Miami Hurricanes loss at Boston College was a team collapse
The Miami Hurricanes loss at Boston College on Friday night was attributable to the entire team. The offense continued to struggle, the defense had its worst half of the season and the offensive line continued to be a sieve at times.
Boston College’s offense set the tone early by scoring on their first three drives of the game, the Miami Hurricanes offense never gained any consistency after they scored on the second drive of the game and the Canes lost for the second straight game, 27-14 at Boston College.
The Eagles amassed 254 yards of offense on the first three drives of the game to jump out to a 17-7 lead. The Canes entered the night allowing 236.4 yards per game. The Eagles offense shattered Miami’s defensive per game averages on Friday night.
Miami’s defense allowed 14.6 first downs, 130.9 passing yards and 105.6 rushing yards per game through their first seven contests this season. Boston College had 22 first downs, 210 passing yards and 225 yards rushing. Most of that came in the first half. The Eagles had 297 yards of total offense in the first half.
Friday night was the most yards the Miami defense has allowed this season by far. Boston College rolled up 433 yards of total offense. The previous high allowed by Miami was was 334 yards in a 49-24 victory over Toledo.
The offense was not able to make up the difference. The Hurricanes offense was poor for the fourth straight game. Miami needed their last drive of the game to break the 300-yard mark in total offense.
The Hurricanes ground game, for the most part, continued to struggle. Their biggest threat on offense was quarterback Malik Rosier running the football. In Mark Richt’s offense, the quarterback should contribute to the offense, not be their best ball carrier.
Rosier finished with 71 yards rushing and was 18 of 35 for 149 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. Miami’s one-two punch at running back DeeJay Dallas and Travis Homer combined for 71 yards on 22 carries for an average of 3.23 yards per game. Homer did add 46 yards on four receptions.
The problems on offense are deep. Mark Richt is running an archaic offense with unimaginative play calling, his offensive line has been porous at times, some of the offensive line recruits have not lived up to their potential and the Hurricanes have had inconsistent quarterback play from both Rosier and N’Kosi Perry.
Miami had 13 days to figure out the offense after the loss to Virginia two weeks ago and still came out and didn’t perform well. The Hurricanes will now return home for the first time in four weeks to face Duke next Saturday. The Blue Devils are 5-2, 1-2 in the ACC.
Next. Miami Hurricanes need to improve record after a loss under Mark Richt. dark
Friday night’s loss cost Miami a chance to be tied for first in the ACC Coastal Division with Virginia and Virginia Tech. Being a game behind the Cavaliers could prove costly. They now have to hope for UVA to lose twice or the chances at repeating in the Coastal division title from 2017 will be practically nil.