#7 Miami silenced their critics

Just 3 weeks ago, who would have pictured Miami beating both of their toughest games of the season? Remember, 3 weeks ago Miami had barely escaped a 1-7 North Carolina team.

Going into the Virginia Tech week, #10 Miami had the biggest questions of all the top-10 teams in college football, which was; can the Miami Hurricanes beat a quality opponent? Virginia Tech, up to that point, had only 1-loss, and that was against defending national champion, #2 Clemson, at the time. Since that Clemson game, #13 Virginia Tech were steam rolling through opponents. The week before Miami played North Carolina, Virginia Tech had put 59 points on the board.

The Virginia Tech game was meant to expose Miami as “Frauds” because they had not played any quality opponent up to that point, and Miami had not crushed anybody all season. Even the Bethune Cookman game, to start the season, looked shaky at times.

Miami’s close win versus a weak Florida State team was their only claim for being a top-10 team. That Florida State game almost derailed, what is turning out to be, a great season. Miami’s top weapon on offense was knocked out for the season with a crucial injury, as well as, Miami’s top transfer this off-season.

Fast forward to Virginia Tech week, and every major sports site are counting the Miami Hurricanes out. They are saying that Miami will lose, and Miami’ run for the ACC championship game will end.

But wait,

I heard an interesting statement going into that week, “What if Miami is just starting to hit their stride, while every other top-10 team are coming off theirs?”

So as Saturday came and went, the college football world was now on notice. They had just witnessed #10 Miami dominate #13 Virginia Tech in a 28-10 victory. Miami’s defense looked good in that game, but there were still doubters around college football.

The new question was, “Can Miami defense shut down #3 Notre Dame’s dominating offense?”

Now, as an entire new week goes by, we hear people say that #7 Miami will get crushed by Notre Dame. Notre Dame this and Notre Dame that. But, one thing Miami has that no other school in the country has is the great Ed Reed.

ED reed, NFL Legend and Miami great, had returned to Miami just to help the hurricanes watch film on Notre Dame’s rushing attack. Ed reed as part of one of the NFL’s legendary defenses, the Baltimore Ravens, and now he’s a defensive coach for the Buffalo Bills.

#7 Miami were put to the task of stopping an offense that looked like a freight train. #3 Notre Dame up to this point, were averaging 41 points per game and over 300 yards rushing. Miami, a team who had struggled at times to stop the run, looked like they were going to be outmatched.

But Saturday came,

#7 Miami for 60-minutes, terrorized #3 Notre Dame. Miami’s defense not only played better against Notre Dame than it did against Virginia Tech, Miami allowed less points too. Notre Dame scored only 8-points, their star quarterback was benched before the half, and their star running back, Adams, was sent to the locker room in the 3rd quarter.

https://twitter.com/SleeperAthletes/status/929543073578745856

Miami had out rushed the best running team in the country, that did not have a triple option offense. Miami put up 41-points on Notre Dame’s dominating defense, and Miami did not turn the ball over once the entire game.

Miami played the best game of any top-10 team this week.

Now, the question that must be answered by the playoff committee, “Where inside the top-4 do we place the Miami Hurricanes?”

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