Miami’s third-down defensive woes popped up again vs. No. 1 Clemson. What went wrong?
The Miami Hurricanes were tantalizingly close to getting a game-opening stop against the Clemson Tigers on Saturday. They forced Clemson into a third-and-6 situation just after the Tigers crossed midfield on their first drive and then bottled up Trevor Lawrence after a short run to force a fourth-and-4 and early chance at a momentum swing.
Lawrence threw to the left sideline and Quincy Roche sprung into coverage, breaking up the pass and nearly intercepting it. There was, however, a flag on the field. The star edge rusher had lined up offsides. Miami gifted Clemson a first down, which soon turned into the first of six touchdowns in a 42-17 rout. The Hurricanes’ defensive play on third and fourth downs kept them from ever having a chance to spring the upset.
“There was,” defensive coordinator Blake Baker said, “a variety of things, obviously.”
The Tigers finished the game 8 of 17 on third downs, but six of those conversions came in a hyperefficient first half. No. 1 Clemson opened six of eight on third downs and Miami (3-1, 2-1 Atlantic Coast) extended two drives with penalties — one on third down and one on fourth down — to let the Tigers rush out to a 21-3 lead. Clemson was one Frank Ladson drop from not punting at all in the first half at Memorial Stadium.
On those first eight third-down opportunities, the Tigers faced an average distance to go of 8.4 yards and averaged 12.1 yards per play. Clemson opened the game four of five on third-and-8 or longer with the only failure coming when Ladson dropped a likely touchdown on third-and-16.
Two of those third-and-long conversions were made by star running back Travis Etienne, who had one 12-yard catch on third-and-9 and another 22-yard reception on third-and-14.
“That running back’s a good player and you’ve got to give him a ton of credit,” said Baker, who’s also in the inside linebackers coach. “We wanted to do a better job of trying to get a guy close to him at all times and he’s a really good player, so, if anything, he’s probably the biggest common trend of being able to convert on third-and-long, but you’ve got to tip your hat to him. I talked about him being the premier running back last year. He’s probably the premier college football player in all of the country after seeing him in close and in person.”
On the second of those catches, Brian Balom, pressed into duty because fellow safeties Amari Carter and Gurvan Hall were both suspended for targeting, got stuck covering the star running back.
Mostly, the linebackers struggled. The three lowest-graded Miami defensive players, according to Pro Football Focus, were linebackers Waynmon Steed, Bradley Jennings Jr. and Zach McCloud.
Baker said he was encouraged by the play of reserve linebackers Sam Brooks Jr. and Corey Flagg Jr., though, and coach Manny Diaz said both could see increased playing time moving forward.
Brooks, Diaz said, has been battling a foot injury.
“Both those guys played well,” the coach said, “and will continue to push for more playing time.”
Bye week blues
Diaz is now 0-4 coming off bye weeks as coach of the Hurricanes, but he doesn’t believe it’s fair to lump in the blowout loss to the Tigers with their three losses last year.
In 2019, Miami lost a game on the road against the North Carolina Tar Heels, at a neutral site against the FIU Panthers and in a bowl game against the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs. As he put it: “We couldn’t beat a Conference USA team last year.”
The Hurricanes were significant underdogs Saturday in Clemson, South Carolina, and the Tigers outplayed them in virtually every phase. If Miami wasn’t properly prepared, it was only the second-biggest issue behind the still-obvious talent gap between the Hurricanes and Clemson.
“I get the narrative there,” Diaz said, “but if we think of all the reasons that game went the way that it went, that it was coming off of a bye? Here’s why I say it: How would you quantify it? We lost, therefore, as you say, it’s a loss coming off of a bye, but I don’t know how to quantify that if we’d have played the week before, then the game would’ve looked like this. There’s no way to measure that. I think that’s Miami and Clemson in a game when we had a lot of mistakes. Did the bye cause us to line up four inches offsides on fourth down-and-4 when you’ve got a great chance for a stop on the first drive of the game? I don’t know.”
This and that
▪ For the second time this season, Bubba Bolden is the ACC Defensive Back of the Week. The safety logged a game-high 10 tackles Saturday with a forced fumble and two blocked kicks.
▪ Striker Keontra Smith will be suspended for the first half of the No. 13 Hurricanes’ upcoming game against the Pittsburgh Panthers on Saturday after he was flagged for targeting in the second half. “We have to try to avoid those collisions at all costs because it’s costing the team,” Baker said.
