No. 5 Miami got what it needed Friday night in Winston-Salem: a 33-20 road win, its first real fight of the season, and a reminder that surviving a game like this can come at a cost.
The Hurricanes stayed unbeaten, but they didn’t leave Wake Forest unscathed. Injuries piled up, the roster thinned out, and the second half turned into a grind.
Miami was good enough to escape. It was not clean enough to feel comfortable.
On defense, the front had to keep adjusting after Ahmad Moten went down early, though he later returned, and several players stepped into bigger roles. Lightfoot was one of the steadier answers.
He held the edge, created pressure, and gave Miami something dependable on the outside when the line was scrambling. His stat line backed it up: a sack and two quarterback hits.
Damon Wilson was another big reason Miami came out on top. The Missouri transfer made his most noticeable impact of the season, working as both a rusher and run defender.
He picked up his first sack of the year and also forced a key safety after getting held in the end zone. Wilson wasn’t spotless, though; a couple of penalties hurt.
Even so, he delivered one of the game’s defining plays.
Blount kept bringing the kind of physicality Miami needed. He moved inside and outside, stood up against the run, and helped steady a front that had to survive some chaos. Through three games, he has been the most consistent of the bunch, and against Wake Forest he added a sack while continuing to make himself felt for Corey Hetherman’s defense.
The secondary had to do plenty of adjusting too, especially with the starting corners already out. Ethan O’Connor handled a much bigger workload and held up. He wasn’t perfect, but he competed, limited the damage, and then came through when it mattered most by sealing the game with an interception in the second half.
The nickel/safety hybrid Thornton kept making Wake Forest’s quarterback uncomfortable. He was a constant blitz threat, and his ability to show pressure before the snap and then get there after it is becoming a real weapon for this defense. He was one of the reasons Miami was able to keep control of the game.
Then there was JJ Dunnigan, the true freshman safety who keeps validating the buzz he got in camp. He played downhill, looked ready for the moment, and didn’t appear overwhelmed. Dunnigan tied for the team lead with eight tackles and added three quarterback hits, giving Miami another trustworthy piece while veterans are sidelined.
Offensively, the connection between Darian Mensah and Malachi Toney continued to hold things together. Mensah was efficient, finishing 30 of 34 for 220 yards and three touchdowns, while Toney stayed in the role of security blanket.
The pair wasn’t explosive from start to finish, but when the game tightened and the run game lost steam, they remained the reliable part of Miami’s attack. Both left the game banged up, and Toney was limited to certain snaps in the second half.
Mark Fletcher was the running back who carried the offense on the ground. With CharMar Brown going down with an injury in the second quarter, the burden shifted to Fletcher, and he answered with 16 carries for 85 yards and a touchdown.
He was the one back who looked ready to handle the moment and gave Miami a physical edge when it needed one. He, too, came out of the game hurt, going into the locker room in the fourth quarter with an upper-body injury.
Brown’s injury forced Miami to dig deeper into its backfield, and that’s where the night got less encouraging. Javian Mallory and Girard Pringle Jr. got their chances, but the depth behind Fletcher suddenly looks thinner and less dangerous than it did two weeks ago.
Mallory averaged 3.3 yards per carry, and Pringle averaged 3.0. Those numbers will have to improve.
The receiving group had its own uneven night. The Duke transfer was quiet when Miami needed a second target to step forward, finishing with four catches for 13 yards.
That wasn’t enough from a veteran brought in with ACC production already on the résumé. With Toney limited and the offense needing someone else to help keep the chains moving, the production just wasn’t there.
Miami’s offense started sharp in the first half, then lost its edge after the injuries started stacking up. The Hurricanes shifted into a more methodical, lower-ceiling approach and never fully took control the way they might have wanted. Dawson’s unit still scored enough to win, but the rhythm and the play-calling became conservative and reactive for long stretches against a Wake Forest team that kept fighting.
The bottom line is simple: Miami is 3-0, and it has already shown it can win ugly. That matters. So does the injury report, which now becomes the biggest thing to watch as the Hurricanes head into the next stretch of ACC play.
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