Mario Cristobal met with reporters on Saturday night after Miami’s heartbreaking 23-20 loss to Georgia Tech.

The Hurricanes had the game all-but-won — all they had to do was run the clock out with under 40 seconds remaining. The Yellow Jackets, with no timeouts, were powerless to stop the clock.

Instead of taking a knee, Miami opted to hand the ball off to Don Chaney Jr., who fumbled. Georgia Tech recovered and then marched down the field in 2 plays to score the game-winning touchdown.

After the game, Cristobal acknowledged the mistake and said it shouldn’t have happened. He said he should have called timeout to “recalibrate” and then take a knee to run out the clock.

“We should have taken a timeout right there at the end,” Cristobal said. “Thought he’d get the first down. We talked about two hands on the ball. But that’s not good enough. Should have told him to take a knee. That’s it. We fumbled the ball on the 25 and they went 75 yards in 2 plays. No excuse.”

Cristobal said Miami didn’t have any confusion about whether or not Georgia Tech had a timeout remaining. He also denied that another play was run in an effort to get Chaney over the 100-yard threshold. That carry did push Chaney from 99 yards to 103 yards on the night.

“I don’t have any excuse for it,” he added. “Say, should have done ‘this or that.’ That’s it. We should have [taken a knee] and sometimes you just get carried away and just finish the game and run it. But I should have stepped in and just said, ‘hey, take a knee.'”

Georgia Tech quarterback Haynes King made the game-winning play — a 44-yard touchdown pass to Christian Leary that left just 2 seconds on the clock.

The loss drops Miami to 4-1 on the season. After entering the night with legitimate ACC title game aspirations, the Hurricanes will now have to go back to the drawing board before facing North Carolina next week.