The Miami football team has had the lead in all three of their losses in 2019. Against Virginia, on Friday night the Hurricanes closed the game on offense and defense.
One of the Achilles heels for the Miami football team in 2019 has been their inability to close games in the fourth quarter. The Hurricanes gave up late scoring drives in the fourth quarter in losses to Florida, North Carolina and Virginia Tech. In Friday’s victory against Virginia, the offense and defense closed the game.
The defense for the Miami football team stifled Virginia six times throughout the game inside the Hurricanes 25 yard line. Miami held the Cavaliers to field goals or kept them scoreless completed on Friday night at Hard Rock Stadium. Miami scored 10 points in the fourth quarter and held Virginia to six.
The Miami offense ran 19 plays for 147 yards in the fourth quarter. Through the first three quarters, the Hurricanes offense totaled 118 yards on 34 plays. The first 78 yards for Miami on offense came on the Hurricanes first drive of the game as they opened a 7-0 lead. The Miami defense held Virginia to 18 yards in the fourth quarter.
Virginia drove to the Miami one on a drive that began at their own 32 at the end of the third quarter and started at the Hurricanes 27 after a long kick return by the Cavaliers Joe Reed on their second drive of the fourth quarter The Hurricanes red zone defense was the difference in the game.
The way the Miami defense played in the fourth quarter was critical. It gave N’Kosi Perry and the Miami offense a chance to win the game. A 19-yard Turner Davidson field goal and a three-yard touchdown run by Perry on Miami’s last drive in the game provided the winning margin. Manny Diaz discussed his message to the Hurricanes.
"“In the team talk at the hotel, we talked about being persistent. Virginia is a tough nut to crack on defense. If you think about their game against Notre Dame, that was a very tight game and what they did in the run game didn’t start to pop until the fourth quarter.It was a game that would come down to time of possession and snaps, which they had the advantage on because of their success on third down, but the neatest thing about our team this year is the guys just don’t panic. Our guys get back out there and continue to fight again.With that being said, we made mistakes and missed assignments and had some shots down the field that were close. As always, there will be a lot to correct. The execution is going to get better. As long as the intangibles and the fight is there, then you can win with that and that is what we did tonight.”"
Virginia held a 34:19-25:41 advantage in time of possession and went 9-18 on third down. The poor play for the Miami defense on third down the last two weeks is concerning. After Friday night’s game, Miami is now 56th in the country allowing teams to convert 35.63 percent of their third-down conversions.
Virginia Tech converted 9-16 on third down in their 42-35 victory last week. Through the first three games of the season, Miami held opponents to 24.5 percent on third down. The Hokies and Cavaliers combined to convert 18-34.
Miami has to get better defensively to get off the field. The success of the RedZone defense was a welcome change.
Even with the success against Virginia in their own end of the field, Miami is 104th nationally in RedZone defense. Hurricanes opponents have scored on 17 of their 19 trips in the red zone. Only 11 of those have been field goals. Miami’s 57.89 percent of scores in the Redzone being field goals ranks 48th in FBS.