Miami Pulls Off Thrilling Loss in Opener with Florida

The Florida Gators attempted to lose the college football opener to Miami Saturday night in Orlando. Miami just wanted the loss more – squeaking out a 24-20 defeat.

Each side jumped out of the gate with terrible play after terrible play. It appeared whichever team had the final possession in this game was going to lose.

Gators quarterback Feleipe Franks was eager to show off the work he had been putting in over the summer and was doing an excellent job leading his team to defeat. Franks consistently and calmly avoided getting the ball to his open receivers.

The junior quarterback is smart enough to know that getting his playmakers the ball in space would hinder his team’s chances of losing.

Florida sophomore back Malik Davis felt the score was a little tight and served up a fumble early in the second quarter – hoping the move would force Miami to gain momentum.

Although recovering a loose football directly violated the Canes’ gameplan, Miami D-lineman Scott Patchan couldn’t resist pouncing on the pigskin and wearing that sick chain.

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The Canes had to be disappointed with their competent showing in the first half – taking a 13-7 lead into the locker room.

Rookie Canes’ head coach Manny Diaz deserves a lot of credit for his team’s turnaround. His halftime adjustments allowed the Gators to outscore his boys 17-7 down the stretch – earning a heart pounding Week 0 defeat.

The Canes’ special teams tried their hardest to put the team in a position to lose – allowing a first down on a fake punt, missing a chip shot field goal, and muffing a punt inside their own 15.

Miami’s special teams worked extremely hard to come out on the bottom of this contest, but Florida’s secondary was not going to stand idly by and win the game.

A brilliant defensive pass interference penalty by Gators’ sophomore corner Marco Wilson on 4th and 34 kept Miami’s final drive alive. This was a heads up play by Wilson. The 4th down pass was thrown way short of the yellow line and the savvy corner realized that interfering with the Miami receiver was the only way his team was going to have a shot to lose this ballgame.

Miami quickly realized their offensive line needed to step up if they were going to lose. The Canes’ front-5 allowed the Gators to hit their freshman quarterback not once, not twice, but 10 times!

If not for this Herculean effort by Miami’s pass blockers, the Canes would have surely won this football game.

Many teams are clearly underprepared for their opening contest, but these two schools obviously put in a large body of work over the summer. Each side was in peak form – as shown by the olé blocking, shoddy tackling, inaccurate throws, bumbling turnovers, and inexplicable penalties present throughout the entire game.

I would be very nervous right now if I had Miami or Florida on my 2019 schedule. On Saturday, these two teams proved they are dangerous. They each will stop at nothing to lose.