Silver And Black Pride
We’re diving into Fernando Mendoza’s first Big Ten conference game in Part IV of Silver and Black Pride’s Mendoza Mania, breaking down the film on every game from the No. 1 pick of the 2026 NFL draft’s/new Las Vegas Raiders franchise quarterback’s final season at Indiana.
This Week 4 matchup was supposed to pit two up-and-coming Big Ten programs against each other, but it didn’t live up to the hype with the Hoosiers cruising to a 63-10 victory. A big reason for that is this was one of the Heisman Trophy winner’s most efficient performances of the season, completing 21 of 23 passing attempts (91.3 percent) for 267 yards and five touchdowns with no interceptions.
Additionally, this was one of the most boring games Mendoza had last year, but in a good way. While he didn’t have many impressive throws down the field, he also didn’t make many mistakes and operated Indiana’s offense at a high level. That meant a lot of RPOs and short passes, but the quarterback did a good job dinking and dunking his way into a 63-point outing.
With only two incompletions in the contest, there weren’t many negative plays from Mendoza. But let’s get one rep that has some room for improvement out of the way before diving into the highlights.
More than anything, I think this is a decision he’d want back. The defense comes out in a single-high look with the safety playing very deep, while both corners have inside leverage, but one is in press coverage while the other plays off the line of scrimmage. That’s a pretty good indication they’re playing man, and Illinois stays in Cover 1 post-snap.
The issue is that Mendoza appears to predetermine this throw. He does a good job of eyeing the safety to confirm the coverage, and then looks to hit the wide receiver at the bottom of the screen, Elijah Sarratt, on a go route against off coverage. The problem is that Sarratt—who ran a 4.53-second 40-yard dash at Indiana’s pro day—isn’t a burner, so the corner can stay on top of the vertical route and it’s never open.
But Mendoza throws it anyway, and the pass falls incomplete, especially with the receiver tripping as the ball is coming. Obviously, the latter is out of the quarterback’s control, and it looks like he was trying to hit a back-shoulder throw to Sarratt. Meanwhile, Omar Cooper Jr. beats press coverage and wins deep on the stutter-and-go route.
Ideally, Mendoza uses his eyes to hold the safety in the middle of the field, similarly to what he does on the actual play by looking at the safety first and then eyeing Sarratt. That would force the safety to stay honest at least, and potentially cheat toward Sarratt, keeping the safety from helping the cornerback on Cooper. Then, Mendoza snaps his head around and has a potential touchdown up the other sideline.
What’s interesting about this decision is that even the pre-snap look indicates the ball should...
