Fernando Mendoza College Football Playoff versus Oregon, Part XV of Las Vegas Raiders’ Mendoza Mania

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ATLANTA, GEORGIA - JANUARY 09: Fernando Mendoza #15 of the Indiana Hoosiers rushes the ball against the Oregon Ducks in the second half during the CFP Semifinal Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on January 09, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by CFP/Getty Images) | Getty Images

We’re nearing the end of Silver and Black Pride’s Mendoza Mania series, diving into the second-to-last game of Fernando Mendoza’s 2025 season with a College Football Playoff contest against Oregon. Indiana cruised to a 56-22 victory due in part to an efficient outing from the No. 1 pick of the 2026 NFL draft.

The Las Vegas Raiders’ new quarterback completed 17 of 20 pass attempts (85.0%) for 177 yards and five touchdowns with no interceptions during his second matchup of the season against the Ducks. With a dominant performance from the Hoosiers as a whole, the team didn’t need its quarterback to play hero ball and drop deep shot after deep shot. Instead, this outing was more about Mendoza’s accuracy and game management.

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That being said, this game did highlight one area of improvement when it comes to the Heisman Trophy winner’s game management skills: knowing when a play is dead.

It’s third and long in the clip above, and Indiana’s right tackle gets beaten around the edge pretty quickly. Meanwhile, Mendoza starts his read on the left side of the progression, so he doesn’t see and doesn’t feel the pressure coming, resulting in a strip sack. Luckily, the ball bounces in his favor to avoid the turnover, and he scrambles to keep the play alive.

Still, nothing is open while the pass-rush is coming and closing in on the quarterback. He tries to evade another defender but sticks the ball out, putting it in harm’s way before taking another sack on the wrong side of the 50-yard line. Luckily, Mendoza didn’t cough up the rock a second time, but he was certainly playing with fire with poor ball security.

Now, a sack isn’t a terrible result here since it was third down and the Hoosiers’ kicker had a career-long field goal of just 46 yards and never even attempted a 50-yarder. For context, it would be about a 55-yard field goal from the 37-yard-line. The bigger issue here is the lack of ball security, especially after getting a friendly bounce on the strip-sack.

This can happen a lot with young quarterbacks, where they need to learn to recognize when a play is dead. Once Mendoza leaves the pocket, sees no one open and has several defenders chasing after him, it’s time to either throw the ball away or just go down and take the sack without extending the ball away from his body. In the NFL, the former is the right decision since kickers have much better range and 55-yarders have almost become routine in today’s game.

We’ll take a look at a similar play here, only it’s a run, and the issue is strictly about understanding when the play is dead rather than avoiding making a bad play worse.

It’s third and long again, and it’s about the same area of the field as the previous clip. Oregon does another good job in coverage, taking away all options from the quarterback, so he takes off and runs.

Now, it’s understandable that Mendoza doesn’t slide. He has to pick up the first down, and there are two defenders right in front of the marker. So, if he slides to avoid contact, the ball will be placed around the 30-yard-line or likely short of the sticks. However, what he can do is dive, and that should get the job done.

Instead, Mendoza runs between the defenders and does manage to break a tackle. But after that, he tries to hit a spin move on a second tackle attempt and ends up getting the ball punched out by another pursuing defender. The Hoosiers clearly had luck on their side this evening as an offensive lineman manages to fall on the ball to avoid a disaster, meaning the quarterback was playing with fire again.

Another factor at play here is that the No. 1 pick needs to understand how he’s built. He isn’t Michael Vick, Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen who can make people miss in the open field and break tackles. Mendoza can be a threat with his legs at the next level, but he’s much more of a “take what the defense gives you” type of runner for NFL standards rather than the dynamic playmaker he’s trying to be on this play.

Also, beyond the fumble, there’s an element of Mendoza avoiding taking an unnecessary hit. At the end of the day, having a healthy quarterback is more important than picking up a few extra yards on one run.

But on the positive end of the game management spectrum, the Heisman Trophy winner did have a few impressive reads that didn’t lead to many yards on the stat sheet but did make a big impact on the game.

It’s third and three in the rep above, and the Hoosiers dial up a smash concept on the short side of the field, where the slot receiver runs a corner route and the outside receiver motions into a stacked set before running a curl route in the front of the end zone. Based on the slot receiver’s hard outside release off the line of scrimmage, it looks like the offense is trying to set up a pick or rub route for an easy touchdown to the outside receiver.

However, Oregon’s cornerback does a good job of avoiding it to cover the short curl route, so Mendoza moves onto the backside of the progression. Granted, the corner route does come open on his initial read. But nickelback is on top of the receiver initially, and if this is a designed pick play, the corner route is more of a decoy than truly part of the progression.

Regardless, Mendoza gets his head around and notices that Elijah Sarratt is matched up with a safety in man coverage after a switch release. Sarratt wins and manages to create separation in the back of the end zone, so the quarterback hits him with a fastball that’s right in the bread basket for a touchdown. That’s a good read, accuracy and velocity on the throw, all for a three-yard touchdown.

Sticking with the Mendoza-Sarratt connection, those two were money on back-shoulder throws all season, and this one might be the best of the bunch.

Indiana comes out in a two-by-two formation while Oregon responds by playing man coverage. With the tight end on the short side of the field running a crossing route, Sarratt has a one-on-one opportunity against press coverage. He doesn’t win at the line of scrimmage, and the cornerback is in his hip throughout the route, though, meaning this is tight coverage with no separation.

However, that’s where the back-shoulder throw/catch becomes the ultimate equalizer. Mendoza puts the ball in a perfect spot—outside or toward the sideline and placed where the receiver can catch it, but the corner can’t get to it—and Sarratt makes a good/late adjustment to beat the coverage. That’s pretty much the definition of “throwing a guy open”, and even pass interference can’t save the corner on this rep.

Continuing with the theme of Mendoza’s accuracy beating good coverage, the play above is a legitimate NFL-level throw.

The Hoosiers come out in a three-by-one formation, and Oregon responds by playing quarters. Technically, this is a four-deep, two-under fire zone since the SAM linebacker blitzes. But the coverage is a quarters concept since there are four defenders on the third level of the defense and they’re executing a man- or pattern-matching coverage.

That means the outside receivers have one-on-one matchups with the outside cornerbacks, who are essentially in man coverage with no other threats in their respective areas. Both wideouts run deep out routes, and there is an opportunity for Mendoza to try and take advantage of Sarratt (bottom of the screen) on a one-on-one opportunity again. But go back to the start of the play and notice what leverage the two corners are playing with.

The corner covering Sarratt has outside leverage while the corner over Charlie Becker (No. 80, top of the screen) has inside leverage. After taking in that pre-snap information, Mendoza knows that Becker has the better chance of getting open toward the sideline since his corner is lined up inside of him. On top of that, the defender stays inside post-snap.

So, the quarterback anticipates that the receiver will be open by starting his throwing motion before Becker gets out of the break. At the catchpoint, Mendoza’s combination of arm strength and accuracy becomes a factor, throwing from the opposite hash mark to the far sideline with the ball staying on a line and hitting the wideout in stride while being high and far enough outside that the cornerback can’t make a play on it.

That’s a throw that will translate well on Sundays.

We’ll wrap up with a play that steps outside of the “game manager” theme, as it’s a dime of a deep shot down the field.

The Ducks try to get tricky pre-snap by showing a two-high coverage with the Hoosiers coming out in a three-by-one formation. But the defense ends up rolling the boundary safety (top of the screen, here) down when the offense motions the tight end to get into a two-by-two set. Notice how the field/free safety didn’t budge, though.

Clearly, Oregon wanted to favor the passing strength since Indiana has two wide receivers on the wide side of the field. So, they left the free safety on the midline, setting up Becker with a one-on-one opportunity on the boundary. He beats press coverage at the line of scrimmage and wins on the go route to be open for a touchdown.

Meanwhile, Mendoza gets the snap and immediately takes his eyes to the free safety, confirming that the defender is staying in the middle of the field. Then, the quarterback snaps his head around to the opposite sideline and sees the receiver has a step on the cornerback. Finally, he lets it rip and puts the ball where Becker can go up and get it for the score.

Great read, great arm strength, and great accuracy—the trifecta!

Up next is the conclusion of Mendoza Mania, as we’ll dive into the National Champion’s performance on the big stage against Miami.

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