Five Plays: Smu Mustangs Fourth Quarter

The Cards finally pulled away in the fourth quarter with explosive plays in the run and pass game. The defense continued to give up some big plays while making huge plays that turned the tide of the game.

Let’s dive into the plays that led to one of the biggest wins of the Jeff Brohm era.

The biggest threat on the SMU offense, other than Kevin Jennings, is Randy Pittman because he is so versatile. He had a game when he was at FSU where he threw for a touchdown, ran for a touchdown, and caught a touchdown pass. It took until the fourth quarter for Rhett Lashlee to try to utilize his versatility, but the Cards did a great job of getting a stop on this short-yardage play.

The key to this run stuff is the defensive tackle at the top of the formation. I can’t make out who it is, but he gets underneath the right guard on this play, which causes a pileup right where the play is designed to go. Pittman is left to try to jump over the pile, which gets him nowhere.

The Cards again aren’t playing the run aggressively on this play, and Kendrick Raphael is at full speed by the time he gets to the second level. The threat of Jennings running is legit, but I’d rather see him be forced to beat AJ Green on the edge as well as the secondary players to the outside, than have the linebackers standing still as we see here. They should be getting downhill to try to close the gap that Raphael runs through. Instead, the SMU offensive linemen are pretty much walking five yards down the field looking for someone to block.

This is just so impressive from Lincoln Kienholz in game three as a starter. I’ll stop being impressed as the season goes on, but he shows a level of calm when he is pressured that I just did not expect from him. He also has a great feel in the pocket to identify when the pocket will not hold up for him. Throw in the fact that he navigates things so well once he starts moving, and you have everything you would want to see from your quarterback on this type of play. His eyes never come down. He’s looking for an option all the way on this play.

This is the best blocking I’ve seen on any play this season, in my opinion. Lance Robinson and Anwar O’Neal do exactly what you want them to do on this play to create an easy wall on the backside of the play. Johnnie Brown and Carson Henry explode off the ball to get their inside shoulder to the inside shoulder of defenders who start the play well inside of them. This allows them to create a cutback lane that is a mile wide. Eryx Daughtery does a great job pulling and stoning the edge player to the playside of the play as well. This is blocked about as perfectly as you could ask for.

I picked Keyjuan Brown as my breakout player out of the running backs, and while that wasn’t an overly brave prediction, it is so great to see him start this year the way he has. This run shows why he has such a high ceiling, and it shows why I think he will be a great back in the NFL. His vision to see this lane is outstanding. This play is literally designed for him to end up on the exact opposite side of the field. But he sees Johnnie Brown climb to the linebacker, so he cuts off of him instead of Henry.

Two SMU defenders are also sprinting outside to try to cut this play off, which makes this cutback even more impressive. On top of all of that, Keyjuan has that patience-to-burst combination that he has as he lets these blocks develop before taking off once he makes his cut. Every position group on the offense gets kudos on this one.

The other team is going to make plays on you, but this is another play where I can’t help but question Koen Entringer. UofL is in Cover 2 again on this play with Antonio Watts to the far side and Entringer responsible for the short side of the field. Entringer goes into a straight backpedal at the snap, which is what he should do. However, he doesn’t leave the hash once he identifies the routes.

To me, this seems like a lack of trust that Kaleb Beasley will take care of his responsibility, which is to track any receiver down the middle of the field. You can see that Beasley does his job here to take the inside receiver as he runs a deep post. Entringer doesn’t track the number two receiver, which gives Jennings an easy throw for a chunk play. It seems like I’m picking on Entringer, but he will be a liability if he doesn’t get better in coverage. That doesn’t work when he’s such a good player in run support.

This is a two-for-one as the Cards’ defense made a huge short-yardage stand that turned the game. On the first play, the defensive interior just owns the line of scrimmage with one player pushing the right tackle into the backfield and the rest of the group holding their ground to plug any gap for the back to run through. Rhett Lashlee had made it clear that he was going to look to run the ball in these situations, so Mark Ivey matched that mindset with his call.

On fourth down, Lashlee got very cute with a wildcat pass from Pittman. This was one of my favorite plays of the season so far. It shows great discipline and awareness from the veteran players on this defense. Jabari Mack is in the perfect position to start this play, and he plays it so well by getting up the field to force Jennings inside. Entringer sees the play develop very quickly and gets right to the spot before breaking down to take on the tackle. Stanquan Clark and others are there in support right when they need to be to make this stop. What’s even better is that this play would have been stuffed if Pittman kept it as well.

If the SMU defender doesn’t make this extremely impressive tackle, this would be the best play by the offense on the season so far. You cannot make a better throw, and Tre Richardson could not have tracked this ball any better. If the defender didn’t get a hold of his jersey here, Richardson would be keeping his feet and taking this to the house.

Again, the potential of this offense is sky high. Think of all of the different ways they have created explosive plays, and they still haven’t tapped into Brohm’s creativity yet.

I’ve been banging this drum for three weeks now, but this is a rare run from Isaac Brown where the linebackers and safeties aren’t getting downhill immediately. The linebackers start flowing to the ball at the snap, but they’re not shooting a gap. The safety is 15 yards from the line of scrimmage and doesn’t even show up until Brown is 7 yards down the field.

Isaac got to face a defense front that wasn’t selling out to stop him, and he immediately broke a big run. He also got the type of blocking he has needed from the offensive line, tight ends, and receivers. Richardson putting this type of effort in 25 yards down the field is excellent.

Sometimes it’s all about numbers. SMU is overloaded to the right side in this formation with only a tight end to the wide side of the field. They then motion a tight end to the right side, which gives the look of a power run to the right. UofL is in man coverage, so the secondary players are aligned with the tight end and receivers to the right. That leaves them with four players to take on three players to the left side of the formation.

The issue they run into is that SMU pulls two blockers to the left, which now leaves the Cards at a numbers disadvantage. I don’t have a real gripe here, but TJ Banks does have the opportunity to get downhill on this play to take on the block more quickly. He hesitates when the tight end to the bottom of the screen down blocks. He should look to get up the field to set the edge at that point.

I feel like I was in the minority at this point in the game after the poor clock management on offense led to SMU having the ball in scoring position with a lot of time left to score. I saw some tweets and posts calling this game over, and I just never felt good about things on either side of the ball when it came to closing this game out.

This play did not help at all, as Jennings just carves up the defense on this run with his speed and elusiveness while also running through a tackle on his way to a score. But Brycen Scott saves the day with a really nice play. Credit to Kaleb Perry as well for chasing down this play to force Jennings to make this specific move to try to score. The defender at the top of the screen who forces Jennings up the field also plays this well. Forcing Jennings into this alley helped to get other defenders to the ball.

I’d rather they avoid this situation altogether, but the defense made a big play when they needed it. They need that every week.

Mark Ivey finally took his 300-pound defensive tackles out of the game, and he immediately got a sack. The defense was dead tired at this point in the game, so the biggest guys on the field were much more tired than everyone else. Jennings was able to sit back in the pocket up until they slid AJ Green down inside, brought Jared Smith in, and paired Clev Lubin and Tyler Thompson on the edges. They got home twice, and then they shut the door.

I’ve been doing these film reviews for the better part of a decade now, and this is one of the best interceptions I’ve seen from a UofL safety. I pointed this out after the Ole Miss game, but this staff deserves credit for going out and getting two experienced safeties who converted from being cornerbacks. Here we see Beasley attack the ball in the air as if he were the receiver and make a hands catch through the receiver’s arms to come down with the ball. On top of that, he puts the ball away to protect it while he’s in the air. He now has 3 passes defended this year, which puts him on pace for more than the entire safety group combined last year.