Joel Klatt reacts to Miami loss, what setback means for its College Football Playoff hopes

Miami won its first nine games of the season. That two-plus-month unbeaten stretch featured a trio of second-half comebacks.

The Hurricanes didn’t have another one in them at Georgia Tech over the weekend.

“Miami finally loses,” FOX Sports analyst Joel Klatt said Monday on his show. “They were like a drunk chasing a balloon next to a cliff. This was inevitable. When you are not balanced in this sport, you’re going to get beat. And they were not balanced.

“And I’m not just talking about running and throwing. I’m talking about the ability to play well on the defensive side and the offensive side. And they had been toying with losses for weeks and really should have been beat before this.”

Miami, at the time No. 4 in the country, trailed the upset-hungry Yellow Jackets most of the Week 11 matchup. In fact, an early second quarter touchdown pass from Haynes King marked the turning point in a game that saw Georgia Tech hold the ball for close to 10 minutes more than the Hurricanes.

The Yellow Jackets played keep away from Heisman Trophy-contending quarterback Cam Ward, and Miami fell short, 28-23.

“They are a one-dimensional team led by a great quarterback, and I’m a huge fan of Cam Ward, and I like this Miami team offensively. But they do not stop people on the defensive side, that’s all,” Klatt said of the Hurricanes, who are tied for 57th nationally with 23.1 points per game allowed.

“They didn’t have any margin for error. And, more specifically, Cam didn’t have any margin for error in any of these games. Now, as a team, they have no margin for error because they better win the rest of their games, go to the ACC Championship game and win it because one more loss, and they’re not going to the playoff. So they’ve put themselves in quite a bind.”

Klatt explained that, before Miami lost to Georgia Tech, he thought head coach Mario Cristobal’s team could make the playoff as a one-loss conference championship game loser. He doesn’t see that path anymore for the Hurricanes, who still have to play Wake Forest and Syracuse to round out the regular season.

Klatt pointed out that there’s likely to be a 10-2 SEC team left out of the field, and that team will likely have a better resume than a two-loss Miami that finished runner-up in the ACC.

“That’s just the case,” Klatt said. “That’s the facts of the matter. So Miami is up against it. They’ve got no room for error the rest of the year. SMU’s still sitting there at 5-0. And I sit there, and I look at SMU at 5-0, and I think to myself, look at the standings around college football — they’re in sole possession, the Mustangs.

“Pony up, SMU, sole possession of first place in the ACC.”

SMU, which joined the ACC this past offseason, has lost only one game this season, and that was a three-point setback to undefeated and Big 12-leading BYU in September.

The Mustangs, who were No. 13 in the first CFP rankings, close the season with games against Boston College, Virginia and Cal. Of those three contests, only the UVA matchup is on the road.

Miami is no longer in the driver’s seat in the ACC. The Hurricanes still control their destiny, but, as Klatt said, they’re suddenly “up against it.”