Nobody can take down this Miami team.
For the second straight week, No. 8 Miami overcame a slow, error-plagued start and rallied for an unlikely victory.
This time, it was seemingly impossible as the Hurricanes rallied from a 25-point deficit to beat Cal 39-38 in a late-night ACC thriller in Berkeley, California.
This ruined what was otherwise a fun and memorable day for Cal Football, which hosted ESPN’s “College GameDay” on campus for the first time.
And a sellout crowd went into a frenzy as it looked like the Bears were on their way to a commanding victory over a top-10 team, at one point leading 35-10 late in the third quarter.
Instead, Miami improves to 6-0 with another improbable victory.
Miami quarterback Cam Ward threw the winning 5-yard touchdown pass to Elijah Arroyo with 26 seconds left.
It capped off another big day for Ward, who bolstered his Heisman resume with 437 passing yards and two touchdown passes to one interception. He also ran to score.
Most of that production came in the final 20 minutes of the game, when Ward and the rest of the team appeared shell-shocked for the first two-thirds of the game.
Ward had just 109 passing yards in the first half and began the second half by throwing a pick-6 on a reckless throw across his body. Cal’s Nohl Williams caught it in the air and ran it 40 yards for a score and giving the Bears a 28-10 lead.
Cal added one more touchdown after that to put the Canes in a huge hole.
But it was all Miami from there, as the offense produced four touchdowns on four drives to close out the game, while the Bears only managed one field goal the rest of the way.
Ward and company went down the field methodically, with scoring drives of 12 plays and 75 yards, 11 plays and 75 yards, nine plays and 70 yards, six plays and 92 yards.
Ward threw both of his touchdown passes and ran for a 24-yard score in the fourth quarter.
It was the second week in a row that he had to create late magic to overcome some early mistakes after pulling off a 10-point, fourth-quarter comeback win over Virginia Tech.
While the Canes might be close, there’s something to be said about surviving a day that saw four top-10 teams fall, three of them to unranked opponents. Not even No. 1 Alabama could escape the day of chaos.
But Miami did escape. And for now, that’s all that matters.