Miami Football: 3 takeaways from tight win over NC State in Week 10

Miami football has yet another uninspiring performance after bye week, but escaped with a win on the road over NC State.

As I pointed out in the game preview, Manny Diaz is 0-4 after a bye week and the games are usually sloppy and penalty filled. Friday night’s game versus NC State was exactly that, but Miami escaped with a win on the road. Miami is not playing like the 11th best team in the country, but surviving and advancing is better than taking a loss to a below average NC State squad.

Miami’s defense came out in the first half and played one of the worst halves of football in quite sometime and gave up way too many big plays.

The pass rush was non-existent and let Wolfpack quarterback Bailey Hockman have way too much time to sit back and throw. Their defense is not as good as they have been in recent years due to a lot of new starters and some of their key players coming off injuries, but Miami should be much better on that side of the ball and not giving up big plays to a team’s backup quarterback.

The offense was pretty good for most of the game and Hurricanes quarterback D’Eriq King might have played his most complete this season, continuously making key throws down the field and running the ball effectively.

I think most Hurricanes fans would agree that if they did not have King this season, their record would be much worse. The leadership that King provides has been invaluable to the program this season after having a leadership void last season. Miami must play much better going forward against better competition in Virginia Tech and North Carolina.

Here are the three key takeaways from Miami’s game versus NC State.