The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: Duke Blue Devils 2024 edition

Miami struggled for a half, then ran up the score to dispatch Duke and move to 9-0

The Miami Hurricanes struggled for just over a half before going on a 36-3 run to beat the Duke Blue Devils 53-31 on Saturday afternoon.

Mike Schiffman selected his 3 stars from the win:

And now, let’s dive into The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly:

The Good

• Winning! I keep telling you: winning isn’t easy, so I’m gonna enjoy each and every one of these.
• Beating Duke! Miami had lost 3 of the last 5 against Duke, including a 45-21 loss at home in 2022. So, this was a much needed win against a team Miami should routinely be beating.
• Beating Manny Diaz. The former Miami coach was kicked out of the building to make way for Mario Cristobal, and I’m sure he wanted nothing more than to beat his former team. Too bad, so sad. SEEYA!!!!
• WR Xavier Restrepo. 8 catches for 146 yards and 3 TDs. My goodness. What a game from him.
• Along the way, Restrepo tied the Miami Hurricanes all-time record for catches in a career (182, tied with Mike Harley), and set the record for receiving yards in a career (2,573 yards, surpassing the 2,547 of Santana Moss). CONGRATS. X!!!!
• QB Cam Ward was back to his Heisman candidate self. 25/41 passing (61% completions) for 400 yards, 5 TDs, 1 INT. Ward also ran for 1 yard on 3 carries and lost a fumble. Ward also ran for a 2pt conversion on the game.
• Like Restrepo, Ward had tied an all-time Miami Hurricanes record today: 29 touchdown passes in a single season (with Steve Walsh from 1988).
• Updating the Cam Ward season stats: 216 for 322 passing (66.4% completions) for 3,146 yards with 29 TDs and 6 interceptions. He’s also added 187 yards and 3 TDs rushing, and 1 catch for 7 yards and 1 touchdown.
• WR Jacolby George. 4 catches for 74 yards and TD.
• WR Isaiah Horton. 6 catches for 71 yards.
• K Andres Borregales. 1/1 on FGs, 6/6 on PATs, and great kickoffs. Love to see it!
• LB Kiko Mauigoa. 9 tackles, and 2 TFLs.
• CB OJ Frederique. 1 tackle, 1 interception, and 2 PBUs, and just generally lockdown coverage all day. Only a true freshman, Frederique is EASILY the best corner on this team, and it’s not particularly close.
• CB Jadais Richard. 5 tackles, a PBU, and an interception.
• S Zaquan Patterson. The true freshman is making the case that he needs to start from now on. HUGE hitter (with form tackles) and better than Jaden Harris. 3 tackles, but he also had a huge hit for a PBU. The future is now. Start him.
• S Meesh Powell with 2 tackles and an interception.
• RB Damien Martinez. 11 carries for 66 yards.
• RB Mark Fletcher Jr. 11 carries for 65 yards and a touchdown.
• On Miami’s first drive, Cam Ward extended a play and threw the ball towards the end zone. Duke’s DB tipped the ball, but Xavier Restrepo made an INCREDIBLE diving catch anyways. I’m honestly not doing it justice, but the video does.

• Mishael Powell is his 4th interception of the year. An easy arm punt throw from Duke’s QB. Thanks!

• A HUGE drive to start 2H to get the game back to 28-25 Duke after they went up by 11 with an early touchdown.
• An interception by true freshman CB Romanas “OJ” Frederique, the first of his career. The return put the ball inside the Duke 40 yard line, and set up a key scoring opportunity for the Canes.

• Cam Ward. Jacolby George. Up top for the score to put Miami up 8.

• Cam Ward connects with Xavier Restrepo for the 66 yard TD. This play was a record setting: Ward tied the single-season TD pass record (29), Restrepo tied the career catches record, and set the all-time receiving yards record. Congrats all around.

• CB Jadais Richard with an interception!!

• LOL thanks buddy

• 526 yards of offense
• 400 yards passing
• 126 yards rushing
• 72 plays
• 7.3 yards per play
• 6/12 on 3rd down
• Held Duke to 5/13 on 3rd down
• Held Duke to 1/2 on 4th down
• 27 first downs
• 16 yards per completion
• 4.1 yards per carry
• 17 chunk plays — 11 passes (15+), 6 runs (10+)
• 30:09 time of possession
• 5-6 in the redzone
• 4 TFLs
• 1 sack
• 3 Interceptions (Meesh Powell, OJ Frederique, Jadais Richard)
• 1 fumble recovery (Cam Pruitt)
• 4 PBUs
• Only 1 penalty in 2H
• Advanced stats showed that Miami should have won by 21+, maybe more.

The Bad

• Allowed 6 TFLs
• Allowed 2 sacks
• Allowed 1/2 on 4th down
• Miami went 3 and out on their 4th drive of the game. That’s only the 2nd time that’s happened in the last 86 drives to that point of the season.
• Settling for a FG after having 1st and goal on the 6 yard line near the 6 minute mark in the 2nd quarter. You don’t win games with field goals!
• OJ Frederique and Kiko Mauigoa BOTH dropped the interception attempt here. Good that the stop happened, but this is a pick-6

The Ugly

• Miami had as many 3 and outs in the first half (3) as they’d had ALL SEASON heading into this game.
• Miami allowed Duke to go on a 28-3 run from the 2nd quarter through the first drive of the 3rd quarter.
• More missed tackles, especially in the first half. Gotta tighten that up!!!!
• The defense on Duke’s drive to make the game 14-7. This MIGHT have been Miami’s worst defensive drive of the season. Tons of missed tackles. Not paying attention to details. Letting Duke walk 83 yards in 55 seconds. WOOF.
• Coverage bust (and a pick from Duke) and the game is tied at 14.

• Cam Ward: 1 for his last 11 in the first half. He goes on these cold streaks that really, REALLY hurt the team.
• Allowing Duke to end the first half on a 21-3 run.
• And then letting Duke walk down the field to score on the first drive of 2H.

• Penalties, penalties, penalties. 5 for 52 yards, but it felt like more. Multiple to extend Duke drives, too.
• Allowed 13 yards per completion to Duke, more than 2 yards over their average
• Allowing 405 yards of offense to Duke, their 2nd highest total of the year
• Cam Ward with another terrible interception, late and across his body in the middle of the field. Just stupid. Throw the ball away and punt, man. DAMN. For all the good he does, Cam HAS TO remove this stupidity from his game. It WILL cost Miami a game if it continues.

• CB Jadais Richard was taken to the locker room with his right leg in an air cast after sustaining an injury on the return of his 4th quarter interception. It looked bad in live action, but we’ll see what the official diagnosis ends up being. Since this is in “the ugly” you can safely (and correctly) assume that I do not think it will be good.

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Team Grades

Offense: A

53 points. 526 yards of offense. Multiple records set or tied today. Huge numbers on yards per completion, yards per play, and overall efficiency. There was a bit of a slog in the 2nd quarter, but to put up these numbers — in basically 3 quarters — is insanity. Big time players. Big time plays. The Miami Hurricanes.

Defense: 1st half: F+/ 2nd half: A+

A tale of two halves, for sure. Duke had Miami’s number after falling behind 14-0 and went on a 28-3 run that spanned the 2nd quarter and 1st drive of the 3rd. From there, Miami held Duke to 29 plays for 118 yards (4.06 yards per play), got 2 interceptions, a fumble, 2 3-and-out drives, and only 3 points. Saying the defense stepped up in the second half would be an understatement. Absolutely massive improvement to turn things around and send Duke packing.

Special Teams: A

Great kicking. Good punting. Nice coverage. Solid returns. The only thing that could have been better would have been a return TD, and recovering the muffed punt by Duke. But otherwise, this unit did their job, and did it well. Bravo.

Coaching: B+

Again, this is a results oriented grade. It wasn’t perfect — both the Miami offense and defense struggled at times — but when it counted, the staff put the players in the best position to be successful and win. First a 14-0 run to start the game, then a 36-3 run to end the game. Now, we just have to eliminate the opposing 28-3 run in the middle, and we’re really cooking with fish grease.

But, this staff did the work, made the adjustments, and found a way to direct the team to victory. And, with teams finding ways to lose every week, I give credit to this staff for helping this team find ways to win instead.

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That’s it for this installment of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Hop in the comments and keep the conversation going.

Go Canes