Miami

National prime time TV, high passion, Championship implications, eye-gouging, brawls and a pseudo life insurance salesman on the other sideline with his arms spread and hideous 80's orange boy-band tie flopping in the wind. Gotta love the Miami game...

The best reaction of the night was right after a crucial timeout, and the Head Coach presciently called a brilliant screen against the blitz. Devonta rumbled down the sideline right in front of him deftly avoiding only his own two lineman 30 yards downfield on his way to paydirt. Jimbo calmly turned to Randy Sanders, gave a gentle fist bump and looked down to plan the next series. I have always been a huge proponent of Jimbo's playcalling, and this season we are finally seeing what happens when he has all the tools in the toolbox to make it work. Yes, the tough losses to Virginia, Wake and NC State all contributed to this product; just as Jameis learned from the terrible toss to Rashad in the first half.

Look, the boy was amped for this game. We have so little going on in our life that we are in the Stadium an hour out and for all 8 live games this year - have witnessed the magic that is warmups. Birth of your children, Wedding Day, watching kids soft toss from 40 rows up...all the big moments in your life. OK, back to the program. Jameis was almost visibly out of control excited 45 minutes before this game. He was bouncing back and forth like a recalcitrant lacrosse ball in a cement mixer. Thus, it was not a shock when virtually every downfield throw in the first half was 10 yards overcooked. Yes, his stats were amazing after they gave him a calming IV Nyquil drip in the locker room, but give the HC some credit for adjusting the gameplan to a combination of pound and punch as the Canes were only allowing a slow death. Most of his second stanza throws were right in front of him with just a few execptions. The beautiful touch toss to Big Pad Chad, the pre-fight rip to Kenny Shaw, and the timing route to Nick O'Leary were all terrific and accurate reads.

A healthy James Wilder Jr. and an experienced offensive line makes for some fun short yardage execution huh? Now, not even an angry Muslim mob was going to stop JWJ on the play after the scrum, but seemingly benign 3rd and shorts all game long were converted with ease all night (last year seems so long ago...). The Anti Trickett Society has had to cancel so many weekly gatherings that the only folks still clamoring for a get together are a scattered assemblage of Baptist preachers and the AAHC (Americans Against Hat Cruelty). Josue Matias either elevated his draft stock with that screen sprint or killed Devonta's because I think he beat the little man in the first 40 yards. Cam Erving is playing like a dude who is leaving after his Junior Year for Sunday paychecks, and with the exception of three bizarre quick snaps, Stork is parlaying that Duck Dynasty beard into a terrific senior season as well. Miami knew that their line could not handle us straight on and was selling out on slants all night long. It was feast or famine. They either hit the right gaps and stopped us for no gain or were gashed. Abram had his best game blocking all season long as well. When you drop 7 dudes into coverage, your wideouts are going to struggle to stuff the stat sheet. Rashad found some nice holes on some dig routes and Kelvin made a spectacular catch on an iffy throw, but this one was won up front.

Mario Edwards Jr had a late Bar Mitzvah, but he is a man now. On one play, he threw aside two 320 pound impediments on his way to treating poor Steven Morris like a dirty car mat getting thumped on the driveway. He, Timmy and Goldman were terrific at holding guys in place while the Smith Bros. Clean up Crew finished the job. How good are Lamarcus Joyner and Ronald Darby? Miami threw the ball 28 times - only once in their neighborhood and it was in garbage time in a soft zone. The field has been cut in half, and PJ Williams better come to the ballpark ready to strap it on. He was beat 3 or four times this week, once badly on a fortunately terrible throw by Morris, but that type of treatment is coming... Another great week of adjustments by Coach Pruitt as he saw that Jacobbi was being handled and went with NLS, Demonte and Goldman for almost the entire second half. Ramsey and Brooks were all over the field and the Brooks blitz that forced the intentional grounding was a huge momentum swing.

Maybe the only Nole on the field who truly felt outplayed on Saturday night was Cason Beatty. Granted, the young man is only getting one at bat a game, but he has got to get the ball out of the infield. There may come a day in this amazing 2013 run toward glory that we need him to perform. Meanwhile, the little engine that could Roberto (I can't spell wide) Aguayo continues chugging along like he is at practice. Maybe we give him a late cover-the-spread 59 yard kick at Wake just to really test his resolve in this perfection campaign. One of Jimbo's trademarks is the use of multiple starters on special teams. The tackling has been ferocious all year, but as we head into the Murderer's Row that is the Deacons, Orange and Vandals, maybe we hedge our injury bets and mix in some other boys on these units. If we asked Kermit Whitfield to be a gunner, we could make it fair for the other team by asking him to circle the goal posts before he could tackle anyone...

Finally, the fight. If the ACC head honchos look at that punk Chickillo's actions (he was either politely cleaning Bobby Harts contacts or repeatedly trying to stick his fingers through his retinas), and don't suspend him - there is an issue in our league. Jameis shoving Jimbo out of the way while he was incorrectly butt-chewing young Bobby out was the most visible sign of leadership I have seen on this team in a long time. And the fact that our already boisterous Doak dilatantes were sent into a frenzy immediately after this melee proved that it was not the right time for these young Cane's to revert to their 2 Live days. We took their best shot - and believe me that was as good as Steven Morris can play for a half - and still curb stomped them by four touchdowns. I still hope that somehow VT or even (gasp) Duke can find their way to Charlotte so the Stadium will at least not be half empty - again.