Mario Cristobal didn’t have any grand breakdowns of communication mishaps or ill-timed calls to explain the Miami Hurricanes’ catastrophic defensive performance in their 45-31 loss to the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders on Saturday in Miami Gardens. The Hurricanes kept everything as simple as can be — just like it has all season — and Middle Tennessee picked them apart.
“Man coverage,” Cristobal said Saturday, as he provided his perspective on the Blue Raiders’ series of explosive plays. “You can check the film. There’s no sugarcoating it.”
Miami’s awful day at Hard Rock Stadium started with a 71-yard passing touchdown from Middle Tennessee quarterback Chase Cunningham to Blue Raiders wide receiver DJ England-Chisolm in the first quarter, continued with an 89-yard pass from Cunningham to wide receiver Jaylin Lane in the first minute of the second, kept going with a 69-yard touchdown pass from Cunningham to wide receiver Elijah Metcalf in the third and finally hit its nadir when Cunningham heaved another 98-yard touchdown to England-Chisolm in the fourth minutes to go back up by 21 right after the Hurricanes failed to punch in a touchdown on three straight tries from Middle Tennessee’s 1-yard line.
On two of these four plays, the Blue Raiders’ receiver simply ran right past the defensive back in 1-on-1 coverage.
“They got behind us,” Cristobal said. “Good throw, good catch, but they got behind us.”
On England-Chisolm’s 98-yard score, he ran a fly route right past cornerback DJ Ivey, and safety Kamren Kinchens was too far away to help. On Metcalf’s touchdown, he matched up in the slot against Jaden Harris — thrust into the lineup because of an injury to cornerback Te’Cory Couch — and ran right past the freshman defensive back to haul in a long score.
The other two big plays came after all-too-familiar gaffes, too. On England-Chisolm’s other touchdown, he ran right between Couch and fellow cornerback Tyrique Stevenson, and neither ran stride-for-stride with him after Couch signaled something to Stevenson right before the play began. On Lane’s long catch, he caught a short curl in the middle of the field then scooted 89 total yards after linebacker Corey Flagg Jr. whiffed on a tackle.
Miami (2-2) is now one of only two teams in the nation to give up a 90-yard play, the only team to give up multiple 80-yard plays, one of only two teams to give up three 70-yard plays and four 60-yard plays, and one of only eight teams from the Power 5 Conferences to give up at least 10 30-yard plays.
It was a reversion to all of the Hurricanes’ worst habits from a year ago, when they had the nation’s 56th-worst defense, in terms of yards allowed per game.
“It was kind of a little bit of everything,” Kinchens said Saturday. “Kind of right play, right time and we ain’t make the plays.”
On all four of these long plays, there was no press coverage, as defensive coordinator Kevin Steele has often stretched as a fundamental concept for his group, and no pressure from Miami’s front seven.
The Hurricanes expected the latter would be an issue. Middle Tennessee runs an air raid offense, which is predicated on short passes and yards after the catch, negating pressure and forcing opposing secondaries to tackle well. It’s not supposed to be as easy as running go routes right past opposing corners for wide-open touchdowns — especially if corners are going to play back instead of press — and the Blue Raiders only had one 60-yard play all year before breaking off four of them last week alone to move into a tie for the national lead.
It was the sort of defensive performance capable of sending a team back to the drawing board, especially because there were question marks at cornerback at the start of the year, with Ivey and Couch coming off rocky seasons, and Stevenson not quite a lockdown No. 1 corner despite being an honorable mention for the All-Atlantic Coast Conference team last year.
“We’ve got to obviously scheme it better or analyze matchups better,” Cristobal said. “Right now, our players will be as successful as they can be.
