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Why Tavita Pritchard Went for Trickery and a 4th-and-4 Gamble Against Louisville
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- Why Tavita Pritchard Went for Trickery and a 4th-and-4 Gamble Against Louisville
(James Guillory-Imagn Images)
The goal when Stanford landed in Louisville was to play four strong quarters. While it's a simple goal, playing complete games has been something that has eluded the Cardinal at times this season, even in its wins.
At halftime, head coach Tavita Pritchard said he felt that the team was in a good place down 24-17. The offense had found a rhythm and had two straight drives that resulted in touchdowns in the second quarter, needing a total of three plays to cover 125 yards and taking just 44 seconds.
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"And then we lost focus in the second half," Pritchard said after the game. "We didn't make enough plays down the stretch. We had some mental lapses kind of in every phase. That was the [postgame] message to the team."
That second touchdown by Stanford in the second quarter put them up 17-14 with 5:16 remaining, but Louisville drove down the field for a field goal to tie the game at 17-17. With 1:46 remaining, Stanford had a shot to make a real statement before the half. They would also be receiving the kickoff to open the second half, so this was a nice back-to-back opportunity.
Unfortunately the statement that was sent was the wrong one, with the Cardinal going three-and-out and losing 16 yards in the process. They ended up punting the ball with a minute remaining, and it was Louisville that drove the field for a statement touchdown instead.
That was the start of the momentum shift in the game, though Stanford began the second half with a touchdown that tied the game on 4th and 1 from the Louisville 40 as Davis Warren found Micah Ford on the sideline, and the Cardinal running back just kept going.
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Louisville's first four possessions in the second half were a touchdown, a missed field goal, a touchdown, and a touchdown, ultimately putting them up 52-24 , which would be the game's final score.
In between all of that scoring, Stanford found the end zone to begin the fourth quarter in what would have put the score at 45-31, but an illegal formation penalty on Benji Blackburn wiped out the 19-yard touchdown and the drive stalled out. Louisville took over on downs from their own 25, and Isaac Brown broke off a 75-yard run on their first play.
That was the sequence that broke all hope for the Cardinal on the road, going from nearly down 14 and surging to instead being down 28 and looking to play out the final 10 minutes.
Postgame, coach Pritchard said that the goal for his coaching staff is figuring out how to get the team to play for a four-quarter — or more — game.
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Key Play Calls
Down just a touchdown early in the third quarter, Stanford was facing a 3rd and 7 from their own 36, but a false start penalty was called on Ford, which put them back to 3rd and 12 from the 31. To try and gain a first down, coach Pritchard went for some trickery, calling a hook-and-ladder play, which they had been working on.
The pass went to Nico Brown, who immediately touch-passed it to Caden High, but during the transition, High was hit hard and the result of the play was a fumble that was returned by Louisville for a touchdown the other way.
"They'd been playing a lot of soft zone throughout the game, especially on some of those third downs," Pritchard said postgame. "I didn't feel great about just dropping back and trying to hold the ball. That was a play that I felt like we've been workin' that gave us a chance to get most, if not all, of that back. Obviously it didn't work out that way."
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He added that from the result, he could have called a better play.
Stanford's next possession was at the same spot — their own 31 — on 4th and 4 but with the Cardinal down by 14 with 2:02 left in the third quarter. Given how the defense had performed to that point, trying to keep up offensively seemed like Stanford's best shot at staying in it.
On that fourth down, Warren's pass was picked off at the Louisville 47. While an interception is never ideal, in the field-position battle, it worked out better than an incompletion would have.
"We were in a space where we felt like we had to double down," Pritchard said. "[Louisville's] offense is a good offense...We knew this was going to be a game that we had to also go score points and match them. That felt like the space where we had to give ourselves a chance by doing that. Obviously it didn't work out, but that was the thinking."
