No. 11 Miami narrowly avoided a home upset on Saturday and beat Georgia Tech, 25-24, on a field goal with four seconds left. The Hurricanes are 5-0.
Georgia Tech led by two in the final minute and had Miami facing a fourth-and-10 from the Yellow Jackets’ 43-yard line. Tech should’ve won right there, but a tipped pass from Malik Rosier fell fortuitously into the arms of Darrell Langham, at Tech’s 15.
What a catch to basically win the game for Miami pic.twitter.com/sgS0GZCjhS
— Dan Worthington (@danWorthington) October 14, 2017
That circus catch set up the game-winning chip-shot field goal by Michael Badgley.
Miami had given Tech a free touchdown return on a botched onside kick to open the second half, one of the funnier plays of the year. That loomed large at the end, when a torrential downpour made the field slick and slowed down both offenses.
Miami played from behind for most of the game.
The Jackets took a 14-3 lead in the first minute of the second quarter, when a pressured TaQuon Marshall found a wide-open J.J. Green for a 3-yard score.
The Hurricanes blitzed and nearly sacked Marshall, but he stayed out of their grasp long enough to flick the ball to a completely uncovered green, who’d slipped into open space after being camped in the middle of the field. Green will never score an easier touchdown in his life than that one, and Miami could only watch him.
Miami opened the scoring with a first-quarter field goal, but the Yellow Jackets put together back-to-back dominant TD drives after that: 76 yards on seven plays, and 70 yards on eight. The Yellow Jackets threw exactly one pass on those two drives, and it went for the touchdown to Green. They didn’t throw once in the first quarter.
Miami closed the first half on a 10-0 run to get within a point. Travis Homer caught a 17-yard touchdown pass from Rosier with 12 seconds left in the second quarter. Homer was starting at running place of Mark Walton, who’s out for the year with an ankle injury. Homer scored again later.