Canes' D Regains Its Form
By Christy Cabrera Chirinos
HurricaneSports.com
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – After Miami gave up 42 points in a loss to Virginia Tech last week, Miami head coach Manny Diaz made it clear — that kind of defensive performance was unacceptable.
And so, Diaz – who helped shape the Hurricanes into one of the nation’s top units when he served as former head coach Mark Richt’s defensive coordinator – decided to take a more active role in the defensive preparations ahead of a critical ACC matchup with No. 20 Virginia.
How did that work out for Miami?
The Hurricanes kept the Cavaliers out of the end zone, sacked Virginia quarterback Bryce Perkins five times, totaled seven tackles for loss and held the Cavaliers to just 74 rushing yards in what was ultimately, a 17-9 Miami win that helps keeps alive the Hurricanes’ hopes of competing for the Coastal Division title.
It was a performance more in line with how the Hurricanes’ defense has played in recent years and that, Diaz said, was what he was hoping to see from his players.
“There’s no magic. You would hope that last week as an outlier. That just wasn’t us. There’s a lot of pride in the guys that play on that defense. There’s a lot of pride on that coaching staff,” Diaz said after the win. “I thought they had our players very well prepared this week. It was simply just a matter of doing our jobs and trusting ourselves. It gets back to that part about being relentless because that was the issue.”
Relentless was a word more than a few Hurricanes defenders themselves used to describe their unit’s performance against Virginia, the preseason favorite to win the Coastal Division.
Along with its five sacks of Perkins, Miami (3-3, 1-2) hurried the quarterback seven times. The Hurricanes also broke up six of his passes and while Perkins extended some Virginia drives with his mobility, ultimately, the Cavaliers’ three trips to the end zone ended with a 25-yard field goal, a 21-yard field goal and a 44-yard field goal after a Greg Rousseau sack resulted in a 10-yard loss and a fumble Virginia (4-2, 2-1) managed to recover.
“It mean a lot to be able to keep them out of the end zone,” said Rousseau, who finished with seven tackles, a sack, two tackles for loss, the forced fumble and a quarterback hurry in his first start. “Before tonight, us as a defense, we weren’t playing up to that standard. So we were hungry to come out here and show that we’ve still got it. Keeping them out of the end zone, it goes to show how tough we are. We showed we’re just fighters. We weren’t going to stop, even when they were on the one-yard line. We got the stops.”
The Hurricanes set the defensive tone early, forcing a three-and-out on Virginia’s first possession and a coming up with a stop on 4th-and-1 on the Cavaliers’ second drive.
After being unable to force a turnover against Virginia Tech, the defense got a takeaway with Trajan Bandy’s third-quarter fumble recovery and the special teams unit also came up big when Pat Bethel blocked a 38-yard field goal attempt.
“I just feel like we had the fundamentals down, our assignments,” Bandy said. “We just had to be patient with [Perkins]. He’s a scrambling quarterback. He can run and he can throw it. I think the d-line did a great job of just keeping him inside the pocket and making him throw bad passes and throw the ball away and when we came with the blitzes, the blitzes worked for us. I think we just did a great job as a team overall.”
But getting to the point where it was able to put together such a performance wasn’t easy.
Bandy noted tough conversations were had, with Diaz and defensive coordinator Blake Baker both delivering heart-to-heart messages to players and position groups. And players had to take long, hard looks at themselves and how they were playing.
Ultimately, things came together – in a game the Hurricanes knew they needed.
“[Diaz] just came in the defensive meeting room and told us we needed to play better. We didn’t play good last week and like I said, we just regrouped as a team and we came out and had our best game,” Bandy said. “We kept fighting. We’re never going to give up on each other. I felt like it’s on me to be the leader, to go in there and talk more to the secondary and that’s what I did this week. I just worked hard. I work hard every day and try to get better each and every week. We tried to get better this week, too.”
Added Rousseau, “It was a really big boost for us, but personally, I never felt like any of us lost any life. Even through those losses, we always kept coming to practice and working hard. Our demeanor never changed. We were just ready to go get that ‘W.'”
