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Louisville lost this game because of missed opportunities. However, no game comes down to a handful of mistakes or misses. It comes down to the plays like I clipped below.
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Keyjuan Brown is playing at a level that I don’t ever think I could’ve imagined. He is not only running the ball well on plays like this, where the fact that he makes a guy miss stands out, but he is also reading his blocks at an elite level. Brown sees the initial blocks well, which leads him to find this seam between the two tight ends before cutting off Rasheed Miller’s block down the field.
He then sets up the cut that shows up on the highlights of his cut and sticks his foot in the ground to send the safety into the abyss. This is all the type of stuff you want to see from your running back when they get the chance to get the start.
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Here’s another example of Brown reading his blocks extremely well. The space that he is running into is extremely tight, but he trusts that his blockers will hold their blocks after being patient enough to let them get to their blocks. He also shows off his underrated skill of accelerating up the field once he makes the decision to go. This dude is on fire right now.
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The absolute trucking Brown lays on Khalif Barnes (7) gets the focus on this play, but two other things are much more important, in my opinion. First, Brown shows unbelievable patience in the backfield before he gets upfield through a very nice hole opened up by the offensive line.
Secondly, he does something he’s been doing for a few weeks, and really all of the season. He carries multiple defenders for about eight yards after he runs through Barnes’ face on this play. This offense would be lost without Brown running the ball with this type of attitude and energy.
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I’m not sure Brohm needed to call this play with the way Brown was running the ball, but I’m glad he did. Any play that utilizes midirection immediately ranks as my favorite play of any game. The Cards have had a rough time running the ball in short-yardage situations, which is why I think Brohm went with a trick play before they got to third down, where your options are limited. Here’s to hoping we see more of this for the remainder of the season.
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Louisville has been an enigma at times with its pass defense. At times, they drop players too deep into their zones and leave shorter routes open for first downs. Then you have plays like this one, where they don’t have guys deep enough to stop a chunk play. This isn’t necessarily a coaching issue with the specific calls or how they are coaching the players. But it is also not totally on the players from an execution standpoint. It feels like a mix of both things.
Something about this play that needs to be pointed out: UofL drops eight on this play with only three players rushing the quarterback. While I’m not a fan of doing this on second down, it’s not a problem if you think a pass is coming. My issue is that you absolutely can’t let a receiver run down the field for an easy 20-yard gain when you are in a defensive call meant to stop a chunk play.
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I just can’t imagine seeing my third-string running back running the ball like this behind a line that is blocking like this and deciding not to give him the ball as many times as he can handle. Brown only touched the ball three more times after this play. He was playing hurt, so Brohm gets a bit of a pass on not running him too often, but he got hurt when he ran through the dude’s face a handful of clips ago.
Brown ran for a first down on 7 of his 15 carries, and he picked up 5 yards on three other runs. Riding this guy was the right call for the Cards, and Brohm didn’t make the right call.
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Louisville’s pass rush flat out has to be better because this type of play shouldn’t even be available for Cade Klubnik (2). He stands tall in the pocket and delivers a nice ball in between a handful of defenders. It’s an impressive play by him, but he should at least be flushed out of the pocket before he delivers the ball. They have to get home to get sacks, but more than that, they have to make the opposing quarterback move their feet.
The secondary isn’t the issue on this play, but I’d like to see Antonio Watts (9) be in a position to pick this pass off. He does a good job of passing off the outside receiver to the corner, but I think he gets caught up worrying about the running back in the flat. The short flat is his responsibility on this play, and I don’t want to ignore that. But he ends up outside the framework of the play, where he is essentially guarding air. If Watts plays Klubnik’s eyes, he is likely undercutting this throw for an interception.
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Louisville only gave up two truly explosive plays in this game, and they were both big runs for Adam Randall. Outside of those two runs, Randall averaged 2.6 yards per carry on the night. Unfortunately, both of Randall’s big runs led to touchdowns. As much as I’d like to put some sort of blame on the defense, they held Clemson to 3.8 yards per play outside of these runs. The defense gets a steak dinner with those numbers.
On both plays, the second level of the defense was spread out more than you would like them to be, and they didn’t get downhill fast enough to get to Randall before he got going. On both plays, the playside linebacker was taken out by a climbing lineman while Stanquan Clark was left chasing the play. Randall was able to leave a safety grasping for air, and he was off to a big play. Kudos to him for making the plays when they were available.
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With Louisville’s passing game having no success throwing the ball down the field, I wish we had seen plays like this more often. There’s a school of thought that if you run too many trick plays, they won’t work. While I don’t agree with that thinking, I do think that you can design plays of your trick plays to create more big plays. A fake on this toss to TreyShun Hurry (15) is an option. You could also just run this as a reverse to Hurry, or maybe Chris Bell (0), like we saw last year for an explosive play.
I’m just happy to see a second explosive play that ended up being the longest play of the game. You hire Jeff Brohm for plays like this. One would hope he can find a way to call more plays like this for the rest of the season.
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Miller Moss can’t take this sack. That needs to be stated immediately and without equivocation. Moss’s penchant for taking sacks like this also lends to the criticism he receives for a play like this. But it’s also worth noting that Brohm’s play call left him without many options on this play. Three routes are down the field, which will take time. A hobbled Keyjuan Brown is facing man coverage at the bottom of the screen. Which leaves Chris Bell on a shallow crosser.
Moss has to get the ball to Bell on this crosser to give him an opportunity to get a first down or at least make for an easier field goal. There are different things that Moss has to consider in this situation, and he somehow makes it all the way to not getting rid of the ball, which is the worst possible outcome. He would have been better off, chucking the ball into the stands as soon as his first option isn’t there.
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The remainder of this game was pretty straightforward, but I wanted to highlight a great effort by Hurry. It may not seem like much, but getting his arm extended for a solid stiff arm after the catch on this play is how he got away from this tackle. The Clemson defender comes in too high on his tackle, so the stiff arm makes it hard for the defender to get his arms around him to pull him down. Hurry keeps his balance, and then he gets the team back into field goal range to try to get the win.
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