The action continued to ratchet up in the fourth quarter with both teams trading big plays and touchdowns. The defenses both left a lot to be desired, but we did get a glimpse into how Mark Ivey will call a close game going forward. I went a little more rapid-fire with this post to fit in more plays, so excuse my brevity.
Time to dive in.
Ole Miss had a bit of a field day against Cover 3 on Sunday, with this being the second touchdown of the day against the coverage. The corners and the deep safety
are responsible for a third of the field, and with all coverages like this, you are responsible for the deepest man in your area. Sometimes, you just get beat, and this is essentially what happened here.
Trinidad Chambliss initially looks right on this play. He’s looking at a quick hitch route, but I don’t think he had any intention of throwing the ball. He takes a quick two-step drop and stares down the receiver to that side. He then takes a hop back to reset his feet as he whips his head back to the left and launches a perfectly floated ball in between the corner and safety. This is just elite quarterback play.
Jabari Mack could do better on this play. He has an underneath defender on this play, so he should be tracking the slot down the field. Instead, he stops his feet with the outside comeback route and isn’t in position to make a play on the ball or at least get the receiver down after the catch.
Lance Robinson needs to be better here. He’s in a one-on-one matchup on the left side facing a straightforward pass rush from Kam Franklin. Robinson gets good depth with his kick steps, but he opens his hips and chest too much, which allows Franklin to toss him to his left. Robinson should be moving back to center once Anwar O’neal is healthy, but that could be a few weeks from now.
A potential change we will likely see with Mark Ivey calling the plays on defense is an uptick in aggression. On this play, he mugs up the line with 8 guys, and he actually brings 7. Chambliss looks to go to the double move on the outside, but the blitz gets the job done by gettin gon him so quickly that he has to scramble.
I loved seeing this on second and long, especially with the Cards being beaten for long touchdowns in the third quarter. A lot of coaches talk about making mistakes at full speed. It’s a way of saying always play your hardest, and we’ll deal with the mistakes. I’ve also always taken it to mean always play with aggression. There are times when coaches should make calls with the same mentality they want their players to have.
I wanted to clip this third down call because I felt it really showed how dynamic this offense can be. There are four threats on this play for a defense to deal with. You have jet motion to Tre Richardson after he already scored a touchdown on a jet sweep. You have Lincoln Kienholz, who has already broken a big run on a play with jet sweep action. You have Keyjuan Brown, who is an obvious threat to get a yard with a tough run. Then you have Jaleel Skinner, who can just run a quick route for an easy first down.
It’s just a basic third-and-short pickup, but I really do think it highlights the level of versatility that Jeff Brohm has to work with this season.
It’s pretty nice to have a quarterback who can just mug a future NFL draft pick into the ground like this.
I said it before the season started, and I’ll repeat it here. Lawayne McCoy has real potential to be a star. The catch on this play is impressive enough as he keeps his feet in bounds. But to make the first defender miss by running the wrong direction, then following that up with a stiff arm that is essentially behind his back, is pretty unbelievable.
Linc also does a good job again climbing the pocket when he feels pressure. He keeps his eyes up and down the field, looking for someone to come open before delivering a very nice ball to the sideline. This was another great sign of his potential down the road.
I really liked this play by TJ Banks at the bottom of the line here. He walks up late to put himself in position to set the edge to the strong side of the formation. When Ole Miss goes to the other side, he tracks the play down the line and sells out to get to the running back’s legs, which ends the play. Over the course of a game, plays like this matter so much more than realized.
Banks’ play leads to third and medium, and Ivey brings pressure again. This time he mugs up the line with tight Cover 0 behind it. This was a solid gamble with the Cards down a touchdown, and Ole Miss being a big play away from ending the game.
Ivey brings overloaded pressure from Chambliss’ right again, and it works because Antonio Watts gets wide and takes away the first option in the process. Chambliss has to wait, and by the time he has a clear view again, the play is dead, and he has to throw it away. As much as we all want to see pressures get home, it can work just as well if you can just force an incompletion.
Remember in the second quarter when Linc got out of the pocket and completely missed his receiver breaking down the field as he scrambled? This was much better. He gets a six-man pressure, so he immediately looks to get moving out of the pocket to avoid the rush and extend the play. He and Isaac Brown look like they’re sharing a brain on this play because Brown senses the hesitation from Linc and looks to break up the field. Linc gives a quick pump fake to draw the defender and drops a nice throw in stride to Brown.
We got the full Lincoln Kienholz experience on Sunday, and it was capped off with this run. He gets the space he needs with the motion from the back before he does an outstanding job of “pressing” the hole. He gets up the field, which forces the defense to constrict towards him. You can see #3 for Ole Miss give up his contain to get inside in hopes of catching Linc at the second level. Linc then breaks outside towards the pylon for the big touchdown.
There are running backs who can’t get this down.
I won’t kill Antonio Watts for not being in a position to make this play, but he’s so close to making this play if he didn’t take an extra step to the outside. Watts is responsible for the flat on this play, so when the running back leaks out of the backfield, Watts starts to widen out with him. I just can’t help but think that if Watts takes one hop to his left instead of three, he could have picked this pass off.
I’ll start by saying that I don’t think anyone could have stopped this completion, but Kaleb Beasley maybe could have had the best chance. This is Cover 3 again for the Cards, and Ole Miss looks to beat it again with a player running through the defense into a seam. Deuce Alexander scored earlier in the game on a similar route, but in this situation, there is not a deep threat to account for.
This is where Beasley possibly could have made a play. He is responsible for the deep middle of the field, but with no threats, he could have stepped up to try to take away this throw. You can see that he has what I call “bad eyes”. He’s looking to his right to see what the outside receiver is doing, when he isn’t responsible for that receiver. At worst, that receiver could run a deep post and get behind him, but with the formation, the corner would follow because there is no one else in his zone.
I don’t want this to come off as me killing any of these defenders. I just see the opportunities for some plays to be made. Chambliss is an elite quarterback. He’s going to beat you more times than not.
