Louisville survived a trip to Syracuse to get a solid road win in the ACC. Below are some of the key plays in the fourth quarter, with some thoughts from me.
Louisville turned up the pressure in the second half with blitzes like this one, where Kaleb Beasley comes from the slot. They were able to confuse the Syracuse offensive line as well as get one-on-one matchups for their best pass rushers. This blitz leads to Ben Perry getting a free run at Malachi Nelson because the left tackle sees Beasley blitzing, but the left guard does not. The guard blocks down, and Perry gets loose.
This was the play where Nelson hurt his shoulder. It’s fair to wonder if this game would have gone differently if he finished this game healthy.
Syracuse ran this play earlier in the game in the same situation, and Ben Perry had to recover to make a nice play to break up the pass. Here, Jabari Mack shows exactly how to play the slot fade on the goal line. He starts the play by angling exactly where he needs to so that he can stay “in phase” with the receiver. Because he’s in phase, there is no path for the ball to get to the receiver unless it goes through him.
Mack then makes a really nice play on the ball by turning and getting his hand on the ball. This is exactly what you want to see from a veteran corner. He stays calm with the ball in the air after using good technique to put himself in position to make the play. Syracuse is forced to kick a field goal, and the Cards keep the lead.
A misconception about man coverage is that you can’t have players with eyes on the quarterback to jump routes or make plays on the ball in the middle of the field. As this play call shows, you can run man-zone concepts with man coverage on the outside and zone on the inside.
Also, as this play shows, your zone players can read the quarterback as Stanquan Clark does here and make a play for the defense. Clark does such a good job of seeing this play develop before he jumps this route. It’s reminiscent of his interception against Ole Miss. This time, he only gets his hands on the ball with Cam White there to pick off the pass.
This may have been the play of the game. Louisville had not had any success on offense in the second half, and the defense had just given them great field position to get some separation on the scoreboard. The drive started off as the others had in the half until Kienholz connected with Jackson Voth on this play.
Lincoln Kienholz did not have a great game, but this was one of the best throws of the season for him. He drives this ball really well right off the top of his drop. The ball placement is absolutely perfect, as it is outside and up where his receiver can make the catch, but the corner would have to make an outstanding play. The corner plays this perfectly, but the throw is perfect, and Voth makes a really good catch before getting up the field for a big play.
I think I point it out every week, but Kienholz’ athleticism is such an asset to this offense. The run game wasn’t working, which means the defense didn’t respect the play action calls like you’d like them to. Kienholz is still able to get outside on this play when a safety has a clean shot at him on the edge. He gets depth while throwing a stiff-arm before he hits Lawayne McCoy on the run.
If this defense could play like this from the first snap, they’d be in much better shape. Jabari Mack closes on this play with a level of effort and energy I haven’t seen from him.
First sack. UofL drops into a cloud zone, and AJ Green and Jerod Smith push the pocket to give Malachi Nelson nowhere to run. Clev Lubin puts on a pass rushing clinic as he gets up the field before retracing his steps into a spin move to get the sack.
Second sack. Tyler Thompson utilizes a similar dip move that he used the week before against SMU. He gets under the arms of the right tackle before diving to get Nelson down as he looks to escape the pocket. All four players did their part to get two straight sacks to essentially close out the game.
What a way to end a game. Stanquan Clark times up the play perfectly and shoots the gap to get a tackle for loss. As frustrating as the first half was, the defense was dominant in the second half. One has to hope that the staff uses the bye week to shift the defense to the more aggressive style of play we saw in the second half.