Upon Review: Inside Mauldin's sacks vs. Wake

Lorenzo Mauldin lingered on the ground, long after the play had ended. At first, he was on his stomach. When trainers arrived, they turned him over. He was in serious pain.

By the time they'd helped Mauldin off the field, Louisville's star pass rusher and outside linebacker let his right arm dangle to his side as if it was dislocated. He said after the game it was a stinger, a painful jolt to the nerves in a player's arm that typically comes after a heavy collision.

The staff removed his shoulder pads and helmet and wrapped a tight sleeve around his arm, shoulder and ribs. Mauldin put his pads back on and squatted to the turf. It took him a few moments to gather himself.

In that moment, it would've taken some convincing to believe that Mauldin, a 6-foot-4, 244-pound senior, would collect three sacks later in that game.

"At first ... I thought I tore my labrum again," Mauldin said. "They doctored me up and God said they needed me, so I had to step it up."

What you just saw is relatively straightforward. Louisville was in a 3-3 nickel defensive package on all three sacks. In normal terms, that means Louisville had five defensive backs on the field, plus three down linemen and three linebackers. The Cards are in this formation, by defensive coordinator Todd Grantham's estimate, some 80 percent of the time.

On the first play, Wake Forest's ineptitude helped Mauldin get the sack. It looks like Wake ran a read option, but the right guard took forever to pull across and find Mauldin, and the quarterback John Wolford was surrounded. Credit Mauldin for setting the edge on the run play, aka closing the runner's outside escape lane, and tackling Wolford with ease.

The next two are just old-fashioned speed. Mauldin comes screaming past Wake right tackle Dylan Intemann on the second sack, running right by him for an easy sack. On the third one, Mauldin puts a quick move on left tackle Antonio Ford, sprints past him and lights up Wolford.

A few weeks ago, we looked at Mauldin and fellow outside 'backer Deiontrez Mount and how they slowed down Miami running back Duke Johnson. They did simple things very well and dominated the game.

They did a lot of that stuff again on Saturday, which is how Louisville won a very ugly 20-10 game, holding Wake to 100 total yards of offense. And Mauldin is a major reason why.

Mauldin told reporters at the ACC football media days in July that he was told he might be a late-round NFL draft pick after last season, maybe fifth, sixth or seventh round as an unpolished pass rusher, likely an outside 'backer, in a 3-4 defense.

He played defensive end his first three seasons at Louisville, and though they stood him up at times in past years, this is the first look at Mauldin as a high-majority upright pass rusher.

What he's done in the first five games has surely improved those prospects. Through five games, Mauldin is 15th in the nation with four sacks and third in the country with nine tackles for loss.

He's second on Louisville with 23 tackles. He's also got three quarterback hurries, a stat U of L only measures at home games, plus a recovered fumble, a pass breakup and a pass defended.

There's a reason Grantham said Mauldin was "tailor made" for the 3-4 defense. He made Grantham look smart on Saturday.