the Spanish speaking refs throwing some holding flags on some late 3rd down plays after they saw the pass fell incomplete, it was simply another great effort by our D-line. Bjoern influences so many plays just by being in the right place. The Canes are led by a physical and experienced offensive line, but our rotation just wore them out. My favorite play of the game was the post whistle shenanigans that resulted in Timmy Jernigan head locking and sumo-tossing a 300 lb lineman ass-over-teakettle. The speed of the game may finally be slowing down for young Mario Edwards Jr, as he had his best effort to date, as did Georgio Newberry. After a rough first series, the human chaos that is Telvin Smith was a huge difference maker. He just eliminated the swings and flat passes that our opponents live by because they are scared of the rush. However, on the flip side Vince Williams continues to struggle in this same part of the passing game as opposing teams are picking on him with isolating backs constantly. The deep secondary must have been terrific because we almost did not know that Joyner, Rhodes and Brooks were in the game.

Another maddening offensive effort by our QB. No turnovers...threw for 230 yards at a 70% clip and we are scratching our head again at all of the missed opportunities. Truth is EJ was just off early, and like we have seen before, he seems to heat up in the passing game after he takes a few shots on some successful option runs. Maybe Timmy can just sling EJ around in the locker room pregame to get his blood flowing. Really hope that Chris Thompson is not seriously hurt. Great kid who is having an incredible year and does not deserve yet another season ending injury. It gave JWJ and the hometown dervish a chance to shine behind a terrific effort from this line. Yes we ran it for over 200 against a dreadful run defense, but the back 7 for the Canes are talented, and EJ had crumpets and cupcakes in the backfield waiting for wideouts to pop open. Or in the case of Kelvin - to extricate his hands off the cornerback du jour long enough to reach up for the ball. Later in his life he will realize that at roughly a foot and 70 pounds bigger than anyone covering him he might just want to grab the ball and let the little people below him flail away. Again, if not for the fact that the Dade County sportsmanship club supplied us greased footballs, and the officials decided that viewers needed to stick around for sweeps until after primetime, we would have absolutely blown these Hurricanes out.

Our return game continues to be a bit of a mess. For the umpteenth time this year, Rashad Green dropped a fair catch. I am sorry, but it is time to do something about this. Every punter we face is not Rohn Stark, so 12 fair catches a game is not necessary. We either need to get someone back there that  grabs every ball, or we need to dramatically shift our blocking to allow for a return once in a garnet moon. Watching our punt returns, we do not block anyone. We don't hit them on the line nor do we try to knock the gunners off the ball as they head downfield. I have no idea what we are doing but it is a problem...On kickoffs, we need to understand that the new rules makes it incredibly hard to bring it out past the 25 if the ball is sent to the end zone. The combination of ego-led idiocy in bringing every ball out and penalties on most returns made it an automatic starting line of the 10. Ninety yard drives help the stats, but c'mon. Too many athletes wearing great colors to not take advantage of this part of the game. Overall nice game for Dustin as he went 4 for 5 and has the NCAA scoring record in sight, and let's face it  - you are gonna miss one wide in Miami.

So, we go to 7-1 and head home for Duke week. I love Duke week. The fact that the Devils are Bowl eligible before Halloween is a little odd, but hey maybe for the first time ever - the Dukies will help our strength of schedule and let us slip by Vandy in the Computer Polls.