The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly: Notre Dame Edition

For a half, Miami made 2-5 Notre Dame look like title contenders.

Then UM responded with 27 unanswered points to take the lead.

But they couldn’t hold on to the momentum, and the D surrendered two late drives to fall behind 30-27, which was the final score.

Competing is one thing, winning is completely different.

The particulars below.

The Good:

• Great second half comeback by Brad Kaaya and the ‘Canes.
• Ahmmon Richards is a player. Ditto Shaq Quarterman. Both freshmen have bright futures. Richards’ third Q hurdle of a ND defender was the stuff of legends.

• Nice pitch and catch to get on the board.

• Great call, and great job by Jamal Carter to execute and recover.

• Gutsy second opening second half drive by the ‘Canes, overcoming penalties, and second and third and longs to get in with a Mark Walton TD.
• Manny Diaz jumping up and down on the sidelines after a 3rd Q stop got me pumped up.
• Excellent point!

• Adrian Colbert was a beast today.

The Bad:

• ND had the UM D off balance the entire opening series.

• The Miami offense “responded” with a three and out. All three plays runs, all three plays for negative yards.
• More bad penalties. Take your pick of which one annoyed you the most.

• The Hurricanes offensive line. I do not have enough superlatives for how poorly this unit is playing.
• Not much more you can say than this.

• The combination of poor O line play, guys not getting separation, and BK holding the ball too long, has been lethal the last few weeks. Way too many sacks.
• When you get stopped literally an inch short on 4th and 1, that summarizes your first half.
• Where was the D on the final two drives?

The Ugly:

• Notre Dame coming onto the field through smoke. Yeah, everyone does it now. But for real that’s Miami’s thing!

• This.

• Says it all.....beyond a rough start for the ‘Canes.

Team Grades:

Offense - Kaaya’s early INT was a combination of a bad route by Stacy Coley and an awful pass. Kc McDermott had a very tough day, both in pass protection and run blocking. Kaaya really showed his mettle today though with a much better effort in the final 2 quarters. The O line is the Achilles heel of this team.

C+

Defense - Colbert made a nice recovery to prevent a TD on ND’s second drive. He later made a HUGE play on a 4th and 1 bubble screen. This unit that had been carrying this team, wasn’t very good early today. Much better late though. Although the last two drives they let up some.

C

Special Teams - Justin Vogel has a monster 1st Q punt. Travis Homer continues to make plays on the coverage units. Zach McCloud blocked a punt in the third Q. Braxton Berrios added a big return in the 4th Q, and Michael Jackson scored a TD on a huge ND gaffe off a muffed punt. Fantastic day by this unit.

A

Coaching - Manny Diaz brought a lot of exotic looks early, including two early corner blitzes, but the pressure rarely got there. The team definitely did not quit. Good sign. But getting a team over the hump in close contests falls on Mark Richt and his staff. This team still has not learned how to finish.

D