ultimately prevailed 33-20<\/a>.<\/p>\nHere are five things we learned from a game that was closer than expected:<\/p>\n
Offense limps through second half<\/p>\n
The Hurricanes put up 24 points in the first half against the Demon Deacons and scored on their first drive of the second half. They looked to be cruising to their third consecutive blowout win.<\/p>\n
Miami would not add another point on offense the rest of the night. UM went three-and-out on four drives in a row, gaining 11 total yards on those drives. The next drive had no first downs and resulted in a missed field goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hated it,\u201d Miami center Ryan Rodriguez said. \u201cI wanted to score every drive, if it was up to me \u2014 I\u2019m sure everyone does. We got flat. I don\u2019t know. We got (four) straight three-and-outs. Couldn\u2019t get a first down, and our mantra is try to get two first downs. We couldn\u2019t do it. We just got to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The offense went completely stagnant in the second half. Miami gained few yards on first and second downs, setting up long third downs that it could not convert. Many of the passes they called were short (Mensah averaged 4.7 yards per throw in the game, according to Pro Football Focus), and the Hurricanes did not get any breakaways for substantial gains.<\/p>\n
UM coach Mario Cristobal said execution was an issue in the second half, not necessarily conservative play-calling. Things that worked in the first half did not work in the second.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re the same calls and the same strategic, schematical things that we have designed the entire time,\u201d Cristobal said. \u201cI thought coach (Shannon) Dawson called an awesome first half. When we were rolling, those plays were hitting, and now a block short, a hair too late to get to finish on a block or to get the ball off \u2014 whatever may be. We were off; we were out of sync. \u2026 He certainly wasn\u2019t turning it down. \u2026 He was trying to call the game to continue to score points, to keep a high pace of play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mensah continues to excel<\/p>\n
Through three games, Miami quarterback Darian Mensah has more touchdown passes than incompletions. He has completed 71 of his 79 pass attempts and has 11 touchdown passes.<\/p>\n
Mensah started the game with 24 consecutive completions, setting an ACC and Miami program record for most consecutive completions in a game. He also set a program and conference record with 35 consecutive completed passes across two games.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s just a testament to my O-line,\u201d Mensah said. \u201cI think they played an excellent game up front, but to be honest, I can\u2019t even be that happy about it with how the second half went.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defense buckles down<\/p>\n
Miami\u2019s defense did not play perfectly in the victory. It allowed Wake Forest quarterback Gio Lopez to move the ball, and the Demon Deacons got offensive momentum.<\/p>\n
But when it mattered most, the Hurricanes hunkered down and kept Wake Forest at bay. Despite making the game feel close, the Demon Deacons never cut the deficit to fewer than 11 points.<\/p>\n
After Wake Forest scored a pair of third-quarter touchdowns, Miami\u2019s defense forced a safety, two turnovers on downs and an interception (the Hurricanes\u2019 first takeaway of the season).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s our mentality,\u201d said cornerback Ethan O\u2019Connor, who had the interception. \u201cWake Forest is a really good team. They bring a lot of energy. It\u2019s a good atmosphere to play in, as well. They\u2019re really just based on momentum, so we know if we can slow them down, it\u2019s going to be hard for them to keep on going. You know, I know coach (Jake) Dickert. I know a lot of those players on that team. So they\u2019re a good team, and we knew what we had to do and bring the juice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pass rush gets to Lopez<\/p>\n
Miami has had a solid pass rush this season, but despite playing a depleted Stanford offensive line and an FCS team to start the year, the Hurricanes had just three sacks through two games.<\/p>\n
UM\u2019s pass rush made it into the backfield over and over again on Friday. The Hurricanes had three sacks (one each from Marquise Lightfoot and Damon Wilson II and half a sack each for Ahmad Moten Sr. and Armondo Blount).<\/p>\n
Beyond just the sack numbers, the Hurricanes were credited with 44 quarterback pressures in the win, according to Pro Football Focus. The highest number of quarterback pressures they had last year was 38 against Florida State. Lopez was under pressure on 61 percent of his dropbacks, according to PFF.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of quarterback hits and some wrap-ups that could have resulted in more,\u201d Cristobal said. \u201cAnd we matched that hand pretty well. I believe we deflected one or two. \u2026 There\u2019s a lot of things that are really positive in terms of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Better to learn from a win\u2019<\/p>\n
After the game, Rodriguez said Miami offensive line coach Alex Mirabal told a group of players, \u201cIt\u2019s better to learn from a win than learn from a loss.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was not the Hurricanes\u2019 best game, especially in the second half. But they left North Carolina with a victory over a team that looks like it could be solid this season after winning nine games last year.<\/p>\n
Although the Hurricanes appear to have a favorable schedule this season, Friday\u2019s game shows they cannot take anyone lightly.<\/p>\n
Mensah called the game a \u201cwake-up call,\u201d and UM has to treat it as such. Last season, the Hurricanes dropped two games to opponents they were favored to beat. It almost cost them a spot in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
When they\u2019re clicking, the Hurricanes have shown they can be one of the nation\u2019s top teams. They need to make sure they avoid hiccups that could cost them down the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat second half taught us a lot,\u201d Lightfoot said, \u201cand I\u2019m happy it did end out that way. \u2026 We still did get the (win), but it\u2019s just a lot to learn from, a lot to build off of.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. \u2014 It was a tale of two halves for the Miami Hurricanes at Wake Forest on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,160921,124],"class_list":["post-404719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-hurricanes-vs-wake-forest","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}