Miami commits eight turnovers, loses five fumbles and starting QB to injury in loss to Duke
Suddenly, even a bowl game seems iffy for the Miami Hurricanes.
Not only did the University of Miami lose starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke to injury Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium, it lost five fumbles and a pick-six that led to 31 Duke points and a 45-21 Blue Devils victory.
The Hurricanes committed eight turnovers, including three interceptions — one run back for a touchdown with 5:16 left in the game.
Redshirt freshman Jake Garcia, who entered the game after Van Dyke went to the locker room when he was sacked and fumbled with 8:58 left in the first half, threw three interceptions and fumbled twice.
According to the Associated Press, the eight turnovers were the most by any team in a Power 5 conference since 2009.
“Obviously, not good, not good,’’ said UM coach Mario Cristobal. “That was regression.’’
Miami, which had beaten Duke by a combined score of 95-10 over the previous two years, rushed for 48 yards and turned over the ball four times in the final quarter.
Van Dyke, who grimaced and grabbed his right shoulder after the play that knocked him out of the game, finished 11-of-16 for 81 yards and a touchdown, with the fumble. Cristobal said the Canes “don’t know the severity” of Van Dyke’s injury.
Garcia was 13-of-21 for 198 yards and two touchdowns, with the three picks and two fumbles.
“He had some good moments,’’ Cristobal said. “Had some others that weren’t so good.”
UM’s quarterbacks were sacked six times.
Miami, back to a losing record at 3-4 and 1-2 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, needs to win three of its next five regular-season games to qualify for the post season. And those games include a Nov. 5 home meeting with Florida State, Nov. 19 road game at No. 5 Clemson and Nov. 26 regular-season home finale against Pittsburgh — all expected to be tough opponents.
Duke rose to 5-3 and 2-2.
Cristobal was asked about his post-game message to the players.
“Reality,’’ he said. ...Fumbles. Ball security — huge point of emphasis. We’ve done everything we can, but we’ve got to do more, because whatever we’ve done has not worked... It’s a little of everything. We got the quarterback hit. We didn’t establish the run game. We’re not knocking people back enough, like we need to, to help the pass game. We had made some progress on offense the last couple of weeks, and it looked like we were going to get off to a strong start and we didn’t.
“You take complete responsibility as a head coach and as a program. Unfortunately, you have to go through some painful steps, but we caused our own painful steps. Extra painful steps that we don’t need. Back to work.”
The second half of the season has started in a terrible way for Miami, though the first quarter Saturday ended with UM leading 7-0.
Canes receiver Colbie Young, who dazzled last week at Virginia Tech with over 100 yards receiving, had another career day, with 127 receiving yards and two touchdowns on six catches. Young gave UM the lead at 10:28 of the first quarter with a 7-yard touchdown pass from Van Dyke. UM’s other two scores came in the third quarter on Garcia passes of 71 yards to Young and 34 yards to tight end Will Mallory to give UM its last lead at 21-17 at 13:06.
But the mistakes were too many and too costly.
UM tailback Jaylan Knighton fumbled near the end of the opening quarter, which led to Duke’s first touchdown five plays later on quarterback Riley Leonard’s 9-yard rush.
Leonard scored again less than two minutes later after UM’s Key’Shawn Smith, who came into the game as the nation’s top kickoff returner, fumbled the ensuing kickoff return at the UM 22-yard line.
Next came the hit on Van Dyke after the UM defense had forced a three-and-out. The Blue Devils took over at the Hurricanes’ 10 and scored four plays later on a 28-yard field. With 6:53 left in the half, Duke led 17-7.
The Canes fans booed the Hurricanes as they ran into the locker room at halftime.
Duke scored 21 points in the final quarter, capped by Nicky Dalmolin’s pick-six.
“We challenged our guys on defense,” Duke coach Mike Elko said. “We knew this was going to be a game where field position was going to matter. We were going to have to create turnovers to be successful.”
The Hurricanes also began the 2021 season 3-4, but their third win began a three-game winning streak that subsequently resulted in a 5-1 last half of the season.
Miami travels to Virginia for another 12:30 p.m. kickoff on Saturday, Oct. 29. The Cavaliers were 3-4 and 1-3 after defeating Georgia Tech on the road this past Thursday.
This story was originally published October 22, 2022 at 3:53 PM.
