Louisville allowed Boston College to make this game much closer than it ever should have been. They started the fourth quarter with a clear opportunity to put the game away but it took until the two mintue warning to do so.
Louisville played down to it’s competition but they avoided a true letdown game.
Not bad for the kicker to get down the field to down a punt inside the 5-yard line. This is the type of stuff I love. Everyone plays a part on the team, and when Brohm shifted from a field goal attempt
to a punt, he was able to trust Cooper Ranvier (36) to go make a play.
Isaac Brown (1) shows off his ability to make people miss on this run. Jordan Church (74) doesn’t engage his block as the puller on this play, which leads to the edge defender getting a clear shot to make a tackle on Brown in the hole. Brown runs through the tackle without slowing down. Then he angles his run to run past the closing safety to his right. That gets him another handful of yards before he’s tripped up.
While Church doesn’t hold his block on this play, everyone else does their job and then some. Pete Nygra (50) and Rasheed Miller (60) get a great double team with Miller then climbing to the second level. He gets a hand on his man, but the defender is too quick for Miller to sustain the block. Chris Bell (0) also does a good job of taking the playside linebacker out of the play. He looks like a lineman the way he delivers the initial strike on this block.
This was a mess of a play, and it all fell on Miller Moss (7). BC is clearly bringing a blitz on this play with all of the defenders at the line and the secondary in off coverage. This is clear, and I would imagine everyone on the field knows it. Still, Moss doesn’t speed up his process at all when he gets the snap. He gets into his drop as if he has all the time in the world to deliver this pass. The Cards don’t have enough guys to block the edge bitzer, and he gets in to strip Moss as he’s trying to throw.
Moss makes the right decision to target Bell on this throw, even with the off coverage. You can see that he eats up the corner’s cushion with ease, and any throw in this scenario is one you would expect Bell to have a chance to pull in with his size and leaping ability. Moss needs to shorten his drop and put this ball down the field to give Bell a chance to run under it. Or he can put it on his back shoulder. What he couldn’t do was treat this play as if he wouldn’t immediately see pressure like he did.
Here’s a good example of why getting pressure on the quarterback can be just as important as getting a sack. AJ Green (17) hasn’t gotten a sack since week one, but he has 21 pressures on the year, and this one leads to an interception. Grayson James (3) overthrows a 6-4 receiver right in front of him because he can’t follow through on the throw.
One thing to be said about the defense this year is that they are opportunistic. They;ve taken advantage of nearly every mistake by their opponents this year, and it’s because guys are making plays as opposed to just lucking into them. Khalib Perry (12) is right where he is supposed to be on this play and he has eyes on the quarterback while dropping into his zone and rerouting a receiver. Plus he throws a mean stiff-arm on the return.
The Cards can’t give up plays like this on fourth and long. BC spreads them out with a back to help with protection. Their call is essentially a “high-low” concept with the tight end breaking off his route at the stick, and the receivers to that side breaking in behind him. I’m fairly certain someone runs the wrong route, but it didn’t matter. The tight end does an excellent job of getting deep enough for the first down then getting his eyes around to make the catch. I also love that he lets the catch lead him up the field to get more yardage.
One of the things I’ve noticed with the cornerbacks in coverage for the Cards is their tendancy to lose sight of the quarterback in their drops. Tayon Halloway (25) reroutes the receiver on this play as he is supposed to but in doing so, he turns with him which opens this window for the throw. He tries to get back to the underneath spot, but it’s too late and the pass is completed. You’d like to see him use his outside arm to get a hand on the receiver, while also keeping his shoulders to the quarterback.
Three straight plays of zone coverage from the Cards with three completely different plays made by the defenders. Perry did very well to keep his eyes in the backfield while rerouting a receiver. Halloway did a good job of rerouting but didn’t keep his eyes in the backfield. TJ Quinn (34) doesn’t do either thing well and BC gets an easy touchdown pass down the seam.
Quinn would have been fine just gaining depth in his drop here to take away the angle and window for this throw. He probably can’t reroute this tight end enough to take away the throw. But, getting into that window forces a checkdown to the running back, which is a much better outcome.
I thought this was a great call by Brohm in the situation. They needed a first down here to put themselves in a position to run out the clock. BC had done well to stop the interior runs, but UofL hadn’t been able to throw the ball all game. It was a good bet that the Eagles would sell out to stop the run again, and Brohm burned them with a nice call with one route. Moss could have thrown a better ball here to lead Jaleel Skinner (88) down the field.
If you had told me three weeks ago that a Louisville running back would be able to make two different cuts in the backfield to find a running lane and that lane would be wide open due to great blocking, I would’ve smacked you. This is such a good play by Keyjuan Brown (22) to see that his initial path is blocked. He then uses a nice jump cut to get to the backside of the play which is where a lane “should” be.
Brown quickly identifies the cutback lane that is opened up by the offensive line holding their blocks long enough for him to find the lane. I truly can’t get enough of the line playing at this level. They still have tons of room to grow, but this is what they need to be in the run game going forward. Even the player getting pushed back into the backfield anchors and doesn’t allow the defender to get past him for a negative play. The Cards only allowed one negative play in this game. What a crazy improvement.
