Miami Hurricanes’ awful last-second loss to Georgia Tech sends unbeaten season crashing | Opinion

The Miami Hurricanes fell from unbeaten and likely from the Top 25 in the worst imaginable way Saturday night at home in their ACC opener.

They lost, 23-20, to mediocre Georgia Tech — a three-touchdown underdog — on a last-second 44-yard touchdown pass after UM had fumbled while trying to run out the clock.

UM should have kneeled with the ball but elected to run instead.

“We should’ve taken a knee,” admitted coach Mario Cristobal — five words that live,for now, in infamy.

Even had they won and gone to 5-0, the No. 17-ranked Canes would have proved little. Not nearly enough.

Now they need to prove far more.

For better or worse, the next two games will define Year 2 of the Cristobal era — where it is, where it is headed, and the optimism that should be around it.

The way Saturday’s game was lost rocked all of that

It was one of the most brutal losses I have witnessed in five decades covering sports.

Saturday, even before the awful, unimaginable finish, was a massive regression.

“We didn’t play to our standard, which means we didn’t coach to our standard,” said Cristobal. “It’s hard. It sucks.”

Miami was a huge home favorite in its Atlantic Coast Conference opener and yet found a way to lose.

It had taken James Williams’ 44-yard interception return to set up a 39-field goal to give UM the late lead it failed to hold.

Unimpressive, all night . Seemingly uninspired. The Canes played like a team both overconfident and undeserving of being so before a nonplussed Hard Rock crowd of 58,045.

The first half (3-0 UM on a last-second 30-yard field goal) was a symphony of offensive ineptitude that an aggressive attorney might have argued was refundable. Finally the Canes found the end zone deep into the third quarter on a 22-yard Tyler Van Dyke scoring pass to Riley Williams.

Van Dyke would throw three interceptions on the night.

“We weren’t in sync. That was obvious,” Cristobal said. “The defense was lights out. But the stuff we’ve done well, we weren’t doing well.”

At 4-1 the Canes have had a nice win over Texas A&M, three easy ones over cupcake opponents, and then Saturday’s somnambulant stumble of a stunning defeat

This was supposed to be a comfy win, a rout, a pad-the-stats night offensively against a Yellow Jackets team (3-3) bad enough to have just changed defensive coordinators.

It was anything but the anxiety-free night we imagined.

The UM defense thoroughly dominated, mostly, despite Van Dykes’ trio of picks, but the offense was mostly a bog. Miami trailed 14-10 entering the fourth quarter,then 17-10. Ultimately the defensive interception and long return setting up what should have been the winning field goal to bail out Miami’s struggling offense.

Miami played like a team concerned not nearly enough with Tech because the Canes were looking ahead to what’s on deck:

No. 14-ranked North Carolina next Saturday in Chapel Hill.

Then a home date with nemesis Clemson, presently unranked but still thinking it rules the ACC.

Oh, and soon after that: A Nov. 5 trip to Tally and No. 5 Florida State.

How good are you, really, Hurricanes.?

Sure didn’t show it Saturday.

Better show it now.

It may not be exciting, but it all starts with taking care of business at home, meaning what you do in your own league. Especially now for the Hurricanes — in the new ACC — with no divisions anymore and the top two league records overall meeting in the conference championship game.

College football is nothing like it was. For traditionalists, heads spin. Players paid now. The transfer portal bulging at the seams. Schools changing conferences in a flurry. The College Football Playoff set to expand.

But one thing unchanged, for now, at least, is that a team that can’t get out of its own conference is unlikely to be in the mix for a national championship.

If that is UM’s high bar and goal — and it relentlessly better be — then winning your ACC games and playing for the league title needs to be the starting point.

Enter Saturday night.

UM was the last team to play an ACC game, the first of eight in a row now. Five ACC teams entered the weekend in the Top 25, not counting Clemson. The league is better, more balanced.

Miami had a chance Saturday night to affirm its place in the conference’s upper echelon.

It did not to say the least.

And UM is now 3-6 in ACC games into Cristobal’s second season.

The Hurricanes have the next two weeks to prove they are anything special — the doubts about that increased now, the onus ratcheted higher.

How good are you,really, Hurricanes?

Let’s begin to find out.

Because if the next two weeks do not serve to erase the abomination of Saturday night, what Cristobal said will linger and haunt:

“We should’ve taken a knee.”