MIAMI GARDENS — The offense didn’t always show up, but the defence came to play in the Miami Hurricanes 31-19 victory over the Pittsburgh Panthers.
Starting a backup quarterback because of an injury to starter Kenny Pickett, the Pittsburgh offense had no answers for the strong defense, gaining just 300 yards, including 22 yards on the ground. On third downs, Pittsburgh was thwarted, picking up a first down on just three of its 17 attempts.
The story of the game, however, was the Miami defense’s ability to limit Pittsburgh’s effectiveness in the red zone. On four different occasions, the Hurricanes defense came up when they were asked to and held Pittsburgh to red zone field goals.
“Red zone defense is a mentality and, to me, that’s where it gets into the culture that you have in your defensive room. And to get down there and to make the stops that we made, I think Blake Baker and our defensive staff deserve a lot of credit for that,” Miami head coach Manny Diaz said.
“That’s three years now that Pitt’s only scored one [total] touchdown against us and the one they scored was on a one-yard drive,” Diaz continued. “And our guys were pissed about that. So, I’m really, really proud of the way that they went down there and never panicked when they hit some plays and made them kick field goals.”
The Hurricanes were led by their strong defensive line play, which came up huge in this one.
As a unit, the defensive line combined for three sacks and eight total tackles for loss. Redshirt freshman Jared Harrison-Hunte and senior Quincy Roche were among those who impressed, totaling 1.5 sacks and six tackles for loss.
Despite total struggles on offense, it was timely scores which put Miami in the driver’s seat for most of the night. Senior quarterback D’Eriq King finished the night with four touchdowns, including three touchdowns over 35 yards.
“Yeah, Rhett [Lashlee] and his staff do a great job, obviously. They’re very creative,” Diaz said. “And what they do a nice job of is they just see potential explosive plays that you don’t have to manufacture by just beating a guy because Pitt’s hard to beat in their coverage down the field. I thought D’Eriq [King] threw some great deep balls today that there were some bang-bang plays down the field that we want to finish.”
Among the big-time contributors was tight end Will Mallory, who found the end zone on both of his receptions. The second touchdown came at a critical time, as King found Mallory wide open down the seam for a 45-yard touchdown pass to put Miami up 28-16 in the third quarter.
“It went perfectly as we planned it to be,” Mallory said. “When you got a play like that, it really sets you up to be open and you either got to make someone miss or you’re just like that middle one, you’re wide-open so it’s pretty easy, you just walk right in. But yeah, it was perfectly executed by everyone, all 11 guys on the field. So, when you get something like that, usually that’s the outcome.”
The win advances No. 12/13 Miami to 4-1, with its one loss coming against top-ranked Clemson.
The Hurricanes will look to continue their momentum next week, when they play host to the Virginia Cavaliers. The next game is set for Saturday, Oct. 24 with an 8 p.m. kickoff.
PHOTO CREDITS: Canes Football
