Fernando Mendoza versus Purdue, Part XII of Las Vegas Raiders’ Mendoza Mania
We’re wrapping up the regular season in Silver and Black Pride’s Mendoza Mania series , diving into film breakdowns for each of Fernando Mendoza’s games during his last College Football season, and looking at Indiana’s dominant 56-3 win over in-state rival Purdue. However, this was the Las Vegas Raiders ’ new quarterback’s worst performance of a passer from last year, going eight for 15 (53.3% completions) with 117 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions . The latter is misleading, though. Pro Football Focus had him on the hook for three “ turnover-worthy plays ” at a 17.6 percent rate, his most TWPs and highest rate (by over 12 percent) on the year. Also, the 2026 NFL draft No. 1 pick didn’t account for any “big-time throws” and posted his lowest PFF passing grade (28.3) of the season by more than 20 points against the Boilermakers. So, fair warning, this breakdown is going to be more negative than positive, as it looked like the Heisman Trophy winner was pressing and forced a handful of throws. This was Mendoza’s first pass of the game and, in a way, set a precursor for how the rest of the night went for him. Purdue is playing man coverage and makes no secret about it by showing and staying in Cover 1 pre- and post-snap while both corners are lined up in press coverage. With Indiana in a three-by-one formation, that sets up Elijah Sarratt with a one-on-one matchup that Mendoza clearly likes and wants to take advantage of. However, the cornerback plays soft-shoe press coverage instead of going for the jam at the line of scrimmage and stays in Sarratt’s hip throughout the route, meaning the receiver is never open. Ideally, the quarterback comes off the one-on-one matchup and works the other side of the progression, where the outside receiver and tight end are open. Instead, Mendoza tries to throw a back-shoulder pass to Sarratt and misses too far inside, forcing the receiver to be the defender and prevent the interception. Predetermining and being inaccurate with the throw is a bad combination, and he’s lucky this wasn’t a turnover. While the receiver and route are different here, this play is almost a carbon copy of the previous one. The Boilermakers have the same play call, running Cover 1 with a six-man pressure, while the Hoosiers come out in a three-by-one formation again. Granted, it doesn’t look like this is a predetermined throw/decision by Mendoza, but more of him trying to force the ball into someone who isn’t open. The matchup to watch here is in the slot, where the nickelback does a great job of covering Omar Cooper Jr. on the drag route. The defender knows he has safety help over the top with the single-high coverage. So, once Cooper releases off the line and starts to work across the field, the nickel can undercut the route to get into the passing lane since the free safety is protecting him from being beaten deep. As a result, the receiver isn’t open. But Mendoza throws it anyway and doesn’t get enough air on the ball to place it between the second and third levels of the defense. Instead, the pass goes right to the defender and should have been intercepted if the receiver didn’t play great defense to force the drop. What makes this play more frustrating is that if Mendoza had gotten to his next read, he would have seen the cornerback who was covering Sarratt slip to create an opportunity for a big play. While the pass-rush was coming, he had plenty of time to move on in the progression. This next one is a missed read more than anything. Purdue mixes up their coverage by showing the Cover 1 look they ran in the first two clips with the free safety in the middle of the field pre-snap. However, post-snap, they rotate into Cover 3 with pattern-matching principles in the secondary, where the nickelback in the boundary (bottom of the screen) rotates into the middle deep third and the safety slides over to take the hook-to-curl area. Also, they’re protecting against a deep or intermediate throw by ha [... truncated ...]
