Through its first four games of the season, the Miami Hurricanes have yet to put together a game where they were consistent through all four quarters.
With their first ACC game of 2018 looming on Thursday night, the Miami Hurricanes need a consistent four quarters of excellent football throughout. In each of the Hurricanes first four games of the season they had a letdown during certain points of the game that hindered them.
After a promising first two drives of the season against LSU, everything fell apart over the next two quarters. The Tigers had a 27-3 lead at halftime and extended it to 33-3 at the end of three quarters. The Hurricanes scored two meaningless touchdowns in the fourth quarter to make the final score respectable.
In the second game of the season, the offense took a while to get going against FCS Savannah State. Those Tigers are headed to Division II next season.
Travis Homer lost a fumble on Miami’s second play from scrimmage and the Hurricanes went three and out on their second drive. They finally got on the scoreboard with a Malik Rosier to Will Mallory touchdown pass on the third drive of the game. That was the only points of the first quarter.
Miami erupted for 21 points in the second quarter behind Rosier and Redshirt Freshman N’Kosi Perry. They added another 49 points in the second half in a 77-0 victory over Savannah State.
Against Toledo, Miami raced to a 21-0 lead with 2:56 remaining in the second quarter. The Rockets scored two touchdowns in less than five minutes spanning the halves to cut the Hurricanes lead to seven. The teams traded touchdowns as Toledo cut the lead to seven points a second time.
Miami scored 21 of the next 24 points at the end of the third and fourth quarter to put Toledo away. On the road, the Hurricanes are going to have to be more consistent throughout. Allowing scoring runs by the opposition will get the fans into the game. It’s part of why Mark Richt waited until last week’s game against FIU to insert Perry.
"“You put a guy in in Toledo and he’s scrambling to the left and decides to launch it and throws a pick and gets a pick six and all of a sudden, it ignites that team, it ignites that stadium…I’m not doing a young guy a favor for his big opportunity to put him in a position that if he does make a mistake, that freshmen do, that it could be tough to recover from. Part of it is just the timing of making sure things are right.”"
The Shutout against Savannah State is the only time this year that an opponent didn’t have at least a 14 point scoring run against the Hurricanes. Miami was dominant for three quarters against FIU before the backups on defense allowed the Panthers 17 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to make the score respectable.
Richt and Defensive Coordinator Manny Diaz are going to have to be able to rely on backups in case of injury or to be able to close out games if need be. Getting more consistency for all four quarters is going to be essential as ACC play begins.