Manny Diaz gives his reason why Miami is struggling. ‘The diagnosis is pretty obvious.’
The question for Manny Diaz was simple, and the defensive coordinator’s answer was simple, too — sort of.
The Miami Hurricanes are spiraling, now losers of four games in a row , and it’s clear they aren’t playing up to standard. So what’s preventing Miami from getting back there?
“In terms of playing our best game?” Diaz said. “Well, there’s some obvious things.
“No. 1 is field position.”
And for more than a minute, Diaz discussed what he feels is the single biggest issue ailing the Hurricanes (5-5, 2-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) during their four-game losing streak. The problem is this particular issue doesn’t stem from one place.
“Everyone knows the games in the ACC are going to be competitive,” Diaz said. “That’s just the way it’s always been, OK? And you can’t go back-to-back weeks and give the other team the ball at the average of the 41-yard line. You can’t play on a 60-yard field. You cannot turn the ball over inside your red zone for five straight weeks. Conversely, we have to create turnovers that give our offense short fields. We have to do something to get our offense playing on a short field. The game’s not complicated. Our offense and defense don’t operate in vacuums, OK? So we’ve got a defense that’s got to do more to get our offense on short fields, and we have an offense and special teams that has to protect our defense.”
In Miami’s loss 27-21 loss to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Saturday, the Hurricanes allowed only 304 yards of total offense, but Georgia Tech started in Miami territory three times. A week earlier, the Hurricanes only allowed 290 yards in a loss to the Duke Blue Devils, but Duke started five drives across midfield.
“If you have to drive 75-80 yards against our defense, you’re not going to score a lot points, but when you see that you’re top five in every category and then you’re like 25th in scoring defense, you’re giving up more points than you should because it’s math,” Diaz said. “Where they’re getting the ball translates to how many points they score. I think we’re fifth in red-zone touchdown percentage, so everything’s on the scale, but we don’t play for the stats. We play for points.”
This season, Miami ranks fourth in the country in total defense, allowing only 268.6 yards per game. The Hurricanes also lead the nation with 10 tackles for loss per game, rank fourth nationally in third-down percentage defense at 26 percent and are tied for 14th nationally with 20 takeaways.
Miami, however, sits lower — No. 20 — in scoring defense, averaging 20.1 points allowed per game.
“It’s watching 5-year-olds play soccer. The goal the ball is closer to more often gets scored in the most, so we have to get back to winning field position, which every man on the travel team has something to say in,” Diaz said. “That’s on offense getting two first downs. That’s on defense turning three-and-outs. That’s on special teams on flipping field position.
“The patient is sick and the diagnosis is pretty obvious.”
This story was originally published November 13, 2018 at 2:36 PM.