Five Plays: Wake Forest Third Quarter

The third quarter of Louisville’s game against Wake Forest last weekend was so uneventful that I actually ended up only clipping five plays. Louisville’s defense adjusted to better handle the run, while Jeff Brohm struggled to find consistency on offense. That led to a 3-point quarter with mostly back-and-forth play from both teams.

Louisville had a much more active approach against the run in the second half. The linebackers started to get downhill, but the line also started to be more disruptive. On this play, you can see the line slant, but they also look to get upfield to be disruptive. This allowed others to get penetration and stopped the running backs from getting a full head of steam.

As the Cards continue to struggle on defense, it’s hard not to wonder if we’ll see Mark Ivey shift to a more aggressive run defense. They’d have to play more man coverage, but that’s not where they have struggled. Maybe getting the linebackers into the backfield can spark the entire group.

The Cards only have six sacks on the season, but they have increased their output by one every week. A big change in strategy has been to utilize four pass rushers in passing situations like this one. AJ Green and Jarod Smith have been coming in to play defensive tackle, with Clev Lubin and Tyler Thompson playing on the edge. With Green out, Micah Carter got in the game, and you can see here how his quickness allowed him to bend around the right guard to flash right in front of Gio Lopez.

Getting a free run on the edge is always nice, but the real key to getting sacks is to get pressure. Lopez doesn’t have a quick option, and by the time he is ready to look to the other side, he has a red jersey in his sightline.

Coverage is also key when it comes to getting pressure on the quarterback. If you can at least take away the first read, you can get a result like this one. The Cards are in zone on this play, but the slot corner to the right side of the screen makes the smart decision to take the out route, which leads to Lopez having to move on.

Wake prides itself on taking away big plays, so it was nice to see the Cards get a couple of nice chunk plays in the passing game. UofL has been using motion a lot this year, but this is one of the few times I’ve seen it give them a coverage indicator. Wake’s outside linebacker follows the motion before handing it off to the middle linebacker. Lincoln Kienholz has his eyes on the middle of the field for his read, so he has the perfect view of Tre Richardson running away from his man coverage.

I’ve mentioned discipline a lot in this week’s film reviews, but it’s not always about penalties. Tyler Thompson gives up a first down on this play because he gets out of his rush lane by going inside on his pass rush. You always want to see players putting forth their best effort, and that’s what Thompson is doing here. He beats his man with a nice move, but he has to play within his assignment.

I was truly surprised by how many times UofL wasn’t lined up at the snap. This is at least the third play that I clipped where they weren’t lined up. There were more that I didn’t add. If the Cards ran a complex scheme, I would be more understanding. This is a very simple scheme, which should translate to easy defensive calls. It seems like the formations were the issue; however, these issues popped up most when Wake was in these overloaded receiver sets.

I’m looking forward to seeing if they simplify things on defense to help get the calls in on time as well as creating negative plays. There are solutions to right the ship on defense, but in my opinion, it will take some outside-the-box thinking.