OFFENSE - OVERALL
Out of 16 offensive possessions, Wake managed only 3 drives of more than 5 plays – and two of those were drives of just 6 plays.
Wake would manage 266 yards of total offense, with 168 (63%) of those yards coming on just 3 long pass plays.
PASSING OFFENSE
The Wake QB’s would combine to go 9-for-30, but those numbers need to be put in context. Louisville played the type of defense that every team should play against Wake. Tight bump coverage. Rush only 4 and drop players into coverage. Take away all the easier, higher percentage throws and dare Wake to beat you deep. Gone were plays like out routes and stop routes that were the bread and butter plays against teams like Florida State. There are also questions that should be asked about how often Wake’s WRs are beating opposing DBs. While the QB play was unquestionably not good, it wasn’t going to be a high percentage passing night under any circumstances.
The TD pass to Tabari Hines showed what was possible against this defense. Hines took advantage of a bigger defender and beat him decisively off the line of scrimmage. He didn’t give the DB a chance to bump him. Hines gained several steps on him. If Wolford’s pass had hit him in stride I don’t think the single high safety would have been able to get to him. It could have been an easy-looking TD. Instead, the ball was underthrown. However Hines did a great job to adjust to the ball and then juke past the Cardinal defenders that had been given a chance to close in on him.
Hines would later add a key 4Q reception on fourth down.
From my vantage point in the stands, I didn’t realize that Cortez Lewis secured his TD catch entirely with one hand. A great play by Lewis. It was Wake’s longest pass completion since 2011.
THE INTERCEPTIONS
In the second half, Wake’s QBs would complete as many passes to Louisville players as they would to Wake players (four). Here is a look at each INT:
#1 – Hinton was pressured by a delayed blitz. Running towards the right sideline he tried to throw back across his body to the middle of the field. Bad idea.
#2 – Wolford had good pass protection and decided to attempt a throw to Chuck Wade in tight coverage. The pass was high and behind Wade who tipped the ball into the hands of a defender. The radio broadcast blamed Wade. I didn’t see it that way. I thought more should have gone to Wolford for attempting the throw over the middle into bracketed coverage and then being off the mark with the pass.
#3 – Wolford threw a short pass high and hard to Serigne who tipped the ball into the hands of a defender. I think Serigne could have come down with the pass. I don’t know who to blame on this one, but I did notice that Clawson seemed to be upset with Wolford after the play.
#4 – Wolford threw a deep ball into tight coverage. There didn’t seem to be any opening when the ball was thrown. KJ Brent appeared to me to be more focused on attempting to draw a pass interference call than preventing the safety from making the interception.
RUSHING OFFENSE
Bell and Colburn gained 3 or more yards on 9 of 20 rushing attempts (45%). That’s near their season-low. Only one rush went for longer than 6 yards. Matt Colburn – in his first “revenge game” – didn’t manage a run longer than 5 yards in 11 attempts. Colburn had more carries than Bell (11 to 9).
OFFENSIVE LINE
Louisville DE Trevon Young (Rivals #76 overall JuCO player in the 2014 class) repeatedly victimized Wake’s right tackle (mostly at the beginning and end of the game). Ryan Anderson replaced the struggling Phil Haynes sometime in the first half and remained there for the rest of the game. Anderson stabilized the position until Wake’s final two plays from scrimmage when he would be beaten in back-to-back plays that ended Wake’s hopes.
Justin Herron might have had his worst game of the season.
Wake’s best pass protection plays came when Cam Serigne stayed into block. I noticed Serigne helping the right tackle more than in previous games, but it still doesn’t happen that often. It would have interesting to see how the staff would have used Zach Gordon if he had stayed healthy.
The obvious breakdowns:
Justin Herron (5) – 2Q gave up QB hit, 2Q beaten outside causing QB to flush, 3Q beaten badly for a sack, 3Q false start penalty, 4Q allowed pressure that flushed Hinton
Ryan Anderson (3) – 2Q beaten by outside rush, 4Q allowed pressure that flushed Hinton, 4Q allowed strip sack of Hinton
Phil Haynes (2) – 1Q beaten by power rush, 1Q gave up sack to Trevon Young
DEFENSE – OVERALL
The defense played great. They held Louisville to just 317 total yards. The Cardinals were held to less than 10 yards on 9 out of their 14 possessions.
The biggest single positive for the Deacons was the consistently superb play from Brandon Chubb (12 total tackles, including one tackle for loss). Two UofL QBs would head to the sideline after encounters with Chubb (both plays were legal). I couldn’t help but notice that when Chubb and Marquel Lee were given a breather for one play in 4Q Louisville was able to tear off a 22 yard run. When Chubb and Lee were in the game the Cardinal RBs averaged a little over 2 yards per carry. Coming into the game much had been made of the running ability of Louisville QBs Jackson and Bonnafon. Even if you exclude sacks, they still totaled only 40 yards rushing on the night.
Another positive for Wake was improved pass pressure from the 3rd down subpackage which helped close the door each time Louisville was in 3rd and long.
While the defense was great, some of Louisville’s woes were attributable to poor play from the Cardinals, including some bad mistakes by young offensive linemen and a lot of penalties that often left UofL in long down and distance situations.
DEFENSIVE LINE
The DL had 8 solo tackles, 1.5 sacks, 2.5 tackles for loss and 0 forced fumbles. The DL is still a weak point for the Deacs, but to their credit they have become more active in the past games.
Duke Ejiofor showed again that he is our most dangerous DE when he took advantage of a matchup with true freshman OT and sacked the QB for a safety. He demolished the freshman on the play. What Wake needs is more of these type of plays from Ejiofor.
Josh Banks had a solid game. I said a couple of weeks ago that Zeek Rodney was our most valuable interior DL. I may have been off the mark. Banks had a very solid game. He had a QB hurry in 1Q on an inside spin move, a 2Q penetration that resulted in a tackle for loss and a 4Q QB pressure on a big 3rd and long play.
Tylor Harris is increasing his contribution each game. On Saturday he blew up the QB on a 3Q designed run (after a terrible play by a young Louisville O-lineman), and then blocked the FG attempt in 4Q. Interestingly, on the radio coverage earlier in the game Tommy Elrod had been playing up Harris’ ability to block FGs.
The following DL also had one impact play apiece: Shelldon Lewinson (2Q penetration that allowed him to tip a ball that fell incomplete) and Zeek Rodney (1Q pressure on stunt).
OTHER NOTES ON THE DEFENSE
Hunter Williams 4Q sack was a huge play.
Dionte Austin wasn’t targeted as much as I thought he would be. He gave up a few completions, including one where UofL used a WR’s 5-inch height advantage to win a ball and two 4Q passes that took advantage of the large cushion that the staff apparently has Austin using. But to Austin’s credit, Louisville didn’t do a whole lot against him.
Zach Dancel, who has been victimized on several long plays this year, didn’t see many plays come his way on Friday. However, he was solid on his tackles when he did have an opportunity and made a few plays in the area of the field where he has been more solid this season.
Mack Brown noted that Brad Watson camped at Texas when he was the head coach. Brown said that he obviously should have given Watson an offer at the time.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Positives: Zack Wary’s fumble recovery, Tylor Harris blocked FG, Brad Watson had a great special teams tackle to keep a punt returner from gaining any yardage.
Negatives: Weaver had a kickoff go out of bounds, several kickoff returns were downed inside the 20 (see more discussion below), Bachman’s fair catch on the punt that followed the safety.
Clawson spoke in his post-game about the kickoff returns as an example of an area where we are struggling with inexperience. I think teams are purposely leaving kickoffs short of the endzone because they know that our return game is a weakness. On the four kickoffs returned by Wake, they were downed at the following yard lines: 19, 14, 14 and 22.
Injuries: Alex Kinal (groin) and Mike Weaver (hip flexor) both came into the game nursing injuries.
CLAWSON
I try to be objective in my posts and write-ups, but make no mistake I am still VERY supportive of Clawson and staff. I think that I understand how he plans to rebuild this program, why it will take time, and the size of the hole that he is trying to dig this program out of. With respect to play calling, I would have people go back and listen to last week’s press conference where Clawson gave a 3 minute explanation in response to a question about why we don’t run the ball outside. Included in that discussion was how he measured the success rate of pin blocking in practice, how the strengths and weaknesses of the tight ends played into the decision and what they installed in place of outside runs. It was a pretty compelling explanation and leads me to believe that everything that they do, and don’t do, on offense is very calculated and tailored to the strengths and weaknesses of the offensive personnel.
Out of 16 offensive possessions, Wake managed only 3 drives of more than 5 plays – and two of those were drives of just 6 plays.
Wake would manage 266 yards of total offense, with 168 (63%) of those yards coming on just 3 long pass plays.
PASSING OFFENSE
The Wake QB’s would combine to go 9-for-30, but those numbers need to be put in context. Louisville played the type of defense that every team should play against Wake. Tight bump coverage. Rush only 4 and drop players into coverage. Take away all the easier, higher percentage throws and dare Wake to beat you deep. Gone were plays like out routes and stop routes that were the bread and butter plays against teams like Florida State. There are also questions that should be asked about how often Wake’s WRs are beating opposing DBs. While the QB play was unquestionably not good, it wasn’t going to be a high percentage passing night under any circumstances.
The TD pass to Tabari Hines showed what was possible against this defense. Hines took advantage of a bigger defender and beat him decisively off the line of scrimmage. He didn’t give the DB a chance to bump him. Hines gained several steps on him. If Wolford’s pass had hit him in stride I don’t think the single high safety would have been able to get to him. It could have been an easy-looking TD. Instead, the ball was underthrown. However Hines did a great job to adjust to the ball and then juke past the Cardinal defenders that had been given a chance to close in on him.
Hines would later add a key 4Q reception on fourth down.
From my vantage point in the stands, I didn’t realize that Cortez Lewis secured his TD catch entirely with one hand. A great play by Lewis. It was Wake’s longest pass completion since 2011.
THE INTERCEPTIONS
In the second half, Wake’s QBs would complete as many passes to Louisville players as they would to Wake players (four). Here is a look at each INT:
#1 – Hinton was pressured by a delayed blitz. Running towards the right sideline he tried to throw back across his body to the middle of the field. Bad idea.
#2 – Wolford had good pass protection and decided to attempt a throw to Chuck Wade in tight coverage. The pass was high and behind Wade who tipped the ball into the hands of a defender. The radio broadcast blamed Wade. I didn’t see it that way. I thought more should have gone to Wolford for attempting the throw over the middle into bracketed coverage and then being off the mark with the pass.
#3 – Wolford threw a short pass high and hard to Serigne who tipped the ball into the hands of a defender. I think Serigne could have come down with the pass. I don’t know who to blame on this one, but I did notice that Clawson seemed to be upset with Wolford after the play.
#4 – Wolford threw a deep ball into tight coverage. There didn’t seem to be any opening when the ball was thrown. KJ Brent appeared to me to be more focused on attempting to draw a pass interference call than preventing the safety from making the interception.
RUSHING OFFENSE
Bell and Colburn gained 3 or more yards on 9 of 20 rushing attempts (45%). That’s near their season-low. Only one rush went for longer than 6 yards. Matt Colburn – in his first “revenge game” – didn’t manage a run longer than 5 yards in 11 attempts. Colburn had more carries than Bell (11 to 9).
OFFENSIVE LINE
Louisville DE Trevon Young (Rivals #76 overall JuCO player in the 2014 class) repeatedly victimized Wake’s right tackle (mostly at the beginning and end of the game). Ryan Anderson replaced the struggling Phil Haynes sometime in the first half and remained there for the rest of the game. Anderson stabilized the position until Wake’s final two plays from scrimmage when he would be beaten in back-to-back plays that ended Wake’s hopes.
Justin Herron might have had his worst game of the season.
Wake’s best pass protection plays came when Cam Serigne stayed into block. I noticed Serigne helping the right tackle more than in previous games, but it still doesn’t happen that often. It would have interesting to see how the staff would have used Zach Gordon if he had stayed healthy.
The obvious breakdowns:
Justin Herron (5) – 2Q gave up QB hit, 2Q beaten outside causing QB to flush, 3Q beaten badly for a sack, 3Q false start penalty, 4Q allowed pressure that flushed Hinton
Ryan Anderson (3) – 2Q beaten by outside rush, 4Q allowed pressure that flushed Hinton, 4Q allowed strip sack of Hinton
Phil Haynes (2) – 1Q beaten by power rush, 1Q gave up sack to Trevon Young
DEFENSE – OVERALL
The defense played great. They held Louisville to just 317 total yards. The Cardinals were held to less than 10 yards on 9 out of their 14 possessions.
The biggest single positive for the Deacons was the consistently superb play from Brandon Chubb (12 total tackles, including one tackle for loss). Two UofL QBs would head to the sideline after encounters with Chubb (both plays were legal). I couldn’t help but notice that when Chubb and Marquel Lee were given a breather for one play in 4Q Louisville was able to tear off a 22 yard run. When Chubb and Lee were in the game the Cardinal RBs averaged a little over 2 yards per carry. Coming into the game much had been made of the running ability of Louisville QBs Jackson and Bonnafon. Even if you exclude sacks, they still totaled only 40 yards rushing on the night.
Another positive for Wake was improved pass pressure from the 3rd down subpackage which helped close the door each time Louisville was in 3rd and long.
While the defense was great, some of Louisville’s woes were attributable to poor play from the Cardinals, including some bad mistakes by young offensive linemen and a lot of penalties that often left UofL in long down and distance situations.
DEFENSIVE LINE
The DL had 8 solo tackles, 1.5 sacks, 2.5 tackles for loss and 0 forced fumbles. The DL is still a weak point for the Deacs, but to their credit they have become more active in the past games.
Duke Ejiofor showed again that he is our most dangerous DE when he took advantage of a matchup with true freshman OT and sacked the QB for a safety. He demolished the freshman on the play. What Wake needs is more of these type of plays from Ejiofor.
Josh Banks had a solid game. I said a couple of weeks ago that Zeek Rodney was our most valuable interior DL. I may have been off the mark. Banks had a very solid game. He had a QB hurry in 1Q on an inside spin move, a 2Q penetration that resulted in a tackle for loss and a 4Q QB pressure on a big 3rd and long play.
Tylor Harris is increasing his contribution each game. On Saturday he blew up the QB on a 3Q designed run (after a terrible play by a young Louisville O-lineman), and then blocked the FG attempt in 4Q. Interestingly, on the radio coverage earlier in the game Tommy Elrod had been playing up Harris’ ability to block FGs.
The following DL also had one impact play apiece: Shelldon Lewinson (2Q penetration that allowed him to tip a ball that fell incomplete) and Zeek Rodney (1Q pressure on stunt).
OTHER NOTES ON THE DEFENSE
Hunter Williams 4Q sack was a huge play.
Dionte Austin wasn’t targeted as much as I thought he would be. He gave up a few completions, including one where UofL used a WR’s 5-inch height advantage to win a ball and two 4Q passes that took advantage of the large cushion that the staff apparently has Austin using. But to Austin’s credit, Louisville didn’t do a whole lot against him.
Zach Dancel, who has been victimized on several long plays this year, didn’t see many plays come his way on Friday. However, he was solid on his tackles when he did have an opportunity and made a few plays in the area of the field where he has been more solid this season.
Mack Brown noted that Brad Watson camped at Texas when he was the head coach. Brown said that he obviously should have given Watson an offer at the time.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Positives: Zack Wary’s fumble recovery, Tylor Harris blocked FG, Brad Watson had a great special teams tackle to keep a punt returner from gaining any yardage.
Negatives: Weaver had a kickoff go out of bounds, several kickoff returns were downed inside the 20 (see more discussion below), Bachman’s fair catch on the punt that followed the safety.
Clawson spoke in his post-game about the kickoff returns as an example of an area where we are struggling with inexperience. I think teams are purposely leaving kickoffs short of the endzone because they know that our return game is a weakness. On the four kickoffs returned by Wake, they were downed at the following yard lines: 19, 14, 14 and 22.
Injuries: Alex Kinal (groin) and Mike Weaver (hip flexor) both came into the game nursing injuries.
CLAWSON
I try to be objective in my posts and write-ups, but make no mistake I am still VERY supportive of Clawson and staff. I think that I understand how he plans to rebuild this program, why it will take time, and the size of the hole that he is trying to dig this program out of. With respect to play calling, I would have people go back and listen to last week’s press conference where Clawson gave a 3 minute explanation in response to a question about why we don’t run the ball outside. Included in that discussion was how he measured the success rate of pin blocking in practice, how the strengths and weaknesses of the tight ends played into the decision and what they installed in place of outside runs. It was a pretty compelling explanation and leads me to believe that everything that they do, and don’t do, on offense is very calculated and tailored to the strengths and weaknesses of the offensive personnel.
