Miami Set an ACC Passing Record Friday. It Almost Wasn't Enough.
Darian Mensah completed 24 straight passes to open the game and set conference records, but a 31-7 lead nearly evaporated and Miami may have lost a running back for the season.
No. 5 Miami beat Wake Forest 33-20 on Friday night in Winston-Salem, and for about a quarter and a half, it looked like the kind of laugher the Hurricanes have been putting up all season. Then it looked like something else entirely.
The Record
Darian Mensah opened the game by completing his first 24 passes, breaking the ACC single-game record of 15 and extending his streak to 35 consecutive completions dating to Miami’s previous game against Florida A&M. He finished 30 of 34 for 220 yards and three touchdowns without an interception, and those 24 consecutive completions to start the game set Hurricanes and ACC records, adding to the 11 he threw to end last week’s game for a 35-pass streak that also set conference marks. Malachi Toney did his part too, finishing with 12 catches for 114 yards.
By midway through the third quarter, Miami led 31-7. It should have been over. Instead, Miami failed to pick up a first down on five consecutive drives, punting on four and having a field goal blocked on the fifth, while gaining just 26 yards on offense over its final six possessions as Wake Forest scored twice to get within 31-20. Wake Forest quarterback Gio Lopez, who completed 29 of 46 passes for 312 yards and three touchdowns, nearly authored the upset of Miami’s season.
The Hurricanes’ defense finally stiffened. A safety, a pair of turnovers on downs, and a fourth-quarter interception by Ethan O’Connor were enough to hold on for the win. The safety came on a holding call in the end zone that Miami’s pass rush forced, and Wake Forest didn’t help itself — the Demon Deacons committed 13 penalties for 137 yards, including two that wiped out big fourth-quarter punt returns.
Why the Offense Disappeared
The larger story isn’t Mensah cooling off. It’s who Miami lost while he was hot. With the Hurricanes leading 14-7 in the second quarter, running back CharMar “Marty” Brown broke off a 32-yard run before being tackled at the Wake one-yard line, and the injury that followed was serious enough that ESPN’s broadcast described it as “gruesome” and chose not to show a replay. Brown was helped off the field and is believed likely to be out for the season. Mark Fletcher Jr. and Toney were also banged up down the stretch, according to the broadcast, and Miami’s already-thin cornerback room didn’t get any healthier — the secondary is already missing three corners: Romanas “OJ” Frederique Jr., Xavier Lucas and Ja’Boree Antoine, and Frederique and Antoine are expected to be sidelined for most of the season while Lucas isn’t expected back until next month.
Cristobal didn’t dress it up afterward. Asked about the injuries, he said simply that Brown, Fletcher and Toney “went down” and would be evaluated once the team returned to Coral Gables and doctors could assess them. He was more direct about the execution problem in the second half, saying the issue wasn’t scheme but that Miami repeatedly found itself in difficult third-down situations over its final four possessions and stopped running the ball effectively.
What This Actually Tells Us
Miami is 3-0 and 2-0 in the ACC, and a two-touchdown road win over a team that had won its first two games is a fine result on paper. But this was also the first time all season Miami trailed after the opening quarter in the sense that mattered — the first time the opponent had the ball with a real chance to make it a game in the fourth quarter. The offensive line and skill-position depth that looked bottomless against Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman got tested, and it cracked for about 20 minutes of game time.
None of that erases what Mensah did. A 35-pass streak without an incompletion, spanning two games, is the kind of accuracy that keeps Miami’s ceiling exactly where preseason polls put it. But the margin for error just got smaller. Central Michigan is next at Hard Rock Stadium, a game Miami should win comfortably regardless of who’s healthy. The real evaluation starts after that, at Clemson, with a banged-up backfield and a secondary that was already running short before Friday night.