Shannon has 'Canes on a yellow alert
The momentum the Miami Hurricanes created after beating Texas A&M has evaporated.
Miami reverted to old form at times in a 24-14 victory against Dukeon Saturday. The Hurricanes failed to take advantage of scoring opportunities and the offensive line was plagued by penalties.
"We know now what we gotta work on," guard Derrick Morse said. "Luckily, we won."
After only having 20 penalty yards against then-20th-ranked Texas A&M, Miami had 74 against Duke, 50 coming on holding calls from four linemen.
"We did some great things [Saturday], it's just the penalties that killed us," Morse said. "We're not going to beat great teams, or any team, with those penalties.
"There's nothing really you can do except get on those guys and say you have to be accountable for yourself. As an offensive line, we can only control the five of us; we have to take it upon ourselves to say, 'Don't get any penalties. Do your job.'"
Coach Randy Shannon called the penalties "unacceptable." He has touted the offensive line as the team's strongest unit, but said he will use referees this week in practice with hopes of limiting the mistakes. Shannon did the same after the line struggled with false starts against Florida International and the problem was corrected.
"If guys get lax, three weeks back to back we keep making the same mistakes, then we're not getting better as a team," Shannon said.
Quarterback Kyle Wright, who threw for 230 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions, admitted the team might have been riding the wave of last week's victory.
"As hard as it is to keep it out, it's only natural," Wright said. "Coach Shannon was like, 'You're going to believe me one day and [Saturday] was a good example."
The offense, which was so creative against Texas A&M, was more conservative.
Still, UM did gain a season-high 430 total yards. Running back Graig Cooper rushed for 101 yards, more than in his past two games combined. His fourth-quarter touchdown put an end to an offensive lull after the Hurricanes scored 10 points on their first two possessions.
"I think guys just got relaxed," Wright said. "We went out and scored on the first two drives, and I think we kind of got lulled to sleep and that's not something we can do in the ACC."
