Five Plays: Stanford Cardinal

The initial premise of this series years ago was to highlight the plays that led to the outcome of the game. I stray away from that all of the time because there are more plays than five or even ten that factor into the outcome. That really wasn’t the case in this game.

This game came down to about seven plays that went the wrong way. The offense had a few missed opportunities to get a first down that would have sustained a drive or led to points. The defense piled up penalties that negated big plays and they could not get off the field in the fourth quarter.

Upsets like this typically require deep analysis, but this was pretty straightforward outside of the coaching issues that were quite obvious. The Cards blew chance after chance to put this game away and when things got tight, they turtled up and let Stanford become the aggressor.

This was one of the first plays where Louisville blitzed and they got burned for it. Stanford came into the game as one of the worst teams in the country when it came to protecting the quarterback and for some reason, Louisville could not stick to rushing four and covering behind that rush. They ended the game with five sacks when they didn’t blitz and only one sack when they did blitz, per PFF.

UofL played into what Stanford does well as Ashton Daniels has been at his best against the blitz this season. With no running game, Stanford was bound to be one-dimensional and the Cards didn’t show the patience needed to just contain an average offense.

Initially, I thought this was an RPO where the offensive line got caught in a tough spot of not knowing if the ball was handed off or was a pass. Then I watched the play and realized it was just a regular play-action pass and the right tackle blocks it as if it were a run play.

Instead of a very nice chunk play for a first down, they get flagged, leading to them punting. The penalties in this game were all impactful and costly and the types of penalties were especially maddening. This is simply a player not understanding the play call and doing the wrong things. It shouldn’t happen this late in the season.

I don’t know what the initial call was on this play nor do I know what Tyler Shough saw to decide to change the play. What I do know is that a short-side speed option to Don Chaney was a very poor decision by him.

The read on this play is the unblocked player who is splitting the difference between the wide receiver and the right tackle. Shough likely sees that he has a numbers advantage with the Stanford nose tackle being heads up and Stanford having two defenders to the top of the screen and the Cards having two blockers.

With the option call, one of the two blockers for UofL bypasses the read man and climbs to the linebacker. UofL now has two players against one defender. The idea is sound. The issue is that everyone in that stadium knew that Shough wasn’t going to keep the ball. He hasn’t looked to be a runner all year and this pitch was coming no matter what the read was.

Here’s the thing. It might not have been a big issue that Shough pitched this too early but the ball is on the right hash. Running this to the short-side takes away an advantage for the offense which is space. Chaney could’ve caught this pitch in perfect stride and he still wouldn’t have gotten the first down.

These types of plays made a big difference in this game. Instead of UofL scoring on their first drive out of halftime to push the lead and force Stanford to adjust their plan, The Cardinal got to stay within striking distance. That remained the case for the rest of the game and UofL never truly pulled away.

Tayon Holloway had a horrendous weekend and it started on this play. UofL is playing man coverage with the corners playing off coverage. Instead of keeping his eyes on the receiver, Holloway takes a peek into the backfield when Elic Ayomanor gets to the stem of his route. Ayomanor then takes off for the corner of the endzone and Stanford gets an easy touchdown on Ayomanor’s first catch of the game.

My criticism of this play is the same as my criticism of UofL starting to blitz more as the game went on. They had a plan to start the game and even though the plan was working, they seemed to go away from it. Quincy Riley started this game by “traveling” with Ayomanor and covering him wherever he lined up. Riley is at the top of the screen on this play instead of being on Stanford’s top receiver.

On this play, five defenders end up covering two players. Two players cover the running back out of the backfield at the top of the screen. Three other players end up on Ayomanor after he goes in motion and crosses the field. The third player is the safety who lets a crosser get behind him. This is the type of play that happens when guys are pressing and panicking which is what you expect when the other team has all of the momentum.

This is just poor execution on a fine play call. UofL nearly gets home with a four-man rush and they force Daniels to move his feet. The secondary just didn’t do a good job of identifying the routes and Daniels makes a nice throw. Maybe man coverage would have been a good idea here but we’ve all seen how effective pick routes are in these spots. If anyone sees Mosely crossing here, UofL likely gets a sack and this game ends differently.