Louisville got a big win over Florida State this past Friday. I clipped some plays that stood out to me in the first quarter of the game, and I added some analysis.
Louisville has not converted a fourth down this season, and I think it is because they have not been creative enough with Lincoln Kienholz as their quarterback in those situations. This isn’t a fourth down play, but it is the type of play I would like to see them run in those situations.
This is a RPO with two run options, as Linc has the
option to run on the edge. I don’t love these plays going to the left, but in short-yardage, I think it adds to the play. The goal is misdirection to confuse or just keep the defense guessing. I would argue that a quarterback rolling to the left is more unexpected than them rolling to their dominant arm, which makes the fake to the running back more effective. You can see the linebacker to the bottom of the screen naturally focus on the back and take a step inside. That’s all Kienholz needs to get outside with a lot of space to run.
Kienholz has been outstanding this season, but I’ve noticed a trend where he is hunting big plays. This is a shot play to the receiver at the bottom of the screen who is running a deep post. The receiver to the top of the screen is also running a deep route.
You can see Linc look deep as soon as he gets the snap, but as he steps up in the pocket, he starts to look for another option. This play isn’t open because there is a deep safety in the middle of the field, and he stays there. What is open is Isaac Brown to his right, with Jaleel Skinner as a de facto blocker in front of him.
This is a potential touchdown for a player like Isaac Brown. It’s not a touchdown for everyone, but it is for him. Kienholz needs to let his very talented skill guys go to work for him. I don’t think that it’s an issue on 99% of the plays, but he’s taken sacks this year that could have been avoided if he got rid of the ball and let these guys work. It’s something I would love to see him improve on as the season goes on.
We got a glimpse of the adjustment the defense ended up making for the game on this play in the first quarter. That adjustment was essentially just playing man coverage. It’s a little frustrating that it took this long for the staff to match the scheme to the personnel, but it worked out in this game, and it should work better as the season goes on.
This is exactly what you want to see from Tayon Holloway as your boundary corner. You want your bigger corner who can be physical on this exact type of route to the boundary, because they can use their size to play through receivers as we see here. Holloway plays this so well in a shorter-yardage situation. He knows they’re not looking to go down the field, so he keeps his leverage inside enough that he can break on this ball and bat Duce Robinson to the spot. He then does such a good job of keeping his off-arm off the receiver to avoid the flag. Really good stuff here.
Worth noting that he breaks up another slant route on this drive in man coverage.
I clipped the buildup to this play for a reason. TJ Capers is literally jumping up and down as soon as everyone gets set on defense. He gets Stanquan Clark’s attention, and Clark walks over to him. Here is where context that I do not have matters. I don’t know if Capers or Clark is calling the play on defense. It may not be either of them, and the call comes from the sideline, with everyone responsible for looking over to see it.
With all that being said, I can’t think of any situation where Stanquan doesn’t know the call and the call is for him to just bounce float around in the middle of the field. This was the only blown coverage of the game that I saw, and it was very nice to see Clark get benched for it. He sat the next drive with Trent Carter replacing him. Sitting a star player for this type of error is how you stop the error from happening.
This is an insane catch, by the way.
Even though 14 points were scored, there was not a lot of action in the first quarter. FSU was able to move the ball with some ease, while having to convert third and fourth downs. But it was an uneventful 14 points outside of the blown coverage.
The bigger issue for me was the offense not taking advantage of plays like this one. The Cards essentially finished the first quarter with the same yards per play as the FSU offense. But they left it with no points because they were boom-or-bust with plays like this one from Lawayne McCoy. He gets off the line against soft man coverage and beats the corner with a very nice move to the outside. Kienholz actually misjudges this throw and leaves it short, as McCoy has three yards on the defender. But it goes for a nice big play in the passing game.
This play led to a long missed field goal when it should have led to a touchdown. This offense has to improve on staying on schedule while also mixing the shot plays in the passing game into what they do well in the running game. If they aren’t creating 5-6 yard runs consistently in the running game, they have to dial back the shot plays. When they do want to throw the ball down the field, it would be good to see them do it like this, with throws to McCoy down the sideline to the wide side of the field. It’s worked extremely well for them.
