It wasn’t pretty in the fourth quarter, but the statement was loud and clear through the first 3. Miami is a force to be reckoned with this season.
Behind a 4-touchdown day from quarterback Carson Beck, No. 3 Miami (5-0, 1-0 ACC) downed No. 18 Florida State (3-2, 0-2) in Tallahassee for a 28-22 win.
Through the first 45 minutes of the game, it was a Miami mauling. The Hurricanes built a 28-3 lead to take into the fourth quarter as Beck completed 18 of his 22 pass attempts for 238 yards and all 4 of his touchdowns. Miami averaged 7.3 yards per play to build a seemingly insurmountable lead.
Then, in the fourth quarter, the Canes took their foot off the gas.
Miami managed only 17 yards of offense in the fourth quarter. Beck completed 2 of 6 pass attempts for 3 yards. The ground game sputtered with 14 yards on 9 carries. The Canes went 0-for-4 on third and failed to convert a fourth down. Florida State had 3 fourth-quarter possessions and scored 19 points from them.
The Seminoles kicked a field goal on their opening drive of the game. From there, they alternated punts with turnovers. Quarterback Tommy Castellanos was picked off early in the second quarter and then midway through the third. Ousmane Kromah fumbled on the first play of a drive in the second that began at midfield.
FSU had 216 yards of offense through the first 3 quarters but only 3 points to show for its efforts.
In the fourth quarter, the charge from the home side threatened to undo all the positive work Miami had done, but FSU simply ran out of time. After getting a fourth-down stop and taking over at its own 23 with 1:10 to play, FSU got to the Miami 17 and opted to kick a field goal with 20 seconds remaining.
The successful kick trimmed the margin to 6, but FSU couldn’t recover the onside kick and Miami was able to kneel out the remaining 19 seconds.
For Miami, the program now has consecutive 5-0 starts for the first time since the 2003 and 2004 seasons. The Canes will head out on a bye week to prepare for a home game against Louisville on Oct. 17.
Florida State, now losers of back-to-back after opening the season 3-0, will try to end the slide next week against Pitt at home.
Miami 28, FSU 19
Here’s the Miami-FSU box score (use the dropdown menu to select team or player stats), followed by the complete play-by-play:
Carson Beck vs Tommy Castellanos
Did Miami QB Carson Beck help or hurt his Heisman odds? A statistical breakdown of how Beck performed against FSU counterpart Tommy Castellanos:
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
