Canes vs Noles: State Champs x2
Game Preview
I forgot to mention this yesterday, but I can see Elijah Lofton being another key player in this game, going up against Florida State's 3-3-5 defense.
First Quarter
Defense is gonna take the field first. Great play by Tommy, and the Noles capitalize on the big play. Tommy is going to be a serious problem tonight—amicable pass breakup by Xavier Lucas. Great stand by the defense after giving up a couple of big plays. Field goal is good for Florida State. Miami 0, Florida State 3. Offense takes the field, and they need to pound the rock and get points on the board. Quick pass to Malachi Toney for 3 yards. Big pick up for a first down by Malachi Toney. Florida State is playing the run well, as evidenced by the first two run plays by Miami. I like the shot to Toney—Miscue between Beck and Daniels on the 3rd and 8. Miami is forced to punt the ball away. Great play by Bain and Mesidor, but Sawchuk diced through and picked up the first on 2nd and 14. Lee Corso got his jersey retired tonight, a very respected guy. Great stand on the 3rd and five after some trickery. Florida State is punting the ball away. Great run by Fletcher on the 2nd and seven. Great pitch and catch by Beck and Daniels, making up for the messed-up pass play from the previous drive. Fletcher is such a bellcow runner. Marty Brown with a solid four-yard run. Florida State's defense did a great job on the third-and-one to stuff Fletcher. Fletcher picked up the first, and he's going to have to earn his yards tonight. Nice catch by Bauman for a four-yard catch. CJ Daniels with the touchdown grab to put Miami up. Miami 7, Florida State 3. False start by Florida State that pushes them back five yards. Great gang tackling by the defense. Another great stop by the defense on stopping Tommy from killing us on the run. End of the First Quarter. Miami 7, Florida State 3.
Second Quarter
Great pass by Tommy to Pittman Jr for the first. Tremendous, avoid any boneheaded moves, pressure by the pass rush caused the incompletion—offsides by Bain. We can't shoot ourselves in the foot in this game because Florida State is going to convert them. Another third-down defense needs to get off the field. Great closeout by Mesidor on Tommy, because he would have gotten the first. Big fourth down that is one of those early key moments of the game. Big interception by Bryce Fitzgerald that got them on the Florida State side of the field. Flea flicker to Toney for a 44-yard touchdown pass by Beck. Miami 14, Florida State 3. I'll take the horsecollar on Bain, but I'll live with it because Dinzy is a playmaker, and I'd rather give up 15 yards than a touchdown. Tommy picked up the first down. Late hit on Florida State, that pushes them back 15 yards. Bain is such a beast, and it's gonna be fun watching him play on Sundays. Let's focus on incredible thoughts and avoid anything boneheaded. Great stop again by the defense caused Florida State to punt the ball away. Nice to see Lyle back in the lineup. We didn't need that false start. The penalty cost us, and we went three and out—defense with the big forced fumble and fumble record that puts Miami near the 50. It would've been a big play for the touchdown by Toney, but it was an illegal formation. That penalty hurts big time, because instead of a touchdown, it became a three-and-out—great punt by Joyce to put the Seminoles on the 10-yard line. Miami almost got another fumble recovery, great hustle play by Pittman to recover that, cause that would've been catastrophic. Scott with a big QB hit that causes an incompletion—solid completion to Duce Robinson. Mesidor with a big sack on Tommy. Sawchuk with a big pick up to get it to third and six. Great stand by the defense to cause the punt. End of the Second Quarter. Miami 14, Florida State 3.
First Half Recap
Solid first half overall; it should've been 21-3, but a costly penalty negated it. It's whatever. Defense is showing out by containing Tommy and causing two turnovers, almost getting a third one that would've basically broken the camel's back. The offense is playing pretty solid, and we're doing it through the air, which should be a nice indication that we can win games throwing the ball around and not relying solely on the running game. If we have Cam Ward this year, we can most definitely win the National Championship, which is an insane thing to think about. We need to keep the foot on the pedal and end this game early, heading into the bye week 5-0 and potentially being the number 1 ranked team in the Country, and be back-to-back State Champs.
Third Quarter
We need a big boy drive and chew up a good chunk of the third quarter. Great play by Baumen to keep the chains moving. Marty Brown and Mark Fletcher are such fun running backs to have. Another first down, gotta keep this clock ticking. False Start on Bell, and it puts us behind the chains. The refs missed a face mask there—great effort by Toney to get the down to 4th and two. Malachi Toney got his second touchdown on the day on the 40-yard scamper on fourth down. Miami 21, Florida State 3. Defense needs to focus on stopping the run and play the pass from here on out. We can't play back cause it'll give Florida State life—another interception for the defense, Jakobe Thomas with the big snag. The offense needs to step up and put this game out of reach, making them remember what they did back in 2022. Lofton has a couple of nice snags to move the chains. Just keep imposing our will and end them. Keelan Marion with a big run to keep this drive moving. CJ Daniels with the 24-yard touchdown catch. Miami 28, Florida State 3. Defense continues to assert its will against Florida State. Down goes Tommy with a sack by Jakobe Thomas, who had the key interception on the previous drive, forcing the Seminoles to punt the ball.
Fours Up
The holding penalty set us back towards the end of the drive, but it forced Miami to punt the ball back to Florida State. What an incredible hit, but it was the right call to target. You know Florida State is going to find a way to score, cause they can do it. Solid drive by Florida State that ended with a touchdown by Tommy to LaWayne McCoy. Miami 28, Florida State 11. We can't be complacent on offense cause the Seminoles will capitalize on it. The defense needs to get off the field, but Florida State converted on all its fourth-down attempts, which led to a 19-play, 96-yard drive that consumed about 5:10 of game time. However, they ended up with a six-yard touchdown pass from Tommy to Randy Pittman Jr. Miami 28, Florida 19. Miami would have turned the ball over on downs, which I understand why they would, but we had a field goal right there that would've put Miami up by 3. Florida State would drive down and kick the field goal. Miami 28, Florida State 22. Miami would recover the onside kick attempt and win the game. End of the Fourth Quarter. Miami 28, Florida State 22.
Final Thoughts
We need to clean up all the penalties because we committed 13 of them. If we make it to the Playoffs, we would lose. The same applies to our conservative play calling and not keeping our foot on the pedal. I don't want to look like I'm complaining about a win, but it's just we're gonna have last year all over again, and it's gonna be heartbreaking to have to deal with it again. I'm happy that we won and moved the series lead to 37-33. We have also been a five-time State Champion, achieving this feat consecutively in two back-to-back years. Next week, the Canes are on a bye, but I will be back the following week for the Battle of the Howard Schnellenbarger Trophy when the Canes take on the Louisville Cardinals. Go Canes.
