Miami’s Offense Has Best Performance Yet Against Louisville

Though the Miami Hurricanes offense has been under much scrutiny through most of the 2019 season, you can’t question the success they had against Louisville this past Saturday in the 52-27 thrashing of the Cardinals.

Coming into Saturday, the Hurricanes had amassed 30 points just once this year against a P5 opponent, and many people, including myself, were calling for the firing of new offensive coordinator Dan Enos.

Couple things were holding Miami’s offense back from achieving its full potential so far this season, inconsistency at the quarterback position and poor play from the offensive line. On Saturday, you had both of those things going well, highlighted by the spectacular play from QB Jarren Williams.

The success started on Miami’s first drive, which they began on their own 8-yard line. One of the things that Williams did a great job at was getting rid of the ball very quickly, and Enos’ offense relies on those quick and short passes for success. Here he does that to Mike Harley, who takes a simple slant pass 41-yards.

Harley had a career day with six catches, 116 yards and two touchdowns. His speed and playmaking ability is being used wonderfully in Enos’ offense.

And then again you see the quick throw, this time to K.J. Osborn. Prior to the season starting, it was said that Jarren could run the Dan Enos offense the best out of the Miami quarterbacks, and Saturday was a perfect example of that.

Another aspect of Williams’ game that is evolving over the past two games is throwing the deep ball, and this weekend he aired it out to Dee Wiggins for a 68-yard touchdown. Jarren does a great job at trusting his arm on this throw even though he’s about to get blasted by a defender.

The emergence of Wiggins as a deep-threat receiver has been huge for the Hurricanes offense over the duration of these last two weeks. Wiggins finished the day with three catches for 85 yards and added another touchdown in the second quarter.

What Miami’s passing game demonstrated on Saturday was that it’s not dependent on just one receiver. Jeff Thomas finished with just one catch, Osborn with three catches for five yards, superstar tight end Brevin Jordan was out with an injury, Williams was still able to move the ball downfield and score points. Like here when he found other tight end Will Mallory for another touchdown.

Then you have the offensive line, which has undergone a major transformation over the past month. The line was a huge reason why Miami was able to average 8.2 yards per play on offense.

Here in the third quarter, the line gives Jarren plenty of time has he finds Harley with a beautiful pass for the touchdown.

Against Louisville, the unit had their best performance of the season, allowing just one sack, and also plowing the way for 196 yards of rushing, which was Miami’s highest total of the year against a P5 opponent. Look at the hole that they provided for Cam’Ron Harris on this run earlier in the first half.

The duo of Harris and DeeJay Dallas also had their finest game in the backfield as a tandem. Harris finished the day with 78 yards, and Dallas for 96 yards and a touchdown. It was DeeJay who capped off Miami’s impressive first drive with a score, his eighth of the season.

Dallas has also been valuable in the Miami passing game as well, as he hauled in his second receiving touchdown of the season. Enos has been very fond of this particular play-call, as the Canes have scored on it several times throughout the year.

All in all, it was arguably Miami’s finest offensive performance of the season, 52 points and 449 total yards, and hopefully it was a sign of things to come for the Hurricanes. Their QB, Williams, set a school record with six touchdown passes in a game and was also named both ACC Rookie of the Week and ACC Quarterback of the Week.

They went through the growing pains during the first half of the year with their quarterbacks and offensive line, but it seems like this was the Dan Enos offense we waited all off-season for.