Louisville started poorly against Clemson in their game on Friday night, and things didn’t get much better as the first half went on. Let’s dive into some of the plays that stood out to me.
Louisville had one sack in this game, and it came on one of the first plays of the game. Clev Lubin (50) beats one of the best offensive tackles in the country for a nice coverage sack, where he does a nice job of ripping down Blake Miller’s (78) left arm while pushing off with his left arm to get up the field and around Miller. He then uses his speed to close ground on Cade Klubnik in a flash.
The Louisville pass rush has been good this year, but they need more sacks over the next few games. It has become a factor in the play of the overall defense that they can’t put the opposing offenses in long yardage situations.
For at least the second straight game, Louisville is dropping its coverage behind the sticks and giving up these easy first-down throws. The only defender that is shallow of the sticks is Stanquan Clark (6), who turns his back to Klubnik, which allows the receiver to beat him on a shake route.
I don’t understand the strategy at all with these coverages when the players are also not playing these throws tight enough that they can drive and make a play on the ball when it’s in the air. They are bailing in coverage, and they are playing these routes very softly for whatever reason.
This is on Clark (6), and it’s pretty obvious when you watch what everyone else is doing on the play. UofL is in zone coverage with Antonio Watts (9) and Jojo Evans (27) responsible for the outside areas in the intermediate spots in the defense. Watts takes a few steps outside and hovers in his area. Evans walks down into his outside area between the numbers and the hash.
Clark follows a shallow crosser, which vacates the middle of the field. The play design from Clemson is meant to put Clark in conflict, and it works as designed. However, I’m chalking this one up to Clark not playing for a good while. He bites on the quick route due to down and distance, and Clemson made him pay.
While Stanquan made a mistake earlier in the drive, this is what you get from a positive standpoint. He is a unique talent on this defense because he is so athletic. Clark sees this play developing with two pulling linemen coming around to clear out space for the running back. Instead of getting caught up in the wash, he cuts inside the blockers and works back outside to cut down the back before he gets going. This is the type of play they’ve been missing while Clark has been out.
It’s nice to see the Cards run a true RPO like this. I think that they could expand on this and make it a bigger part of the offense going forward. The Cards are in their third straight year of having one of the most efficient rushing attacks in the country, and they have to find a way to leverage that into a better overall offense. While this is a basic slant route off of the RPO, they could add in deep shots and screens built to run after the catch off of RPO action.
The positive thing on this play for Louisville is that Rene Konga (90) is eating up blocks up front as Clemson double teams him. The negative is that Konga is eating up two blockers, and yet, the Cards don’t have a single player at the point of attack who can make this tackle.
The Cards get spread out by the formation and the defensive call, but they are also too timid with getting downhill to make this play. The entire second level of the defense waits too long to take on blocks or to close down on the space on this play. You cannot have a player take on blockers like this and not stop this play for a short gain at the very least.
Miller Moss (7) is under center on this play with an offensive line lined up with tight splits and every lineman with their hand on the ground. It’s pretty obvious that they are running the football, and the down and distance tells you that as well. Still, Clemson is showing no respect for UofL’s potent running game by their look. Keyjuan Brown against a light box is a dream for the Cards, and he makes them pay.
The more the season goes on, the more I think that opposing defenses don’t expect Jeff Brohm to stick with his running game. I’d call out Ron English if he had his defense lined up with a deep safety and his field cornerback playing ten yards off the ball in this situation. Clemson has a corner blitzing on this play, but that doesn’t help in a running situation like this. I think teams will live with this as long as Brohm throws the ball 35 times a game.
The Cards block for this play action pass about as well as they can. This is a long-developing play with Chris Bell (0) running a deep cross behind the linebackers and in front of the safeties. Jaleel Skinner (88) and Trevonte Sylvester (70) do an outstanding job of running their blocks up the field, with Lance Robinson (53) doing the same. Then you have Jordan Church (54) and Pete Nygra (50) doing a good job of stoning the interior rusher to give space for Moss to step up into his throw.
If the Cards could get this blocking as well as the type of throw from Moss on a regular basis, the downfield passing game would be plenty good enough to improve the offense.
Three cheers for a creative play from Jeff Brohm. This is a play that a handful of other teams have run, and it’s a favorite of mine. My memory isn’t what it used to be, so I could be forgetting a time that the Cards may have run it before. Not much to break down on this play, but it’s a nice wrinkle for this offense.
I’ve avoided being critical of Isaac Brown for his fumbles, as they have come when he is fighting for extra yardage. Duke Watson is technically doing the same here, but he has to put two hands on the ball in this scenario. He is only a few yards away from where he took the handoff, and it is clear that he is not going to be in the open field by the time he takes contact.
You can see that right before he is contacted by Avian Terrell (8), who ends up forcing the fumble, Watson gets hit on his right shoulder, which turns his body. At this point, the ball gets away from his body, and he gets stripped. He needs to be more aware of the situation and know that he will be taking multiple hits in this area of the field.
There is nothing worse than playing defense after a sudden change. Typically, you worry about a deep throw down the field, most likely off play action. Clemson changes it up and goes with an inside power run with a pulling guard to lead the way for Adam Randall (8) to get into the second level so quickly that the safeties are left lunging for him.
TJ Capers (11) also plays this poorly, which gives Randall the space to get to top speed so quickly. Capers should be filling down to the inside shoulder of the tight end that ends up blocking him. If he is there, he can take on the pulling tackle and force Randall to cut or slow down in some sort of way. Capers overruns the play and gets kicked out of the hole. He needs to be more aggressive on this play and get downhill to take on a block.
Clemson scored two touchdowns. This one was due to a short field from the offense.
