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Ross Fulton Analysis: Will Ohio State's Offensive Success Continue vs. Penn State? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Thursday, October nineteenth. I'm your host,
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  tom Or. The Penn State game is in two days. The game
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  against Michigan in thirty seven days. Boy, those two games, that just
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  seems like two pretty consequential games for this year's Ohio State football team and the
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  national college football scene on the whole. We're not gonna be talking about those
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  necessarily. We're talking taking a little bit of a look back at last weekend's
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  win over Perdue for the Buckeyes, maybe a little bit about what it's going
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  to mean moving forward with the Nitney Lions on deck, and we're gonna doing
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  it with our buddy Ross Fulton of buckehuddle dot com. He is our ex's
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  nose guru. Ross. I mean, before we get started on that,
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  that just looked like a more functional Ohio State offense in a lot of different
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  ways on Saturday against Perdue. How much of that do you chalk up to
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  Ohio State was getting better at stuff and how much of that was Parduo had
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  some guys missing and just is not quite up to the standards of what Ohio
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  State is going to be faced this weekend against Penn state. Yeah, and
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  I mean ironically too, because I was missing quite a few guys again at
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  the skill position, so you know, between several running backs and a Mecca
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  Abuka. I think even putting aside like the opponent, they did a very
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  nice job tying together the game plan the off of this the run and pass
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  game. Uh. You know, we'll give some examples of that, but
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  they were almost entirely gap run base. I mean, they did mix in
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  some mid zone, there's very little like stretch from pistol, and obviously,
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  I think some of that is perdue plays this sort of unique base, five
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  down, five man front and a pretty aggressive cover one with an extremely deep
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  safety. So you obviously have to game plan for your opponent, and you
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  know, that makes it tough to get double teams on zone with uh,
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  you know, the three particularly like the three large defensive linemen inside the town
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  ackles. But nevertheless, like I thought, as we can talk about like
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  the use of countertray, the use of a lot of same side pin and
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  pull, and then they tied those things together nicely. Like you know,
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  they did play action in the pocket off of those concepts. They faked the
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  orbit motion, they used several you know, RPOs and reliefs like sort of
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  the return motion by Marvin Harrison. They threw a couple of times the quick
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  out to fleming against soft cover one. So I think they just they did
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  a nice job of tying things together. And obviously, you know, I
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  guess we'll see whether that continues going forward in terms of the types of plays
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  they were using and how much of that was just depending on what Purdue was
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  doing. But you know, I think for their the run game in particular,
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  like, I think it was a big step forward in terms of doing
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  things that they can do well. All Right, So the first play we're
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  gonna look at this is a good one because when I watched it live,
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  I thought, how on earth did they get Marvin Harrison wide open in the
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  end zone? That seems like something that you know, Perdue has probably done
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  enough scouting to know that, hey, number eighteen's pretty good, you're going
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  to want to have him covered. He ended up singled on this one,
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  and they ended up later on showing a nice little replay on the broadcast that
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  sort of showed some of it. But how did Marvin Harrison get so open
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  on that first touchdown? Yeah, I mean they've been. You know,
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  obviously with a book out, they played Harrison quite a bit in the slot,
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  although they've been doing that more and more of the past couple of weeks.
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  They did the same against Maryland too, before a book is injuries.
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  So you know, they're moving Marvin around quite a bit, both with motion
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  and formation wise and people motioning around him to change where his alignment is.
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  But again, like Purdue was not is not a team that's going to be
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  interested in trying to bracket or double for the most part. I mean they
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  run they ran cover one, you know, I mean estimating over eighty percent
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  of the time, or cover zero like this play. This is flag cover
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  zero. It's a you know, a very classic red zone concept where you
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  run a double ends and then a corner route from the slot. And you
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  know, a lot was made about McCord throwing off his back foot, particularly
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  early, but this is cover zero. Like you can see up front,
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  they do not have enough blockers for the seven men that Purdue is bringing.
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  And that's actually a technique that they teach. CJ. Shroud had to do
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  it several times against Georgia last in the last winner, so he you know,
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  you're you're Basically you have to count on your quarterback to get it off
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  before to buy himself time to get the throw off before that unblocked rusher gets
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  home. And obviously, you know you have to take advantage to your point
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  of if you get Marvin Harrison singled up with no safety help, you know,
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  most times he's gonna win. You know, he was. He was
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  opened quite a bit throughout the game. Obviously they had some drop issues.
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  That would have been an even better day from McCord. You know, I
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  think you kind of have to assume that's a one off with the game sort
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  of getting out of hand and the weather and Purdue, but the but again,
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  so you know, they had to take advantage of one on one opportunities
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  downfield, and they did that pretty often. And you know, I will
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  note that they'll you know, we can talk about this more later, but
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  they will face another aggressive defense from Penn State. I mean, Manny Diaz
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  is you know, he's very blit happy to the point of sometimes doing things
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  that are almost unsound or will provide opportunities, whether it's downfield or in the
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  screen game. So you know, it probably was a good tune up,
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  you know, not exactly one for one, but a lot of the same
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  sort of ethos, if you will, from produced defense and is also reflected
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  in what they'll face from Penn State. All right, and next up,
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  this is something you mentioned earlier, the orbit motion, just showing the orbit
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  motion and then doing stuff off of that, and this is one of the
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  plays. This is one of just I mean, not this specific play,
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  but the play call here. GT count or that's something that you mentioned on
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  Twitter during the game is something that they have done pretty well this year,
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  and they were showing more of it on Saturday against Purdue. So can you
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  explain what we're looking at? What are we talking about when you talk about
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  GT count. Yeah, So we'll split up here a couple of things.
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  So the orbit motion is, you know, again becoming a concept that they're
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  increasingly using and you see it a lot of places. The Miami Dolphins are
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  using it a lot right now, and you know, it gives you this
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  ball handling aspect that it sort of harkens back to like the wing tea where
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  you're hiding the ball and you got guys going in different directions, and you
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  know, and they have two guys and Xavier Johnson and Abuka who you know,
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  they're happy to give the ball to on that orbit motion as a as
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  a lead outside zone play, so you have the actual bass play itself and
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  then they build off of it. And so here you know, you and
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  especially with Purdue playing cover one again, like by using the orbit motion,
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  you're you're pulling essentially who would be sitting in the slot there over Johnson out
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  of the play because he's running and chasing the orbit motion and then GT counter.
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  So that just as a way of saying the guard and tackle or the
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  ones pulling on a counter tray. And you know, they ran this quite
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  a bit, both of the boundary and the field, and I just think,
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  you know, we talked about last week like they did not have a
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  good rep of it against Maryland, But other than that, I mean,
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  I think it's been their most consistent run play this year. Like Trevon Henderson's
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  you know, sixty plus yard touchdown run against there Dame came off this play.
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  Their guards and even their tackles frankly have looked pretty good pulling, particularly
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  if the more reps they get, the better they're getting on their pass.
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  And then I've been pretty athletic at the point of attack. Here Purdue tries
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  to to you know, crash down on it and it creates bounce opportunities outside.
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  And then later in the game they tried to or box it and you
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  know, Dollan Hayden was able to cut the football up field. But again,
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  so you know what Purdue was doing. It certainly lends itself to run
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  ing counter like Purdude had struggles against counter this year, but nevertheless, like
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  this has to remain a staple. You know, Ironically, after the game,
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  Ryan Day talked about with Hayden's entrance, you know, like they were
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  running day one install plays, which like I wouldn't necessarily think of like GT
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  counter and same side pin and poll as like their day one install. But
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  you know, maybe that's a sign that like that was their plan all along,
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  was to get to become increasingly reliant on gap plays. And you know,
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  again, I mean Dallan Hayden, after ironically being asked about it last
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  week, like was thrown into the action and like the you know, it's
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  hard to uh dispute, like every time he gets the opportunity, Like his
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  vision is just pretty stellar in terms of reading blocks and setting things up and
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  gaining turning you know, five into seven and three into five and the like,
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  so, you know, will be interesting to see how that works out
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  going forward. I mean, I think at this point it's sort of it's
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  sort of you know, no full to any of their own but like you,
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  Treyvon Henderson and Mine Williams have been heard for good portions of their career,
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  so it's kind of hard to count on who exactly is going to be
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  available on a week to week basis. So you know, at this point
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  they're pretty lucky to have Dalan Hayden there even if he is there, you
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  know, in their minds their fourth running back. And after the game,
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  Ryan Day talked about Dlan Hayden and brought up protection. He just used the
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  word protection when he talked about, you know, still some work to do,
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  which I sort of interpreted as and that's why he might not be the
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  starting running back next week even though he's you know, looked, looked pretty
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  darn good and was pretty pretty effective at keeping them on schedule against Purdue.
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  Is that something you've noticed with him? I know, there have not been
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  a lot of reps to really judge. Is that something you've picked up at
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  all watching Dlan Hayden this year. Yeah, there were a couple plays against
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  Purdue or Perdue brought up boundary corner blitz and he did not see it,
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  and you know about got McCord level from the backside. You know, Kyle
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  both times is able to get rid of it. But yes, I do
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  think they probably have some ongoing pass protection concerns with him. I mean,
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  you know that's part probably partially reps. I mean he's also obviously not as
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  big of a guy as Chip Trainham is, who is going to be pretty
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  stout in pass protection. And so you know there are ways around that obviously
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  by like partitioning when people are in the game. But then again, like
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  they're gonna have to throw against Penn State, like this run. The run
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  game was certainly improved. I like the concepts that they're using. You know,
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  we talked about this last week, Like they picked up a lot of
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  what we're saying. So it's a good thing. I guess that that the
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  coaches are seeing things the same way with you know, more countertray, more
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  bucksweet. They were in that crack sweep several times, and so like they're
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  getting the ball in space again, like if Henderson is back like it benefits
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  him to get the ball in space or like being able to balance counter tray.
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  But like, you know, I don't think we should just assume that
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  they're going to be able to run the football against Penn State. And like,
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  in fact, against Purdue they passed more on standard downs, Like the
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  balance was a little bit more fifty to fifty than it had been in earlier
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  games. So like, I think that was also a positive sign. And
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  like, I think they're going to have to continue to crank up the passing
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  game and the RPOs on early downs on Saturday. They have found some creative
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  thought ways to solve other issues. One of the creative things was Devin Brown
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  in short yardage and goal line, having him come in off the bench and
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  kind of be the power running quarterback. We sort of wondered, why are
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  they not just running, you know, running Kyle McCord, or running just
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  QB sneaks or just shoving him across the line. And they had a little
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  bit of a creative solution to this bringing in Devin Brown. One time it
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  worked, he ran someone over at the goal line. One time it didn't
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  work. The guy who he tried to run over the goal line popped the
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  ball free. But I mean this feels like a creative solution. What did
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  you think about that? Yeah, it'll be interesting going forward. To me,
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  like the amount of concepts they use with it shows like this is something
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  they've been working on. And so like, you know, the play that
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  we're going to go through here is actually it looks like a zone read,
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  but it's actually not. It's called pop out, and what it is is
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  essentially they're faking a read, but really Brown is just going to follow the
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  running back as his lead blocker, and they're essentially wedge blocking it and they're
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  going to you know, essentially go around the end. So it's kind of
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  taking advantage like we've talked about, like against Entre Dame for instance, like
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  when they wedge blocked and they got pressure off the edge. It's it's in
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  some ways a response to that to take advantage of teams trying to pinch down.
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  You know, it's it's always one of those things is trying to guess
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  like did they do this purposely the week before Penn State to just give them
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  something prepare for? Is this like a package going forward? I mean,
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  you know, I tend to lean towards the latter. I mean I kind
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  of wondered earlier in the season, like why they continue to feel so strongly
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  about Devin Brown as a runner, and like they have a lot of read
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  run concepts or QB run concepts in the game like that we've seen with him
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  already, and I kind of get after the game, I guess, you
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  know, Ryan Day, I think correctly is like he's a big, strong
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  guy. So like especially the goal line, like you're not talking about like
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  putting in a small, quick quarterback, like you're talking about kind of like
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  going the bulldozer route. So they ran the pop out, they ran the
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  lead outside zone. I mean we did see comm accord. We did see
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  you know, the quarterback sneak push, So I think he can do that.
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  You know, he kept on a pin and pole zone read or pin
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  and pole read, I should say, and gain nine yards. So it's
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  I don't think it's not that McCord can't run. I think it's just the
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  like Browns a thicker guy, and so it kind of especially near the goal
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  line, sort of gives them an advantage of being able to you know,
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  obviously gain a body in the run game, but also be able to bowl
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  someone over at the half yard line if you need to, all right,
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  And then the last one is this was the second touchdown pass to Cade Stover
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  during the course of the game, in kind of late in the third quarter,
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  right after this was right after the long pass down to Carnel Tait if
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  you were playing Playing Me Along in the home version. By the way,
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  if you if you do want to watch the video with all the with all
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  the plays from the highlights in the game, you can do that on the
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  huddle board at you at Buckeye Huddle dot com. Uh, but Ross,
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  go ahead and run us through this this last play. Yeah. Again,
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  I think this goes to our our initial discussion, which is like, you
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  know, the offense being married together and tying concepts in the run in the
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  pass game, and like I you know, I use this example because I
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  do think they did a good job of play actioning off the run concepts they
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  were using and not just bootlegs too, like in the pocket. And they
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  ran this several times. So here they're faking actually a g H counter,
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  so not quite the same as GT counter, but you know, and I
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  should note again like you have G. Scott as the other pollar sort of
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  protecting the and they again use quite a bit of twelve personnel on Saturday.
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  You know, they re encounter Tray a lot with twelve personnel, and here
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  they're faking and using heavy play actions. So you know that seems to continue
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  to be something they want to, you know, do twenty to thirty plays
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  a game. But you know, then they can sort of it's essentially like
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  kind of a crossing route to Stover. It's almost a throwback, like the
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  action's going one way and he's going to hit it back and obviously have Harrison
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  running off the coverage again solid against cover one where your linebackers are responsible for
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  your tight end. But you know, obviously Stover is a weapon in the
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  passing game, and you know they're going to continue to be able to rely
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  on these concepts. But the more that they can again make their run plays
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  look like pass plays and tie the stuff together, and you know, especially
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  with heavier personnel or when they're like under center and pistol, you know,
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  I think the better off they'll be going forward, and you know, have
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  these sort of opportunities for explicive plays off the run game. All right,
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  So there was your offensive show. Looking back at the Purdue game. We're
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  gonna have Ross on tomorrow to do a defensive show. There were some good
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  news on that front for Ohio State as well. It's a new and just
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  like the offense, maybe some new players that sort of emerging for the Ohio
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  State defense. We'll talk about that on tomorrow show. It's Penn State Week.
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  What are we going to do. We're gonna do an extra show for
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  you just because it's Penn State Week. We'll have a separate show with Ross
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  talking all about the you know more looking forward at the Penn State game.
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  In particular, in case you're wondering, why did they not talk about the
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  Penn State game that much? Patients, Patients, We'll get there. It
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  is a busy week. We got a lot of stuff coming for you.
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  We got a lot of stuff for you at pucke huddle dot com as well.
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  If you want to talk more about football with Ross, that is a
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  great place to do it. We got our whole team of x's and those
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  guys there. We post these post these shows. We try to post the
• 16:49
  shows a little early there so you get a little bit of extra time to
• 16:52
  watch them, a little bit of extra time to talk to our exces and
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  those guys there on our huddle board as a members only board at pucke huddle
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  dot com. We also, as I mentioned earlier, you post these with
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  some of the game highlights there as well. Just a little added bonus for
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  our members. Trying to make these work for both the YouTube audience and also
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  our member audience, trying to keep things a little more general, so you
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  get the normal dose of ross here, but also you can get a little
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  more on the huddleboard at buckeyehuddle dot com. So hope to see you there.
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  We will be back tomorrow with a whole another show. Thank you guys
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  all for joining us. Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.