We’re onto Week 5 in Silver and Black Pride’s Mendoza Mania series, providing film breakdowns on every game from the Las Vegas Raiders’ No. 1 pick of the 2026 NFL Draft, Fernando Mendoza’s last season at Indiana. The theme of this matchup against Iowa was pressure.
The stakes were high for the Hoosiers, as they were on the road to take on a conference opponent that finished the season as a ranked team. And the Hawkeyes gave them just about all they could handle, with Indiana squeaking out a 20-15
victory.
Iowa was bringing the heat with blitz after blitz throughout the contest, and Mendoza was under pressure on 12 out of 30 dropbacks (40 percent), according to Pro Football Focus. That led to an underwhelming stat line with 13 completions on 23 attempts (56.5 percent) for 233 yards, a touchdown and his first interception of the season, as we’ll get a look at how he struggled and succeeded to handle the pressure.
We’ll start with a couple of negative plays to end on a high note, and pocket management was one of Mendoza’s biggest areas of improvement from this game.
Here, Indiana is running a mesh concept, and they get the coverage they were hoping for with Iowa blitzing a linebacker, taking the low hole defender out of the play call while the coverage unit runs Cover 1. With the defense playing man-to-man, the cornerback has to adjust his path to avoid getting picked, leaving Elijah Sarratt wide open with room to run for a first down or more on the short drag route.
However, the right tackle gets beaten around the edge pretty quickly, so the pressure is coming. Mendoza clearly feels it, as he takes a step up in the pocket. However, he starts to move laterally instead of taking one more step up and dumping the ball to Sarratt. That makes the edge-rusher’s job a little easier because it closes the gap between him and the quarterback, and this nearly ends up being a strip sack.
Luckily, the ball just falls incomplete. But it is third down, so this play still leads to a change of possession. What makes it more frustrating is that this could have set up a scoring opportunity had Mendoza stepped up in the pocket a little more instead of drifting into the pressure.
To be honest, this is a tough one for the quarterback because Iowa wins this rep in the huddle with the perfect play call for what Indiana has dialed up.
Pre-snap, the Hawyekes show blitz with one linebacker walked up on the line of scrimmage and the other backer, along with the two safeties, creeping toward the line of scrimmage. On top of that, the safeties have good timing where they come downhill shortly before the snap and before the offense can make an adjustment, audible or alert a hot route.
So, it’s a six-man pressure where both safeties blitz, but the protection scheme has to account for the middle linebacker since he’s also a blitz threat. That means the defense’s call functions similarly to a seven-man pressure, where there’s going to be a free rusher since the center has to make sure the linebacker isn’t coming before he can help pick up the unblocked defender.
Meanwhile, Indiana has its three receivers run deeper routes since it’s third and 12. There is a checkdown option built into the play that can help beat the blitz with the tight end running a quick out route. However, the Hawkeyes had the perfect answer for that, with the other linebacker who was on the line of scrimmage playing press man coverage against the tight end.
As a result, Mendoza doesn’t have anyone open to get the ball out quickly, and the unblocked safety is coming, in addition to the other safety who beats the running back in pass protection. It feels like Mendoza starts to panic in the pocket, throwing off his back foot and forcing the ball to Omar Cooper Jr. The pass ends up sailing over Cooper’s head and into the defensive back’s hands for a late-game interception that almost cost Indiana the win.
Again, the offense gets beaten by the play call, so there isn’t much the quarterback can do to turn this into a positive play. But this is a situation where you’d like to see him try to create/make a play out of structure, or just take the sack. The latter isn’t ideal on third down, but it’s better than a pick in a tie game that gives the other team the ball in scoring territory with less than three minutes left.
But part of why the National Champs ended up raising a trophy at the end of the campaign is that their play-callers and quarterback were great at making adjustments. To be fair, they did have some luck on their side to have a second chance at a game-winning drive since the Hawkeyes missed the field goal after the pick. But the Hoosiers made the most of their opportunity.
This is almost the same situation as the last clip, with the offense facing a third and long at midfield while the defense brings the house with both safeties blitzing. They also send the linebacker to bring even more heat. However, the offense is ready for it this time.
Indiana runs a three-man route, where the running back and the tight end are involved in the protection scheme instead of just the back. That negates the linebacker who took away the tight end last time, as that backer ends up covering grass, while the offense has more bodies to pick up the blitz. Meanwhile, Sarratt, the single receiver at the top of the screen, runs a slant against off-coverage to be the quick-hitting answer against the pressure.
So, Mendoza can get rid of the ball right after taking the snap, and he does a great job of stepping into the throw as the pocket is collapsing to hit Sarratt in stride, who breaks one tackle and has nothing but green grass in front of him to take it to the house for the win.
The throw here isn’t much to speak of, and of course, Mendoza gets some help from the coaching staff with the improved play call. Regardless, this is a great in-game adjustment by both parties and encouraging to see from the No. 1 pick since he’s already managing the pocket better. As a preview for the next game/breakdown, he was a lot better when it came to handling pressure against Oregon just two weeks and one game later.
For clarity, these last three clips aren’t in sequential order, meaning they’re jumping around from different points in the game. On this one, we’ll get an even better example of Mendoza handling pressure in the pocket much more soundly than what was previously seen.
Iowa blitzes its two linebackers while the right edge defender drops into coverage to execute a three-deep, three-under fire zone. But Indiana has a perfect play call for it by putting the corner at the top of the screen in conflict. The corner’s first read is the man he’s lined up across from, but he’s ultimately responsible for whichever receiver runs a deep route between the two that are on his side of the field.
With the outside receiver (who is actually a tight end) running a short curl and the slot receiver running seam, the corner has to pick up the seam route but is late to it since he was lined up across from the short curl. Especially with the defense trying to disguise the coverage pre-snap by the field safety showing a two-deep coverage before rolling down and the boundary safety all the way on the other hashmark, the slot receiver is open for an explosive play.
However, the Hawkeyes also have a twist going on with the blitzing linebackers, and the running back doesn’t pick up on it while the left guard has to pass off the defensive tackle to the left tackle, allowing a free rusher right through the A-gap. But Mendoza stays calm under pressure this time and delivers a perfect pass to the seam route while taking a hit, allowing the offense to beat the blitz and capitalize with an explosive play.
Now, we’re going back to the game-winning drive, and the clip above set up the slant to Sarratt for the touchdown that broke the tie and gave Indiana the victory.
There is no blitz or pressure this time, as the Hawkeyes show a two-high look pre-snap and roll into Cover 1 post-snap. Once Mendoza sees the safeties rotate, he knows he has a one-on-one opportunity with Sarratt on a go route against a corner in man coverage. Granted, the corner has pretty good coverage where he stays on top of the receiver and doesn’t allow any separation.
So, the quarterback throws the receiver open by hitting a back-shoulder pass, which those two became famous for last season. The ball is perfectly placed and thrown with good velocity, going from the far hashmarks to outside the numbers, to beat the coverage and put Indiana in Iowa’s territory. Three plays later, Mendoza and Sarratt connected on the slant for the win.
We’re going to end toward the beginning, as this play came in the second quarter and was the best throw Mendoza made in the game.
Technically, it doesn’t quite fit with the overall theme of pressure since he doesn’t get hit or anything like that. But Iowa does dial up a blitz with the three-deep, three-under fire zone behind it. With this play-call, the cornerback at the bottom of the screen is supposed to take away or stay on top of a deep route from the outside receiver. However, the corner plays it poorly by not working for enough depth.
Mendoza recognizes that and sees the safety is on the hashmark with his hips pointed toward the line of scrimmage. That’s going to make it almost impossible for the safety to get to the sideline in time to break up the pass, so the quarterback lets it rip to the go route for what essentially becomes a hole shot between the two defenders.
This throw really highlights the Heisman Trophy winner’s arm strength as it’s on a line from the far hash to the opposite sideline and over 30 yards down the field, on top of being into the wind and beating the defensive backs. That’s an excellent read and one hell of a throw to flip the field.
Up next is an even tougher road game with a matchup against Oregon, where Mendoza took even more bumps and bruises before coming up clutch
