Florida State Film Review: Second Quarter

Louisville’s defense started to step up in the second quarter and the offense showed more creativity in their play calls.

UOFL BALL, 2ND AND GOAL

Anyone that wanted old school bobby ball got it on this play. This is the simple bootleg goal line play that Louisville has had in the playbook for years. Pass looks really comfortable taking this snap under center and he whips around and delivers the ball quickly here. Just a nice, efficient play call with great execution by everyone.

FSU BALL, 3RD AND 11

This is the type of play that you want to see out of the defense. It shows some signs that they can turn the corner and play well when the offense is moving the ball.

First you can see Derek Dorsey at left end put a really nice move on the right tackle and get to the quarterback. Dorsey is one of the guys that they’re relying on to replace Jonathan Greenard and this is what they need from him.

On the coverage, P.J. Blue does a really good job of squeezing the angle on the pass. He cuts under the receiver and makes it nearly impossible for Deondre Francois to fit the ball in. It might not seem like much, but these are the types of plays that they need to make, but they need to make them consistently.

UOFL BALL, 1ST AND 10

This was another creative wrinkle from the offense. They utilized the same flow of the run plays that had worked a few times earlier but they shoveled it to Micky Crum underneath. They’ve used this play before but I can’t remember a time they have run it this season.

UOFL BALL, 3RD AND 4

Louisville gave up a bad sack early in the game and it looked like no one on the line was communicating to call out rushers and assignments. On this play it appears that maybe guys are talking before the snap with Lukayus McNeil pointing out a blitzer and Nathan Scheler at least looking his way. It’s hard to tell, but with no one else picking up their head or pointing anyone out, it looks like they’re still not identifying things before the snap.

This becomes more likely when you watch Scheler follow Marvin Wilson (#21) to the left and the blitzing linebacker gets a free path to Jawon Pass.

UOFL BALL, 2ND AND 10

Florida State definitely saw something from a tendency standpoint on second and long. They blitzed in that situation a couple of times early in the game and got pressure on Pass. They also blitzed guys from deep. It’s not like they’re trying to hide anything here as you can see both safeties are in man coverage and you can even see the linebacker to the top of the formation waving over the safety to guard Dez Fitzpatrick. FSU had a poor game plan but their overload pressures worked well.

I’m not totally sure what Jawon Pass is doing here. He takes a normal drop back on this play even though he’s looking at zero coverage (No safeties and man across the board) before the snap. If he had taken this snap and looked to his shortest route, he had Jaylen Smith open. Instead, he looks left before coming right to run. That’s why you see him run right into the blitzing linebacker.

UOFL BALL, 1ST AND 10

Two things happen on this play that I’ve been begging for. Louisville calls a short passing play on first down so that Pass can get the ball out of his hand quickly. Jaylen Smith also adds a subtle thing to his route that young guys hopefully noticed. He kinda slides towards the outside once he makes his turn so that he can get more separation from the inside defender. It’s subtle but it matters.

The second thing is that Jaylen makes a play after the catch. Loiusivlle doesn’t have an automatic big play machine in Lamar Jackson, so they need their receivers to take these short passes and turn them into big plays. Jaylen was able to do that.

FSU BALL, 4TH AND 6

FSU went for it on fourth down a couple of times in the first half, which I think showed how desperate they were to keep their offense on the field. On this play you can clearly see a good defensive design by Brian VanGorder so I wanted to throw it in the review.

There are only two down linemen on this play and the linebackers line up as rush ends on the outside. Yasir Abdullah and Tabarius Peterson line up as inside backers and blitz. The outside guys, take a few steps towards the tackles and then they drop into short zones.

You can see on the second view that Dorian Etheridge drops directly into the passing lane. So, even if the pass wasn’t knocked down, it would have likely been incomplete.

FSU BALL, 1ST AND 10

I only put this in because it was hilarious to me.

UOFL BALL, 1ST AND 10

I’ve talked a lot about the defense needing to take advantage of opportunities but here’s a play where the offense does it. FSU is in cover 3 (Outside corners and one safety divvy up the field in to thirds). You can see Levonta Taylor (#1) bail out here with the slot receiver to the bottom of the screen. That leaves Devante Peete wide open because Jayden Woodbey (#20) makes a freshman mistake and gets caught looking into the backfield.

Pass stands tall in the pocket here and makes a strong throw right before he gets hit.

UOFL BALL, 2ND AND 8

The added creativity to the offense is on display again here. This is a RPO (Run/Pass Option) that just doesn’t work. They need these types of plays in the scheme and I’m happy they ran this play. They didn’t do it with Lamar Jackson and it was a missed opportunity in my opinion.

You can see that the offensive line is blocking like a run play and Pass’ key are the linebackers on the left side of the formation. When he sees them fly up, he pulls it and looks for Micky Crum. I probably would have liked to see them go to a quicker guy who could beat their man for a slant route, but I won’t complain too much because the idea is a big factor here.

UOFL BALL, 2ND AND GOAL

Jawon Pass has caught a lot of flack for how he played in this game but I think this throw sums up how he looked in the first half very well. UofL runs corner routes with their inside receivers. He recognizes that Dez has an opening behind him and he puts the ball right where it needs to be. There is no chance for Asante Samuel Jr. (#26) to pick this off and it gives Dez to be the star receiver he is and make a play. This was a play that really made me see the potential in this team. It was more than scheme, it was guys making a play.