Miami went on the road to face a team that’s dominated them over the last decade, and earned a hard fought 38-35 win over the North Carolina Tar Heels.

Craig T. Smith has your recap

And Mike Schiffman has your 3 stars.

With no further ado, let’s get into The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

Really strong performance. Only 1 punt. And that was the only open drive other than the final drive, which was just to get the hell out of dodge with a win. Mensah was great. The run game was effective. Fletcher Jr. and Mallory did very well. Toney showed up in big moments. Barkate and Lofton did their thing. And the OL was solid after some early struggles in pass pro. This was a game where the offense had to go score on every drive, especially after falling behind in the 2nd half twice. And they did. If we pick the nits and iron out the kinks, this is still the best offense in America. And this is a fair grade in my opinion.

Not fireable because we FINALLY showed up and made a play in the 4th quarter. My man. This does not portend well for Miami. Another week getting gashed by the pass game. Another career-high for the opposing QB, who is average at best. TONS of missed tackles. A defensive line that spent the majority of the game unable to generate pressure, quick passing game notwithstanding. And, also, another week when the opposing offensive coordinator GASHED the defense with perfectly timed screen passes. Miami has to do some self scouting here and address the gaps and tweak the schemes. I don’t need this to be the 2001 Canes defense or the 2001 Ravens or 1985 Bears, but THIS?! No sir. Absoutely not.

1 punt for 43 yards, but there was pressure and it was like a half step from getting blocked. Kickoffs were all touchbacks, so that’s great. No punt returns but a fair catch by Toney. 2 kick returns by Wingo for a 22 yard average. Short FG before half. Made all the PATs.

But buddy. That horror show on onside kick hands team at the end was a nightmare. Carolina attempted and recovered a pair of onside kick attempts doing the “kick it up the middle and chase the dribbling ball and get it after 10 yards” thing. They were, thankfully, offsides on the first attempt, then hit Bryce Fitzgerald early before 10 yards on the second attempt, negating each successful recovery. Marcelin handled the 3rd and final onside kick, but it shouldn’t have come down to that. Miami completely shuts down in special situations this year, and this week it was onside kick recovery team that was the issue.

Cristobal managed the game well, I thought. Dawson was in his bag and called the right plays to bludgeon the Carolina defense to death.

But Corey Hetherman. Buddy. That defense. I don’t have the answers, but I do know that continuing what we’ve been doing is a recipe for disaster. There is much that ails this defense, but nothing moreso than the performance of the secondary in pass coverage. It could be scheme. It could be personnel. But whatever it is, it *MUST* be fixed. The secondary and the offensive line are units that I view as existential to this team’s championship hopes this year. You’re in charge of this one. So fix it. Now.

That’s it for this installment of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

Hop in the comments and let me know your thoughts.