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Miami Hurricanes Football: Miami Avoids Disaster; Edges Out Nebraska In Overtime, 36-33

By Juan Toribio

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After a week of people wondering if this Miami Hurricanes could beat a quality opponent, the Hurricanes were able to deliver a win, but not before some insane late-game drama.

The Hurricanes escaped Sun Life Stadium with a 36-33 win in overtime against the Nebraska Cornhuskers. If you didn’t watch the game and you’re just reading this, you probably think it was a fair fight and the game came down to one or two plays — not necessarily.

Miami came out of the gates on fire. The defense forced a three-and-out and the offense marched down and did whatever they wanted against a Nebraska defense that didn’t know what just hit them. Brad Kaaya hit Christopher Herndon from 10-yards out to put the ‘Canes on the board and give Herndon his first career touchdown reception.

The next offensive drive for the Hurricanes, Kaaya and the offense again did everything they wanted, and the offense drove down 60 yards on 4 plays, capping a 1 minute and 36 second drive with a Kaaya to Tyre Brady touchdown. Also giving Brady his first career touchdown catch.

The Hurricanes offense was rolling and the Hurricanes defense was holding their own, too. Artie Burns recorded an interception to close out the second half and give the Hurricanes a 20-3 lead heading into the half.

With that interception, Burns became the first Hurricanes player to record an interception in the first three games of the season since the late Sean Taylor did so in 2003, according to the AP.

After a pretty dominating first half, the Hurricanes came out in the second half and they ambushed the Nebraska defense and marched down the field in just a minute and 10 second, ending with a 41-yard touchdown run by Joseph Yearby, who finished the day with 125 yards on 17 carries.

Miami was up 27-3 early in the second half and everything looked great.

But then it didn’t.

Tommy Armstrong Jr. started to make a ton of plays with his legs, and he broke contain at least a dozen times. It’s not an actual stat (it could be), but it felt like the ‘Canes got to him every play but he just found a way to get out of it.

Armstrong Jr. was able to find Jordan Westerkamp for a 22-yard touchdown in the third quarter to cut Miami’s lead to 17. Miami still looked to be in good shape.

Miami then tacked on a couple of Michael Badgley field goals to go ahead 33-10. MIAMI IS IN GREAT SHAPE.

While Miami was playing good football, they had to deal with a lot of other things. Jermaine Grace left the game in the third quarter and didn’t come back and then Deon Bush, the best defensive player on the team, got ejected for a questionable targeting call on him.

After all that, Nebraska came down and Armstrong Jr. connected with Alonzo Moore for a 10-yard touchdown catch to cut Miami’s lead to 33-18 with 8:36 left to go in the fourth quarter. Miami is in great shape.

Miami’s offense then comes out and goes with a quick three-and-out. Nebraska then comes back and scores on a 21-yard pass to Brandon Reilly. Nebraska is only down 33-25 with 3:46 left to go in the game. Miami is in good shape?

This is the part of the post where I rant/vent a little bit so please bare with me.

If you’re up 8 points and the momentum of the game has completely turned around, would you or would you not get the ball in your best players’ hands? One would think so, yes.

Well, in Miami’s case, that’s Brad Kaaya. And if I’m going to lose a game, it’s going to be with the ball in his hands. Instead, Miami decided to keep the ball on the ground on a crucial 3rd-and-one play that was snuffed out by a talented Nebraska defensive line.

With the game on the line, you don’t let Kaaya try and make a play? I’m sorry, but that doesn’t seem right.

/done rant

After that play, Miami was forced to punt and Justin Vogel, who had a nice game punting the ball, pinned the Huskers at their own 13-yard line. Nebraska needed to go 87 yards, convert on a two-point conversion and they had 2 minutes and 39 seconds to do so, with no timeouts.

And well, they did just that.

Nebraska marched down the field in 2 minutes and 6 seconds on yet another Armstrong Jr. touchdown. He then completed a quick pass to Westerkamp to tie the game at 33 with just :33 seconds left to play.

The ‘Canes were not in that good of a shape anymore.

In between of all of that happening, Jamal Carter was also called and ejected for targeting. And it was against veeery questionable. This one probably more than the other one. Hell, the Nebraska player didn’t even fall down after the hit.

Miami had just blown a 23-point lead in under 9 minutes and Sun Life Stadium was in a little bit of shock and in a little bit of “here we go again” mode.

Luckily for Golden and his team, Corn Elder, who is an absolute baller, came up with a huge play to start off the overtime period. Armstrong Jr. had about a year to throw the ball, but he made a poor decision and threw the ball into coverage and Elder was able to jump it and get an interception.

Following the interception, Badgley was able to seal it for the Hurricanes with a field goal.

This game was an absolute roller coaster and it’s taken me a while to kind of understand what happened at Sun Life Stadium on Saturday. But the most important part is that the Hurricanes are 3-0 and the ‘Canes pulled off the win against a pretty talented team.

Miami won this game, but damn guys, start making life a little bit easier for everyone.

Some more notes:

Brad Kaaya threw for 379 yards and two touchdowns on Saturday, but threw his first interception of the season on a fade route in the end zone.

Jermaine Grace left the game and did not return with an injury. We’ll keep an eye out on his status.

Jamal Carter and Deon Bush will be forced to sit out the first half of the Cincinnati game on October 1st after being ejected on a targeting call. That’s going to be tough for Miami against a good Cincinnati offense.

Rashawn Scott had a career-high 9 receptions on Saturday and had 151 receiving yards on the day. He’s definitely Miami’s best option out wide.

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