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Ross Fulton Analysis: How Arthur Smith Is Finding New Ways To Get Jeremiah Smith The Ball · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes Tomorrow Morning for Thursday, October 8th. I'm
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  Speaker 1: your host, Tom Worthy. Maryland game in two days, the
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  Speaker 1: game against Michigan in 51 days. Today's episode presented by
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  Speaker 1: our friends at Jeff Ruby's Columbus, proudly offering nationally acclaimed
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  Speaker 1: USDA prime steaks, seafood and sushi, impeccable service, live entertainment,
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  Speaker 1: and an attention to detail that is simply unmatched. Just
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  Speaker 1: go to jeffruby.com slash Columbus to check out the menu
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  Speaker 1: and make a reservation today. All right, on today's show,
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  Speaker 1: we're gonna welcome in Ross Fulton. He's one of our
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  Speaker 1: scheme insiders at buckeyeinsiders.com. Earlier in the week, talked to
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  Speaker 1: Justin Whitlatch, who was talking about the Ohio State offensive line,
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  Speaker 1: some of the issues they had in pass pro. Today,
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  Speaker 1: we're going to kind of focus on the rest of
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  Speaker 1: the offense, and we're going to start on the ground.
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  Speaker 1: And it feels like, Ross, this is kind of a
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  Speaker 1: continuation of a theme that we've been hearing since the spring.
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  Speaker 1: They're not that explosive on the ground right now, but
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  Speaker 1: it does feel like things are trending in a pretty
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  Speaker 1: good direction, based off of a decent Iowa defense. And
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  Speaker 1: we're able to pick up some things on the ground today.
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  Speaker 1: starting with Jacoby Jackson, because Jacoby Jackson feels like he's
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  Speaker 1: becoming a bigger and bigger story every week.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think Ohio State is running the football better.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I think you see tangible improvements in the
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  Speaker 2: offensive line play, particularly like things they need to work on.
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  Speaker 3: We can show some of that.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I'd say the two things, main things were
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  Speaker 2: like handling stunts, games up front and getting to the
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  Speaker 2: second level.
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  Speaker 3: You know, I think they ran their zone perfectly.
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  Speaker 2: Plays, uh, well against Iowa, you know, I think it
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  Speaker 2: helps that, uh, Julian saying, I'd say generally is doing
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  Speaker 2: a good job in checking into runs when they're getting
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  Speaker 2: a favorable looks, uh, and as well as, um, you know,
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  Speaker 2: particularly with outside zone, making sure that Ohio state's running
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  Speaker 2: to the, to the, uh, correct size. So they're not outnumbered. So,
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  Speaker 2: you know, you saw that, particularly the former part on
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  Speaker 2: that two-minute drive. You know, they got some really good
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  Speaker 2: looks to run into when teams are expecting pass. They're
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  Speaker 2: doing a nice job mixing runs in those situations. But,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I think it's also in the scheme itself.
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  Speaker 2: And so we saw a little bit of that. You know, here,
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  Speaker 2: Ohio State's running what's called zone insert. And so you'll
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  Speaker 2: see the Y off or tight end. He, you know,
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  Speaker 2: rather than a split zone where, You block back, the
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  Speaker 2: tight end blocks back across from the offensive line.
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  Speaker 3: Everyone's running split.
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  Speaker 2: Insert, the tight end's going to basically start blocking back,
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  Speaker 2: but then lead up on an inside linebacker. So the
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  Speaker 2: offensive line's still running zone. You get the tight end leading.
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  Speaker 2: I think it helps. We've talked about some of the
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  Speaker 2: problems with the tight end blocking this year. I think
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  Speaker 2: that's putting them in some more advantageous or favorable matchups,
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  Speaker 2: getting them on up. linebacker as opposed to a defensive
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  Speaker 2: end and less having to come back across the formation,
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  Speaker 2: you know, putting less on that block. And, you know,
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  Speaker 2: so I think, and then, you know, as you said,
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  Speaker 2: Jacoby Jackson is really, you know, running hard. I agree,
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  Speaker 2: you know, Ryan Day again spoke on Tuesday about the
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  Speaker 2: lack of explosiveness in the run game. And that's obviously evident,
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  Speaker 2: but like there is also value in the fact that
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  Speaker 2: I think both Jacoby and Bo Jackson are, you know,
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  Speaker 2: are gaining yards after contact. And so they're both pretty efficient.
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  Speaker 2: You know, you're not getting a lot of negative runs.
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  Speaker 2: They're keeping, you know, Ohio State ahead of schedule. And so,
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  Speaker 2: you know, Jacoby Jackson, he's obviously tough, you know, tough
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  Speaker 2: tackle in the hole. And so, you know, I think
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  Speaker 2: you're seeing a continued development of the run game.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Christian Allegro compared Jacoby Jackson to a bowling pin
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  Speaker 1: at interviews on Tuesday trying to tackle Jacoby. Tackle someone,
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  Speaker 1: very low to the ground, very difficult to get down.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, definitely a positive trend there. You mentioned the
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  Speaker 1: good blocking from tight ends. This next one features a
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  Speaker 1: nice block from a tight end, but also Luke Montgomery
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  Speaker 1: pulling around, getting to the second level. This feels like
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  Speaker 1: this is a well-blocked run. I do have questions about
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  Speaker 1: how Julian Sand manages to get hit this hard on
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  Speaker 1: a handoff.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Well, and so that's what we talked about. Like, so
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  Speaker 2: I guess let's start with Luke Montgomery. Obviously I think
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  Speaker 2: he got some praise, um, from the coaching staff after
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  Speaker 2: this last game. I think he's particularly effective as a, uh, polar, uh,
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  Speaker 2: you know, you'll see them running a lot of their
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  Speaker 2: gap plays, uh, to the right and pulling, uh, Luke
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  Speaker 2: Montgomery from the left. I think that's probably a strength
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  Speaker 2: of his and, you know, less dealing with some of
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  Speaker 2: the stunts, stunning issues that we've pointed out in the past.
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  Speaker 3: Um, This is one back power.
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  Speaker 2: And we've talked about, you know, there's a lot of
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  Speaker 2: focus on Ohio State using more 11 personnel. And, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I generally agree with that. And we talked about that
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  Speaker 2: some more with the past game as well. But I
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  Speaker 2: mentioned the other week that, you know, they haven't really
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  Speaker 2: run a lot of gap scheme from 11 because it
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  Speaker 2: does potentially open your quarterback up to getting hit from
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  Speaker 2: the back side. So one back power, unlike, you know,
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  Speaker 2: standard power where you have a kickout block and then the,
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  Speaker 2: the polar leads here, the tight end is going to
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  Speaker 2: base block on the defensive end. Everyone else is going
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  Speaker 2: to block down. Then the polar is going to lead
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  Speaker 2: through the hole on the play side linebacker. And so
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  Speaker 2: this is a nice change up again. It's sort of, it's,
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  Speaker 2: it's a good addition in that it allows Ohio state
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  Speaker 2: to run some gap plays from 11 personnel. But, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I don't think it's like necessarily a, Julian saying should
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  Speaker 2: not be getting hit here. I do think Ian Moore
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  Speaker 2: sort of blew his assignment in terms of hinging back
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  Speaker 2: late enough. They ran it the other way later in
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  Speaker 2: the game and Austin Saraville from the right side picked
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  Speaker 2: up that backside defensive end. But I do think, you know,
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  Speaker 2: when we focus a lot on like more, more, more
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  Speaker 2: 11 personnel that it is, there are limited, it does
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  Speaker 2: limit a bit what you can do in the run game.
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  Speaker 2: And so there are trade-offs versus having two tight ends
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  Speaker 2: on the field that open up some more, variation and
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  Speaker 2: more gap schemes plays in particular.
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  Speaker 1: Well this next one they are in 12 personnel and
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  Speaker 1: the two tight ends are jake cook and max leblanc
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  Speaker 1: probably not the two tight ends you would have had
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  Speaker 1: on your bingo card earlier in the year but this
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  Speaker 1: was later in the game so you're playing some of
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  Speaker 1: your some of your guys who are maybe a little
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  Speaker 1: further down the down the line leblanc in that fullback
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  Speaker 1: position this is another one where luke montgomery earns his
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  Speaker 1: dr pepper for the flight home with a nice pull
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  Speaker 1: leading the way. Also a nice little block from Brock
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  Speaker 1: Boyd here coming in from the edge of the screen.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, those freshman wide receivers are basically being
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  Speaker 2: called upon to block quite a bit when they come
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  Speaker 2: in the game. And we can talk about that more
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  Speaker 2: with the pass game as well. It's sort of like tendencies.
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  Speaker 2: And that's obviously becoming a tendency when you don't have
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  Speaker 2: Jeremiah Smith on the field that Ohio State's likely to
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  Speaker 2: run for obvious reasons. But, you know, we've talked about
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  Speaker 2: Ohio State success in running gap schemes recently. And it's,
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  Speaker 2: you know, principally we've been counter, right. Where you, you know,
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  Speaker 2: the running back fakes one way, you know, it takes
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  Speaker 2: a jab step one way, it comes back the other way. You're,
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  Speaker 2: you're pulling the backside guard and then usually the backside
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  Speaker 2: tight end. But here they're running, they ran a lot
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  Speaker 2: of power on Saturday, which again, like we're talking about
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  Speaker 2: like tangible improvements. You really see it in like their
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  Speaker 2: execution here. Like Luke Montgomery, we're talking about him pulling,
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  Speaker 2: they're using much more of like a shuffle. step to
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  Speaker 2: keep them like more parallel to the line of scrimmage.
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  Speaker 2: So you can like, you know, when we're talking about
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  Speaker 2: those issues with stunting earlier and we showed like against
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  Speaker 2: Kent state, how they got like penetration that blew up
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  Speaker 2: that short yardage play, you know, this is helping with
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  Speaker 2: that coming flatter down the line. You know, as I said, you,
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  Speaker 2: you'll see guys much better job getting to the second level,
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  Speaker 2: you know, whether it's in the gap schemes or like
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  Speaker 2: on that zone insert that we showed earlier, Carson Hinsman
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  Speaker 2: did a much better job getting up and locked onto
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  Speaker 2: a linebacker.
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  Speaker 3: So again, you do see.
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  Speaker 2: Like tangible technical improvements in the blocking up front, but
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  Speaker 2: also I do think the scheme better fits them in
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  Speaker 2: terms of these, a lot of these gap runs and
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  Speaker 2: that's mixing well with, with the zone runs we talked about. Like, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: as you said, you know, I think Jake cooks continues
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  Speaker 2: to be effective in that bison role. It helps like
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  Speaker 2: when you contrast it with the problems, Michigan's having playing
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  Speaker 2: like a six offensive lineman so much, like it helps
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  Speaker 2: at Ohio state has Jeremiah Smith and like viable threats downfield.
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  Speaker 2: So like, the defense can't just like tee off on
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  Speaker 2: having an eligible receiver, but not a real wide receiver,
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  Speaker 2: let's say at that spot. But that being said, like he,
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  Speaker 2: especially on these gap plays when you're able to get
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  Speaker 2: like that bigger body to just like wash down the
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  Speaker 2: play side defensive end, that helps. And again, this is where,
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  Speaker 2: you know, as we said, like Jacoby Jackson hasn't been
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  Speaker 2: super explosive yet, but like he's really effective in these
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  Speaker 2: sort of tight spaces, as you said, difficult to tackle.
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  Speaker 2: And so he's, he's been becoming effective. goal line and
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  Speaker 2: short yardage runner. So like, you know, you see them,
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  Speaker 2: you know, working on their tendencies a lot and, or, or,
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  Speaker 2: you know, what is in the sense of what has
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  Speaker 2: been working and like building upon that with, you know, again,
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  Speaker 2: more gap runs using the zone insert, mixing it inside
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  Speaker 2: zone when they're getting favorable looks, uh, meet it with,
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  Speaker 2: with two high safeties.
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  Speaker 3: Uh, and, and so you see those, those improvements.
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  Speaker 2: All right.
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  Speaker 1: Now we're going to change things up, get into the
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  Speaker 1: passing game. And we are going to start right where
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  Speaker 1: the Buckeyes started. on that opening drive with that touchdown
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  Speaker 1: pass to Devin McEwen.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: You know, you can see right away, like I think
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  Speaker 2: Devin McEwen is really starting to establish himself as the
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  Speaker 2: second wide receiver behind Jeremiah Smith. Obviously that's a big
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  Speaker 2: draw for any wide receiver, but you know, you, you
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  Speaker 2: start out with this early touchdown to McEwen and then,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we'll talk about this a little bit more,
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  Speaker 2: but as Ryan Day mentioned after the game, like they
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  Speaker 2: had a couple of deep shots that I think, saying
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  Speaker 2: could have hit McEwen on and just, you know, sacked
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  Speaker 2: on one, didn't pull the trigger on the other. So I,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I think you're starting to see more of
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  Speaker 2: an impact from him, but this is like early on,
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  Speaker 2: as you said. So Iowa at this point, still running
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  Speaker 2: what I would consider sort of their base defense, which
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  Speaker 2: is like, you know, man match cover four. And so,
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  Speaker 2: you know, you have the split safeties, those corners are
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  Speaker 2: carrying those receivers. I mean, it almost looks like too
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  Speaker 2: deep man under and the way they're like matching routes.
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  Speaker 2: And so again, like as with the run game, we
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  Speaker 2: talked about, you know, the pluses and minuses of everything. And,
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  Speaker 2: you know, again, Ohio state's like yards per play from
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  Speaker 2: 11 personnel is better than 12, but you do get
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  Speaker 2: certain advantages by using 12 personnel as a tool and And,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we talked about that in the run game
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  Speaker 2: in terms of like the run game diversity with gap schemes.
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  Speaker 2: Here you see it in the pass game because Ohio
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  Speaker 2: State is in two tight ends. And so Iowa's got
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  Speaker 2: three linebackers on the field. And with this quarter scheme,
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  Speaker 2: you know, when you run off those, you know, you
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  Speaker 2: get those receivers running deep, including to the boundary, you
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  Speaker 2: have a tight end. And so you're basically eating up
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  Speaker 2: when it was corners there. And then that frees up
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  Speaker 2: McEwen to basically work underneath. You get a post corner
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  Speaker 2: to the other side, and he can work underneath, and
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  Speaker 2: he kind of can run this whip around. So, you know,
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  Speaker 2: when you're playing cover four, you have four deep guys
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  Speaker 2: and three under. And so a lot of work worth.
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  Speaker 2: He does a nice job coming back to the middle
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  Speaker 2: in a touchdown. But you'll see, like, as the game
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  Speaker 2: went on, I'd say one of the bigger differences was
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  Speaker 2: that Iowa quickly switched It's similar, frankly, to what Illinois
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  Speaker 2: did the week before. Quickly switched from playing a lot
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  Speaker 2: of their base course game to increasingly getting more and
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  Speaker 2: more aggressive, running a lot of fire zones and even
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  Speaker 2: some six-man pressures.
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  Speaker 3: Because I think.
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  Speaker 2: They probably rightly concluded that they weren't going to hold
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  Speaker 2: up either, just trying to play coverage and defend Ohio State.
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  Speaker 1: Well, if you want an example of Iowa not being
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  Speaker 1: able to hold up in coverage, I give you Jeremiah
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  Speaker 1: Smith against triple coverage. And Julian Sane making what has
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  Speaker 1: been maybe the most widely described ill-advised throw in Ohio
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  Speaker 1: State football history that has been greeted with laughter every
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  Speaker 1: time a coach or player has brought it up in
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  Speaker 1: a press conference situation since then.
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  Speaker 2: There's a lot of focus on this throw. And again,
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  Speaker 2: you'll see Iowa in their, you know, cover four scheme here.
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  Speaker 2: And again, this is sort of probably one of those
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  Speaker 2: examples where, you know, you can see Devin McEwen on
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  Speaker 2: that deep post opposite where in hindsight, that route was
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  Speaker 2: probably there. Now I will say, I think from Sands perspective,
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  Speaker 2: I don't think this is like, I see triple coverage
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  Speaker 2: and I'm locking on to Jeremiah Smith. Instead, Iowa does
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  Speaker 2: a really nice job here. We talked about how they
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  Speaker 2: use man match principles and they run, you know, there's
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  Speaker 2: a variety of nuances within those different kinds of, you know,
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  Speaker 2: Nick Saban, he covers seven man match schemes, if you will.
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  Speaker 2: And so Ohio State to the bottom here runs this
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  Speaker 2: dragon concept. It's basically like a slant flap. They were
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  Speaker 2: in at the drive before in an RPO for big
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  Speaker 2: gain in this exact situation where like the overhang. So
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  Speaker 2: the guy over the slot receiver followed, followed the slot.
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  Speaker 2: So they come back to the next drive, but except here,
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  Speaker 2: I would trades off the routes. And so you can
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  Speaker 2: see that overhang points or the corner, excuse me, points
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  Speaker 2: to the overhang. And so he, the nickel carries Jeremiah Smith,
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  Speaker 2: the corner takes that flat route. Maybe it's to read.
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  Speaker 2: And so saying probably was expecting that. that nickel to
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  Speaker 2: go with the slot defender. And then, you know, also
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  Speaker 2: that backside safety. I don't even know if he's using
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  Speaker 2: a post technique or he's just like, there comes Jeremiah Smith.
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  Speaker 2: I bet the ball is going that way. Cause like,
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  Speaker 2: if you look at it until that point, like, you know,
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  Speaker 2: McEwen shouldn't come open on that post. Like they have,
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  Speaker 2: it's a two over one, right? So like you have
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  Speaker 2: a deep safety right in that post throw, but he,
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  Speaker 2: he tries to cheat. You know, I will say obviously like,
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  Speaker 2: There's lots of talk about, you know, throwing a Jeremiah
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  Speaker 2: Smith when he's covered. I generally support like the number
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  Speaker 2: of concepts and routes that are passes that are going
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  Speaker 2: Jeremiah Smith's way. I think we can overstate the need
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  Speaker 2: to diversify that. I think they're getting more diversity, whether
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  Speaker 2: it's McEwen. I think as we talked about last week,
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  Speaker 2: like targeting Nate Roberts in certain like critical third and
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  Speaker 2: fourth down spots where he's.
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  Speaker 3: Going to get matched up on a linebacker.
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  Speaker 2: And so, you know, I don't think we should go
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  Speaker 2: too far, but like, Obviously, in hindsight, Sane probably wants
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  Speaker 2: to throw back. Now, it was a great throw, given
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  Speaker 2: the situation, to put it up high where Jeremiah Smith
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  Speaker 2: only could catch it.
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  Speaker 3: And obviously, a great catch and run. And so it
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  Speaker 3: worked out.
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  Speaker 2: But I do think there were some extenuating circumstances just beyond, like,
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to throw to Jeremiah Smith no matter what.
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  Speaker 1: All right. You mentioned Iowa dialing up more pressure at
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  Speaker 1: various points of the game. This is one of those
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  Speaker 1: points where And they've got pressure coming off of both edges.
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  Speaker 1: And this feels like one where poor Julian Zane really
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  Speaker 1: had no chance.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so as I mentioned, so Iowa, like we increasingly
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  Speaker 2: saw them do this, which is bring fire zones, right?
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  Speaker 2: And so fire zone is you rush five and you're
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  Speaker 2: going to play three deep, three under. That is, again,
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  Speaker 2: as I said, like not what people think of when
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  Speaker 2: they think of Iowa playing that like split safety cover
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  Speaker 2: four scheme. I will say that like, I would use
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  Speaker 2: a good bit of this the last couple of times
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  Speaker 2: they played Ohio state. I, so I think Phil Parker
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  Speaker 2: in each situation is kind of like, we have to
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  Speaker 2: do something different. And as I said, he threw by he,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, Phil Parker, like through the kitchen sink, like
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  Speaker 2: every kind of five man pressure you could think of.
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 2: And so Ohio's from Ohio state's perspective, you saw a
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  Speaker 2: lot of this throughout the game. These like, and Justin Whitlatch,
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  Speaker 2: you know, he diagrammed a lot of these earlier in
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  Speaker 2: the week with these like heavy what i would call
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  Speaker 2: like hard play action pass so you're really trying to
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: simulate the run play you know whether that's like you
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: know the uh zone insert like the last one i
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  Speaker 2: just showed with jeremiah smith right where you know we
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  Speaker 2: showed the zone insert play if you go back and
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: look at that like tight ends coming through just like
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: its zone split zone uh justin showed and then a
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: lot of these where you're like pulling the backside guard
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: so you're really trying to simulate like run fake right
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: uh the problem is like as you said i was
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: bringing pressure off both sides and the the place basically
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: all supposed to go to the left. And then like,
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: it's going to be kind of like a throwback to
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: the right. Um, I will actually, because they're in a
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: three deep kind of has that covered as well. But like,
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: I think, you know, Jacoby, uh, Jackson, like he, as
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: you know, I think had some, some pretty mid mediocre
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: past pro reps, but I don't think this is on him.
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: Cause he has a care at the fake.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: I think of anything, maybe Hunter Wellstein should like peel
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: off and try to get a piece of that, uh,
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: edge rusher before he releases in the flat is sort
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: of a dump off. But this play is kind of
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: just like dead from the jump. You know, I will
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: note this is what we talked about with the run plays.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: Like one of the few plays where they, they threw
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: it without Jeremiah Smith on the field. And so you
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: have Chris Henry as that in Smith's position. And so
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: I do think like a, there are going to, there
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: are going to have to throw when they bring up
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: in the backup wide receiver some, because otherwise like you're
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: going to get two second tendencies and like, I think
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: we all can remember against Penn State where they did
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: that on purpose two years ago and threw to Brandon
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: Ennis for a touchdown. So you can use it as
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: a tendency breaker. But I do think this to me
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: is more like Julian Sane kind of has to get
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: more comfortable when Jeremiah Smith's not on the field. Not
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: so much in like there's no one to throw to,
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: but just in the sense of I still have to
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: go through my progressions and trust this second group of guys.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: We've seen it some.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: He had Phil Bell on that CM rally against Illinois.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: So I'm not saying it's all or nothing. but I
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: just think it is like a continuous sort of comfort
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: level with those guys, you know, even beyond like, even
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: besides Jeremiah Smith, like I would say, like he also
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: seems more comfortable with McEwen and Innes and Roberts.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: This next one's kind of an interesting one where they're
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: in 13 personnel. You got Jeremiah Smith lined up like
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: he's almost hiding in the backfield. And then you motion
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: him out and end up throwing to him. And it
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: ends up, it's not a, it's an incomplete pass, but,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: But I looked at this and I kind of thought
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: like it's it's kind of an interesting design. And I
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: see what they're going for here.
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: So there is again, this goes into this like there
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: are a lot of attempts to like hit that one
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: more deep shot against Iowa. And I think you kind
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: of understand it from the perspective like Iowa was not
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: going to keep up with them.
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: So like you're on the road.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: If you put them like sort of down a couple
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: of scores and they eventually get there, like, you know,
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: you're putting the game away. Um, in hindsight, given the
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: amount of like pressure schemes Iowa was using, they probably
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: could have used a little bit more of like spread
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: them out, quick game RPO stuff to put those remaining
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: like underneath defenders in conflict. Uh, you know, I, as
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: I said, there was just a lot of like trying
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: to hit these like big play action passes. Um, and
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: the only, really the only way I ever stopped Ohio
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: state was like, like that sack on the play before,
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: like negative plays that put Ohio state behind schedule. Um,
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: But this one, I know there were a lot of
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: complaints at the time, and I think maybe even still,
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: running this in third and one. I actually really like
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: this call. You're basically getting Smith one-on-one with the corner
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: with zero safety help. I was basically in cover zero.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: I think Julian Sand, I think he played really well again.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: This is probably one of the few throws I would
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: say I'd like him to have back, because I do
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: think you kind of see him sort of baby this.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: He doesn't fully step into it, and he's trying to
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: be a little... put too much touch on it when
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: really you probably could have just ripped it more and
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: let Smith outrun the corner.
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: But I like the call.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: I like in these third and fourth and short situations
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: that Arthur Smith, excuse me, keeps changing up what they're doing.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: Like you're seeing a lot of variety. Like, you know,
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: you see when it doesn't work, people complain, right? So
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of focus on this, a lot of
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: focus on the wildcat play right after this. We're like, they,
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: they messed it up pre-snap. Bo Jackson took a horrible shot.
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: Like went the one place you couldn't go on that run.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: But they ran it again the next drive to ice
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: the game. And you saw it work, right? We're like
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: saying motion out. It pulled the Mike linebacker out. And
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: so there was no one to play that B gap. Uh,
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: but they just keep changing.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Up, right?
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: Like you see these like Jake cook and sort of
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: this up position to run like zone insert.
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: They ran that again.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: Uh, I like the, the short yardage naked bootleg to saying, um,
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: that he ran for a first down on that last drive. Uh,
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: he also had Roberts, uh, in the flat if he
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: had said, you know, chose. So I like that they
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: keep mixing up the variety in these short yardage situations.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: It's going to give opponents going forward more to think about,
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: but obviously like, you know, this didn't work, but I
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: think third, ideally this is a great time to take
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: it third and one, because you know, you're going to
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: go for it on fourth and one anyways.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: And the last one that you mentioned, if boy, if
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: they can get Jeremiah Smith one-on-one with a corner, they're
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: going to take that shot. What if they can get
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: Jeremiah Smith one-on-one with a safety? And Jeremiah was actually
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: asked about this play after the game. And, you know,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: he said, yeah, Arthur Smith really liked this one. And
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: he was asked sort of later why. And he said, well,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: cause I'm one-on-one with the safety. And I will tell you,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: we also get a follow-up question on, I think this
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: was on our board at some point about Julian saying,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: is he intentionally under throwing these balls? Is he just
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: not stepping into them? Cause this, this one is Jeremiah's
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: several yards clear and it's a little bit under thrown.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: So you can sort of explain what's, what's going on
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: there as well.
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: So I'd say first thing again, like, I, again, like
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: I will put out there, I likewise agree that like
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: their best 11 personnel spread out RPOs quick game. But again,
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: like the, the 12 personnel, the bison do have their
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: place because like, as in the run game, you do
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: force the defense to do certain things. And so if
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: you can take advantage of that now, again, you could
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: be like Michigan where defenses do this to you. And
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: if you can't take advantage of in the throw game,
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: then it does, then you've lost anything out of it.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: But like here, so like they know they're getting a
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: lot of zone blitzes, right? So you go, heavy personnel
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: under center and you know lo and behold like Phil
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: Parker calls a fire zone again so you get three
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: deep three under and so you put that there you're
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: basically right high lowing that cover three corner into the
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: boundary and so McEwen runs that deep curl route the
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: corner sits on that and that opens up wide open
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: that post corner the sand like criticism here I mean
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: I think it's a great play just for sand to
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: get reset to throw it because again like Justin showed
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: situations where Iowa successfully, through using these variety of pressures,
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: got home. Here, they pretty closely do. I think Ian
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: Moore had some struggles in this game. I think here's
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: an example of one. I can't quite tell if he
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: doesn't quite get the call right or there's some miscommunication
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: because They're running basically like a full slide, like the
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: whole offensive line is blocking the right off the C-gap
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: play action. But he starts by sort of locking onto
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: that backside defensive end, who in theory, those two tight
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: ends should account for. And so he can't get there
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: in time to pick up this inside linebacker pressure. And
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: it could just be like the shift also shifted the linebackers.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: And so maybe they didn't recalibrate. But Sane does a
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: really nice job here, like getting off his spot and
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: still getting the throw off. So like I have zero
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: complaints about saying dude doing this, like, I think, you know,
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: I would much rather him under slightly under throw deep shots.
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: Like those are, these are not easy throws.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: Um, I think people like whether it's offensive line play
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: quarterback play, like it's sort of easy to expect perfection
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: and like, it's never going to happen. Like you can
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: always in any game at any level, find like, you know,
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: plays that, that any one position would have, you know,
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: any player would like to have back, um, you know,
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: even Jeremiah Smith, first grade as he is. So they, they,
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: he does it right. You know, really nice job stepping up.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: Obviously the one, the, you know, the one third down
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: throw accepted. I mean, his, his completion rate on these
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: things has got to be pretty incredible. So I think
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: you'd rather have him, as I said, when you're someone's
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: with this wide open, like under throw it, make sure
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: he catches the ball. And he obviously still scored the touchdown.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. The only way he doesn't score a touchdown
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: there is if you overthrow it and he can't get there.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: So yeah, better, better safe than sorry on that throw.
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: So, All right, there you go.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: A quick breakdown. Well, not so quick, but an expansive breakdown, maybe,
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: shall we say, of the Ohio State offense against Iowa.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: And Justin did a really nice breakdown of the Ohio
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: State offensive line. That was generally not great vibes. There's
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: a lot more good vibes here on Ross's episode.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: Yes, I will not to step on my buddy Justin
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: since we gave him props last week. But I mean,
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: to put in context, as I said, Iowa threw a
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: lot at them. And like, I don't think, again, I don't,
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure they fully expected that much pressure. So
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: when you're trying to hit all these balls downfield, eventually
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: you're like, it's, you know, it's hard to hold up
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: through all these, these pickups. But, you know, I do
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: think that there, you continue to see offensive line improvement.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Luke Montgomery said on Tuesday, he saw the defensive
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: tackle sort of standing and milling around and kind of went, uh, uh-oh.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: And so they had to kind of, Work through that
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: over the course of the game. I'm guessing they will
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: continue to see stuff like that until they show that
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: they can handle it in future weeks. And we'll have
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: Ross back on to talk about how they will handle
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: that in future weeks. We're also going to have a
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: show with Michael Pettit, our defensive scheme insider. That's coming
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: up this week. You already heard from Justin. You want
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: to talk to all these guys. Best way to do
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: that is join us at BuckeyeInsiders.com. That's where we've got
• 25:02
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• 25:05
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• 25:08
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• 25:11
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• 25:29
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• 25:33
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