Five things we learned in Hurricanes’ playoff victory over Texas A&M

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COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Miami notched its most important win in more than two decades on Saturday.

The Hurricanes’ victory over the Aggies in the first round of the College Football Playoff not only keeps UM’s season going until the end of December, but it showed that Miami is a force to be reckoned with on the national stage.

Here are five things we learned from the crucial victory:

Hetherman’s defense is dominant

The Hurricanes defense earned its top-10 ranking throughout the season, shutting down nearly every opponent it faced. But in recent weeks, Miami’s dominance came at the expense of several overmatched opponents. Sure, UM shut down Pittsburgh, which ranked 16th nationally in points per game, but their other wins in November were against Syracuse (118th), NC State (45th) and Virginia Tech (113th). Not exactly a gauntlet.

Up against a Texas A&M team that was averaging more than 36 points per game, the Miami defense put on its finest performance. The Hurricanes held the Aggies to season-lows in points (three), yards (326) and yards per play (4.35). UM notched nine tackles for loss against an offense that allowed fewer than four per game, and the Hurricanes sacked Marcel Reed seven times — the Aggies allowed only 1.46 sacks per game all season.

Akheem Mesidor, Keionte Scott, Mo Toure and others made critical plays. Miami forced three turnovers from Reed. Scott, who returned from a foot injury, forced him to fumble when he attempted a throw. Freshman safety Bryce Fitzgerald picked Reed off twice, saving the game with an endzone interception in the final moments.

In a season full of defensive excellence, Corey Hetherman’s defense’s latest performance may have been his masterpiece.

Don’t anger Bain

Shortly after Miami and Texas A&M were matched by the playoff selection committee, Aggies offensive tackle Trey Zuhn III said something he might have thought was harmless. But it stuck in Miami fans’ — and crucially, Rueben Bain’s — minds for the past two weeks.

“I don’t think he’ll be a threat we need to worry about too much,” Zuhn said.

He was wrong. Bain, who kept his public comment about Zuhn’s remarks short in the week before the game, dominated the Aggies offensive line. He had four tackles for loss, three of which were sacks. Pro Football Focus credited Bain with seven quarterback pressures. Bain also blocked a field goal.

After the game, Bain let everyone know that he was out for some payback on Saturday.

“I don’t take kindly to disrespect,” Bain said.

Bain kept a screenshot of a social media post with Zuhn and his comments as his phone background to keep a reminder of what he said.

“I was ready to play some football,” Bain said. “Some guys were in the media, saying some things they shouldn’t have said. But they did, so God bless them. They were just writing checks they can’t cash.”

Figure out the offense

While Miami’s defense was keeping Texas A&M off the board, the Aggies defense was doing the same to the Hurricanes.

Miami’s offense for a good chunk of the game was incapable of moving the ball. Despite forcing turnovers, they failed to capitalize. The Hurricanes’ attempts to get the ball to playmaker Malachi Toney largely failed. At halftime, the Hurricanes had just 69 yards of offense.

Miami quarterback Carson Beck, who had been playing some of his best football in the lead-up to this game, could not connect on deep passes and had one of his least productive games of the season. Beck completed 70 percent of his passes but managed only 104 passing yards — a season-low. He did, however, protect the football and did not throw any interceptions. PFF said he had one turnover-worthy play, and the Aggies did not capitalize on it.

“They, honestly, stayed in a two-high shell for most of the game,” Beck said. “There was a lot of quarters, and, again, you have D-linemen like that, you have linebackers like that, a front seven that (is) really talented and can create different holes and gaps and things of that sort with their scheme. It can be difficult to throw the ball down the field. I think we had like one or two one-on-one shots that I missed that I could have given them better balls. But at the end of the day, if they wanted to play like that, then shoot, we’re going to hand the ball off.”

Ultimately, the Hurricanes turned to their power running game — which was maligned during the season as getting too predictable — and moved down the field to set up the pop pass to Toney that scored the game-winning points.

“The second half, we stayed out of third down because we ran the ball better. And I wanted to lean more on that,” offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson said. “I could see Mark (Fletcher Jr.) getting some momentum. And so ultimately, we knew a couple plays that (were) working, and … that last drive, I was not going to deviate from those couple plays until we ran it at the end, when they started crowding everybody down. I figured we’d toss it to (Toney) and get around the edge.”

Kicking issues a one-off or a troubling portent?

Miami brought in two transfer kickers in the offseason: Carter Davis from FAU and Bert Auburn from Texas. Davis won the job before the season, and he has been good for the Hurricanes all season. Entering Saturday’s playoff game, Davis had hit 14 of 16 field goal attempts.

But it was a miserable Saturday for Davis. His first field goal try got caught by the wind and blew off course. His second had more power on it but sailed well wide of the uprights. Davis hit a short field goal to give UM a 3-0 lead on his third attempt, but his fourth hit off the upright.

The Hurricanes will need to decide in the coming days whether Davis’ issues were because of the strong winds at Kyle Field or if Auburn gives them a better chance against Ohio State.

A statement of intent

If the Hurricanes lost on Saturday, there would have been plenty of legitimate reasons why the season was still successful. Miami won 10 games in back-to-back years for the first time in decades. It reached the College Football Playoff for the first time. The defense took a monster step forward. Several young players had early success.

It all would have been true. But it would have rung hollow after a one-and-done trip to the tournament.

Now the Hurricanes’ season is an unmitigated success. Miami has 11 wins for the first time since 2003, and the Hurricanes are still alive in the hunt for their first national title since the 2001 season. But Miami coach Mario Cristobal has never been one to talk about what he calls “nostalgia theater.” Publicly, he is focused on looking forward. Because of the win on Saturday, he has at least one more game to prepare for this year.

“I think it was important first to get in the playoffs, then to go and win at a place like this,” Cristobal said. “One hundred-plus thousand people on the road, a team that was arguably top two or three until their last game, and to get it done in this type of an environment. I think we needed that. If you could draw it up how we wanted it, we wanted to go there. We wanted to come here and do it against a great football team.

“So what does it mean for us? Continued progress, the vision, and we’ve never altered the course or deterred from (the vision) despite all the challenges that come with it. … Here we are with the chance to keep playing, and that’s all that matters now.”

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