Cristobal rues mistakes as Miami's CFP hopes dim

DALLAS -- For the second straight season, Miami coach Mario Cristobal lamented the "self-inflicted" mistakes that cost the Hurricanes in a conference game in November.

This time, it was a 26-20 overtime loss to SMU on Saturday, a defeat that significantly damaged Miami's ACC championship and College Football Playoff hopes as the Hurricanes dropped their second ACC game in three weeks and fell to 6-2.

Miami had 12 penalties for 96 yards -- including an unsportsmanlike conduct call against defensive end Marquise Lightfoot on the final drive in regulation, when he hit quarterback Kevin Jennings after whistles had blown for a Miami timeout. That penalty helped SMU get into Miami territory and ultimately kick a 38-yard field goal to send the game into overtime.

Carson Beck threw an interception on the goal line on the first possession of overtime, and SMU won it when T.J. Harden scored from 1 yard out, as the SMU faithful stormed the field and took down one goalpost to celebrate the Mustangs' first home win against an AP top 10 opponent since 1974.

Miami, meanwhile, saw its playoff chances drop to 9%, according to the Allstate Playoff Predictor.

"We didn't take care of business, and that's completely on us," Cristobal said. "If you're raised the right way, and you got the right stuff inside you, you go right back to work. You don't know how things shake out. This is certainly a wild college football season, and the focus has to be on us taking care of our business.

"You always give credit to the opponent because that's a good football team. When you make that many mistakes, it's on everybody in the organization. You allow yourself to be put in a position where you can get beat, and that's what happened today."

Among the many Miami penalties were multiple false starts on offense -- something that has become an issue over the past month. Cristobal said SMU was mimicking the Hurricanes' cadence, and that was problematic for his linemen.

"It's the things that we've made a point of emphasis. but obviously we're not getting a result so we're not coaching it, teaching it, and executing it well enough," Cristobal said. "We had some issues with their stems and movements. We try to report when our cadence is being mimicked, but that didn't get any traction. That happens in football, so no excuses. There's not enough discipline as it relates to just holding our water and not jumping."

As for the penalty on Lightfoot, Cristobal said Miami had called timeout because SMU had fourth-and-9 and the Hurricanes wanted to see how it would be lined up. But Lightfoot never heard the whistle stopping play and continued going toward Jennings.

"He's just playing football," Cristobal said. "I'm not sure why that's called in such a critical situation when we're trying to stop play, right? It's really loud. I imagine people should step in and prevent players from moving forward and finishing a play."

Jennings ended up throwing for a career-high 365 yards with two total touchdowns -- despite tweaking an ankle injury that has bothered him for the bulk of the season. He left the game for several plays in the first half before returning, and he was a difference-maker as SMU rallied to win.

The Mustangs could not run the ball for the entire game until overtime came around and they wore down a deflated Miami defense.

SMU coach Rhett Lashlee, who signed a two-year extension earlier Saturday to make him one of the highest-paid coaches in the country, said, "This is a big win for our program and what we're trying to build."

As for Miami, it is another season filled with missed opportunities. Last year, Miami was undefeated headed into November and lost two of its final four games -- one to Georgia Tech and one to Syracuse. Defensive breakdowns in the final month of the season cost the Hurricanes, so they made a change at defensive coordinator.

But the bulk of the issues on Saturday were on offense, as Miami struggled to move the ball with consistency -- thanks in large part to the penalties. With CJ Daniels out, Miami relied on freshman Malachi Toney in the passing game but posed little threat vertically despite playing against an SMU secondary that has struggled at times to limit explosive plays.

What SMU does do well, though, is take the football away. The Mustangs entered the game with 20 total takeaways and added two more against Miami -- none bigger than Ahmaad Moses' interception in overtime, his second of the game.

"They had a good coverage on for our play," Beck said. "They got us, and he made a great play on the ball, so props to him."

Miami is now 4-11 in November or later under Cristobal, the fourth-worst win percentage in the ACC over that span. Asked how his team would respond for the remainder of the season, Cristobal said: "You don't sit around, throw your hands up and say I don't know. You just go to work. Like I told the guys, you've got to be a grown man and face it.

"When things go wrong, that's when all the rats start to come out and try to peck at you and all that other stuff. And you've got to go tell them to go you-know-what. And go to work and do it emphatically, and do it with some guts, and go fix the things that we have to fix so we can go get better."