Miami Football: 3 Takeaways from the rout of North Carolina, 47-10

1. When the defense comes to play, Miami can compete with anyone.

This one maybe semi-obvious, but the Miami defense was the MVP of this game and it wasn’t even close. However, that isn’t always the case. The Canes had a remarkable 2017 season, but it ended in a less than exciting manner with four straight losses. The common thread between each of those? A lack of turnovers for the Miami defense.

Tonight, Miami forced six turnovers. Six. That was a big part of this win over North Carolina. The defense, on it’s own, outscored the Tar Heels offense. That is an insane statistic to me. If your defense scored enough on it’s own for you to win the game, you could say that it was a good game for that side of the ball.

While this Miami team won’t be making a trip to the Playoff after losing to LSU in Week 1, they can still make a big-time bowl game. However, their defense will have to keep playing lights out like they did tonight against the Tar Heels because when they don’t this team doesn’t win. It really is as simple as that.

Miami did what they were supposed to on Thursday night. They handled an overpowered and outmatched opponent with ease. The Canes can’t get too high after this win, but it was absolutely a step in the right direction.