Miami’s 43-35 win over Florida State had plenty of swing moments, and it also left a pretty clear split between the Canes who drove the night and the ones who dragged it a bit.
Using Pro Football Focus grades with a minimum of 20 snaps as the reference point, a few names stood out at the top right away. Malachi Toney and Bryce Fitzgerald led the way, with Justin Scott, Armondo Blount and Marquise Lightfoot rounding out the top five. Javian Mallory landed just outside that group, but he probably deserved better than that.
Mallory’s grade is the one that jumps off the page the most. He ran hard, made good cuts, stayed behind his blockers and powered through contact.
From the press box view, there weren’t obvious errors that would explain why he was tagged with a 30.2 passing game mark. That one clearly doesn’t line up with what showed up on the field.
Toney and Fitzgerald were the headline acts. Both were described as warriors, ballers and game changers, and Miami doesn’t win without them.
Fitzgerald also battled through a shoulder injury that Cristobal said after the game he was worried was serious. He still came back and closed the night out.
That’s about as tough as it gets.
Lightfoot made his presence felt in the trenches, finishing with eight QB pressures, the most of anyone in the game. With pressure not coming consistently across the full 60-plus minutes, that mattered.
Scott was busy inside with eight tackles, second on the team, while Blount added one of Miami’s two sacks of Ashton Daniels and posted four QB pressures, also second-best on the roster. The splash plays were there in spots, even if the overall pressure wasn’t constant.
On the other side, the bottom of the grading sheet featured Ben Congdon, Samson Okunlola, Dylan Day, Omar Thornton and Gavin Mueller. That said, the two offensive linemen near the bottom didn’t really match what stood out from watching the game. The bigger problems seemed to come from defense - scheme, pass rush, coverage and a few questionable personnel choices.
One example was Thornton lined up as the single deep safety while JJ Dunnigan rushed on the Duce Robinson 75-yard touchdown. The argument there was that Dunnigan is a ballhawk and Thornton is a missile, so that setup didn’t make much sense.
Congdon also had a strong seal block on the first Fletcher touchdown, which made the low grade harder to buy. Mueller, meanwhile, was hard to fully judge without another look.
Zechariah Poyser was actually headed for the lowest grade at 37.6 before he was ejected for targeting after just eight snaps. Day finished with three tackles and was charged with two missed tackles by PFF.
He also did not allow a catch on his one target, which makes the 42.0 grade difficult to reconcile. Micahi Danzy did go up over him to snag the first miracle Hail Mary in double overtime, but that play was wiped out by holding.
Damon Wilson II finished just off the cut line. He had no tackles, no sacks and three QB pressures in 25 snaps, and he also drew the controversial holding call in double overtime that erased the score.
On replay, it looked like his jersey was grabbed and pulled down, so the call appeared justified despite the complaints. Still, Miami needed more from its star edge rusher.
After the Clemson win, he was trending way up, but against Florida State he just wasn’t enough of a factor.
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