Cooper caught an explosive play on a perfectly executed pylon route against poor coverage.

Cooper caught an explosive play on a pylon route from Mendoza in the Rose Bowl. The source describes a bootleg play against Alabama's double-mug look and Cover 0 call that gave all three wide receivers one-on-one matchups. Cooper ran a pylon route—a staple in Klint Kubiak's playbook—where he gave a hard inside release to sell a vertical route before breaking toward the sideline at a 45-degree angle. The release got the nickel cornerback to open his hips to the middle, putting the corner in a bad position. Mendoza shifted his eyes to Cooper and immediately recognized the coverage mismatch, throwing a perfect pass on the run that hit Cooper in stride for an explosive play.