When the halftime buzzer sounded during Miami’s Friday night bout with Wake Forest, the Hurricanes held a commanding 24-7 lead. Then, the U struck first in the second half and thought it had put the game to bed, up 31-7.
But the Demon Deacons weren’t done yet. Quarterback Gio Lopez fired up his offense and rattled off two scores to close the gap to 31-20 with over 14 minutes left in the fourth quarter. Suddenly, a football game was underway in Winston-Salem, and Miami’s offense had already settled into its clock-chewing mode.
Once an offense hits the proverbial shutoff valve, it’s hard to pick up the pace again. Couple that with the fact that Miami QB Darian Mensah’s favorite target, Malachi Toney, got banged up in the first half and obviously lost a step, and the Hurricanes’ offense wasn’t moving anything, much less the chains…