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Scheme Insider: Matt Patricia Dials Up The Heat For Ohio State's Pass Defense · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Friday, October 23rd. I'm
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  Speaker 1: your host, Tom Moore. The USC game in eight days,
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  Speaker 1: the game against Michigan in 36 days. Today's episode presented
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  Speaker 1: by Jeff Rubies of Columbus, proudly offering nationally acclaimed USDA
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  Speaker 1: prime steaks, seafood and sushi, impeccable service, live entertainment, and
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  Speaker 1: an attention to detail that is simply unmatched. Just go
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  Speaker 1: to jeffruby.com slash Columbus to check out the menu and
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  Speaker 1: make a reservation today. All right, on today's show, we're
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  Speaker 1: gonna be welcoming back in Buckeye Insider's defensive scheme insider,
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  Speaker 1: Michael Pettit, On yesterday's show, we talked about the Ohio
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  Speaker 1: State defense and how they held up against the run
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  Speaker 1: against the Indiana Hoosiers today. We're going to be looking
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  Speaker 1: at the pass defense with Lincoln Riley and USC on deck. Well,
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  Speaker 1: that seems like it might be surprisingly relevant information moving
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  Speaker 1: forward for the Ohio State Buckeyes. Michael, we're going to
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  Speaker 1: be looking at four different videos on today's show, a
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  Speaker 1: couple of different coverage concepts and ski coverage schemes. We're
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  Speaker 1: going to start with cover two. What are we looking
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  Speaker 1: at here?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so in the run game show, we kind of
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  Speaker 2: illustrated the structure and how they like to run Tampa
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  Speaker 2: 2 out of that. Well, they can also run a
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  Speaker 2: more traditional cover 2 out of that, and they did
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  Speaker 2: that a few times on Saturday. So the difference is
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  Speaker 2: that in Tampa 2, you've got that pole player who's
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  Speaker 2: kind of like, you know, not as deep as the
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  Speaker 2: deep half players, but farther back than the hook player.
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  Speaker 2: In a regular cover 2, Earl Little is going to
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  Speaker 2: drop down and just be you know, essentially a, another
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  Speaker 2: seam player rather than that pole player. So what you're
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  Speaker 2: going to do is it's going to make it. So
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  Speaker 2: there's less space underneath, but all in all, like I
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  Speaker 2: thought this was a pretty good rep of cover too,
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  Speaker 2: because like, if you look to the bottom of the screen,
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  Speaker 2: the cornerback, um, the cornerbacks in cover two and Tampa two,
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  Speaker 2: they're responsible for the flats, but they're allowed to keep
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  Speaker 2: sinking deep as long as there's no threat to the flat.
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  Speaker 2: So like here, um, You're going to have the receiver
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  Speaker 2: to the boundary, and I want to say that's Nick Marsh,
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  Speaker 2: go on a go route, but the corner to the
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  Speaker 2: boundary on the bottom of the screen just runs with
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  Speaker 2: him because there's no threat in the flat. Whereas on
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  Speaker 2: the opposite side of the field, you see that corner
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  Speaker 2: eventually stops running with the deep receiver because a threat
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  Speaker 2: presents itself in the flat. What that allows the deep
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  Speaker 2: safety to the boundary to do is say, okay, so
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  Speaker 2: that corner's got that receiver covered. Now, instead of having
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  Speaker 2: to worry so much about this deep half, I can
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  Speaker 2: go and close down the middle of the field a
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  Speaker 2: little bit. Because, you know, in cover two, there's that
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  Speaker 2: big hole in the middle of the field. So, very
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  Speaker 2: good rotations there. And then, like, one more point about
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  Speaker 2: this play. I noticed this a few times on Saturday.
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  Speaker 2: It seems like, at times, what they're doing is they're
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  Speaker 2: kind of having that flex linebacker who's, in this case,
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  Speaker 2: it's Christian Allegro, but sometimes it's Raleigh Petijan. They're having
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  Speaker 2: that flex linebacker insert as a fourth rusher, but they're
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  Speaker 2: not instructed to rush a specific hole or a specific lane.
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  Speaker 2: It almost looks like they've been given free reign to
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  Speaker 2: just insert wherever is open to insert. And Allegro kind
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  Speaker 2: of does a good job of that here. He gets
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  Speaker 2: a hit on Hoover. This probably should have been called
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  Speaker 2: intentional grounding, in my opinion. But yeah, just another little
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  Speaker 2: wrinkle as this defensive structure and scheme really comes into
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  Speaker 2: form here.
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  Speaker 1: All right, so in the next one, we're going from
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  Speaker 1: cover two to cover one. And a lot of times
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  Speaker 1: you get these names for these positions or these concepts
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  Speaker 1: in coverages, and you kind of wonder, okay, where does
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  Speaker 1: that really come from? I don't really understand the relevance there.
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  Speaker 1: This one is called, I think it's Earl Little, I think,
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  Speaker 1: who's playing the robber in this one. And you watch
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  Speaker 1: Earl Little on the play, and it's like, yes, he
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  Speaker 1: is ready to sneak in and steal the jewels here
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  Speaker 1: and almost gets an interception, but makes a nice play
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  Speaker 1: to break the pass up.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, again, I gave Earl Little a lot
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  Speaker 2: of plays in the run game show, but he's just
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  Speaker 2: such a versatile player. He's so good. It's obvious they
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  Speaker 2: almost never have Earl Little as the deep defender in
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  Speaker 2: cover one or cover three or a deep half defender
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  Speaker 2: in cover two. It's very obvious. They want Earl Little,
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  Speaker 2: even though he's a safety, they want him more in
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  Speaker 2: the box, closer to the line of scrimmage. And so
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  Speaker 2: what they're running here is it's called cover one cross,
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  Speaker 2: which is a type of cover one robber. And there's
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  Speaker 2: two types of cover one robber. There's cover one cross
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  Speaker 2: and there's cover one hole. Cover one hole is when
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  Speaker 2: the receiver to the passing strength comes down as the robber.
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  Speaker 2: Cover one cross is when the receiver away from the
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  Speaker 2: passing strength comes down as the robber. So like here,
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  Speaker 2: Indiana's got three, actually four, if you count the running back,
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  Speaker 2: eligible receivers to the quarterback's right. So that is the
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  Speaker 2: passing strength. So the safety there is going to be
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  Speaker 2: the deep player. The safety opposite of that passing strength
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  Speaker 2: is going to come down and be the robbery. And
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  Speaker 2: that's what Earl Little does. And yeah, Earl Little is
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  Speaker 2: able to break up the pass because really his job
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  Speaker 2: here is kind of just intercept crossing routes over the middle.
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  Speaker 2: It's pretty similar to what he does in the pole
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  Speaker 2: position in Tampa too. But just a guy who's just
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  Speaker 2: really played so well, just so well really in all
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  Speaker 2: phases of the game. And it's really great to see.
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  Speaker 1: All right, next up, we're going to be looking at
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  Speaker 1: a play where they run the coffeehouse blitz concept. And
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  Speaker 1: this is one of those things that We first saw
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  Speaker 1: this with Arvel Reese running it against Texas last year,
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  Speaker 1: Matt Patricia's first game. And it was one of those
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  Speaker 1: things that everyone looked at and went, whoa, like revolutionary
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  Speaker 1: for Ohio State's defense to be running something like that.
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  Speaker 1: And I feel like we haven't, have we seen this
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  Speaker 1: much this year? Or was this one of the first
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  Speaker 1: times that we sort of saw this come back?
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  Speaker 2: I think this is the first time I've seen it
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  Speaker 2: this year. Yeah, I think this is the first time
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  Speaker 2: I've seen it this year. I think they ran it.
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  Speaker 2: Even after that Arvo Reese one last year, they might
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  Speaker 2: have only ran it another one or two times. I
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  Speaker 2: know they ran it later in the Texas game, too,
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  Speaker 2: so maybe only in one other game all year last.
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  Speaker 2: This one's not going to be quite as fun because
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  Speaker 2: the pressure doesn't get home, but I would be remiss
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  Speaker 2: if I didn't include this in the video. We've got
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  Speaker 2: to show you that the coffeehouse blitz is back, that
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  Speaker 2: they're trying new stuff. Credit to Indiana picking the movement up. uh,
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  Speaker 2: what a coffee house blitzes or a coffee house technique
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  Speaker 2: is like a mugged up linebacker is going to initially
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  Speaker 2: fake as if he's dropping into coverage and then come
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  Speaker 2: around on a blitz after that initial fake. So it's
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  Speaker 2: kind of like a delayed blitz. Um, and you know,
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  Speaker 2: this is a simulated pressure because, uh, you're, you're, you're
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  Speaker 2: dropping guys into coverage and it really only is actually
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  Speaker 2: a four man rush, but with the directions, the rushes
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  Speaker 2: are coming from like, you know, the offense is expecting
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  Speaker 2: more than just four rushers. And behind the pressure, they're
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  Speaker 2: playing Tampa 2 coverage. And it's a very disguised Tampa
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  Speaker 2: 2 because, you know, at the start of the play,
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  Speaker 2: they're in a single high shell. And that safety is
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  Speaker 2: going to, that single high safety is going to roll
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  Speaker 2: very hard all the way over to the field deep half.
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  Speaker 2: And the nickel player out there is going to rotate
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  Speaker 2: toward the boundary deep half. But Yeah, again, this doesn't
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  Speaker 2: get home this time, but we had to talk about
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  Speaker 2: the coffee house splits. I'll never forget, that was my
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  Speaker 2: entire Twitter timeline after the Texas game last year was
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  Speaker 2: the coffee house splits. So we had to show that
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  Speaker 2: it's back.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, great name, kind of a cool concept. One of
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  Speaker 1: those things that just made to explode on social media
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  Speaker 1: when people sort of learn about it and see it.
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  Speaker 1: So that was fun. One thing that we have talked
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  Speaker 1: about a bunch is that Matt Patricia has tended in
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  Speaker 1: some of these big moment, close games, games against quarterbacks
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  Speaker 1: who are maybe a little bit more mobile. He's tended
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  Speaker 1: to be a little more conservative. And then he went
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  Speaker 1: extremely against that tendency against Indiana in some big moments
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  Speaker 1: on Saturday. Both of the fourth down plays that Indiana had,
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  Speaker 1: the strip sack from Jalen McClain, which is the play
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  Speaker 1: we're going to be looking at here, but also the
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  Speaker 1: fourth down At the end of the game, the throw
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  Speaker 1: to Nick Marsh, it was out of bounds. He brought
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  Speaker 1: a little more heat than he typically does. So this
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  Speaker 1: is a cover zero look, which, you know, it's great
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  Speaker 1: when it gets home. And when it doesn't, everyone goes,
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  Speaker 1: why would you ever do that?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's actually, it's so funny because like you just
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  Speaker 2: nailed it on the head. I mean, Patricia has a
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  Speaker 2: tendency to be really conservative in matchup games, especially if
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  Speaker 2: the quarterback's an athlete. And it can drive me crazy
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  Speaker 2: at times because it's like, you know, I'm just a
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  Speaker 2: believer that the benefits of aggression are going to outweigh
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  Speaker 2: the drawbacks of aggression, especially in college. College quarterbacks don't
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  Speaker 2: handle this well. And I'm not asking for anything crazier
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  Speaker 2: to do it on every play. It's funny, though, because
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  Speaker 2: what I ask for is something in between three-man cage
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  Speaker 2: rushing and some all-out cover zero blitz. and like, I
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  Speaker 2: don't think I've ever seen Matt Patricia run a cover
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  Speaker 2: zero blitz like at all, but he, he ran, this
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  Speaker 2: was one, but he ran it at least three or
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  Speaker 2: four times on, on a Saturday. In fact, right. He
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  Speaker 2: ran one right before this play too. So we ran
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  Speaker 2: it both plays in a row, which like at the
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  Speaker 2: time I love is like, you know, it started to
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  Speaker 2: seem like he was, you know, reverting back to his
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  Speaker 2: typical game plan and these types of games. And, but
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  Speaker 2: he started mixing things in. And so like, I feel
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  Speaker 2: like his way, instead of finding a middle ground, which
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  Speaker 2: would be like a fire zone blitz, his middle ground
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  Speaker 2: was like, i'm either it's either going to be all
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  Speaker 2: or nothing and and those two are going to balance
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  Speaker 2: each other out like either the three-man cage rush or
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  Speaker 2: the cover zero blitz and you know generally speaking the
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  Speaker 2: cover zero blitzes were successful because um like i said
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  Speaker 2: they ran one on the play right before this one
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  Speaker 2: we're talking about and it brought up fourth down uh
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  Speaker 2: you know this play is obviously a strip sack We
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  Speaker 2: can say Ohio State got lucky with the Nick Marsh thing,
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  Speaker 2: but that throw is likely a lot better if not
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  Speaker 2: for the blitz. Riley Pettijohn was held pretty blatantly. We
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  Speaker 2: all know that. That should have been called. But nonetheless,
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  Speaker 2: he got into Hoover's face and disrupted him. That's where
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  Speaker 2: the blitz is and the aggression pays off. But now,
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  Speaker 2: if we look at this from the end zone view,
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  Speaker 2: Just to get an idea of like this specific zero blitz. So,
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  Speaker 2: you know, they've got seven men, seven men walked from
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  Speaker 2: the line of scrimmage, eight, if you want to count
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  Speaker 2: or a little, because he's kind of close because he's
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  Speaker 2: in man coverage on that tight end. The mugged up linebackers,
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  Speaker 2: Pettijohn and Alford here, what they're doing is they're reading
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  Speaker 2: those guards. If those guards open up toward them, they
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  Speaker 2: will drop out. If the guard opens up away from them,
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  Speaker 2: they will blitz right off his rear end. So both
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  Speaker 2: of these guards open up to their right. to, you know,
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  Speaker 2: our left from the direction we're facing on the screen.
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  Speaker 2: And so Pettijohn sees that, that guard opens up towards him.
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  Speaker 2: That's why he drops here. Uh, the other guard opens
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  Speaker 2: up away from Alford, which is why Alford, uh, blitzes
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  Speaker 2: right off his rear end. And, uh, Kenyatta Jackson here,
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  Speaker 2: he's really just kind of locking up with that left tackle,
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  Speaker 2: making sure he doesn't get any hands on Jalen McClain,
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  Speaker 2: which is what allows Jalen McClain to come free. And,
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  Speaker 2: you know, good coverage on the back end here. Um,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I gotta say just as we, you know,
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  Speaker 2: talk about this game in a broader scope now, uh,
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  Speaker 2: obviously Ohio state gave up some yards through the air,
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  Speaker 2: but like Indiana has two receivers who will be first
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  Speaker 2: round draft picks. Um, you've got to look at it
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  Speaker 2: in that context. And, um, you know, at the end
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  Speaker 2: of the day, like they didn't, you know, the defense
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  Speaker 2: gave up 15 points in a game like this on
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  Speaker 2: the road. I mean, that's pretty impressive in my opinion. And, uh,
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  Speaker 2: Going forward, I just hope Patricia keeps up this tendency
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  Speaker 2: to be a little more aggressive because I think the
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  Speaker 2: defense is going to need to not just make stops,
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  Speaker 2: but also make plays. If you're a conservative, cautious defense,
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  Speaker 2: you can make stops, but how many plays are you
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  Speaker 2: going to make? How many turnovers are you going to force?
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  Speaker 2: How many sacks are you going to get? With the
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  Speaker 2: offensive situation now, potentially just the offense not being as.
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  Speaker 2: Functional, the offense is going to need all the help
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  Speaker 2: they can get. If the defense can rack up a
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  Speaker 2: couple defensive touchdowns over the next few weeks or some fumbles,
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  Speaker 2: pick sixes, just getting the offense good field position, that's
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  Speaker 2: going to be very necessary. Really, yeah, I just hope
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  Speaker 2: to see that the aggression keeps up. I'm not really
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  Speaker 2: asking for anything more than he did on Saturday. I
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  Speaker 2: think he found a good balance on Saturday. I think
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  Speaker 2: Patricia called his best game that he's ever called as
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  Speaker 2: Ohio State's defensive coordinator. Certainly the best game he's called
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  Speaker 2: since Texas in 2025. I will say that. This was
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  Speaker 2: the best game I've seen him call in quite some time.
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  Speaker 1: All right, so there you go. A little look at
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  Speaker 1: Ohio State's pass defense. You want to hear about Ohio
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: State's run defense, you just go back one show on
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: the morning show feed on your podcast platform of choice
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: or on YouTube. You can find it at youtube.com slash
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  Speaker 1: at Buckeye Insiders. Trying to break down everything you could
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  Speaker 1: possibly want to know about the Ohio State defense. And,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: oh yes, you have questions about the Ohio State offense.
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  Speaker 1: We know.
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  Speaker 2: We understand. Good news.
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  Speaker 1: We have guys who specialize on the offensive side of
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: the ball as well. We've already heard from Justin Whitlatch
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: and Ross Fulton about the change in the quarterback position
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  Speaker 1: this week at Ohio State. You can find those on
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  Speaker 1: our YouTube channel. But if you want to talk about
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: that with us, the best place to do that is
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: at BuckeyeInsiders.com. That's where we have our whole team of
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: scheme insiders there. to break down, break down game film
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: like this, but also answer your questions. Talk about what
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: they're expecting. Talk about what do we see? They may
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: see from opposing upcoming teams. Like what is USC going
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: to try and do against the Buckeyes defense next week?
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Was the USC defense going to try to do against
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: the new look Ohio state offense next week? That's going
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: to be fascinating to talk about. We'll be talking about
• 14:34
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  Speaker 1: We'll talk to you tomorrow.