After a tumultuous week 11, the Miami Hurricanes suffered a serious hitch in the poll. They moved down eight spots in the Associated Press Top 25 and USA Today Coaches polls on Sunday after a humiliating upset (trailed by 5) from Georgia Tech on Saturday. Mario Cristobal and his team stand 12th in the AP Top 25 as well as in the Coaches poll. While their top rank in the ACC still makes all the difference, veteran analysts spilled some dreadful predictions after their latest defeat under the belt.

You might be stunned by the week 11 fall of the once-perfect Hurricanes in the polls, but the real shocker is yet to come. As we are inching toward the playoffs, the competition is getting tougher day by day to the point where teams can’t even afford a small tentative mistake.

In a passive prediction over Miami’s upcoming fight with Alabama or Texas and, therefore, the change in their poll rankings, CBS Sports’ Brad Crawford said, ”I think it’s very interesting that Miami was ranked fourth last week unbeaten coming into the game against Georgia Tech. I want to see how far the committee drops them based on that loss to Georgia Tech. So it’s going to be an interesting Tuesday night when we see these second playoff rankings.”

Moreover, another thing to consider is the sustainability of what the Hurricanes have been doing this season. Cam Ward’s heroics have gotten them so far, but in their Week 11 game, with a chance to win it all again in the dying moments of the game, the Hurricanes QB couldn’t produce the magic that we have gotten accustomed to. Even then, he finished with 348 yards and three TDs on 25 completions out of 39 passes. Not bad for a player in the Heisman talks. But the real issue with the Hurricanes has been their defense. They just can’t get a stop to ease off some pressure on the Ward-led offense. Let’s take you to what Mario Cristobal said after their first loss of the season.

Mario Cristobal took the blame after the tragic loss

The emotions are still heavy as the Miami Hurricanes walked out of the locker room with a dejected spirit. After weeks of staggering victories and racking up unfathomable scores, it finally came to a halt as the No. 4 Hurricanes dropped the ba-l against Georgia Tech. The defense fell flat against an opponent’s fiery offense and the match turned out to be run-heavy. On third down, Miami’s offense also struggled a lot.

Mario Cristobal didn’t try to escape the hardest part of it, facing the media houses and dropping the most typical after-loss reaction. The coach known for his calm and composure seemed really down on his temper for obvious reasons.

He didn’t mince a single emotion while noting, ”Extremely, extremely disappointing. I think, as you can imagine, the entire locker room is really sad, down, disappointed. You have to own it. There’s no can’t sugarcoat — if this or if that. We didn’t do a good enough job, and we knew it was going to be a great atmosphere. We had a pretty good feeling for what to do and how to do it.”

It is still in the dark if the Hurricanes can crack the nut and enter into the playoff in the final stretch of a roller coaster season. What’s your take on CFB analysts predicting more ranking misery down the road? Let us know in the comments.