Question for the board: If the Miami D line is loaded with future NFL talent, why have the games (before VT) been so close and in doubt till the end? would seem like you should be blowing teams out.
The games have been close because Malik Rosier is the most up and down QB you will face. Dude will go from straight garbage to elite/clutch between drives, especially early in the year. This is his first year starting, and while he's definitely had bad games/halfs, he's been very clutch when it counts. However the games have never been in doubt. Maybe to you/others who just look at the box score and team stats on ESPN. But if you actually watch the games, we've been pretty dominant, especially on defense.
1st in TFLS/game, 5th in Sacks/game, 3rd in Takeaways/game, 3rd in Defensive Passing Efficiency, Top15 in Yards allowed per play, Top15 in Scoring Defense.
And people look at the stats from our Run Defense and think we aren't good, but that is just plain stupid. We play an extremely aggressive scheme, and because of that scheme we have the rankings I listed above. But a downside to that scheme is we give up a couple big plays per game. When you stunt and blitz as much as we do it gives the offense a chance to get big yardage if they can get past the 1st level of defenders. Plus we've only allowed 4 rushing Touchdowns all year. So while we've given up some big runs, we haven't exactly given up big touchdowns.
Vs GTech we held them to 220yards rushing, which was basically half their Rushing Yard per game average vs P5 opponents. But even more than that they got 55% of their yards on 6 carries. The other 47 carries they had we held them to 2.12ypc. And after halftime our defense held them to just 3 points and only 96 total yards on 31 total plays (3.09 ypp) HALF of which came on one **** pass play. So after halftime we gave up one 48 yard pass, then held them to 3 points and only 48 yards on 30 plays (1.6 ypp). Thats pretty ****ing great defense.
Vs FSU it was the same story, they gained 54% of their rushing yards on 3 ****ing plays. The rest of their 40 carries we held them to 2.33ypc.
Vs Syracuse its a similar story, but our game plan going in was 100% to take away their passing game, which we completely did. We knew we'd give up some rushing yards but just didn't care because we held them to 135 passing yards on 42 attempts. As for the running game they got 50% of their rushing yards on 5 plays. The other 46 rushing attempts they had we held them to 2.87ypc.
So this is why I expect Notre Dame to rush for 100 yards on us. I don't think we will hold you guys to 58 yards or whatever it is UGA held yall to. But I expect us to get a lot of good defensive plays vs you, as we have all year. And I'm really looking forward to the matchup of Quenton Nelson vs Rj McIntosh and Mike McGlinchey vs Joe Jackson.