In last Saturday’s win over LSU, the Ole Miss offense ran 84 official plays, though the actual number was somewhere near 148 before penalties wiped out the additional 64 plays (give or take).
Each of those 84 plays* had a hand in defeating LSU, but some were more valuable than others. Of the more valuable plays, we’re going to look at one that helped Ole Miss push the lead to two scores, and one that ended the game.
*Of all the holding calls, I thought most were fair. One of the tight ends got called
for something that could be called on every play, which seemed a bit much.
Those two specific plays were:
- Trinidad Chambliss’ pass to Tre Wallace III on 3rd and 14 early in the 4th quarter (Ole Miss would later score to go up 24-13)
- Chambliss’ pass to Dae’quan Wright on 4th and 3 to get a first down and allow Ole Miss to kneel out the game
Chambliss to Wallace
Prior to this drive, Ole Miss’ two third-quarter possession ended with a punt and an interception. The interception led to an LSU field goal that cut Ole Miss’ lead to 17-13 with 58 seconds to go in the third quarter.
After those two grotesque possessions, Ole Miss desperately needed at least a few first downs to flip the field. Points would’ve been ideal, but killing off any LSU momentum was fine.
Following a holding penalty on an 11-yard run from Kewan Lacy, Ole Miss faced a 3rd and 14 from their own 47. Lane Kiffin and Charlie Weis Jr. dialed up what’s called Double China 7.
Double China refers to the two 5-yard inside routes from the two receivers at the bottom of the screen, and the 7 refers to the corner route Cayden Lee runs out of the slot.
More importantly, as part of that call, Tre Wallace runs a backside dig just behind the linebackers and in front of the safeties, and Kewan Lacy releases out of the backfield.
As Chambliss sets his feet, here’s what he sees:
LSU is playing Cover 2 and trying to man-match everything in front of the safeties. The corner (yellow box) has passed Wallace off to another defensive back (blue box), and he’s now eyeing Lacy (orange box) coming out of the backfield.
The blue box defensive back is flat-footed and going to lose to Wallace on anything coming across the field. But that’s okay because Landry Kiffin’s boyfriend (red box) should be there to pick him up.
Unfortunately for LSU, Landry Kiffin’s boyfriend got distracted by Lee’s corner route, and he has no chance to recover and make a play on a pass to Wallace if the ball comes out now.
Chambliss, who never looked in any other direction, knows right now that Wallace is open. He just has to get the ball out before he’s open.
Here’s what Chambliss sees when he goes into this throwing motion:
Wallace is at least two yards from clearing the defensive back. And when the ball comes out (in blue), you can’t even see Wallace.
But the ball arrives on time and in a window the size of a Honda Accord.
Elite recognition and throw from Chambliss. Once he saw the blue box defensive back flat footed, he was all in on ripping a throw into a window that didn’t exist yet.
Ole Miss scored 5 plays later to make it 24-13 and put LSU’s chances of winning the game on life support.
Chambliss to Wright
After Chambliss inexplicably ran out of bounds on 3rd down with 1:47 to go and LSU out of timeouts, I expressed my displeasure in a fashion that all our moms would not approve of, but they know was accurate. Apologies to the moms and small child the row in front of me who probably didn’t hear it because everyone else was yelling equally terrible things.
Facing a 4th and 3, Kiffin decided to go for it and attempt to end the game with a first down. He said after the game on the Ole Miss radio broadcast that he actually checked to the call after getting the defensive look they wanted.
Here’s the pre-snap look with Cayden Lee coming in motion and the corner following him, which tells Chambliss at least Lee will likely have man coverage.
As we now know, Lee runs a shallow cross, Tre Wallace (in the slot) runs at the safety before running an over route, and Dae’quan Wright runs into the flat.
But what makes this play for Chambliss is he knows the defensive back (yellow box) over Wallace is likely blitzing. That means the safety (blue box), who is conveniently lined up over the top of Wallace, will pick him up.
With the defensive back blitzing and Wallace occupying the safety, that means one of the linebackers will be responsible for Wright.
Even if the linebacker tries to cover Wright, LSU is asking him to outrace Wright to the flat, which is probably not going to happen. But things never got to that point because the linebacker freezes on Lee’s shallow cross.
Regardless of what LSU did post-snap, Chambliss knew pre-snap that he had Wright in a favorable one-on-one matchup.
Once again, elite stuff from Kiffin and Weis Jr. and a quarterback who sees what they see. On both plays, Chambliss knew what he had, and there was no hesitation.
I said last week Chambliss is a gamer, but that doesn’t paint the full picture. He knows exactly what he’s doing, is confident in his abilities, and has the trust of Kiffin and Weis Jr.
