michael yo

The #Canes 31-24 loss to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in South Bend on Saturday night. Some thoughts on the game.. - When the game was 24-3 early in the third quarter, I told @michaelyo , who was seated next to me, ''Are we about to get blown out 38-3?" (or something like that). That's how it felt. The crowd was frenzied and Miami looked listless. To their credit, they showed some fight but fell short. The call on Elija Lofton will be debated forever -- kinda like the Cleveland Gary call in 1988, ironically -- part of me wonders if he finished through the catch (the old Calvin Johnson rule) but others will say that he absolutely did. Regardless the call is the call, everyone involved has to live with it. - The loss of Malachi Toney was really felt in the first half. The Canes offense looked disjointed but it looks like they learned to play without him a bit in the second half as they started to just let Darian Mensah run around and make things happen. Before the game, a lot of people thought this was a 'Playoff Mark Fletcher' game, but it never got on track. He had just 57 yards on 13 carries, but that's not a knock on him. I think at times he could've got the ball in key short-yardage situations. More on that.. - Miami lost this game in the margins while Notre Dame won it by beating them in key situations and being the more consistent team throughout. The goal line stand where Miami was on the one-inch line and couldn't get it across. Again, why wasn't Fletcher given the ball then? Score a TD there, and it's 31-28 later in the game and a field goal would have tied it. In match-ups like this, every point counts (I know some will again, question Shannon Dawson, whether that's justified or not.) Then in the first half, CJ Carr evades Damon Wilson on a 3rd and long, makes a great play to convert a first down. Suddenly, a chance to have the ball late in the second quarter down 10-3, to suddenly being down 17-3. Carr was really good last night. Very poised and accurate. - Also, Miami had the ball down 24-17, right around mid-field. And on a first down Mensah leaves an out-route to Loften waaaay too inside and it was picked by Luke Talich. Bad throw, good play. But Mensah has to make a better throw (high and away -- and probably earlier) there. That was a back breaker - Defense bowed up for the most part of the second half, but I still have concerns. They don't cover well, and they don't get enough pressure from the front four to make up for it. And vice versa. The hope was that the Bain/Mesidor combination could be replaced with sheer volume, but the truth is, guys like Wilson have been a disappointment. This unit is what it is. Some pretty good individual talent but injuries have really hurt the overall effectiveness of this unit. - Defensively, I saw that Kamal Bonner got the first real extended playing time at linebacker. He seemed to lay pretty solidly. Also, I noticed that Bryce Fitzgerald played a lot more safety later in the game (that seemed to settle the defensive backfield a bit). My view is that it's time to just leave him there and hope that he's a bit of an eraser. - Really good to see Cooper Barkate have the game he did. Barkate made key plays, and Lofton just continues to come on week to week (7 catches, 113 yards, and a touchdown), but I still got the sense we could've gone to him more. As I watched this game, it just seemed like that they didn't a guy who was a consistent  man-beater, who would win his match-ups on a regular basis like Toney. - Huge win for Notre Dame, who solidified their position for a playoff bid. As for Miami, well, they now have to win the next three ACC games (where they should be favored by a significant margin in each game) and then win the title game. I'm not sure ACC will get two bids, so yeah. That could be a must-win game. Alright, gotta catch my Uber to O'Hare. Had a great time meeting some fans and spending time friends. And the weather wasn't all THAT cold, either...