Measuring Stick? Mistakes and Missed Opportunities Sink Miami Hurricanes

The Miami Hurricanes had a tough task looking for a win at the Shoehorn filled with 105,000 opposing fans. 

As dominant as Ohio State was on defense, I couldn't help but ponder how things would have gone had the Hurricanes capitalized on those INT's that were thrown right their our hands. 

Make no mistake, the Hurricanes lost this game.  They beat themselves.

You cant go up against a team of Ohio State's caliber and lose a turnover battle 4-0 and expect to win.  The Hurricanes should have had three turnovers, and that is what cost them the game. 

I'm sure Sportscenter will idolize Terrelle Pryor tonight, but the Canes handed him the stat line with missed tackles and dropped interceptions. 

The Defense did a fairly good job considering the positions the offense put them in constantly, but they could have made life so much easier on themselves if they stopped some of the Buckeyes drives by holding onto the ball and creating those turnovers.

In the end, Ohio St. scored 20 points on four turnovers.

The most critical turnover being the last where DT Cameron Heyward picked off a Jacory Harris pass with the Hurricanes in the redzone and rumbled back 80 yards to set up a Pryor score. A potential 14 point turn-around.

So who deserves the blame for this loss.  It looked like both strategy and execution were problems.  Had it not been for Miami's superb special teams play, this game would have been a blowout.

The defense missed countless tackles and dropped several interceptions. 

The offense was worse, giving the ball up four times.  The offense was so bad, it seemed like the defense played the entire game.

The Hurricanes looked sloppy and undisciplined. They were called for 16 penalties for a loss of 116 yards.  Their game-plan also appeared too conservative on both offense and defense.

Frankly, its a miracle the defense and special teams kept the Hurricanes in the game as long as they did.

Give credit to Ohio State, they played a great game, and proved to be the better team THIS year.

The Hurricanes can put their measuring stick away and focus on an ACC Title.  The Hurricanes hope to rebound Sept. 23 at Pittsburgh.