Louisville entered the second quarter with a lead after a masterclass from Jeff Brohm on the offensive side of the ball. Ron English was able to showcase his game plan for the rest of the half with a stout run defense followed by a strategy to contain Miami’s passing game.
Let’s look at some of the key plays from the quarter.
Antonio Watts is an absurd athlete. I’m not sure what else to say about the guy. The fact that Ron English can use him this way is pretty telling. Watts is lined up as a deep safety on this play with Louisville in a Tampa-2 zone coverage with three safeties. Watts is responsible for the third of the field outside the hash he initially runs to. He reads Carson Beck’s eyes and makes the right decision to turn his hips and go play the ball before making one of the best interceptions I’ve seen from a UofL player.
On Mike’s show Friday, I pointed out that Beck had been so good this year because he had avoided hunting big plays, and the Miami offense had been efficient and balanced because of that. It was almost like he had listened to the show and wanted to prove me wrong. This was an awful decision for multiple reasons, and the “triple coverage” part wasn’t even the worst reason. He has check downs to either side of him as well as receivers streaking down the sideline who are available to him when he throws this. A really poor decision.
I’m fairly certain I’ve never seen UofL run this play, which is essentially Counter with a backside handoff. It’s like they ran the play in the wrong direction, but Isaac Brown cuts to his right to follow the blockers into a running lane cleared out by the pulling linemen. I’ve watched this play over and over again and it’s pretty hard to explain the design. But it worked well, and I hope it is used more often.
The blocking is outstanding again on this play, with the right side of the line walling off the interior of the defense. The motion pulls the playside linebacker out past the numbers. The backside linebacker gets stoned by Rasheed Miller. Lance Robinson pulls and takes Rueben Bain out of the play. And then you have Nate Kurisky pulling around to take on the backside safety. Zechariah Poyser takes out some frustrations on Brown, but he muscles up and falls forward anyway.
Jeff Brohm saw something on film with Miami that led him to completely dominate the middle of the field with Chris Bell. It’s early in the second quarter here, but I’m still surprised that Miami didn’t adjust after the two touchdown drives. Chris Bell gets a free release here, and he also gets a ton of space to run away from a corner who immediately has to chase after him with no linebackers in the middle of the field to help slow Bell down.
This was one of the few plays in the game where Brohm looked to push the ball down the field, and Miami snuffed it out immediately. The Canes showed blitz over the right guard, but backed out the linebacker at the snap. Jordan Church then helps down with Pete Nygra as the tight end is on the outside to help with Bain.
However, the safety lined up over the tight end replaces the pressure and gets a free run into the vacated gap. This is a nice pressure design by the Canes, and the routes down the field don’t give Moss a quick throw to make. It was the only sack given up on the night, and it felt like it was the only time Brohm hunted a big play.
Carson Beck appeared to have checked into this play, and his decision to throw this ball was another example of him trying to make a big play when it wasn’t needed. Miami is not an explosive offense, and that hasn’t mattered at all as they have dominated good teams this year. For whatever reason, Beck kept looking to push the ball down the field instead of taking the easy underneath throws.
Jabari Mack plays this about as well as you can ask from a corner. He is in a great position as he opens his hips at the snap and starts to widen out to force the receiver to the sideline. When Beck pumps, he reacts, but then he immediately sprints up the field to recover while playing the ball the whole way. Some guys will turn to locate the receiver or look up the field, but Mack plays the ball on this play the entire time. That puts him in a spot to go up for the interception here, and he makes a great play.
Malachi Toney is an insane talent, and I think the fact that Miami ran this play multiple times against FSU and it still worked like this shows why. Louisville plays this exactly how you would want them to, with two defenders firing off immediately to at least eat up a blocker on this screen play. TJ Quinn plays it perfectly, in my opinion. But Toney is able to round into his turn up the field to perfectly get onto the right guard’s hip, and then he’s off to the races.
Tayon Halloway shows on this play the type of effort the Cards showed all game on defense, which was just as big a factor in the win as the turnovers they forced. He is blitzing on this play and ends up next to Beck before he turns up the field and chases down Toney in the open field. The entire team is chasing this play with great effort, and because they do so, Toney can’t just take off up the seam and score. They held the Canes to a field goal after this, which was huge.
Here’s another example of Miller Moss doing something he has struggled with this year and making a good play. Miami disguises its pressure well off the edge with their nickel back Keionte Scott over Bell in the slot. The blitz comes, and Moss has pressure right in his face and directly into his first read.
Moss wants to go to Bell in the middle of the field, but he sees the coverage on him and makes the right decision to look to his next read. He doesn’t make the ill-advised throw, and he doesn’t put the ball in harm’s way. He also doesn’t just take a sack due to indecisiveness. Instead, he knows where his second option should be, and when he goes to the next read, he does so while avoiding the pressure. He then delivers a ball that only his guy can catch. Every step of this play from him is exactly what you want from him and he picks up a key first down.