MIAMI'S ACC TITLE GAME HOPES DISAPPEAR AS TVD THROWS THREE INT's AS CANES LOSE AT NC STATE - Review

By Scott Salomon

'UM' Photo Credit: Kristian Golding

Tyler Van Dyke suffered three interceptions and could not get anything going, throwing the football as the Miami Canes suffered their third loss of the season and find themselves out of the race for the ACC Championship. It was his third consecutive 'pedestrian start' and should signal the end of his up-and-down career as the starting quarterback at Miami.

Van Dyke was an extremely mediocre 21-of-38 for 173 yards and the three aforementioned picks as Miami lost to North Carolina State 20-6. Van Dyke failed to direct the high-octane Hurricanes to a single touchdown. The only points that Miami could muster were two field goals by Andres Borregales.

Fans taking to social media were clamoring for freshman quarterback Emory Williams to start the second half. He never entered the game as the coaching staff stuck with Van Dyke too long and gave him just enough rope to hang himself and his team.

“I’ve just got to be better, honestly,” Van Dyke said. “It is frustrating. Felt like I put a lot of work into watching film this week and did a great job preparing. Just got to put that work in on the field, as well. Had a great week of practice. Just got to be better on game day.”

Mark Fletcher, the freshman running back from Plantation American Heritage High School, paved the way for whatever offense the Canes could generate as he ran for a career-high 118 yards on 23 carries.

“We know we can be a really good football team," Miami coach Mario Cristobal said. "We’ve shown it in spurts…we have to make sure we do our best job as an organization to get better…we’re going to prepare for next week.”

The Hurricanes, who fell to 6-3 on the season, travel to Tallahassee next week to meet the undefeated and fourth-ranked Florida State Seminoles.

Miami Defensive Tackle Branson Deen said, "We can’t dwell on this. It hurts. It stings badly. But we have a big game Saturday…that’s why I came here." This is the second loss that can be blamed directly on Cristobal. First, he refused to take a knee against Georgia Tech and Miami lost on a last-second touchdown. Saturday night, he would not make a change at quarterback when Miami showed that it had no pulse on offense.

Cristobal refused to put the blame squarely on the shoulders of his redshirt junior signal caller.

“I think it’s not just pointing a finger at Tyler,” Cristobal said. “I think, offensively, there are things that we need to do better. The passing game certainly hasn’t been what it needs to be, especially when we started the season in such a strong manner. But it’s tied into us being able to put it all together and synchronize it.”

Miami's defense played stellar as it forced two turnovers and yielded only 251 yards of offense to NC State, on fifty plays, most of which came on a 97-yard drive to ice the game in the fourth quarter.

“We limited them to under 50 plays, under 50 snaps,” Cristobal said. “When you do that, you should walk away with a favorable result. Put pressure on the quarterbacks, stopped the run, and contained some of their explosive players for the most part. They made a couple of plays, too. They played their hearts out. They gave us every chance to win the game.”