Film Review: Wake Forest Fourth Quarter

The Louisville football team had a big win last weekend and the game was essentially over after the third quarter. Even with the score what it was, the second and third units played as if they were in a close game. I think that says something about how things are going and will go for this program and it was fun to put a magnifying glass to their play.

Here’s a learning moment for Kam Wilson. UofL shifted the player at Dog into the middle of the field a handful of times last week as you see here with Wilson behind the defensive end. He ends up kind of stacked with Monty Montgomery which isn’t ideal but not really a big deal. However, when the ball is snapped both players take the same steps and end up way out of position. Wilson is aligned in the box here but he still has the responsibility to cover the edge to the short side. He steps inside instead and Wake’s backup quarterback has tons of room to work with.

Dez Tell makes an impressive play here as he just owns the line of scrimmage and he stands up the center until the back gets to him. Then he makes a one-armed tackle and gets him down behind the line. I can’t say enough about how this defensive line has played this year. They seemed like a potential weakness this summer but even with Jermayne Lole going down with an injury, they have done so well to be disruptive.

I wanted to point out Josh Minkins for playing the type of coverage you need if you’re going to bring pressure. In the UVA game a few weeks ago, they started the game bringing a lot of pressure but could contain behind that pressure. That led to some big plays for UVA but they adjusted.

This is a zero-coverage blitz with no safety playing deep and every defensive back in man coverage. Minkins sees the tight end trying to leak out of the backside here and he chases it down well and makes a nice hit on the receiver. A very nice catch was made for the completion but this is what they need from their safeties.

The “will they, won’t they” alignment here by the defense has worked well for them. They have blitzed like they do here but they will also drop out of the look and rush three or four. I’ll also point out the coverage again as the guys playing off coverage don’t bail out and instead they hold their ground knowing that the ball will have to come out quickly. They “collision” the receivers to throw off timing but it doesn’t even matter because the blitz gets there so quickly.

Deebo Jones is playing so much faster this year and I really love that he is developing into a guy who can be the next really good inside linebacker for Louisville. He and Momo have also entered the competition for the best celebration and they’re challenging Yaya Diaby and Yasir Abdullah in a close race.

Kam Wilson has flashed some real potential in his limited time over the last two seasons. Here he gets up the field dips into his bend around the edge. He gets a bit wide but look at the speed to chase this down. He then morphs from a 6-2 guy into Javon Kearse and lays out for what should have been a strip sack. He got credit for the forced fumble but not for the sack. Not sure why that was but maybe they counted the quarterback as a runner or something.

It was late in the fourth quarter of a blowout and Bryan Brown was still bringing new pressures. I did not see them run this blitz at any other time in the game but I can obviously miss things. Chandler Jones times this up perfectly and he forces the quarterback to step up into the pressure in his face. DeAngelo Hutchinson (I believe) rotates into the middle of the field as Jones heads toward the line and the corners are in man coverage. The rush matches the coverage and the quarterback has no options. It was good to see this with some backups in the game.

I debated clipping the return instead of the actual interception because it was the funniest thing I had seen in years. Quincey Riley capped off a great game with his second interception and he then went full “YOLO” and tried to score again. This wasn’t a good pass at all but Riley is playing the receiver and the quarterback at the same time and he just turns into the receiver and makes the play.