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INDIANAPOLIS, IN - DECEMBER 06: Indiana Hoosiers QB Fernando Mendoza (15) throws a pass during the Big Ten Championship football game between the Indiana Hoosiers and the Ohio State Buckeyes on December 6, 2025 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, IN. (Photo by James Black/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
It’s time to dive into the postseason for Silver and Black Pride’s Mendoza Mania series, as we’re breaking down Fernando Mendoza’s performance in the Big Ten Championship against Ohio State.
Despite a rather pedestrian stat line—15/23 (65.2 completion percentage), 222 yards, one touchdown and one interception—the Las Vegas Raiders’ new quarterback was pretty flippin’ impressive on the big stage and played much better than the box score showed. Four of his incompletions were throwaways, and one came via a batted pass, according to Pro Football Focus, and the interception was on a screen where the corner jumped the route to beat the block and make the pick.
On top of that, PFF credited the No. 1 pick of the 2026 NFL draft with three “big-time throws” and zero “turnover-worthy plays” to earn an elite 91.9 grade for the evening. That was his highest single-game grade of the 2025 season, as Mendoza’s ability to throw deep and on the run really stood out against the Buckeyes.
In full disclosure, a few clips from this game were included in a previous and more general breakdown earlier in the year, which can be found via this link. To avoid repeating information, all of the plays below were not included in the previous article and vice versa. That means Mendoza’s famous deep shot to Charlie Becker that flipped the momentum of the contest isn’t included here, but a detailed breakdown of that play is in the hyperlinked article for those who are interested.
Before diving into the highlights, Mendoza’s lateral movement skills are one area of improvement for him in the NFL, and that shows up in his pocket management or mobility. He’s a good linear athlete who has the speed to pick up yards with his legs when needed, but his change of direction and agility are lacking. The latter can lead to sacks like the play above.
To the quarterback’s credit, nothing is open since Ohio State’s defensive backs are doing an excellent job in man coverage with safety help over the top in the Cover 2 Man/Cover 5 look. Also, both linebackers are on the line of scrimmage and essentially playing two-on-two with the quarterback and running back. One backer covers the running back to take away the checkdown, and the other serves as a spy to take away the scramble.
That gives the three-man rush enough time to get pressure, as the left defensive end beats the right tackle around the edge. Mendoza does a good job of seeing that and stepping up in the pocket, but the spy takes away the interior or linear rushing lane in the B-gap. That forces Mendoza to change directions and move laterally to get out of the pocket, exposing his lack of agility and short-area quickness to pivot and escape the pocket.
Here, we’ll take a look at another sack where the No. 1 pick’s movement skills are a factor, but his feel for pressure is the bigger issue on this play specifically.
Again, nothing is open with Ohio State doing an excellent job in man coverage, on top of having one safety come off the deep over route from the slot receiver to wall off the dig route from the outside. While there is a coverage bust where the slot receiver ends up being open in the end zone since neither of the safeties stuck with him initially, that happened late in the play and the pressure was already starting to penetrate the pocket.
Mendoza does show a good internal clock, as he starts to try and escape the pocket before the defensive end wins around the edge. However, instead of stepping up and taking advantage of the lane outside of the guard, he runs into pressure. That’s likely because he doesn’t have a feel for where the defensive end is. Now, Mendoza’s lateral movement skills come into play as he’s out of his element and has to be an escape artist in the pocket, leading to the sack on third down.
To be fair, Arvell Reese—the fifth overall pick of April’s draft—is serving as the spy and waiting for the quarterback to scramble. So, the Heisman Trophy winner probably isn’t going to pick up the first down here anyway.
But taking advantage of the open lane could at least give the offense a chance to move the chains by getting all seven yards with his legs on this play, or by cutting the distance in half to set up a potential go-for-it opportunity on fourth down. Either of those two results is better than taking a sack.
Now, let’s get into the fun stuff, starting with the famous first play of the Big Ten Championship where Mendoza delivers a strike on the run right before taking a huge hit.
It’s a designed roll-out that Indiana ran frequently last year, where the tight end in the three-by-one formation blocks to pin the edge defender inside. But Ohio State was ready for it by having the edge defender widen right before the snap and attack the tight end instead of getting caught off-guard, leading to the pressure.
On the backend of the play, the Buckeyes are in man coverage again. The outside corner takes away the go route from the outside receiver, and the slot receiver takes too long to get into his route and out of the break, especially with the pressure coming since the tight end couldn’t pin the edge defender inside. So, Mendoza comes to the backside of the read, where he finds Elijah Sarratt open on a drag route after a pair of defenders collided.
While on the run and knowing that he’s about to get crushed, Mendoza hits Sarratt with a perfect ball that’s in front of the receiver and instride for a nine-yard gain. That highlights a pair of important traits from the No. 1 pick: the toughness to throw under pressure and the ability to maintain his accuracy without having a stable base.
What’s encouraging about Mendoza’s pocket management moving forward is that he can be effective at evading pressure when it isn’t coming from the blind side and is decent at making off-script plays. He has a few tricks to help with the latter, the best being that he’s really good at recognizing when defensive backs don’t plaster and come off their man on scramble drills.
This time, Ohio State comes out in a five-man front and runs Tampa 2 behind it, where both edge defenders drop in coverage. With eight defenders to cover five receivers, nothing is open down the field on Indiana’s mesh concept. That being said, there is a window to hit Becker right at the sticks on the short drag route right where the middle linebacker/Tampa dropper was. But Mendoza doesn’t see it in time, and the pressure starts to come.
Luckily, he bails out of the pocket in the proper direction this time and recognizes that the defense doesn’t have anyone containing the edge since both standup linebackers dropped in coverage. So, the quarterback manages to buy more time by scrambling toward the wide side of the field. Then, he sees the nickelback come downhill and leave Becker wide open, quickly transitioning from runner to thrower by pulling off a jump pass to pick up the third-down conversion.
This next play is one that probably goes unnoticed when looking at the big picture or the entire game, as it’s just a first down that puts the offense even deeper into scoring position. But when diving into the nuances of the play, it’s an excellent read and anticipation throw from Mendoza.
Ohio State is playing quarters, where the outside corners are in off coverage to prevent giving up the touchdown. Meanwhile, the curl-to-flat defenders (the nickelback at the top of the screen and the edge defender at the bottom) can help take away any intermediate routes toward the sideline by getting in the passing lane and forcing the quarterback to layer the ball between the second and third levels of the defense.
However, the curl-to-flat defenders are responsible for taking away a curl route between the hash marks and the numbers before working wide and helping defend the sideline. So, with the slot receiver at the top of the screen staying outside of the nickel and running an in route, Mendoza knows he has the outside corner on an island against the intermediate out route.
On top of that, he throws with anticipation by starting this throwing motion before the receiver is out of the break to beat the coverage and move the sticks.
While the throw referenced in the intro rightfully garnered a lot of attention, the deep shot above to Becker ended up sealing the Big Ten Championship for the Hoosiers.
Indiana’s up three points and facing third and six with 2:41 left on the clock, and Ohio State just used the first of their second-half timeouts. So, while a first down doesn’t outright win the game, it’d give the Buckeyes very little time left on the clock and no timeouts to get the tying field goal.
With the offense coming out in a three-by-one formation, it seems pretty clear that the defense’s primary concern is stopping Sarratt as the single receiver. They’re playing Cover 1 but have the free safety bracket Sarratt with the outside corner instead of staying deep and trying to help over the top. So, it’s really more like Cover 0 since the other defensive backs are left one-on-one with no safety help. Also, the middle linebacker blitzes while the two edge defenders drop into the low holes to take away a slant or a short throw over the middle.
Post-snap, Mendoza sees the safety open toward the sideline to bracket Sarratt and snaps his head around to Becker, who is running a go route on the other side of the field. Becker beats press coverage at the line of scrimmage and gets a step on the corner, so Mendoza lets it rip and drops the ball in the bucket for a 33-yard gain.
Not only does that pick up the first down and help melt time off the clock, but it also flips the field and allows Indiana to pin Ohio State deeper into their territory. The Hoosiers ran the ball three times and punted on the ensuing plays, forcing the Buckeyes to start the final drive at their 14-yard line with 18 seconds left and no timeouts. As you likely already know, that resulted in Indiana’s first Big Ten Championship since 1967.
Up next is an efficient outing from Mendoza, where he and Indiana took care of Alabama in their first College Football Playoff game.
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