Cleaning up mistakes during bye week critical for Miami Hurricanes

Fourteen penalties for 125 yards, 10 sacks allowed for 60 yards, a muffed punt that Florida converted into seven points and the Miami Hurricanes only converting four Gators turnovers into three points all contributed in a 24-20 loss.

Dissecting the Miami Hurricanes 24-20 loss to Florida is almost akin opening up the pig on the first day of sophomore biology class. The Hurricanes squandered too many chances against Florida on Saturday. Too many times, Miami failed to take advantage when they had a chance to score against the Gators.

Penalties hindered drives or kept Florida drives alive. Miami had four false start penalties and three delays of games. Procedural penalties like that are expected from young teams but are either being too eager or a lack of concentration. Miami has to work on that over the next two weeks to get ready for North Carolina.

Florida will be the best team the Miami Hurricanes play all year. Playing away from home for the second straight game to begin the season still presents a challenge. The crowd in Chapel Hill will be partial to North Carolina. Miami simply cannot have penalties that are drive killers.

The penalties were across the board on offense, defense and special teams. The first penalty of the game for the Hurricanes came on Bubba Baxa’s first field goal. A delay of game penalty pushed Miami back from the Florida 14 to the 19. Baxa still connected from 36 yards to give the Hurricanes a 3-0 lead.

Another delay of game on the next drive backed the Hurricanes up to their own 13-yard line. Williams was also sacked twice in the first quarter. The first one came on the first drive of the game. It pushed the Hurricanes back from second and five to third and 12.