We’re officially into the second half of Silver and Black Pride’s Mendoza Mania series, diving into every game from Fernando Mendoza’s last season at Indiana, breaking down film from his Week 10 outing against Maryland.
The Las Vegas Raiders’ new quarterback and No. 1 pick of the 2026 NFL draft didn’t have an eye-catching stat line, completing 14 of 21 pass attempts (66.7%) for 201 yards, a touchdown and one interception. Part of that had to do with a combination of drops, batted passes and him getting
hit while throwing. It was also a result of the Hoosiers rushing for 367 yards and 7.1 yards per carry as a team.
Mendoza got involved in that action, too, recording four carries for 24 yards and another score on the ground, as he did a little bit of everything in this contest.
One habit that the Heisman Trophy winner needs to kick is that he’ll occassionally predetermine throws and trust his receiver to get open too much. It doesn’t happen every time; there were plenty of instances in this series where he did a great job of going through his reads. But he does have one or two throws a game where it looks like he’s assuming someone will be open who isn’t.
Here, Indiana runs a mesh concept while Maryland rotates into Cover 3. With the ball on the far hash and the slot receiver’s route taking him across the formation, Elijah Sarratt does have a one-on-one opportunity against the corner on the wide side of the field. So, Mendoza is likely assuming the receiver will win the matchup and is trying to throw the out route with anticipation.
However, the corner is playing with outside leverage to protect the sideline since all of his help is inside or to the middle of the field. That way the free safety and underneath defenders can squeeze or tighten the window on any in-breaking route, and the cornerback can take away the out route by forcing the receiver to win across his face. In other words, Sarratt isn’t open, and it’s time to move on to the second read.
The problem is that Mendoza stares down and throws to Sarratt anyway, while the corner jumps the route and is in perfect position to make the interception. Had the corner played with inside leverage or bailed instead of settling at the 45-yard line, this would have been a good read. But, obviously, that isn’t what happened, and it looks like the quarterback decided where he was going with the ball before it was even snapped.
This time, we’ll look at a simple incompletion, but one where Mendoza’s pocket management could use some work.
To be fair, the timing of this play is off. The quarterback hits the top of his drop, and none of the receivers are in their breaks or looking for the ball. That could be him having a mental mistake by not taking a deep enough drop in the pocket or simply a flaw in the play design, but that adds some context into why the panic occurred. Also, the defense does blitz one of its linebackers to potentially speed up the quarterback’s internal clock.
All of that being said, Indiana’s pass protection does a pretty good job of picking up the blitz and giving Mendoza plenty of time and a clean pocket to operate from. So, he can just sit at the top of the drop and wait for Roman Hemby (No. 0) to get open on the return route or work the backside and hit E.J. Williams, who beats press coverage on a go route, for an explosive play.
Instead, Mendoza gets happy feet and unnecessarily climbs or steps up in the pocket. There was no edge pressure to force that, and he ends up running into pressure as the defensive tackle starts to break free from the center. So, when Mendoza finally decides to hit Hemby, he’s under duress and the defensive tackle can make contact with him, altering the throw.
What should have been a third-down conversion that puts the offense in the red zone ends up being an incompletion that leads to a field goal attempt.
Moving on to the positive reps, something that is consistent about Mendoza’s rushing ability is he’s pretty good at setting up blocks. There were a couple of examples of that in this game, the clip above being the best of the bunch.
The Hoosiers run a simple read option, while the Terrapins’ edge defender crashes hard inside but the inside linebacker (No. 1) doesn’t scrape over the top. That results in the defense having no outside run support, creating a rushing lane between the right tackle and slot receiver. Mendoza takes advantage of that by turning upfield at about the 40-yard line.
Notice how the nickelback/slot corner reacts to that movement from the quarterback. Especially with no defenders on the hashmark, he crashes hard inside and crosses the receiver’s face to try and make the tackle. However, Mendoza recognizes that and effectively sets up the slot receiver’s block by bouncing outside shortly after crossing the 40-yard-line.
Then, he makes another good read to split the receivers since the outside corner is still by the numbers, and ends up making a roughly 20-yard gain on the ground that puts the offense in the red zone.
As a passer, Mendoza had a handful of really good reads against the Terps. The throw above isn’t much to speak of, but he makes a smart decision to take advantage of the defense’s mistake, leading to an explosive play.
Both play designs are pretty simple. Maryland shows and drops into a standard Cover 3, while Indiana has a curl/flat concept (aka “Hank”) on the front side of the read. The defense should have this covered, where the nickelback or curl-to-flat defender takes away the flat, the linebacker or hook-to-curl defender picks up the curl, and the cornerback or deep third defender rallies and tackles to support either teammate after the catch.
However, both the nickel and the corner chase the flat route and the linebacker steps downhill initially, leaving Charlie Becker (No. 80) wide open on the curl route. Mendoza recognizes the coverage break and lets it rip while throwing with good accuracy, placing the ball outside to keep it away from the linebacker and helping lead to some YAC by turning the receiver up the field.
Then, Becker does the dirty work to set up the scoring opportunity. But that doesn’t happen without a great read by the quarterback.
The defense doesn’t blow an assignment on this one. Instead, they’re beaten by a smart read and impressive route.
The Terps are playing quarters, which means the field safety (bottom of the screen) is reading the slot receiver and the outside corner is essentially playing man coverage with no safety help over the top. That’s one of the problems with this coverage, as it’s similar to Cover 0 with the cornerbacks being on an island, but there’s no blitz to force the ball out of the quarterback’s hand.
Meanwhile, Mendoza reads the safety post-snap and sees the safety’s eyes are locked on the slot receiver. That allows him to identify the coverage and recognize that he has Omar Cooper Jr. one-on-one with a double-move route. So, when Cooper runs the sluggo and the corner bites hard on the slant, Mendoza knows there’s no safety over the top and hits the receiver in-stride for a wide-open touchdown.
More than anything, that’s a great job of recognizing and exploiting the weakness in the defense’s coverage.
We’ll wrap up with another good read, combined with some impressive arm strength to fit the ball into a tight window.
Maryland tries to get tricky with its coverage this time, showing Cover 4 pre-snap before dropping into Tampa 2 post-snap. Meanwhile, Indiana comes out in a three-by-one formation where the trips receivers are in a bunch and execute a spot concept. Now, it does look like this play is designed to hit the slot receiver in the flat, and that’s open.
However, to the quarterback’s credit, the slot corner should be widening toward the flat in this coverage instead of staying on the hashmarks. So, that’s just a coverage bust that Mendoza didn’t pick up on. Part of that is because he starts his read on the other side of the field to check for a potential one-on-one matchup, and he makes the correct read for this coverage
With the field safety (No. 22) coming downhill and the SAM linebacker (No. 3) dropping to protect the seam or against a post route in Tampa 2, the hook area in the middle of the field is wide open. It’s going to be difficult for the safety to change directions and make a play on the ball, while the linebacker is vacating the area completely. At the same time, Cooper is running a sit route where he’s looking for a soft spot in the coverage to exploit and finds the open grass/turf.
Since the defense’s pre-snap look shows a potential one-on-one opportunity at the bottom of the screen, Mendoza starts his read with the single receiver but comes off it when he recognizes the boundary safety widening toward the deep half of the field to help the corner over the top. That causes the quarterback to be a little late to see Cooper open in the hook area, or at least prevents him from throwing with anticipation, and gives the field safety more time to close the window.
To make up for that, it’s going to take a fastball to beat the coverage. Luckily, Mendoza delivers a strike over the middle before the defender can get there in time to break up the pass, leading to a third-down conversion that keeps the offense on the field. That’s a good example of exposing the coverage and having the arm strength to throw over the middle.
Up next is Mendoza’s “Heisman moment” with a huge win on the road against Penn State.
