Film Don't Lie | Two Touchdowns and a Big Play
It wasn’t a classic performance on offense for the Irish against Wisconsin, but they were able to score two touchdowns where they made the right call checking into favorable plays. In a game that was close until things got out of control with three 4th quarter interceptions, those two plays and another that set it up made a big difference in Notre Dame getting the W.
Coan drops one in the bucket to Austin
Things weren’t exactly going great for Notre Dame’s offense before Cam Hart’s first interception. In four drives, two of them were three-and-outs and the other two had a combined 31 plays that resulted in only three points.
They needed to create a big play and this situation presented them with a matchup where that could happen.
It’s 12 personnel (one back, two tight ends) and both tight ends are in-line. Wisconsin is playing both of their safeties close to the box and that means Kevin Austin (4) is one on one with a corner and there is no help over the top.
Jack Coan checked with the sideline and whatever they might have had called before, he knew he had this opportunity. He was not great on the deep ball in the game, but this ball was on the money and it put the Irish up for the first time.
Challenging the linebacker
This was simply a beautiful design with Michael Mayer (87) running down the seam and Kyren Williams (23) running an angle route. All Drew Pyne has to do is read the inside linebacker, Jack Sanborn, and what he does is going to dictate what throw to make.
If he turns and runs with Mayer down the seam, Williams is going to be wide open over the middle with a ton of room to run after the catch. If he goes with Williams, Mayer is going to be open.
Sanborn doesn’t do a bad job forcing Mayer to widen down the field, but he can’t clone himself and be there to cover both players. When he moves to Williams, Pyne knows he has that window open to Mayer.
Check to the slant
This was another one where Notre Dame walked up to the line and empty and saw that the inside linebacker was showing blitz and then checked into this play. They might have thought this was going to be a five man pressure here, but Wisconsin actually dropped the edge defender with the intention of taking away the slant.
The key to this play actually isn’t Pyne using his eyes to manipulate the opposite linebacker and safety. There is no doubt that helps, but the most important part of this is him waiting for Austin to clear the linebacker instead of blindly making this throw.
The edge defender would have taken away a quick slant, but not this play where he would have to keep running with Austin. It was a great job pre-snap and just as good after the snap.