Cote: Miami's Cardiac Canes win another wild victory, 52-45 at Louisville; No. 6 UM now 7-0 | Opinion

Miami Hurricanes fans and their cardiologists were no doubt hoping for a stress-free game Saturday afternoon in Louisville — or at least an ending that wasn't hectic.

They didn't understand.

A 39-38 win at Cal that relied on a miraculous comeback was followed by a 38-34 win over Virginia Tech that required a last-second touchdown, and on Saturday, the fourth quarter was 38-38 the typical chaos and confusion.

In the end, however, the same story:

The Cardiac Canes are still undefeated, still thinking about the ACC Championship Game and still dreaming about the College Football Playoff.

The count is tight, so Saturday's 52-45 UM win gave the No. 6-ranked Hurricanes a tested but flawless 7-0 victory.

Quarterback Cam Ward rushed for 319 yards and four touchdowns to lead UM in the win. He became the first Canes QB ever to score more than 300 yards and three touchdowns in the first seven games of a season. He might lose the Heisman Trophy. Saturday only increased his chances.

The Cardinals apparently scored a long fumble return touchdown that would have tied the game 45-45, but a review reversed the call and erased the TD and concluded that quarterback Cam Ward's fumble was actually a forward pass, which failed incomplete.

It was the right call.

Shortly after the Canes' Damien Martinez hit a 30-yard scoring run for the final score.

It was a big Miami win that followed the bye. Under coach Mario Cristobal, UM was 0-2 after byes and 3-11 overall after byes. under Bye And the reversal of this trend actually came at the right time.

“This is a really big deal,” Cristobal admitted before the game.

Louisville entered 4-2 and was recently ranked. In my estimation, it was a crucial win for the UM program and for Cristobal – because everything would have changed if the Canes had lost.

A loss and Miami reaching the ACC title game would have been much less certain. And it would have resulted in UM being a one-loss team and making it much more precarious to even make it into the 12-team CFP.

Miami may have to finish the regular season at 12-0 due to its lack of wins against ranked opponents in the 2024 season. And Saturday in Louisville seemed to be the biggest hurdle left in the schedule.

There's still plenty of drama ahead, however, with a prime-time game against Florida State followed by a visit from Duke. FSU is having a nightmare season at 1-6, but will be ready to spoil the season for its big rival. Duke is 6-1 and is coached by former Canes coach Manny Diaz, who also loves to upset the school that fired him.

Saturday was, in many ways, a typical Miami game: imperfect, although the perfection continued.

In the second half alone, Miami gave up a 100-yard kickoff return touchdown, lost a fumble that Louisville converted into another TD, and allowed a successful fake punt that made the score 38-38.

But Ajay Allen's 2-yard TD run and then Martinez's long scoring gallop made the difference. The latter proved the winning point when Louisville scored with 54 seconds left.

The Canes led 24-17 at halftime.

After an early field goal, Miami trailed 7-3 after a 43-yard scoring run by Louisville's Isaac Brown – UM's penchant for allowing big plays continues.

Canes countered with a great 27-yard scoring strike from Ward to Jacolby George in the top left corner of the end zone for a 10-7 lead, which was extended further by Ward's 49-yard pass to Sam Brown Jr , Miami's transfer portal prices grew to 17:7.

After the Cardinals went up 17-14 with a 3-yard scoring run, Miami conceded a huge defensive TD on a Louisville fumble into the end zone from their own 3-yard zone, caused and recovered by Miami's Simeon Barrow by Raul Aguirre Jr. It was UM It was the first defensive fumble recovery of the season and a huge one, making it 24-14 before the Cards kicked a 22-yard field goal at the end of the half.

The second half was crazy, as you would expect by now.

By the way: With the win, Miami reclaimed the Howard Schnellenberger Trophy, named after the late great coach who meant so much to both UM and Louisville.

That was nice.

But the Hurricanes had bigger prizes on their minds, namely the ACC title game and the CFP — and wherever The could lead.

Saturday's win kept both prizes in sight.