do-it-all freshman star Malachi Toney<\/a> \u2014 who had a one-handed catch earlier in the drive \u2014 at quarterback, and he acted as if he was going to run to the outside. When the Panthers\u2019 defense bit on the run, Toney tossed a 9-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Elija Lofton.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s almost like a boxing match,\u201d quarterback Carson Beck said. \u201cAnd in any big game I\u2019ve played in, it rarely starts off just 14-0, 17-0. \u2026 You\u2019ve got to feel out your opponent a little bit, and I think that\u2019s kind of what was going on. Obviously, they had a good plan against us. That\u2019s a really good football team. Very talented, and they played really well this season. So again, just kind of feeling them out. And then, you know, once we struck once, it kind of just tumbled over. We played really good complementary football from there, and we were able to close them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toney found the end zone a second time later in the second quarter, moving out of the backfield and getting wide open for Carson Beck, resulting in a 22-yard score.<\/p>\n
Miami got the ball to start the second half, and Pittsburgh helped UM move the ball downfield. Two Pitt unsportsmanlike conduct penalties \u2014 including one in the red zone after a third-down pass breakup that would\u2019ve likely forced a Miami field goal \u2014 set up a 4-yard touchdown run by Mark Fletcher Jr. to put UM ahead 24-7 early in the second half. The touchdown was Fletcher\u2019s 10th rushing touchdown of the season, which is a career-high.<\/p>\n
Miami continued its strong offensive performance with a 9-yard touchdown pass from Beck to running back Marty Brown (who had a touchdown run wiped out two plays earlier after offensive guard Matt McCoy was called for a penalty for assisting Brown across the goal line).<\/p>\n
The Panthers\u2019 last gap for a comeback attempt late in the third quarter ended with Miami forcing a turnover on downs on a fourth-and-short play. Beck threw a fourth-quarter interception, but Pitt could not do anything with the ball.<\/p>\n
The Hurricanes added a late touchdown on a 33-yard pass from Beck to CJ Daniels, who made a stellar diving catch for the score.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was awesome. And when we got the play call in \u2014 because they had called the timeout, so we were like, \u2018OK, let\u2019s go score, screw it.\u2019 And they got the play call in, and we had just thrown a stop route, so we double-moved, and I was like, \u2018Oh, this is about to be a touchdown.\u2019 I\u2019m over there looking at him. He\u2019s looking back at me. I was like, \u2018Yeah, he\u2019s going to go catch it.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he made an incredible catch. He caught it. And I literally looked at our offensive lineman. I was like, \u2018Oh my gosh. I cannot believe he just did that.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Five takeaways
\n1. Miami makes its case<\/p>\n
The Hurricanes have won four straight games since losing to SMU, steadily climbing up the playoff rankings. They made their final presentation to the selection committee on Saturday.<\/p>\n
With the blowout win over a ranked Pittsburgh, Miami showed that it is almost certainly the best team in the ACC. The Hurricanes beat the Panthers by a bigger margin than potential playoff roadblock Notre Dame.\u00a0Now it will likely come down to how the committee views UM.<\/p>\n
2. Toney, Toney, Toney<\/p>\n
Toney is proving to be a truly special player. The American Heritage alum eclipsed Ahmmon Richards\u2019 freshman record for receiving yards with 13 catches for 126 yards in the win on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cCongratulations on this achievement!\u201d Richards wrote on social media. \u201cWelcome to legacy, it\u2019s forever! Can\u2019t wait to watch the rest of your long career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toney also kept making plays in the passing game, tossing a 9-yard touchdown pass to Elija Lofton.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll year long, his dedication, his natural talent and his game-day approach and performances have been absolutely awesome,\u201d Cristobal said. \u201cSo Mali\u2019s just getting started. There isn\u2019t a better freshman in the country. There might not be a better, more exciting player in the country right now than Malachi Toney.\u201d<\/p>\n
3. Defense takes Panthers apart<\/p>\n
The Hurricanes\u2019 pass-rush dominated the Panthers\u2019 offensive line. UM was constantly in the Pitt backfield and ended the game with four sacks.<\/p>\n
Star defensive end Rueben Bain Jr. had 1.5 sacks, and defensive tackle Ahmad Moten had 1.5, as well.<\/p>\n
We played how we always play,\u201d linebacker Wesley Bissainthe said. \u201cJust excitement, violence, and swarm. And that\u2019s the three things we try to focus on every game. And we came out there today and we executed.\u201d<\/p>\n
4. Some issues in pass coverage<\/p>\n
The Hurricanes allowed a few big plays when Heintschel was in at quarterback in the first half. The freshman quarterback connected on a pair of long passes and tossed a touchdown to a tight end who had no one near him in the flat.<\/p>\n
The Hurricanes buckled down on pass defense in the second half, and Bryce Fitzgerald sealed the game with an interception, and Heintschel completed 22 of his 32 passes for 199 yards.<\/p>\n
5. Tight ends get involved<\/p>\n
The Hurricanes got their tight ends involved more in the passing game on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Sophomore tight end Elija Lofton dealt with injuries and a slow start to the season, but he has come along well in recent weeks. Lofton caught the 9-yard touchdown pass from Toney, scoring a touchdown for the third straight game.<\/p>\n
Transfer tight end Alex Bauman had three catches for a season-high 58 yards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 The Hurricanes stumbled in the middle of the season, losing to Louisville and SMU. But they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2300,241,25916,73,75,74,726],"class_list":{"0":"post-47911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-college-sports","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-miami-hurricanes","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","13":"tag-pittsburgh-news","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}