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Ross Fulton Analysis: How Will Better Teams Attack Matt Patricia's Buckeye Defense? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Wednesday, October twenty ninth.
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  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tom or the Penn State game in
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  Speaker 1: three days, the gaming against Michigan in thirty one days.
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  Speaker 1: On today's show, we're welcoming in our buddy Ross Fulton,
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  Speaker 1: the ikusenos guru at bucke Huddle dot com. And when
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  Speaker 1: we talked to Ross, we're sponsored by Jeff Rubies of Columbus,
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  Speaker 1: impeccable service. I have entertainment and an attention to detail
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  Speaker 2: Today all right.
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  Speaker 1: On yesterdays show, we talked all about the Ohio State
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  Speaker 1: offense and look ahead to the matchup with Penn State's defense. Today,
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  Speaker 1: we're going to be looking at the Ohio State defense
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  Speaker 1: and we're going to be once again looking starting with
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  Speaker 1: sort of some big picture stuff, sort of a mid
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  Speaker 1: season statistic statistical check in on where things stand. Ross,
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  Speaker 1: We've spent a lot of the season talking about Matt
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  Speaker 1: Patricia's fronts and uses of different fronts and that Patricia's
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  Speaker 1: use of different coverages. So those are the first two
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  Speaker 1: things I wanted to ask you about. You know, the
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  Speaker 1: defensive fronts have been there's been so much four down
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  Speaker 1: one gap for the Ohio State defense over the years.
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  Speaker 1: This year, how much different, how much diversity have we
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  Speaker 1: seen in the fronts there through seven games.
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  Speaker 3: I think that's the main difference for previous Ohio State seasons. Right, so,
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  Speaker 3: like you know, you're still whereas Ohio State was like
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  Speaker 3: almost exclusively a four down over primarily and over but
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  Speaker 3: also under team you know, now that's that's gone down
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  Speaker 3: to use. They use that about a quarter of the time.
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  Speaker 3: According to Tyler Mains, who's ballmanac on Exit Great follow,
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  Speaker 3: he's been charting the defense, they use the Penny front
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  Speaker 3: or you know that we've talked about with the odd
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  Speaker 3: five to one another equally as much a quarter of
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  Speaker 3: the time, and then they use other odd fronts.
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  Speaker 2: Uh.
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  Speaker 3: An additional you know, they have that three down third
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  Speaker 3: down package odd front they use. So you're seeing quite
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  Speaker 3: a bit of mixing and matching of fronts.
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  Speaker 1: Uh.
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  Speaker 3: So you're giving opposing offenses like a lot more to
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  Speaker 3: think about in different you know, each a four down
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  Speaker 3: front and the odd penny front that each have their
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  Speaker 3: strengths and weaknesses, and so obviously by mixing it up,
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  Speaker 3: you know, offenses can't predict and you're sort of, you know,
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  Speaker 3: hoping to get the best of both worlds depending on
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  Speaker 3: what your opponent likes to utilize in terms of gapper
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  Speaker 3: zone blocking.
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  Speaker 1: On the back end of the defense. With the coverages.
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  Speaker 1: We've obviously talked a lot about all the disguise that
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  Speaker 1: they're using, and you know, pre snap, it looks like
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  Speaker 1: one thing and then once the ball snapped it turns
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  Speaker 1: into something completely different. But how much are they actually
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  Speaker 1: mixing and matching coverages to sort of supplement that disguise.
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  Speaker 1: How much are you how much are they sort of
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  Speaker 1: diversifying the coverage looks that they're providing.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean you definitely get get disguise right, but
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  Speaker 3: that you know, they are principally still like a middle
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  Speaker 3: of the field closed team, like we talked about that
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  Speaker 3: last week with the offense facing so that by that,
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  Speaker 3: I mean, you know, single high safety in the middle
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  Speaker 3: of the field. The difference from last year is they're
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  Speaker 3: principally a Cover three team instead of a Cover one team,
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  Speaker 3: and so you get so they're playing a lot more
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  Speaker 3: zone like they're I think they're according to Tyler Mains,
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  Speaker 3: they're playing Cover three you know, a little over forty
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  Speaker 3: percent of the time. And then they played Cover one
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  Speaker 3: like about twenty five percent of the time, right, so
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  Speaker 3: two thirds of the time they're basically middle of the
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  Speaker 3: field closed. But you know, as I said last year,
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  Speaker 3: they probably played Cover one more like forty percent of
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  Speaker 3: the time. So those numbers are almost flipped, and so
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  Speaker 3: you're you're getting less man coverage, more zone, which is
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  Speaker 3: why you know you're starting to see teams like try
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  Speaker 3: to attack you know, the same cover three beaters. We
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  Speaker 3: talked about how to state like, you know, some of
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  Speaker 3: those soft spots in the middle, so that gives you
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  Speaker 3: like can at times give you like a bend but
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  Speaker 3: don't break approach. But you know, they've also been really
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  Speaker 3: effective in the red zone where they play more man
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  Speaker 3: once they get down near the goal line.
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  Speaker 1: All right, So you talked a little bit there about
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  Speaker 1: how teams are attacking them in certain situations. Where is
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  Speaker 1: the weakness, I mean, where where would you where is
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  Speaker 1: the weakness on this defense? Number one? And then where
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  Speaker 1: would you go after what's the what's the game plan
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  Speaker 1: to take advantage of that weakness?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I still think there's like, you know,
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  Speaker 3: some of the secondary is kind of untested, right like,
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  Speaker 3: and it depends, Like you know, I think Jalen McClain
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  Speaker 3: has been put in a couple of situations in Siwa
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  Speaker 3: where they were like that unbalanced. He had to come
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  Speaker 3: down phil right and missed the tackle. You know, it
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  Speaker 3: depends on what they're doing, too. Like if Lorenzo Styles
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  Speaker 3: is back, as we've talked about, he he gives them
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  Speaker 3: a lot of versatility in the sense like he can
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  Speaker 3: play deep safety, which allows Caleb Downs to do a
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  Speaker 3: lot more things. But you know, he's probably not as
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  Speaker 3: good in cover man coverage on a slot receiver, whereas
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  Speaker 3: like when you when he's been out and you played
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  Speaker 3: Jermaine Matthews, you talked about like that cuts down some
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  Speaker 3: of the disguise and diversity of concepts they can use
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  Speaker 3: because you know, Matthews obviously is a corner, uh so
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  Speaker 3: he's much more used to playing up over receiver.
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  Speaker 2: He's probably better in man.
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  Speaker 3: But then again, you know, I think teams have gone
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  Speaker 3: after Devin Sanchez as a true freshman when he then
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  Speaker 3: becomes the outside corner. So you know, I think teams
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  Speaker 3: that are gonna be teams that are really good passing teams, right,
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  Speaker 3: Like you know, if they have time, like you can
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  Speaker 3: pick apart zone coverages as I said, like I think
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  Speaker 3: you know you sell someone like tacking underneath the linebackers
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  Speaker 3: using play action to go between hitting the middle of
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  Speaker 3: the field. And so that's why where the disguise comes
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  Speaker 3: in though too, right Like, so as I said, they're
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  Speaker 3: like sixty five percent middle of the field close, but
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  Speaker 3: then the rest you know, they're playing Tampa, they're playing
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  Speaker 3: cover two. You know, another twenty percent of the time,
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  Speaker 3: they're playing quarters ten to fifteen percent of the time.
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  Speaker 3: So the good like unlike like when Jeff Hafley was
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  Speaker 3: here and it was like almost like one hundred percent
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  Speaker 3: middle of the field closed.
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  Speaker 2: Like they're changing it up enough.
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  Speaker 3: And obviously with all the different sim pressure looks where
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  Speaker 3: the droppers are coming from, that it keeps makes it
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  Speaker 3: difficult for opposing coad quarterbacks.
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  Speaker 1: So how well will this defense hold up against better offenses?
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  Speaker 1: Because you know, no disrespect to some of the offenses
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  Speaker 1: they face face this year, but they're not great they're
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  Speaker 1: not among the nation's best. In a lot of cases,
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  Speaker 1: they've they've faced a couple of good offenses, but not
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  Speaker 1: every week, and you're probably going to at some point
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  Speaker 1: in December or January run into some better defense, better
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  Speaker 1: offenses on opposing sideline. So is there you know, is
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  Speaker 1: there a specific style or is there maybe a specific
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  Speaker 1: team that they might run into in December or January
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  Speaker 1: or even late November that you think might be able
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  Speaker 1: to challenge this defense in ways that would not.
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  Speaker 2: Work out great for it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't belittle as you said, like
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  Speaker 3: you know, Illinois and Washington are both top twenty offenses,
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  Speaker 3: top twenty five, and they've had to play both on
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  Speaker 3: the road. I mean, I think Washington particular is a
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  Speaker 3: very solid offense, and they obviously held them to six points.
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  Speaker 3: You know, by advanced stats, they're the best, if not
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  Speaker 3: I guess the second best, like in the country. Right,
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  Speaker 3: So they're going to hold up, but they're going to
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  Speaker 3: do well against anyone. Obviously, the better teams you play,
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  Speaker 3: the less dominant it becomes. But you know, as I said,
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  Speaker 3: like I think, and the thing with it's hard about
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  Speaker 3: this question is like you know, like who who are the.
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  Speaker 2: Dominant offenses out there right now?
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  Speaker 3: Like there's actually a sp plus and FBI like the
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  Speaker 3: two you know, main advanced stats that I like to
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  Speaker 3: look at, like actually differ quite a bit on who
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  Speaker 3: the best offenses are, like you know, depending on if
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  Speaker 3: the s P plus is more in explosiveness FBI is
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  Speaker 3: more into efficiency. Uh you know, I mean I think,
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  Speaker 3: as I said, like I think if someone who's really
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  Speaker 3: can can hold up in pass protection and handle the
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  Speaker 3: sim pressures, like there's holes in the zone to go after, right,
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  Speaker 3: so like you know, the Alabama's of the world, I mean,
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  Speaker 3: you know, USC would be interesting.
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  Speaker 2: I mean Indiana will be interesting.
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  Speaker 3: Although you know Indiana as we saw last year, like
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  Speaker 3: with all like the r p os and like back
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  Speaker 3: shoulder throws. You know, I State was really able to
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  Speaker 3: cancel that out last year just with like man coverage
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  Speaker 3: a lot and challenge of them.
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  Speaker 2: So you know, they have the tools in the toolbox.
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  Speaker 3: Uh, and you know, I think you know, I guess
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  Speaker 3: the other question though, is they've because they've been good
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  Speaker 3: at handling things with middle of the field coverage, Like
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  Speaker 3: they've gapped out the run game all the time, like
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  Speaker 3: we showed against Wisconsin or Illinois, Like, no matter how
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  Speaker 3: many bodies you want to put in there, like they're
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  Speaker 3: going to bring a safety down and play plus one
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  Speaker 3: and everyone has a single gap, so like, you know,
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  Speaker 3: if they're forced to play more split safety coverage, like
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  Speaker 3: how would the run fits look? You know, those are
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  Speaker 3: questions like we just don't have like a ton of
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  Speaker 3: answer suit just because they haven't had to do it
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  Speaker 3: yet a time.
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  Speaker 2: So you know, when you have guys.
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  Speaker 3: Like Downs and Reese and styles like that, gives you
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  Speaker 3: a lot of flexibility no matter who you're playing, to
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  Speaker 3: do for different things, but you know they'll certainly be challenged.
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  Speaker 2: You know, going forward eventually.
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  Speaker 1: All Right, I want to finish up with this. A
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  Speaker 1: question from one of our YouTube watchers, Career Relicious says,
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  Speaker 1: can you ask brossivy things overall after analyzing both Knowles
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  Speaker 1: and Patricia's defensive schemes, who he thinks is better overall
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  Speaker 1: and in what area is? Obviously that's sort of the
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  Speaker 1: probably a little bit of a leading the witness question there,
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  Speaker 1: but heading into the Ohio State Penn State game this weekend,
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  Speaker 1: feels like it's an interesting discussion.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, they're both great defensive coordinators, right, Like
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  Speaker 3: Ohio State was number one and s P plus last
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  Speaker 3: year on defense, uh number one this year, So you know,
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  Speaker 3: they they have a lot of work to work with. Obviously,
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  Speaker 3: I think it's been impressive, like how quickly Patricia's been
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  Speaker 3: able to implement these, like you know, changes in system,
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  Speaker 3: adaptations to the system, whatever term you would want to use.
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  Speaker 2: I bet Ryan Day would probably say the latter.
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  Speaker 3: And how well guys have picked that up and disguise,
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  Speaker 3: you know again helps have Caleb downs, you know, I
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  Speaker 3: mean you're you can see like in those differences in
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  Speaker 3: coverages that I was talking about, like difference of philosophy, right,
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  Speaker 3: Like you know I didn't talk about like I don't
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  Speaker 3: know if I've seen, oh, I say, play cover zero
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  Speaker 3: once this year obviously with Jim Knowles, like that was
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  Speaker 3: a staple. You're getting that a couple of times a game,
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  Speaker 3: for better or worse, right, Like we can all sort
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  Speaker 3: of think of times when it didn't work out. But
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  Speaker 3: like conversely, so like you know, when we talked about
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  Speaker 3: a Lorenzo Styles or like a Jalen mcquain, like we
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  Speaker 3: haven't seen them a ton of man coverage because they
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  Speaker 3: haven't had to do it, Whereas like we can all
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  Speaker 3: think of like Leithan Ranson, who's a great player, but
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  Speaker 3: like that man coverage was in a strong suit like
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  Speaker 3: getting beat against Georgia, right, so you know, different different strokes.
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  Speaker 3: I personally like the fact that Matt Patricia mixes us
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  Speaker 3: up up front and gives you a lot of different looks,
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  Speaker 3: you know. And obviously I had my frustrations before Oregon
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  Speaker 3: won with how Jim Nowles was playing the defensive front.
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  Speaker 3: Once they started spilling things, you know, that that became
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  Speaker 3: much less of an issue. So I think there's a
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  Speaker 3: little bit more going on in the front end. But
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  Speaker 3: as I said, it's Jim Knowles like putting aside what's
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  Speaker 3: going on in Penn State, Like had a lot of
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  Speaker 3: success at o High State, so you know, they both
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  Speaker 3: are great. But I think Ohigo State is in a
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  Speaker 3: very good position with Matt Patricia right now, given the
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  Speaker 3: player personnel they have.
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  Speaker 2: All.
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  Speaker 1: Right, Well, we will see those two teams on the
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  Speaker 1: field together on Saturday noon kickoff on Fox, and then
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  Speaker 1: of course next week we'll have Ross back to talk
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  Speaker 1: about how Matt Patricia's defense did against the Penn State
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  Speaker 1: offense and how Jim Noles defense did against the Ohio
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  Speaker 1: State offense. And when Ross is on next week, we
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  Speaker 1: will once again be sponsored by Jeff Rubies of Columbus,
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  Speaker 1: the award winning upscale steakhouse in downtown Columbus name one
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: of the top fifty steakhouses in America by Food Network.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Just go to Jeffruby dot com slash Columbus to check
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: out the menu and make a reservation today. That'll do
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: it for today. Thank you guys all for joining us.
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  Speaker 1: Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.