On his way to making Louisville’s trouncing of Syracuse a personal highlight reel, quarterback Lamar Jackson exposed the Orange’s defensive line. On his first rushing touchdown against SU, defensive end Kendall Coleman crashed as Jackson sold a read option.

In a split second, Jackson was around the edge and speeding to a second UofL touchdown in three minutes.

At the end of the second half, his fake drew in defensive end Chris Slayton, leaving the edge open yet again. With one man to beat, Jackson made one of his most impressive plays of the game, leaping SU cornerback Cordell Hudson.

“When people think of contain, and maybe you’re dealing with the younger Pop Warner kids, contain with the ends, you’re normally right,” Babers said. “When you’re talking about a college football game or an NFL football game, there’s contain with inside linebackers, there’s contain with outside linebackers, there’s contain with strong safeties, there’s contain with corners.

“The defense is a lot more complicated than just simply saying that the defensive ends are the ones that lost the game on zone reads. When you talk about containment of someone on zone reads, it’s a defensive thing, it’s not just a one position type thing.”

Babers is right — ends were not the only ones with contain on those plays, but his ends were beaten consistently against UofL. Some transition was expected for that group. Coleman is a freshman, Slayton is more suited for defensive tackle and the position group is Syracuse’s least experienced.

The zone read buried SU (1-1, 0-1 Atlantic Coast) against Louisville, and the Orange will see it again on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. in the Carrier Dome. Quarterback Quinton Flowers and running back Marlon Mack may not be able to replicate Lamar Jackson and his backfield mates, but the Bulls (2-0) still average 7.1 yards per play. Last week, the Cardinals averaged 10.4. Last year, Mack shredded the Orange defense for 184 yards and two touchdowns on 20 attempts. USF racked up 7.8 yards per play.

“I think I have a lot to improve on,” Coleman said. “This was definitely not a good game on my part. The team and I expect more from myself, that’s why they have me out there.”

Coleman, in particular, is still making the adjustment from how he and Cathedral (Indiana) High School guarded against the zone read. At Cathedral, defenders were assigned to particular players on zone read plays. Lineman would take the player running up the middle (usually the running back), an outside linebacker would take the first outside option (usually the quarterback) and a cornerback would typically take the second outside option (only necessary in case of the option).

Slayton is more suited to bump inside, but a lack of depth at defensive end pushed him back outside. Aside from Slayton and Coleman, SU doesn’t have many other options at end. Jake Pickard is just a redshirt freshman and had as many reps as Coleman did in Division I football games (zero) entering the 2016 season. Graduate transfer De’Jon Wilson was a non-factor for Colorado last season, getting no game action.

Zone read plays are often predicated on the decision of an opponent’s defensive ends. If the end conservatively stays on the outside of a play, the quarterback can hand the ball off inside. But if that end crashes (moves inside, toward the offensive line), the quarterback can take the ball outside and escape contain.

Jackson was able to sell fakes easily in UofL’s matchup against Syracuse that the ends bit on, leaving the rest of the defense to cover for the line. The Heisman contender’s speed was too much to handle on the outside.

So far this season, Flowers is averaging less rushes per game and has thrown more. But he hasn’t had Mack for a full game this season.

Given SU’s struggle defending the run, specifically the zone read, the play should factor large into USF’s offense.

“I don’t like what I’ve seen from him because he looks similar to (Jackson),” Babers said. “His ability with his legs to create offense for South Florida and then his ability to throw the deep ball on the money to keep the defense playing offense is a little eerie and it reminds me of someone I’ve been having nightmares about.”

Published on September 16, 2016 at 1:28 am

Contact Chris: cjlibona@syr.edu | @ChrisLibonati