This week's Five Plays came in just a bit over the number. Louisville played a complete game scoring in all three phases but they were sloppy at times. Georgia Tech brought their creative offense to the table but the Cards were able to contain them for the most part. UofL was also able to create big plays on offense as well.
Let's dive into a big conference win headed into one of the biggest matchups of the season.
This is a great play design that gets perfectly blocked up front. The right guard and right tackle do a great job of walling off the defense and the tight end gets great depth down the field to do the same. The motion moves the defense just enough to key their eyes on the back. The quick reverse motion influences their first steps. That all gives Haynes King the space he needs to keep the option and run past the defense.
That's what I would write if this were a Georgia Tech site. Give credit where it's due. This was flawless execution by Tech and it's what they do best.
As for UofL's defense, I think they got caught in a bad call. Ron English went with an aggressive call in a short-yardage spot but it played right into GT's call. It happens. It's happened a few too many times in the last two games, but it does happen.
UofL had a tough time running the ball in this game and I'm glad I went back to watch the game a couple of times. I put a lot of focus on the plays where the line allowed penetration but I think that GT did a good job of bringing guys into the box to stop the run. On this play, you can see the Tech safety walk into the box right before the snap and make a great play to get the stop.
This is blocked extremely well by the offensive line and it's a play that likely goes for 8 or more yards if the safety isn't there. Tech did this a good amount throughout the game and accomplished their goal of stopping the run. But they opened themselves up for big passing plays.
I know that this play has gotten a lot of notice but I'm not sure that Quincy Riley has been given enough credit for what he does here. He plays this very well from the snap. GT is in a stacked wide look that they run a few different routes out of. They use screens to get a receiver in a spot to make a man miss and they also run some switch-release stuff to confuse the corners. Riley and Taz Nicholson play this well by splitting at the snap and getting depth. They would have been in a good position to defend a pass.
However, GT runs a quarterback draw here and Riley ends up in run support. What he does after King starts running is about as perfect a play as he could have made in this situation. He gets his eyes to the ball and instead of flying into the mix, he works to keep his contain responsibility to the boundary. When King goes to throw the ball his instincts just kick in and he makes a crazy play to break up the pass.
There aren't many players who would have the awareness to see what King is looking to do here let alone to make the play on the ball. Such a great play. Also, you can see where Riley was injured. King assumes that he has the ball and he grabs his ankle/leg to tackle him. He then lands on Riley's ankle. You can see Riley start to limp when he gets up.
This one gets a rare double-clip so I could point out Tyler Shough walking to the line and changing the play based on what he sees. I'm not going to pretend to know exactly what he sees but it looks to me that he sees the numbers on the right side of the field and reacts.
GT has a corner, a linebacker, and a safety to that side of the field. UofL has a receiver, a tight end, and a running back to the right. The linebacker in the middle of the field isn't shading, so I think Shough sees the single coverage and makes the change to a man-beater.
Tech brings everyone and plays "zero" coverage with the safety taking the tight end to the right side. Shough gets into his drop back and lets the routes develop and he hits Chris Bell on a crosser and he gets a clear path for the touchdown. Isaac Brown deserves credit here for picking up the blitzer to give Shough plenty of time to make the throw.
I really loved this pressure design from the defense. It's a bit tough to see because guys are moving around at the snap but UofL brings a safety into the box rush off the edge. He essentially replaces Tramel Logan who loops into the inside of the line into a vacated area. The defensive tackle pulls the right guard towards the outside, and the center goes to block but there is no one there. Logan runs right past him and has a free shot on the running back.
You can visualize how this pressure can work well in different scenarios. If the play wen to the right, the safety would be there to fill and the linebacker and corner would be there for support as well. Stanquan Clark is also there to the left side scraping off of the linemen to fill there. I thought it was a creative call that created havoc and it worked perfectly.
In the interest of full transparency, I did not foresee Georgia Tech being so aggressive coming into this game. They blitzed a lot and even when they weren't bringing heavy pressure like they did on this play, they were in single coverage a lot.
On this play they bring six guys while dropping a safety deep. I'm bad at math but that leaves four guys to cover five and Chris Bell is left wide open. Shough does a good job to get depth while staying under control so that he can make this throw. It's subtle, but the calm he's been playing with is important. The "easy" plays get missed by a lot of guys. He's nailed them.
While Tech did have success bringing guys into the box to stop the run, they also had a few of these types of plays where UofL's line just failed to block anyone. Michael Gonzalez is an outstanding player but he just whiffs on his man on the backside here. Austin Collins ends up avoiding the defensive end on his right eye. Then at the end of the play we get a glimpse of Collins throwing up his hands.
I think that the line is having communication issues and it's leading to them allowing free runners because they're not blocking the correct man. From what I'm gathering on this specific play, Collins expected someone else to take the end that goes past him. It's a guess by me because I don't know who else would have blocked him. Whatever went wrong here, they have to fix it by this weekend.
This play would have elicited a very loud expletive from me if my house wasn't full of neighborhood kids. UofL is in their dime package that I absolutely love because they essentially have seven defensive backs on the field. They bring in Antonio Watts and Ben Perry in to play as inside linebackers and they have three safeties as well. They've been using this package since the spring and they have some pressures with it as well as the cloud coverage type of plays like this one.
After watching this roughly 500 times, I'm pretty sure De'Angelo Hutchinson blew the coverage here as opposed to Devin Neal who I originally blamed. This looks like quarters coverage with the corners taking outside hash and the safeties responsible for the inside quarters. A pretty basic call that just about everyone runs.
It appears that the motion confuses Hutchinson and he ends up in man coverage with the guy running the wheel route. To me, this is not supposed to happen as he is the only player on defense in man coverage at this point. Also, the corner at the top of the screen doesn't follow the deep post that ends up getting the ball.
I'm almost certain that Hutchinson is supposed to be in that vacated area the receiver runs through. Neal's eyes are on the player that enters his zone and he tries to recover once King looks to go deep. Every defender but Hutchinson drops into a zone with their eyes on the quarterback. I think he's the culprit here.
I hold Haynes King in high regard and he picked apart UofL's pressures all day long. This is a pretty simple play but King sees this pressure and keeps calm to exploit it. TJ Quinn walks up and shows blitz with Tamarion McDonald replacing him in coverage. They play zone behind it McDonald specifically sitting in an area where you would expect the ball to go.
Quarterbacks typically look to "throw into the blitz" and hit the receiver in a vacated area. They look for the "hot route". However, there is no hot route here and Tech runs two guys up the field. McDonald ends up leaving an open area for the pass to be completed. Credit where it's due. King stares into the pressure and makes an easy throw for a chunk play. The blitz gets picked up and GT executes the play well.
Rene Konga has been a revelation early in this season. After a career at Rutgers where he hadn't played a key role, he has been the best player on UofL's defense this season. PFF has him rated as one of the top defensive linemen in the country and he has made a handful of these types of plays that don't show up on the stat sheet.
He gets off the ball extremely well here and beats his man so badly that even as the running back spins off of him he spins right into the lineman he beat. The rest of the defensive front does a great job to hold the point of attack and this play goes for nothing.
Ja'Corey Brooks' catch gets the deserved focus here but I think a couple of other things stand out. UofL didn't run the ball well but their run actions continued to work in play-action. The linebackers bite hard here but the safety to that side of the field also reacts to the fake. I can't tell for sure but I think he's supposed to get deep and play that half of the field.
I say this because the other safety never makes it past the left hash on this play. Shough does a good job looking off the safety but he wouldn't commit this hard if he were playing as a single-high safety. To me, it seems like UofL's insistence on running the ball helped them get single coverage and Brooks won the battle.
This is a similar play to the touchdown run King scored on earlier in the game. They run motion with misdirection and UofL is bringing extra guys to stop the run. UofL played it aggressive as they did earlier and it paid off. I think that they should continue to play the run this way and try to be disruptive. They'll give up some big plays but they'll also make plays like this one.
This is fun stuff from Georgia Tech. Earlier in the game they ran this same set with four receivers bunched to the wide side. UofL only committed three players to that side and GT threw a screen for about 8 yards. This time the Cards commit four defenders and King keeps it for a chunk run.
There is no correct way to defend this play. They proved this by running it twice and getting good yardage on both options. My only gripe is how TJ Quinn aligns on the play. He ends up on the left side of the formation which makes them unbalanced and King ends up with space to run and to make Quinn and the safety to miss him. I think he could have possibly kept this play to a short gain if he lined up differently.
Ending the film review with one of two big plays that Ashton Gillotte made that didn't get enough notice. Gillotte gets his second straight pressure on Haynes King here and forces him to essentially throw it away after doing the same on the play before. On the next play Tayon Holloway blocks the field goal attempt and puts the game away.
I also had a thought about how this play would have been covered by the broadcast if it were a primetime game. Gillotte's pressures would have been featured by the analyst and he would have gotten a lot of exposure by being the reason for the long field goal. This isn't a knock on the broadcast because they only have what they have to work with. But the big broadcasts have a bunch of spotters and production folks that would help to point this stuff out.
It's a bit of a random thought but I think that this is one of the reasons Gillotte and others are a bit underrated. Making plays that don't show up in the traditional stats is important but they just don't get noticed by the masses. But think about how many times you've learned about a player because Kirk Herbstreit is fawning over them while working the telestrator out of a commercial break. It took me rewatching the game on Sunday to even notice these plays.