No. 3 Miami beat archrival Florida State 43-35 in double overtime Saturday night at Hard Rock Stadium. Darian Mensah threw for 326 yards and three touchdowns, ESPN reported. CBS Sports' Austin Nivison wrote that the Hurricanes "escaped disaster" through clutch overtime plays and a controversial ruling at the end. Our box score shows the last play: Ashton Daniels' pass was intercepted by Bryce Fitzgerald at the Miami goal line, and the ball came out as a touchback.
What the officials got right is the open question. Yahoo Sports says two controversial calls went against the Seminoles and asks whether they were correct. Awful Announcing and Yahoo both ran a piece on the ACC replay center's review of the Hail Mary, which they said brought "clarity and disappointment." The feed summaries don't say what the calls were or how the review came out, so we can't say here whether the interception was right. Our box score has no officiating crew listed.
The statistics favored Miami: 583 yards to 443, 26 first downs to 19, and 37:20 of possession to 22:40. Florida State kept the game close with big plays. Daniels threw four touchdown passes for 298 yards, and Duce Robinson caught five passes for 113 yards and two scores, including a 75-yarder. Miami rushed for 257 yards. Javian Mallory had 108 on 13 carries with two touchdowns, and Malachi Toney caught 11 passes for 154 yards and two scores. Miami was flagged six times for 68 yards, against five for 35 for Florida State. Miami also went 0-for-2 on fourth down, and Florida State went 0-for-3.
Mensah has had a very productive season, and this was his only game with an interception. Our game log has him at 1,764 passing yards and 18 touchdown passes. That includes 401 yards and five touchdowns at Stanford and 338 yards against Central Michigan. He had a fumble at Clemson, and none were lost. His one interception was in the game that came closest to costing Miami.
The Hurricanes are 5-0 and 3-0 in the ACC, first in the league, with a five-game winning streak. Their other margins this month were 41-13 at Clemson and 52-3 over Central Michigan, so Saturday was by far their closest game in our recent results. Yahoo's Three Stars piece described the win as a scare in a day of upsets. Yahoo and Awful Announcing both say No. 1 Georgia, No. 2 Notre Dame, No. 5 Indiana, No. 6 Alabama and No. 7 Texas all lost. Our data confirms Texas's 27-24 loss to Florida, and Texas is now 4-1.
Florida State is 3-3 and 1-2 in the ACC, 13th in the league, and has lost two straight after the 44-20 loss at Louisville on Oct. 9. The Seminoles host Clemson on Oct. 31. Miami hosts Pittsburgh on Oct. 24.
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