Miami Hurricanes need to eliminate slow starts

Slow starts have occurred frequently for the Miami Hurricanes this season. It’s allowed opponents to stay in games and have created doubt in the national experts’ minds on how good the Hurricanes are.

Opposing offenses have often come out and dictated the first half play against the Miami Hurricanes defense. In the second half, the Canes have often played with more ferocity.

In Saturday’s game against Virginia, they were dominated by Cavaliers quarterback Kurt Benkert in the first half. For the first 30 minutes and through the first drive of the second half, Benkert was 18-of-19 for 288 yards and four touchdowns.

Miami was able to turn the game around when Jaquan Johnson had a 30-yard pick six against Benkert with 9:57 left in the third quarter.

Benkert finished 10-of-18 for 96 yards the remainder of the game. This has been a trend too often this season. The Miami Hurricanes used more blitzes in the second half and tried to force Virginia to run the ball more often.

There are always reasons, but the Hurricanes need to find a way to play well early in games like they did against Virginia Tech and Notre Dame.

The Hurricanes have a 61 point advantage during the first half of games and a 99 point advantage in the second half. Miami is 45th in the country allowing 211.7 passing yards per game. The Hurricanes pass defense has given up 1,123 yards in the first half, but just 994 yards in the second half.