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Ross Fulton Analysis: How Ohio State's Offense Dominated Notre Dame · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Friday, January twenty fourth.
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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tom Moore. The Texas game is in
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Speaker 1: two hundred and eighteen days, the game against Michigan in
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Speaker 1: three hundred and nine days. That they were going to
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Speaker 1: be looking back at the Ohio State offense and its
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Speaker 1: performance against Notre Dame in the National Championship game. We're
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Speaker 1: going to be doing that with our buddy Ross Fulton,
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Speaker 1: the ex's and No's guru at buckeheddle dot com and
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Speaker 1: what we have Ross on the show. We were sponsored
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Speaker 1: by Jeff Rubies of Columbus, probably offering nationally acclaimed USDA
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Speaker 1: to Jeff ruby dot com slash Columbus to check out
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Speaker 1: the menu and make a reservation for today. So well,
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Speaker 1: I was watching that National Championship game on Monday night,
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Speaker 1: I was thinking back to some of the stuff that
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Speaker 1: Ross and I talked about on that live show that
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Speaker 1: we did in the hours before the game, and it
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Speaker 1: felt like, boy, this is a lot like what he
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Speaker 1: was talking about on this show and felt like a
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Speaker 1: lot like what we were sort of expecting after having
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Speaker 1: watched Notre Dame and the personnel advantages of High State
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Speaker 1: may have had. So let's bring in Ross and Ross.
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Speaker 1: Was that, broadly speaking, kind of what you were expecting
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Speaker 1: from the Ohio State offense against Notre Dame in terms
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Speaker 1: of scheme and performance.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, broadly speaking, Yeah, so we can get into some
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Speaker 2: of the details, but you know, that was our big
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Speaker 2: question coming in the game, is you know, how much
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Speaker 2: would Notre Dame stick with what they've been which is
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Speaker 2: a pretty predominantly man coverage team. And I think they
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Speaker 2: did a lot of it. They tried in the first half,
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Speaker 2: somewhat mixed in some a little bit of split safety
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Speaker 2: stuff and some Cover three. I don't think they were
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Speaker 2: particularly effective at running any of it. I state, you know,
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Speaker 2: I had equal success against that. You know, whether it
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Speaker 2: was you know, they tried to still like man match
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Speaker 2: everything consistent of what they've done and you know they
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Speaker 2: didn't do a great job of that, or if they
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Speaker 2: were playing off coverage. You know, Jeremiah Smith had a
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Speaker 2: couple of you know, comeback routes for first downs, you know,
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Speaker 2: short of the you know, within the coverage or off
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Speaker 2: coveragers should say. So, I think broadly speaking, Notre Dame
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Speaker 2: did what they did ironically, like that somewhat played into
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Speaker 2: their favor when they got down by multiple scores because
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Speaker 2: then Ohio State was trying to bleed clock and so
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Speaker 2: putting eight guys in the box and playing cover one
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Speaker 2: made sense in that context because Ohio State, you know,
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Speaker 2: particularly in the fourth quarter, someone started playing into it
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Speaker 2: trying to run anyways, But it was broadly speaking what
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Speaker 2: you'd expect, and I think, you know, I think that
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Speaker 2: reflected the concerned people out about Notre Dame doing that
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Speaker 2: coming in the game is you know, I stay was
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Speaker 2: able to take advantage of them in man coverage.
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Speaker 1: Well, we're going to run through these plays and we
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Speaker 1: have nine of them. We're going to just do these
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Speaker 1: sequentially throughout the game, and we're going to start with
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Speaker 1: an early run by Trayvon Henderson.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, so first play the game, and I think a
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Speaker 2: lot of the focus and what we just talked about
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Speaker 2: was in past coverage right in Notre Dame playing cover one,
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Speaker 2: But what Ohio State did in the run game two
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Speaker 2: also took advantage of Notre Dame like they like to
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Speaker 2: use these us fronts, like by bumping this defensive end inside,
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Speaker 2: you can see him inside the two tight ends, you know,
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Speaker 2: linebacker playing cover one, and linebackers like to flow hard
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Speaker 2: over the top. Penn State had a lot of success
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Speaker 2: running wide zone against Satre Dame getting the football outside.
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Speaker 2: To their credit, Chip Kelly and Ryan Day and the staff,
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Speaker 2: you know, High State's been much better with this current
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Speaker 2: offensive line configuration gap blocking than zone blocking, and so
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Speaker 2: they basically tried to use the same principles Penn State did,
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Speaker 2: but within a gap scheme. So we got a lot
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Speaker 2: of wind back under center. You know, we talked about
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Speaker 2: like windback is basically duo, but you give a counteraction,
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Speaker 2: so everyone all the offensive line is blocking down. It's
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Speaker 2: a play that's very easy to bounce outside, particularly against
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Speaker 2: this like reduced defensive end you see here. And so
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Speaker 2: you know right away the opposite of sort of like
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Speaker 2: the spread you've maybe associated with Chip Kelly, at least
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Speaker 2: at one point in time, you've got twelve personnel. You
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Speaker 2: got under center, A Mecca Buka is going to come
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Speaker 2: in this short motion to add a blocker. So he's
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Speaker 2: like basically a polar and notre Dame's out numbered at
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Speaker 2: the point of attack, and like this stresses their single
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Speaker 2: high coverage from the get go because they have one
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Speaker 2: safety and you've got to react to all this motion
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Speaker 2: and so high stake us a lot of this sort
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Speaker 2: of short motion throughout, as we'll show here, and you know,
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Speaker 2: testing how Notre Dame was going to respond to it here,
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Speaker 2: whether they bust or don't handle correctly like No One,
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Speaker 2: they don't rock and roll their safeties to it, and
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Speaker 2: this ends up having that play side linebacker for them
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Speaker 2: has now has two gaps inside a g Scott as
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Speaker 2: the wing and outside of it the corner sort of
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Speaker 2: tries to insert himself, but a mecha Buka picks up that,
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Speaker 2: and you don't really want the corner and coverage or
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Speaker 2: in the run fit excuse me. So the will linebacker
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Speaker 2: like does a pretty good job scraping over the top
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Speaker 2: here to limit the game, but like Trevon, Henderson's able
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Speaker 2: to bounce it and windbacker main a huge part of
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Speaker 2: the game plan throughout, like you'll see it here, like
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Speaker 2: whether it was off of jet sweeps, multiple play action concepts.
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Speaker 2: They kept going back to wind back in different ways,
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Speaker 2: so this was like sort of a lot of what
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Speaker 2: they're doing is predicated around this concept, forcing Notre Dame
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Speaker 2: to like both who both wants to play cover one
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Speaker 2: and to spill the football to set the edge and
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Speaker 2: deal with how their safeties are going to address that
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Speaker 2: short motion.
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Speaker 1: Next up, another play from I think later in that
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Speaker 1: same first drive. It was this is a one of
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Speaker 1: several really important runs by Will Howard on the game.
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Speaker 1: This one I think picked up a first down kind
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Speaker 1: of inside the red zone.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, we talked a lot throughout the year of like
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Speaker 2: when are they going to use Will Howard's legs more?
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Speaker 2: And it turned out to be the very last game
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Speaker 2: of the year. Again, this makes a lot of sense,
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Speaker 2: like if they're you know, if I was going to
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Speaker 2: describe the Art State game plan in the right game.
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Speaker 2: At least it was a combination of windback and then
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Speaker 2: the quarterback quarterback designed runs, so you got a lot
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Speaker 2: of QB power. Obviously, this was first use to great
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Speaker 2: effect against Texas on that fourth down play we talked about,
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Speaker 2: and they use it against Center Dame again, Like makes
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Speaker 2: a lot of sense against a single high cover one
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Speaker 2: team because they're adding a defender into the box. You know,
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Speaker 2: here you can see it free snap, they've got the
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Speaker 2: safety walk down, and so by running the quarterback, you're
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Speaker 2: adding a number, right, because now you've got Quinchawn Jukins
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Speaker 2: as the lead blocker here and again like fitting with
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Speaker 2: Ohio States now like become a gap scheme team at
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Speaker 2: least in the playoffs. So you're quinch On Junkins is
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Speaker 2: leading on the play side linebacker. Luke Montgomery's pulling around
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Speaker 2: for the backside linebacker. I thought he does a really
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Speaker 2: nice job pulling and leading, and they took advantage of
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Speaker 2: it a lot in this game. Montgomery. I mean, and
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Speaker 2: you know then it's just Howard falling. Everyone blocks down
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Speaker 2: Howard falling, and so now you have a half for
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Speaker 2: a hat. So they ran this play quite a bit.
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Speaker 2: You know, you saw a little bit of zone read,
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Speaker 2: a little bit of a lead outside zone when they
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Speaker 2: were really like trying to burn clock, But it was
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Speaker 2: mainly a lot of like this QB power. You know,
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Speaker 2: Howard's legs also came in effective or came in handy,
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Speaker 2: I should say, against all the again man covers they
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Speaker 2: were seeing, right, So like he had a couple of
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Speaker 2: critical scrambles, where like Notre Dame was trying to drop
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Speaker 2: into like the like for instance, on the second drive,
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Speaker 2: they dropped eight but played cover one. They were trying
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Speaker 2: to like drop into the boundary to like take away
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Speaker 2: quick throws, and he was able to scramble to the
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Speaker 2: field and then obviously came back in that touchdown throw
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Speaker 2: to quinch On Jukins when the linebackers bid up who
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Speaker 2: had man coverage? So again like Notre Dame, gave them
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Speaker 2: the cover one or man covers they expected, and they
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Speaker 2: used the concepts that you would expect to take advantage
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Speaker 2: of it, you know, adding adding numbers in the run game,
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Speaker 2: stressing the defense horizontally.
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Speaker 1: All right, next play is the first touchdown of the game,
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Speaker 1: And this was kind of a cool callback to the
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Speaker 1: last time Ohio State was in a National championship game.
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Speaker 1: Last time this play worked against them, this play, this
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Speaker 1: time the play worked for them.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, people pointed out this is very similar, if not identical,
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Speaker 2: to that DeVante Smith touchdown. And again so like back
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Speaker 2: under center using wine back right, So like this is
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Speaker 2: base off of a play action off of wind back.
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Speaker 2: You know Jeremiah Smith that talks about postgame. You can
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Speaker 2: see in this clip, like he changes his foot his
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Speaker 2: stance right, so like they ten waterseerivers tend to align
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Speaker 2: with your insight foot forward, and he flips it and
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Speaker 2: that gets the corner then pointing out him expecting to reverse.
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Speaker 2: They'd already run or reversed him on this series. That
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Speaker 2: didn't work successfully, so they use the kind of this
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Speaker 2: yoyo emotion with g Scott just again like a lot
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Speaker 2: of motion for those cover one defenders to have to
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Speaker 2: deal with. And then obviously he fakes like this is
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Speaker 2: going to give an orbit motion. They try to. You'll
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Speaker 2: see both the corner and the safety to that side following,
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Speaker 2: so like the one safety is following ge Scott, who's
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Speaker 2: blocking back the corners trying to follow Jeremiah Smith, and
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Speaker 2: then that creates just like an easy pitch and catch
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Speaker 2: for a touchdown. So again like using lots of man,
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Speaker 2: like the reason Alabama ran it against Ohio State in
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Speaker 2: twenty twenties because they ran a ton of man and
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Speaker 2: it's just a great man beater. So as I said,
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Speaker 2: like they were prepared for all the man Notre Dame played,
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Speaker 2: and Notre Dame gave it to them and they took
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Speaker 2: advantage of it.
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Speaker 1: And this next one, this is another look that's off
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Speaker 1: of wind back, and this time the play turns into
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Speaker 1: a jet sweep, which ends up in a nice game exactly.
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Speaker 2: So again we're just like iterating off of these that
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Speaker 2: are causing all the same issues and like it'll come
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Speaker 2: all kind of come together on the quench one Jekins
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Speaker 2: long run, so sort of setting that up. But again,
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Speaker 2: so like we saw the first time they ran windback, right,
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Speaker 2: the safeties did not adjust to that, to that short
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Speaker 2: motion from a Mecca Buka. So what they started doing
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Speaker 2: is rocking and rolling the safeties. We talked about that
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Speaker 2: concept before, so like when he goes in motion, the
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Speaker 2: nickel aligned over at Buka goes back to be deep safety,
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Speaker 2: the safety that it was the deep safety comes down.
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Speaker 2: That has some advantages, but what it does is it
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Speaker 2: does give you leverage because that safety's got to come
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Speaker 2: from depth to play the run. Abuka beats him obviously,
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Speaker 2: and then they're just like leaving the defensive tackle on block.
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Speaker 2: So we're talking about waste, you know, to help the
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Speaker 2: offensive line, and they're just giving different looks at the defense.
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Speaker 2: So everyone to the to Bukas or to the field
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Speaker 2: side of that defensive tackle blocks back just like it's
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Speaker 2: wind back, and so you'll see those again like Notre
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Speaker 2: Dames linebackers, you'll see like super aggressive. It's trying to
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Speaker 2: scrape over the top all game. So they followed Trevon Henderson,
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Speaker 2: this defensive tackle is never we're going to touch a
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Speaker 2: mega Buca left unblocked. That safety has to come down
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Speaker 2: from depth and Buka beats the soap again, just like
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Speaker 2: lots of use of this type of motion to mess
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Speaker 2: with these Cover one defenders and how the Notre Dame
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Speaker 2: linebackers want to play visa the defensive ends trying to
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Speaker 2: force the football outside.
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Speaker 1: Next up, another iteration off of windback. This time it's
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Speaker 1: a play action pass and I think this one went
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Speaker 1: to Carnel Tate for a first down.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, so obviously should be sensing a theme here. So
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Speaker 2: you know, I just think it was a great job
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Speaker 2: overall of like we've got this concept in the run
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Speaker 2: game that's going to really stress the notarad of defense.
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Speaker 2: So let's take advantage of it and as many different
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Speaker 2: ways as we can. And so you know this is
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Speaker 2: again like we're especially against Cover one when you're they
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Speaker 2: like to play like a Cover one rat uh and
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Speaker 2: so you know, it's cover one like Ryan Day likes
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Speaker 2: to talk about it, right, like we're gonna run away
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Speaker 2: from the coverage. So you sill saw a lot of
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Speaker 2: these type of concepts like cross like shallow crossers. Whether
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Speaker 2: it's like this like follower drive concept, it's a little
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Speaker 2: unclear because of a mecha booka getting knocked off course.
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Speaker 2: Whether it's uh, you know, mesh or then like deeper
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Speaker 2: like y cross or digs like basically running away from
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Speaker 2: coverage and attacking like the opposite side flat particularly to
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Speaker 2: the boundary. And here you know again you're you're giving
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Speaker 2: this hard fake so the linebackers like you can just
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Speaker 2: see him sell out. So what's that do? It clears
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Speaker 2: out the underneath coverage if there was like a underneath
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Speaker 2: rat there to stop these shallow cross concepts. And again
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Speaker 2: these are like the type of throws of Will Howard
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Speaker 2: throws really well. So a lot of focus on these
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Speaker 2: sort of mid range intermediate hit the hit the you know,
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Speaker 2: towards the sideline. Similar like the sale concepts we've talked
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Speaker 2: about throughout the year. Jeremi Smith runs off the deep coverage.
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Speaker 2: You can see that safety there, like you know, I
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Speaker 2: even though it's covered one, like a lot of emphasis
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Speaker 2: from that safety Odd Cappy and Jeremiah Smith, and like
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Speaker 2: the corner is playing of deep, which is why you know,
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Speaker 2: as I said, like opened up some of those like
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Speaker 2: hitch routes for first downs. The safety is trying to
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Speaker 2: stay over the top of them as well, and so
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Speaker 2: there's just limited help there for this crossing route.
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Speaker 1: All right, So now you are fully expecting, guess what
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Speaker 1: they're going to do something else off of wineback. No
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Speaker 1: Ross is going to do exactly what a great offensive
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Speaker 1: coordinator does to mix it up, get you a little
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Speaker 1: off balance. No wine back here here we're talking about
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Speaker 1: a bunch concept. This is actually a throw. This is
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Speaker 1: the throw if you remember the play to Brandon Innis
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Speaker 1: that picked up a first down.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, so I did want to emphasize that. Like as
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Speaker 2: I said, it wasn't just cover one like there is
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Speaker 2: particularly early as I said, wasn't particularly effective. So I
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Speaker 2: think the combination of the game situations and just lack
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Speaker 2: of effecting news running these other concepts led them just
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Speaker 2: to kind of go with cover one in the second
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Speaker 2: half a lot. But like it's particularly on third and
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Speaker 2: long here you get this, This is either it's like
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Speaker 2: it it looks like kind of maybe cover two man under.
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Speaker 2: They may be playing some kind of like coat like
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Speaker 2: bracket on both Smith and a mecca buca where the
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Speaker 2: safeties are helping double or play inside outside on them.
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Speaker 2: But like this just shows why it's harder to use
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Speaker 2: these concepts against a state unless you really are deep
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Speaker 2: at in the second area, because you know, everyone's very
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Speaker 2: focused on Jeremi Smith's like targets and totals, but like
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Speaker 2: teams are want to double him, but that still leaves
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Speaker 2: two other guys, right, and so they go four wide receivers.
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Speaker 2: They run this little inside as I said, like inside
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Speaker 2: outside concept where a mecca there you know you're using
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Speaker 2: bunch again and like they're crossing so rubs against man coverage,
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Speaker 2: like all these sort of staple man beater concepts. A
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Speaker 2: Buka breaks inside, uh Brandon and his breaks outside that
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Speaker 2: that nickel for Notre Dame is playing him with inside
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Speaker 2: leverage and so it creates a you know, easy thrower
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Speaker 2: or not easy, but an open throw to the sticks.
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Speaker 2: I mean, this is a great throw by Will Howard.
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Speaker 2: This is third and seven. Notre Dame twists up front.
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Speaker 2: You can see the defensive end loops all the way
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Speaker 2: around and has a free shot at him, and you
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Speaker 2: know he stands in the pocket delivers an accurate throw here.
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Speaker 2: I mean, particularly in the first half, he was just
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Speaker 2: like on point right, whether it's man zone, you know,
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Speaker 2: he was finding the right read hitting it given the
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Speaker 2: you know, lots of third down conversions. So you know,
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Speaker 2: as I said, like, it wasn't just cover well and
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Speaker 2: you got this split safety. We saw it like later
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Speaker 2: on this drive, he has Cardinal Tate on a digger
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Speaker 2: out behind a Smith post. It was like some kind
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Speaker 2: of you know, split safety cover two type of Tampa coverage.
15:55
Speaker 2: They ran that hot concept we talked about before the game,
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Speaker 2: where like you know, you break three to under, and
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Speaker 2: he had Jeremi Smith on a deep out or deep
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Speaker 2: comeback against that against the soft coverage, so he will
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Speaker 2: Howard was very much like seeing coverage well diagnosing where
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Speaker 2: to go with the football, which just made it really
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Speaker 2: difficult for Notre Dame.
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Speaker 1: Something else that made it difficult for Notre Dame. Ohio
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Speaker 1: State has done all these different things off of that
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Speaker 1: wind back look. So okay, you've you've had them run
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Speaker 1: the end around, you've seen them run that sort of
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Speaker 1: fake motion. You've seen them, you know, all these different
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Speaker 1: iterations off of that. They've been play action off of it.
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Speaker 1: So it seems almost unfair that the Ohio State can
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Speaker 1: just go back to just running plain old wine back
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Speaker 1: after the show all these other looks, which is probably
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Speaker 1: one of the reasons why Quinn John Judkins took this
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Speaker 1: what is you know, not a particularly complicated play right
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Speaker 1: up the middle for like seventy yards right after halftime.
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Speaker 2: Yep. So now you put this all together, right, and
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Speaker 2: so now Notre Dame has obviously seen wine back, they've
16:53
Speaker 2: seen play action off of it, They've seen this jet motion.
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Speaker 2: So here I'm assuming this is a mistake by Notre
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Speaker 2: Dame again, like they've they've struggled with how are we
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Speaker 2: going to handle this motional game? And like I've seen
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Speaker 2: this plenty of times with the High State defenses over
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Speaker 2: the years, like struggling with this concept because of all
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Speaker 2: like the man coverage. So it's like, do we rock
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Speaker 2: and roll the safeties? Am I? Are we chasing the
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Speaker 2: motion which leaves us out leveraged? Are we just pushing
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Speaker 2: the linebackers here? The safety obviously thinks that they're rock
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Speaker 2: and rolling the nickel follows the motion, so you know,
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Speaker 2: I don't I'm assuming one of them is wrong. The
17:33
Speaker 2: linebackers have all game like seeing this play bounce right,
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Speaker 2: because like they're concerned, like they keep getting beat to
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Speaker 2: the edge. They float float too hard over the top,
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Speaker 2: and now you create this cutback lane like you can
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Speaker 2: see it. And then there's no one there because the
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Speaker 2: safety is flying down hill because they just have all
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Speaker 2: these extra gaps to defend, right, because with them you're
17:52
Speaker 2: adding a meca buca. You have Colonel Tate and this
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Speaker 2: like short nasty split, so the heat and he cracks
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Speaker 2: back on the on the nickel or safety to that
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Speaker 2: side of the field, So there's like five gaps to defend,
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Speaker 2: and so they're trying so hard to get over the top.
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Speaker 2: It creates this cutback lane for Chuckins, who like he
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Speaker 2: ran great, Like I mean, I think sort of like
18:12
Speaker 2: an underrated aspect of Isay's playoff run. Here was he
18:17
Speaker 2: I don't know if he you know, he was hurt
18:19
Speaker 2: in the second half of the year. It just didn't
18:20
Speaker 2: seem quite comfortable. But once the playoff hit after a
18:24
Speaker 2: couple of weeks off, like his vision like he's really
18:27
Speaker 2: seen cutbacks while like we saw it again against at
18:30
Speaker 2: Notre Dame, particularly near the goal line, like on split
18:33
Speaker 2: zone and then obviously like just how hard he runs
18:35
Speaker 2: between the tackles. You know, so he was really effective again,
18:40
Speaker 2: which just made it, you know, all the more efficient offense.
18:44
Speaker 2: And so you know you combine together like again just
18:48
Speaker 2: like really kind of getting a sense of who they are, right,
18:51
Speaker 2: you know, for all the we can discuss that the
18:54
Speaker 2: cows come home the problems of the Michigan game. It
18:56
Speaker 2: very clearly like showed them like we need to be
18:59
Speaker 2: a gap run team and that was just like sort
19:03
Speaker 2: of saved them in the playoffs. And so you got
19:06
Speaker 2: like all these different concepts, whether it was counter we
19:08
Speaker 2: talked about power wind back, like everything's just about like
19:12
Speaker 2: blocking down, you know, giving the backs the ability to
19:15
Speaker 2: bounce outside or cut back, and it's so it's just
19:18
Speaker 2: a very different setup than than the zone heavness you
19:24
Speaker 2: saw dr in the regular season.
19:27
Speaker 1: Well, talking about missed opportunities and things that you know
19:30
Speaker 1: almost almost could have would have showed as this next
19:32
Speaker 1: one is kind of an could it would have showed
19:34
Speaker 1: it because this is a well, I guess a pick
19:37
Speaker 1: play is illegal, so it couldn't have been a pick
19:38
Speaker 1: play because I'm sure they would have gotten called for
19:40
Speaker 1: a penalty if it was illegal. But you know, something
19:42
Speaker 1: looking a lot like a pick play for Jeremiah Smith,
19:45
Speaker 1: where anytime you get him this ball in space with
19:47
Speaker 1: you know, not many defenders around that that has the
19:50
Speaker 1: opportunity for something exciting to happen. This is one where
19:52
Speaker 1: it looked like they had that set up and then
19:54
Speaker 1: they just didn't execute it.
19:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you know, obviously that second half I
20:00
Speaker 2: got a little uncomfortable for most Ohio State fans, and
20:02
Speaker 2: it it really wasn't anything. It wasn't like Notre Dame
20:06
Speaker 2: did something different or like they were stopping Ohio State, right.
20:10
Speaker 2: It was more just like miss opportunities like as I
20:13
Speaker 2: talked about on bucke huddle, like if you change any
20:16
Speaker 2: one of after the fake punt that I say stopped,
20:19
Speaker 2: like the third down throw to Colonel Tate where he
20:21
Speaker 2: was open, where you know Notre Dame again like try
20:24
Speaker 2: to use the deep safety to double Jeremiah Smith opened
20:27
Speaker 2: up like a one on one for Tate, but that
20:29
Speaker 2: was you know, slightly overthrown. They were driving. Then the
20:32
Speaker 2: next drive with a Mecca Buca. You know, that was
20:36
Speaker 2: a great play call in that like counter that they
20:39
Speaker 2: flipped it back to Abukah was a great run. Unfortunately
20:41
Speaker 2: fumbled that drive where they were they were moving the football.
20:45
Speaker 2: And then you get to this one right where it's
20:48
Speaker 2: like again Notre Dame is selling out right. So at
20:50
Speaker 2: this point they're not even playing cover one, they're mostly
20:52
Speaker 2: playing cover zero and there's just bodies and so I
20:54
Speaker 2: sally trying to run the ball. But they did okay,
20:57
Speaker 2: like you know some Will Howard runs. They still like
20:59
Speaker 2: picked it was never like a free and out. But
21:01
Speaker 2: here is third and three. Uh, this is, as you say,
21:05
Speaker 2: not a pick play.
21:06
Speaker 1: Uh.
21:06
Speaker 2: That g Scott is just trying to push vertically down
21:09
Speaker 2: the field. But this is kind of you know, there's
21:11
Speaker 2: no deep safety. Uh, it is a sprint out. They've
21:14
Speaker 2: used this effectively to Mecha Buka. We've talked about the
21:16
Speaker 2: scotsup before, like on fourth down against Nebraska, and here, honestly,
21:22
Speaker 2: like I think, Will Howard just rushes this like he
21:25
Speaker 2: missed as well as he played. He missed the third
21:28
Speaker 2: to take, he missed this and he misses this throw,
21:31
Speaker 2: I think, and it you know, Honestly though, I like,
21:34
Speaker 2: this is the one time I say punt it and
21:36
Speaker 2: I think if they complete this, this is probably a touchdown.
21:39
Speaker 2: I mean, Notarame has no one back. Jeremi Smith has
21:42
Speaker 2: a huge cushion. He has G Scott helping block who
21:46
Speaker 2: knocks the corner over. So it basically Jeremi Smith versus
21:50
Speaker 2: the the man defender for G Scott and there's no
21:53
Speaker 2: one anywhere else near him. So you know, could I
21:56
Speaker 2: would have showed, as I said, like any of the
21:58
Speaker 2: three plays I just named, like you change those and
22:01
Speaker 2: it never even gets close to the point we're talking
22:04
Speaker 2: about this last reception coming up to Jeremiah Smith. But
22:08
Speaker 2: you know it whereas I guess Howard was, you know,
22:13
Speaker 2: phenomenal in the first half, maybe like effectiveness slightly fell
22:16
Speaker 2: off in the second. And again it's like game situation too, right,
22:19
Speaker 2: Like you get enough of a lead where it's sort
22:21
Speaker 2: of you're trying to both balance attacking Notre Dame's man coverage,
22:26
Speaker 2: but you also, as I said, like you're trying to
22:28
Speaker 2: bleed clock out and so it kind of it kind
22:31
Speaker 2: of plays into Notre Dame's hands with what they do
22:33
Speaker 2: and versus earlier in the game where it's like, note,
22:36
Speaker 2: what Notre Dame does is not a good matchup for
22:38
Speaker 2: I state.
22:40
Speaker 1: I just want to kind of reiterate something you said there.
22:42
Speaker 1: I'm just going to run through the drive chart for
22:44
Speaker 1: a hoistit real quick and just how they ended touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown.
22:50
Speaker 2: Field goal.
22:51
Speaker 1: And that's the one where Will Howard missed Carnell Tait
22:53
Speaker 1: in the end zone by about that much.
22:55
Speaker 2: I've got a.
22:56
Speaker 1: Great picture of that and was very disappointed it wasn't
22:58
Speaker 1: a catch because it was like, boy, it was almost
23:00
Speaker 1: another touchdown. The a Mecca Book of fumble where they
23:03
Speaker 1: were driving and basically in the red zone again and
23:05
Speaker 1: well on their way to a touchdown. And then the
23:07
Speaker 1: play the east he out there where it was just
23:09
Speaker 1: a little bit of a rush throw or that could
23:11
Speaker 1: have been a touchdown. I mean, you could have just
23:13
Speaker 1: had touchdowns from top to bottom, which would have been
23:16
Speaker 1: really remarkable given how you know, Notre Dame is a
23:19
Speaker 1: reasonably well coached defense and they've got some decent players
23:22
Speaker 1: and the defense coordinators. Sound Ski's headed to Cincinnati to
23:25
Speaker 1: go coach in the NFL. So boy, to be able
23:27
Speaker 1: to do that against that defense pretty impressive that last
23:30
Speaker 1: drive though for Ohio State it was this is another
23:33
Speaker 1: one that could have gone for a touchdown if the
23:34
Speaker 1: ball was a little further out, but this is the
23:37
Speaker 1: long play. To Jeremiah Smith that they were probably just
23:39
Speaker 1: as happy to just be able to run the clock
23:41
Speaker 1: and kick the field goal.
23:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, absolutely, and like before and I agree, and
23:45
Speaker 2: like it was never a situation where Ohio State. Yes,
23:48
Speaker 2: there were six times where it was like we're going
23:50
Speaker 2: to run on first down, we're trying to buy a clock,
23:52
Speaker 2: But like they were aggressive throughout. Like as I said,
23:55
Speaker 2: that concept to Colonel Tate was well designed. Like they
23:58
Speaker 2: knew it was third and long, said Jeremiah Smith on
24:01
Speaker 2: a shallow cross As I said, like they knew that
24:03
Speaker 2: Notre Dame would probably try to cut him with the
24:05
Speaker 2: safety as the crosser that left Tate one on one.
24:08
Speaker 2: That play designed to a book on that jet sweep
24:12
Speaker 2: with you know, it was basically countertray opposite Henderson going
24:16
Speaker 2: the opposite way. So again you're like making those cover
24:19
Speaker 2: one defenders criss cross and they're losing their their forced
24:22
Speaker 2: support on the outside. So I thought it was a
24:25
Speaker 2: good game designed throughout. And then yeah, you get in
24:28
Speaker 2: the situation right last drive of the game where it's
24:31
Speaker 2: like they tried to run twice, you know, but at
24:35
Speaker 2: that point, even even using Will Howard as the design runner,
24:41
Speaker 2: where you're gaining a body like cover zero, it's it's difficult, right,
24:44
Speaker 2: and they're like bringing and they also were like bringing
24:47
Speaker 2: pressure off the edge, like they brought in Patrick gurd
24:49
Speaker 2: as the lead blocker for Howard, which to be fair,
24:52
Speaker 2: is kind of a tell, but like they like the
24:54
Speaker 2: safeties were screaming off the edge so quickly, like no
24:57
Speaker 2: one could kick out anyone. So third eleven, like, you know,
25:02
Speaker 2: I think this aggressiveness, like you is at the time,
25:06
Speaker 2: it seems like it makes, you know, easy in hindsight
25:08
Speaker 2: to say like oh, no kidding, but like they could
25:11
Speaker 2: have just tried to run out the clock or you know,
25:13
Speaker 2: punt the ball of Notre Dame has no timeouts left
25:16
Speaker 2: down eight, but they knew they're getting cover zero again,
25:19
Speaker 2: probably just like the last drive where they had a
25:21
Speaker 2: good Man beater to Jeremiah Smith. And so the one
25:24
Speaker 2: thing Notre Dame has shown they're willing to give them
25:27
Speaker 2: here is vertical routes on the outside right at this point,
25:30
Speaker 2: so like most of the game we talked about they
25:32
Speaker 2: were trying to keep that safety was really cheating to
25:35
Speaker 2: play over the top of Smith or like cutting him
25:37
Speaker 2: on crosses. But at this point they're like it's third
25:40
Speaker 2: eleven and you can see they bring a rack down
25:42
Speaker 2: so it's cover zero. But instead of like having a
25:44
Speaker 2: deep safety, he's basically trying to take away like those
25:47
Speaker 2: crossing routes or over the middle throws at the sticks
25:51
Speaker 2: that we talked about. And so you know they run
25:53
Speaker 2: this you know sometimes called like a nine to eight
25:55
Speaker 2: nine three verticals basically like the middle receiver here at
25:59
Speaker 2: Buka and turn this into a dig route if depending
26:02
Speaker 2: on what the coverage is like and the outside guys
26:05
Speaker 2: are running deep, and so you know this corner stand
26:07
Speaker 2: at the sticks, Jeremiah Smith runs a great route like
26:10
Speaker 2: he threatens him right at his feet, cuts it outside.
26:13
Speaker 2: As you said, a little under thrown. I mean, I
26:16
Speaker 2: think Will Howard, especially after the Carnal Tate throw, like
26:19
Speaker 2: I think was justified and making sure like he's so open,
26:22
Speaker 2: like you need to complete this pass and the game's over, right,
26:25
Speaker 2: even if I mean, it was a great kick, but
26:27
Speaker 2: you know, Jade Filding had two clutch field goals, right,
26:30
Speaker 2: so we win at this playoffs wondering whether he can
26:32
Speaker 2: make field goals and he did throughout, but like even
26:35
Speaker 2: if you miss that, at that point, it's like thirty
26:36
Speaker 2: seconds left and they're down eight, no timeouts, the balls
26:39
Speaker 2: on their side of the field. So great throw, great catch,
26:42
Speaker 2: like you know, Jeremi Smith obviously, like what can you say?
26:46
Speaker 2: You know, teams have changed their entire coverage for much
26:49
Speaker 2: of the playoffs to try to take him away or
26:51
Speaker 2: else didn't paid the pet price for it. But like also,
26:54
Speaker 2: like the pass protection is great here, Trigon Henderson throughout
26:57
Speaker 2: the season has just been phenomenal and like he accept
27:00
Speaker 2: this and you know, covers zeros again, Like you're bringing
27:03
Speaker 2: everyone right, So there's not a ton of time for
27:05
Speaker 2: this throw, but like Ohio State makes it so because
27:08
Speaker 2: he cuts that blitzer And like for all the soorm
27:11
Speaker 2: and drong about the High State offensive line, and like
27:14
Speaker 2: we talked about ways they helped themselves in the run game,
27:16
Speaker 2: like all the combinations, like throughout the entire season, the
27:19
Speaker 2: past protection was really good. Like Donovan Jackson we talked
27:23
Speaker 2: about like he's I mean, he's just a better tackle
27:26
Speaker 2: than he was a guard, and like you know, I
27:28
Speaker 2: was he could go to a situation where like Ohio
27:30
Speaker 2: State basically has two left tackles in this NFL draft
27:34
Speaker 2: at this point that are going to be high picks
27:36
Speaker 2: because I think teams are gonna want him to play
27:38
Speaker 2: left tackle or right tackle like in the NFL. Like
27:42
Speaker 2: he maybe does lacks a little bit and length or height,
27:46
Speaker 2: but he's his feet are so good. And to Kevin
27:49
Speaker 2: Wilson's credit, he pointed that out when you know, five
27:52
Speaker 2: years ago or whatever, when Donovan Jackson was a freshman.
27:55
Speaker 2: But like everyone you know throughout, like other than the
27:59
Speaker 2: occasional you know, Josh Fire getting beat off the edge
28:02
Speaker 2: like on that second out play where you got a
28:03
Speaker 2: holding where they tried to fake the outside zone and
28:06
Speaker 2: to a throwback to Abuca, Like you know, the guards
28:09
Speaker 2: held up well at pass protection. They obviously did lots
28:11
Speaker 2: of different looks like we just showed with play action
28:14
Speaker 2: and whatnot to protect the offensive line, but it was
28:16
Speaker 2: never a situation where they were just they couldn't throw
28:20
Speaker 2: the football because of protection. So all that has to say,
28:24
Speaker 2: like throughout all the comp it's pretty incredible that you know,
28:27
Speaker 2: you could survive those two injuries on the offensive line
28:30
Speaker 2: in some ways and come out with a you know,
28:33
Speaker 2: the offense basically carrying them to some extended game as
28:36
Speaker 2: you just described, like it was a pretty low possession
28:38
Speaker 2: game and some of those because Notre Dame was able
28:41
Speaker 2: to convert some things against the honest defense. And so,
28:46
Speaker 2: you know, great call, obviously, like kudos to Ryan Day
28:49
Speaker 2: and Chip Kelly for you know, being aggressive in that
28:52
Speaker 2: situation and it paid off. And you know, they had
28:56
Speaker 2: a great couple of good man beaters there as I
28:58
Speaker 2: showed against Cover zero late, but obviously couldn't help it
29:02
Speaker 2: without the production.
29:04
Speaker 1: As you were talking there, I started thinking about all
29:06
Speaker 1: these guys who are going to be going and thinking about, boy,
29:09
Speaker 1: I'm really looking forward to this upcoming year. You know,
29:12
Speaker 1: so you've got Chip Kelly back and Ryan Day. What
29:14
Speaker 1: are they going to do with a basically a whole
29:16
Speaker 1: different offense this year? Losing some big pieces, losing some
29:20
Speaker 1: big pieces off the offensive line. You gonna have a
29:22
Speaker 1: new quarterback, a couple of new running backs, potentially a
29:25
Speaker 1: couple of new running backs. But man, it is going
29:27
Speaker 1: to be a lot of fun to talk about all
29:29
Speaker 1: that stuff. And of course we will have a breakdown
29:31
Speaker 1: of the Ohio State defensive performance in the National Championship
29:35
Speaker 1: game as well. They were just dominant for sort of
29:38
Speaker 1: the middle portion of the game until Notre Dame was
29:41
Speaker 1: in a little bit of a desperation mode at the end,
29:43
Speaker 1: but another felt like really really solid game performance and
29:47
Speaker 1: game plan from Jim Knowles. Will break that down on
29:49
Speaker 1: a future episode of Buckeyess tomorrow morning with Ross and
29:52
Speaker 1: when we do, we will once again be sponsored by
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30:06
Speaker 1: for today. That will do it for today. Thank you
30:08
Speaker 1: guys all for joining us. Have a great day. We'll
30:10
Speaker 1: talk to you tomorrow