MIAMI GARDENS – The Miami Hurricanes (3-4; 1-2 in Atlantic Coast Conference play) have lost three straight home games at Hard Rock Stadium.
The latest one – a 45-21 loss earlier today (Oct. 22) to Duke (5-3; 2-2 in ACC) – was a setback that will be remembered the most by how Miami committed eight turnovers by the final buzzer.
Hurricanes backup quarterback Jake Garcia played in the second half of this game. He was in for starter Tyler Van Dyke, who suffered an injury in the first first half and did not return.
Garcia had a great start, as he rallied his team from a 17-7 halftime deficit to a 21-17 lead early in the third quarter.
Garcia threw an easy 71-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Colbie Young (six catches, 127 yards, two touchdowns) at the 14:09 mark.
Just seven seconds later – 14:02 left in the third quarter – Hurricanes defensive back DJ Ivey forced a fumble and recovered it for the offense to get the ball back at the Duke 39-yard line.
From there, it took only three plays for Garcia to connect with tight end Will Mallory, who caught the 34-yard touchdown pass.
An extra point by Andres Borregales (3-for-3 in point after attempts) made the Miami lead exist at 21-17 over Duke with 13:06 left in the third quarter.
From that point on, it was all Duke on both sides of the ball.
Duke quarterback Riley Leonard (13-of-25 passing, 136 yards, one passing touchdown; 14 carries, 72 yards, three rushing touchdowns) engineered an 18-play, 79-yard drive that took more than nine minutes off the clock in the third quarter.
The game-changing drive resulted in a 2-yard shovel pass for a score from Leonard to tight end Nicky Dalmolin.
This play was followed by an extra point from kicker Todd Pelino (6-for-6 in extra point attempts; 1-for-1 in field goal attempts), who gave Duke a 24-21 lead at the 3:38 mark of the third quarter.
From there until the final buzzer, Duke’s defense took over in emphatic fashion.
The Blue Devils defense turned a promising performance early on by Garcia into something he would like to quickly move on, as he finished with 13 pass completions in 21 attempts for 198 yards with two touchdown passes, three interceptions, and four sacks.
Miami lost five fumbles in this one, two of which came from Garcia in the fourth quarter.
In total, Garcia was directly responsible for five of Miami’s eight turnovers. He committed four total turnovers by himself in the fourth – two interceptions and the two lost fumbles.
Duke finished the game on a 28-0 run from the 13:06 mark of the third quarter until the final buzzer.
Miami head coach Mario Cristobal recapped the game in a press conference with media members.
“We’re improving our ability to practice, our capacity to practice, better,” Cristobal said. “We’ve talked some good stuff. We’ve made some progress in certain areas. But that wasn’t. That was regression. After a fast start, and then in the second quarter, taking a dive. The third quarter, we came out and played with some good passion, executed well, took the lead in the game. They came back, they drove and they scored, and then after that, all out of sorts.”
Cristobal spoke on the team’s overall effort in the fourth quarter.
“We’ll see on tape,” Cristobal said. “If someone’s not playing hard, they have to go play somewhere else. What we have to do requires tough people. To turn a program, rebuild it, it requires tough-minded people willing to do the work. If that shows up on tape, they have to find somewhere else [to play]. Some guys have played really well. Some guys have played hard. We’ll go from there.”
Cristobal addressed the eight turnovers that Miami committed in the 24-point loss to Duke.
“We have to assess to see if there was too much anxiety, just pressing too hard to make a play,” Cristobal said. “That could be it. The game starts going on and all of a sudden you see yourself…we built our own hole. We kept digging it deeper. We didn’t do a good job coming out of it…There’s a lot of things we need to get a whole lot better at. There’s moments here and there and stuff. But the work we came here to do, we have to do a lot of work. And we’re going to do it. When it turns, we’ll look back on this as lessons.”
Miami’s next game is on the road at fellow ACC foe Virginia (3-4; 1-3 in ACC). It is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 29 at 12:30 p.m. on ESPN3.
With that said, Cristobal spoke on how his team will stick together and find a way to bounce back from today’s home loss to Duke.
“You go right to the truth,” Cristobal said. “You don’t head-fake it. I don’t think, at this point in time, it’s about morale. It’s about reality. The best way to build good morale is to have success and performance. The best way to do that is to go back to work and work on the things that need to get better. They’re identified. There is some progress in some. But today, regression showed up. And that’s the point that’s disappointing.”
SIDE NOTES: Duke gained more total yards than Miami by a small margin at 336-327. In addition to that, Duke’s rushing defense held Miami’s ground game to 48 net yards.
Duke’s defense as a whole had six sacks on the Miami quarterbacks – four on Garcia and two on Van Dyke.
Duke has a bye next week and will not play again until Friday, Nov. 4, when it goes on the road at Boston College (2-5; 1-4 in ACC). That game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. kickoff on ESPN2.
PHOTO CREDITS: Chuck Bethel
