Last night’s Maryland game can best be summed up with one word: annoying.
As annoying as the Granny from Beverly Hillbillies (Lou Holtz) spittling all over the camera while her sidekick, the fat, ugly version of Idris Elba (Mark May), chuckles along smarmily.
More annoying than Maryland and Georgia’s uniforms.
More annoying than the commercial for Jeep that claims you can make it to a morning round of golf in Monterey and an afternoon meeting in LA on a single tank of gas.
(You know, because roads are always wide-open in California…never any traffic mucking things up)
More annoying than Baylor finally pulling the upset special that I have been saying they will for two effing years the one week I don’t pick them.
More annoying than the seat I was in Saturday at The Coliseum pushed up against a 300 lb man (who apparently didn’t get the memo that said AXE Body Spray is not deodorant) in 95 degree heat.
The loss was depressing and it made me angry and it felt like a gut punch. By now we have all read the break downs of what happened against Maryland.
There is one group that will say this team is trash, not improved from last year, in over its head, etc.
There is another that will find excuses for every problem that was exposed and blame suspended players, weather, etc.
I personally find myself somewhere in the middle (where the correct answer usually lays when it comes to assessing a football game).
On one hand, I definitely got a sense of déjà vu at the end of this football game. On the road, managing to have a chance to win despite self-inflicted wounds, blowing it at the end.
(Yes fans, despite popular belief, we actually had a chance to win every game on our schedule last year late into the contest, with the possible exception being the FSU debacle.)
On the other, I saw a team that made mistakes but fought through them, not relenting after a fumble returned for a touchdown, or an illegal formation call that negated a first and goal, or two consecutive delay of game penalties (just…wow). Last season, the team would have visibly gone in to a shell.
Last season was frustrating because The ‘Canes were (with the exception of the Ohio State game) the more talented team and yet seemed to lose because we would coast through large segments of games, always banking that we would be able to turn it on when it was crunch time.
This strategy worked at times but, as it usually does, backfired in the end.
Last night was frustrating for a different reason:
Last night the players fought their ass off for 60 minutes but were undone by a bad gameplan.
Miami failed to dictate the pace early, and as a result they were stung late.
Football is a game of running and striking. Much like tennis, the server has the advantage. If you dictate the terms of the game, the game generally rewards you.
The first quarter was an exercise in frustration in that regard. Maryland came out time and time again throwing screen passes, which are generally effective against very soft coverage or blitzes.
Blitzing is a way of telling an offense “here we come, I dare you to beat us”. You win some, you lose some. However, you win or lose on your terms. We can all appreciate that.
Soft coverage is just that…soft. It is reactionary. It is telling the other team “you tell us where we are going and we will try to stop you from getting there”. It is the stuff that makes me throw a phone.
Al Golden has talked of bringing Miami back to where it used to be for 9 months. Bringing back the old school mentality. Part of that means reinstituting the aggression that has been lacking these past few years.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and anyone who expected the ‘Canes to immediately channel the 1986 defense in their first game under Golden was mistaken. Possibly deranged. However, my problem was that the defensive gameplan at the start of the game did not set a tone of aggression and running and hitting. That must change.
The team fought hard. Letting this one get away stings, but it is not without its positives, as I said before.
Stephen Morris (until the last five minutes) and the receivers looked good, like they will make some things happen this year.
The Smash ‘N’ Dash tandem at running back is going to do some great things.
Ramon Buchanon looked awesome at linebacker and so did Vaughn Telelmaque at safety. The shorthanded defense certainly battled hard to slow down the Maryland offense that was in rhythm most of the night.
Special teams was as good as we have seen it in years.
Maurice Hagens, Allen Hurns and Jimmy Gaines all showed that they will be heard from this season.
The team was locked and loaded for all 60 minutes.
Having said all that, it is a loss that should not have happened and that is the takeaway from this performance. As Al Golden said, “there are no moral victories”.
This will go down as an opportunity lost for Miami. It certainly does not diminish my enthusiasm for the program or the season or the coach or the players. Years from now it may be laughed at, like the idea that Howard Schnellenberger could lose Florida A&M (he did).
However, today, it is not funny and the moral victories do not help. It is only another stumble for a program that seems to have been at a perpetual crossroads for the better part of a decade. And it is annoying.
Always guard the inbound passer.
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