Yahoo Sports FINAL: Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 28, No. 4 Miami Hurricanes 23, fourth quarter
The Miami Hurricanes — the Cardiac Canes, if you will — have been playing with fire throughout their Atlantic Coast Conference slate.
A prolific offense led by a Heisman Trophy frontrunner quarterback has masked the deficiencies of a subpar defense. No deficit has seemed to be too much to overcome.
It finally caught up to them on Saturday, with the No. 4 Hurricanes falling 28-23 to Georgia Tech at Bobby Dodd Stadium for their first loss of the season.
The Hurricanes offense had the ball with a chance to win, but quarterback Cam Ward fumbled the ball and Georgia Tech recovered with about a minute-and-a-half left to hold on for the upset.
Georgia Tech pulling away
A 27-yard pass from Aaron Philo to Bailey Stockton on third-and-17 to start the fourth quarter set up a Haynes King 5-yard rushing touchdown.
The Yellow Jackets are back up by two scores, 28-16, with 13:09 left to play.
Moten ejected for targeting
Hurricanes defensive lineman Ahmad Moten was ejected from the game for a targeting call in the third quarter.
He will miss the rest of this game and the first half of the Wake Forest game as a result.
UM’s defense responded the following two plays after the targeting call, forcing Georgia Tech into a thrid and 17 when play resumes to start the fourth quarter.
Hurricanes need a stop here.
Hurricanes respond
The Hurricanes put together arguably their best drive of the game.
Nine plays. 83 yards. And 8-yard touchdown pass from Cam Ward to Isaiah Horton.
Canes go for two but don’t get it.
It’s 21-16 Georgia Tech over Miami with 2:43 left in the third quarter.
Georgia Tech extends its lead
After Miami failed to score on its first drive of the third quarter, Georgia Tech went 61 yards on eight plays, capped by a 15-yard touchdown pass from Aaron Phiilo to Chase Lane to go up 21-10 on the Hurricanes with 6:46 left in the third quarter.
Georgia Tech has 35 passing yards. 20 of those are on two touchdown passes. The Yellow Jackets have 235 rushing yards.
Another turnover on downs
Miami ran the ball with Damien Martinez on its first seven plays to open the second half before facing fourth and 1 from the Georgia Tech 39-yard line.
UM goes for it, but Cam Ward’s pass attempt to Mark Fletcher Jr. is incomplete.
That’s Miami’s second turnover on downs of the game.
Canes trailing at halftime
The Hurricanes head to the locker room tailing Georgia Tech 14-10 at halftime. The offense failed to score on its final three drives.
The Miami defense, meanwhile, has been feast or famine. Georgia Tech’s run game dominated on its two touchdown drives, but UM forced three and outs on the Yellow Jackets’ other three drives (not including the final drive before the half).
Georgia Tech has 189 rushing yards through two quarters, already the second-most Miami has given up in a game this season (206 vs. Virginia Tech).
UM gets the ball to start the second half.
Failed fourth-down attempt
After each team exchanged punts, the Hurricanes drove down the field before ultimately facing a fourth and 3 on the Georgia Tech 23. UM’s offense stayed on the field but couldn’t convert.
Turnover on downs.
Miami entered the day having converted 10 of 13 fourth-down tries.
Georgia Tech still up 14-10 with 2:12 left in the first half.
A reminder: UM gets the ball to start the second half.
Long Georgia Tech drive gives Yellow Jackets lead again
Georgia Tech retook the lead, 14-10, on a 5-yard touchdown pass from Haynes King to Malik Rutherford. The score capped a 17-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that lasted 10:45.
The Yellow Jackets are dominating on the ground. They already have 151 rushing yards on 19 carries — 7.9 yards per attempt.
Miami takes the lead — and Restrepo makes UM history
Andres Borregales hit a 41-yard field goal to cap an 8-play, 44-yard drive and give Miami a 10-7 lead on Georgia Tech midway through the first quarter.
On the drive, Xavier Restrepo caught a 21-yard pass from Cam Ward. That was Restrepo’s 183 career catch, the most by a player in UM history. It broke a tie with Mike Harley, who had 182 catches from 2017-2021.
Restrepo last week set the school record for career receiving yards. With 19 touchdown catches, he needs seven more to tie Michael Irvin’s school record of 26 for a Hurricanes player.
Hurricanes respond — and Ward makes UM history
Cam Ward stands alone as the Miami Hurricanes’ single-season touchdown passes leader.
Ward’s 74-yard touchdown to Elijah in the first quarter against Georgia Tech on Saturday was his 30th of the season, breaking a tie with Steve Walsh’s mark from the 1988 season for the most in a single season in Hurricanes history.
The touchdown came on Miami’s second offensive play of the game.
UM and Georgia Tech are tied 7-7 with 11:59 left in the first quarter.
Georgia Tech jumps out to early lead
Welp. Four plays (all runs), 85 yards, Georgia Tech touchdown.
Two big runs from Jamal Haynes, a 65-yarder that got them to the red zone and then a 16 yard touchdown two plays later.
Miami is down 7-0, 12:49 left in the first.
Powell warming up with corners
Mishael Powell, who has started every game at safety this season, warmed up with the Hurricanes’ cornerbacks on Saturday.
Powell will likely get his share of reps at nickel corner against Georgia Tech considering Miami’s thin cornerback unit following the injury to Jadais Richard last week in addition to Damari Brown still being sidelined.
Season recap
▪ Miami 41, Florida 17: Cam Ward threw for 385 yards and three touchdowns, Mark Fletcher added two scores on the ground, the defense held its own despite one of its top players exiting the game early with injury, and the No. 19 Hurricanes made quick work of the Florida Gators with a season-opening win at Gainesville’s Ben Hill Griffin Stadium to kick off a critical Year 3 under Mario Cristobal.
▪ Miami 56, Florida A&M 9: That one went as expected. Cam Ward threw for three touchdowns and ran for a fourth before turning the game over to the second-string offense midway through the third quarter. The defense held the Rattlers to just three field goals.
▪ Miami 62, Ball State 0: The No. 10 Miami Hurricanes had to wait through nearly two-and-a-half hours of lightning delays before kicking off their home game against Ball State on Saturday.
Once the game finally began, they wasted little time asserting their dominance, as was expected in this non-conference matchup.
The final score from a soggy Hard Rock Stadium: Hurricanes 62, Ball State 0.
It’s the most points Miami has scored in a shutout of a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent in program history.
▪ Miami 50, USF Bulls 15: The Miami Hurricanes and USF Bulls played a hectic, lengthy, back-and-forth first half on Saturday.
But once the teams returned from their locker rooms, the Hurricanes took over and played like the team that has dominated through the first three weeks of the season.
Fueled by three total rushing touchdowns by Damien Martinez, including two in the second half, and another stellar performance from quarterback Cam Ward, No. 8 Miami pulled away from USF and left Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium with a 50-15 road win.
▪ Miami 38, Virginia Tech 34: The No. 7 Hurricanes overcame a pair of 10-point second-half deficits to hold off Virginia Tech at Hard Rock Stadium to improve to 5-0 and 1-0 in ACC play.
Cam Ward led touchdown drives of 89, 70 and 57 yards in the second half, and Miami survived a final-play Hail Mary attempt from Virgnia Tech that was ultimately ruled incomplete after a lengthy review.
▪ Miami 39, Cal 38: The No. 8 Hurricanes erased a 25-point second-half deficit for a 39-38 win over the Cal Golden Bears on Saturday in front of a sellout crowd of 52,428 at California Memorial Stadium on the day ESPN’s College GameDay came to Berkeley for the first-time in the show’s history.
Miami trailed Cal 35-10 with 8:06 left in the third quarter before it ripped off four consecutive touchdown drives while holding the Golden Bears to just a field goal to secure the win.
The game-winning play: A 5-yard touchdown pass from Cam Ward to Elijah Arroyo on a drive that included a 77-yard catch-and-run from Xavier Restrepo to get Miami into the red zone and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that forced them back 15 yards with less than a minute left to play and a 22-yard catch-and-run from Damien Martinez on third and 20 to get Miami back to the Cal 3.
Miami linebacker Francisco Mauigoa intercepted a Fernando Mendoza fourth-down pass with 11 seconds left to seal the game.
▪ Miami 52, Louisville 45: The Miami Hurricanes — once again — had to hold their breath and wait to see if a late call would fall in their favor.
Cam Ward was hit as he threw in the fourth quarter Saturday with Miami holding a one-score lead over the Louisville Cardinals. The ball wobbled out of his hand, a Louisville defender charged for it and ran the length of the field for what was initially ruled a game-tying fumble return for a touchdown.
After the review was completed, the Hurricanes were able to exhale. Forward pass. Incomplete pass. Miami maintains possession and the lead.
The sixth-ranked Hurricanes scored two plays later on a Damien Martinez 30-yard rushing touchdown to pull away for a 52-45 win over Louisville on Saturday at L&N Financial Credit Union Stadium to keep their perfect record intact.
▪ Miami 36, Florida State 14: The No. 6 Miami Hurricanes had to pivot from their customary ways of winning football games on Saturday.
But they still found a way to keep their perfect season alive with a 36-14 win over Florida State Seminoles at Hard Rock Stadium for their first win in the rivalry since the 2020 season.
Quarterback Cam Ward had a rare subpar outing, completing 22 of 34 passes for 208 yards and no touchdowns while being sacked four times — although he did catch a 7-yard touchdown pass from Elijah Arroyo in the fourth quarter to put Miami up 29-7.
It was Ward’s first time this season not throwing for at least 300 yards and the first time without multiple touchdown passes, let alone going without finding the end zone at all.
Instead, Miami (8-0, 4-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) relied on the run game to build its lead in the first half and its kicking game and defense to pull away from the Seminoles (1-7, 1-6 ACC).
▪ Miami 53, Duke 31: The Hurricanes (9-0, 5-0 ACC) overcame an 11-point third-quarter deficit in their eventual route of the Blue Devils.
Cam Ward threw for five touchdowns, three of which went to Xavier Restrepo.
▪ Miami at Georgia Tech (Today)
▪ Miami vs. Wake Forest (Nov. 23, time TBD)
▪ Miami at Syracuse (Nov. 30, time TBD)
Pregame Hurricanes reading
Need to catch up before kickoff? Here are the highlights of the Miami Herald’s coverage over the past few days.
▪ ‘We trust him’: How Markel Bell earned a steady role on Miami Hurricanes’ offensive line
▪ Hurricanes defense shows knack to finish strong. It needs to ‘pick up the intensity’ early
▪ Xavier Restrepo’s spot in Hurricanes record book is secured. But the big goal still remains
▪ From columnist Greg Cote: Cam Ward having Hurricanes’ best QB year ever, deserves Heisman, why UM can win it all
