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Ross Fulton Analysis: What's Working (And Not) In The Ohio State Running Game · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes Tomorrow morning for Wednesday, October fifteenth. I'm
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Speaker 1: your host, Tom Or the Wisconsin game in three days,
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Speaker 1: the game against Michigan Ian forty five days. On today's show,
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Speaker 1: we're talking about the Ohio State Buckeyes offense. We're doing
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Speaker 1: with our buddy Ross Fulton, the ex's and no's guru
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Speaker 1: at buckey Huddle dot com. And when Ross is on
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Speaker 1: the show, we're sponsored by Jeff Rubies of Columbus, proudly
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Speaker 1: So the Ohio State Buckeyes, they're defending national champions, they
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Speaker 1: are number one in the country right now, they're undefeated,
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Speaker 1: they've even covered every game. What else could you possibly want?
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Speaker 1: And yet the conversation are on the offense is what's
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Speaker 1: wrong with the Ohio State offense? So all right, we're
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Speaker 1: going to talk about what is holding back the Ohio
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Speaker 1: State offense. Ross, I think that conversation has to start
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Speaker 1: with the running game, and we're going to you know,
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Speaker 1: we're going to be take a balanced approach here. Some
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Speaker 1: stuff is working, some stuff is not. Let's start with
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Speaker 1: one of the things that is not necessarily working. One
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Speaker 1: of these first plays. It was an unbalanced look and
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Speaker 1: uh to Bo Jackson, and it kind of doesn't really
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Speaker 1: go anywhere. So why doesn't it go anywhere?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, let me let me get a couple of thoughts
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Speaker 2: out here to begin with. So, as you said, like
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Speaker 2: High State undefeated. They are number one in every statistical
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Speaker 2: measure sp plus, which has been a little bit more
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Speaker 2: down on them than FI. They are now comfortably number
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Speaker 2: one right there. There hasn't even been, let alone a loss,
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Speaker 2: a game like home against Nebraska last year where they
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Speaker 2: bare they barely won, right they are You know, this
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Speaker 2: is going to sound like an excuse, but when you
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Speaker 2: you Brian Day made the point sort of similar to
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Speaker 2: like the Iowa game a few years ago, Like when
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Speaker 2: you do get these turnovers and you're plus territory, it
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Speaker 2: kind of can create some clunkiness on offense, like it
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Speaker 2: undercut your plan. Right, You're this is a long season,
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Speaker 2: so they are trying to pace themselves. They are trying
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Speaker 2: to bring along a young quarterback who they need to
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Speaker 2: build his confidence over time. They I don't I do
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Speaker 2: not think that what they want be doing is having
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Speaker 2: Julian saying throw the ball forty to fifty times a game,
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Speaker 2: even if that would be the way to maximize what
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Speaker 2: they are facing from opposing defenses, which is a ton
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Speaker 2: of single high coverage, a ton of cover three. I
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Speaker 2: think opponents know that Ohio State all the what I've
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Speaker 2: just said is true, and that they also know that
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Speaker 2: Ohio State does not want to put a ton on
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Speaker 2: their red shirt freshman quarterback, and so they are playing
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Speaker 2: to limit the run and sort of muddy things up, right,
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Speaker 2: and knowing that Ohio State's going to kind of play
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Speaker 2: along with them. Some that said, the use of like
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Speaker 2: so much twelve and thirteen personnel is starting to test
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Speaker 2: my patients, and I know many other people's patients. Like
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Speaker 2: when you look at like the Bud Davis statistics on
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Speaker 2: X also recommend like Ohio State's multi tight end usage
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Speaker 2: is way above like the college football average right now,
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Speaker 2: you would think that they were doing that. They don't
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Speaker 2: have a quarterback run throat right, so at some level,
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Speaker 2: it makes sense to add bodies to help block on
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Speaker 2: the edges. However, it's just muddying the water a lot
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Speaker 2: for them. Defenses are bringing in more bodies and especially
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Speaker 2: as like we'll see here with counter like it's making
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Speaker 2: them trouble identifying. You also think they do it to
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Speaker 2: get these like one on one matchups for their you know,
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Speaker 2: they're they've essentially like two two weapons, but those two
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Speaker 2: weapons are amazing and Jeremi Smith and Colonel Tate, but
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Speaker 2: they're getting those matchups and they're like not taking advantage
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Speaker 2: of it when they get them. So it's just like
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Speaker 2: they're just getting bodies at the point of attack. So like, yeah,
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Speaker 2: so here we go right under center, unbalanced, so the
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Speaker 2: tight ends covered up, you've got this sort of motion
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Speaker 2: into this counter gh running a lot of counter I mean,
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Speaker 2: there's a lot of run game diversity, right. This is
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Speaker 2: not like a couple of years ago where we're talking
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Speaker 2: about like the problem is they're runningtch too much like
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Speaker 2: there were in all kinds of things. The problem is,
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Speaker 2: you know, as we talked about, like defenses can always
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Speaker 2: outnumber you. There's the counterpart to the guy carrying the
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Speaker 2: ball who cannot be blocked and then once the quarterback
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Speaker 2: hands off like this, his counterpart's not blocked, right, So
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Speaker 2: you got one deep safety. You're kind of just running
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Speaker 2: guys off. There's no like rpo threat. Obviously you're under center.
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Speaker 2: You're gonna get down blocks here. You know, we can
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Speaker 2: get into the technique like it was a very sloppy
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Speaker 2: game from the offensive line and even sloppier from the
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Speaker 2: tight ends. And so like Luke Montgomery tries to kick
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Speaker 2: out here, he loses He's he does not get his
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Speaker 2: feet underneath him. This happened a few times. He basically
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Speaker 2: loses his balance whiffs. You get an okay block here.
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Speaker 2: You can see more from the backside, like you get
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Speaker 2: an okayu double here from Daniels and cos Merrick, but
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Speaker 2: they can't get off to the linebacker.
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Speaker 3: That guy comes over the top.
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Speaker 2: But even if even if the blocking was perfect, you
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Speaker 2: have an extra body because Illinois in cover one here,
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Speaker 2: which is an obvious response on balance like this, like
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Speaker 2: you know you're probably getting a run. Look, there's that
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Speaker 2: safety number seven sitting there who made all kinds of plays.
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Speaker 2: And then eventually, you know, they get the double team
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Speaker 2: split and kas Meyrick loses his block and the defensive
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Speaker 2: end makes the play, which happens several times on counter.
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Speaker 2: So it's hard to understand why you want to put
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Speaker 2: multiple titands on the field when they do not block well.
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Speaker 2: Like Max Claire, He's got he he is there for
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Speaker 2: sure their third receiving threat.
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Speaker 3: He is not a good blocker.
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Speaker 2: Like I obviously like the play that epitomizes that is
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Speaker 2: where he about got Jeremi Smith seriously injured on a
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Speaker 2: reverse when it's two on one and he whiffs on
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Speaker 2: a cornerback and what should have been a touchdown at
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Speaker 2: which the Knights play design off of counter gets blown up. Right,
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Speaker 2: So you basically, I mean, I think Brandon Innis is
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Speaker 2: probably a better blocker than Max Claier. So you have
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Speaker 2: this weird situation where you don't really have a slot receiver,
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Speaker 2: but your slot receiver is better blocker, and you have
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Speaker 2: the second tight end who's really more of a slot receiver.
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Speaker 2: All that said, if you're going to again putting a
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Speaker 2: bunch of tight ends on the field, you're bringing bodies
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Speaker 2: into the into the you know mix, and you're just
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Speaker 2: mudding in the water. So I just do not think
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Speaker 2: there's a place for them to certainly use twelve perconnel
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Speaker 2: because of the receiving threat that Claire is. But they're
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Speaker 2: just not getting a lot out of these looks, and
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Speaker 2: I think they probably as much as I like the
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Speaker 2: run game diversity in theory, they are not blocking the
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Speaker 2: amount of concepts well. So it's it could be a
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Speaker 2: situation where they're trying to do too much upfront and
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Speaker 2: aren't able to handle it, so they may need to
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Speaker 2: pair back the run game because the other thing is
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Speaker 2: too I should add is like these running backs are
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Speaker 2: not gonna like they're not gonna make guys miss. They're
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Speaker 2: like not going to carry the offensive line right Like
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Speaker 2: You've could have situations in the past for Ohigh State
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Speaker 2: where it's not blocked perfectly up front, but the running
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Speaker 2: back through vision, through explosiveness or cuts, whatever choice you make,
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Speaker 2: is going to make someone miss break a tackle. Like
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Speaker 2: that's just not going to happen here.
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Speaker 1: Well, the next play is an example of something that
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Speaker 1: does go well. This is from the opening drive. It's
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Speaker 1: a nice long run by Bo Jackson, which kind of
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Speaker 1: leads me into one of the questions. One of the
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Speaker 1: things we've been discussing on the huddle board presented by
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Speaker 1: Jefferuby's Columbus at Buckeheadle dot com with all of our
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Speaker 1: wonderful members. And that's the idea that maybe they're kind
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Speaker 1: of just sort of working through some stuff right now.
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Speaker 1: They have not really been pushed in any of these games.
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Speaker 1: They're not These games are not games that are going
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Speaker 1: right down to the wire. They have not had a
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Speaker 1: team that has had the ball in the fourth quarter
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Speaker 1: of the chance to tire take the lead since that
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Speaker 1: one drive against Texas at the very end of that game.
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Speaker 1: So they've been they've had a little bit of margin
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Speaker 1: for error.
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Speaker 3: In these games.
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Speaker 1: So what do you think about the idea that they're
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Speaker 1: just kind of trying a bunch of different stuff personnel grouping,
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Speaker 1: run concepts, whatever it is, to just sort of try
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Speaker 1: and figure out what worked, because we saw last year
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Speaker 1: they didn't land on here's the run scheme that's really
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Speaker 1: gonna work best with this group, with this personnel until
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Speaker 1: basically the playoffs and then it worked great and you
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Speaker 1: just had to have your answer by then. Are they
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Speaker 1: just kind of trying to figure stuff out right now?
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Speaker 1: Or is this, you know, is that kind of just
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Speaker 1: people rationalizing them?
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Speaker 2: No, I think that's legit. I think they're trying to
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Speaker 2: stuff out. I think they're trying to try different personnel
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Speaker 2: groupings out. You know, they're trying not to overtax. Again,
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Speaker 2: it's a long season out with the way the playoffs
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Speaker 2: are set up. I also think again, like as you said,
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Speaker 2: they've had leads, like there's no there's no reason for
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Speaker 2: them to necessarily push it to fifth gear because they
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Speaker 2: haven't been forced to do so again, so they can
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Speaker 2: sort of take things slowly, right, And so I do
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Speaker 2: think there's some of that at play. Again, we're not
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Speaker 2: like we have to be able to like keep two
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Speaker 2: ideas in mind, which is like this is by all
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Speaker 2: accounts like a top five, top ten offense if you
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Speaker 2: look at FBI and SP plus and they're moving the
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Speaker 2: ball efficiently, they're scoring points, but they aren't they aren't
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Speaker 2: as good as like they're not a top two or
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Speaker 2: three offense like the I say defense is because they
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Speaker 2: aren't as explosive and they aren't consistently running the football well.
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Speaker 2: And so that is that's sort of like the area
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Speaker 2: we're working in, Like what could take this from being
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Speaker 2: you know, eight to ten offense to one to two offense.
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Speaker 3: I feel like an advanced to six.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. So all right, so then let's let's look at
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Speaker 1: one of the run concepts that did work at least
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Speaker 1: on the opening drive, and that was a really nice
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Speaker 1: gain to Bo Jackson. So what went right here?
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Speaker 3: Yeah?
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Speaker 2: Again, so now we're getting more spread out. Right, we're
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Speaker 2: showing ten open. We use this fast motion. This is
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Speaker 2: a play that has been working for them with this
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Speaker 2: boundary stretch. It's a sort of a split block, except
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Speaker 2: instead you're having the tight end sift, so he's blocking
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Speaker 2: the backs linebacker. You're getting bodies on bodies, and the
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Speaker 2: backside tackle turns out instead. Again, so like you know,
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Speaker 2: part of the issue is as I talked about, like
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Speaker 2: lots of cover three here, by running away from Smith
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Speaker 2: and Tate, we're getting or the two wide receiver side,
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Speaker 2: I should say, we're getting the Illinois safety to spin
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Speaker 2: down to the field. So now they don't have for
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Speaker 2: support to that side, and so it's just a cleaner picture,
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Speaker 2: easier blocks, easier read for the back you know. I
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Speaker 2: just think that again to me, like what's working better
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Speaker 2: for them is getting more spread out inside zone outside zone.
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Speaker 2: I think they've been better on zone blocking the gap,
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Speaker 2: mixing it with RPOs which we'll get to, rather than
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Speaker 2: just bodies and using like even you know, later in
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Speaker 2: the game, even when they were in thirteen, they had
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Speaker 2: a nice run on a GT counter. So they're pulling
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Speaker 2: the backside guard and tackle, but they combine it with
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Speaker 2: like a flare screen threat Are you a threat to Claire?
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Speaker 2: So like again instead of like getting getting the field
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Speaker 2: stretch horizontally to open things up in the run game
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Speaker 2: versus just counting on more bodies to be able to
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Speaker 2: like block things cleanly.
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Speaker 1: All right, Well, now we're going to go back to
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Speaker 1: more bodies to try and block things, and this is
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Speaker 1: twelve personnel and they're just going to try and run
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Speaker 1: the ball inside and it doesn't really go anywhere. And
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Speaker 1: it feels like this is maybe proving proving your point
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Speaker 1: here to.
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Speaker 3: A certain degree.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, so I mean this this happened multiple times in
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Speaker 2: the second half where again so like there's no disguise
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Speaker 2: here from Illinois, right, like you know what you're getting.
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Speaker 2: We've got to cover three, we're rotated at the snap,
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Speaker 2: he's spun down cover three week to the to the boundary.
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Speaker 2: This is just duo inside zone. Would take your pick
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Speaker 2: up which concept it is. But everyone you know, you're
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Speaker 2: trying to get doubles to the second level. It's combined
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Speaker 2: with these quick kitches or comeback routes. So like the
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Speaker 2: first issue again is like we saw this first Washington
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Speaker 2: where they didn't throw the RPOs, and then they started
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Speaker 2: two in the second half when they were pushed a
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Speaker 2: little bit right Minnesota, they came out through them. They
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Speaker 2: like just I don't know if they shut them off,
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Speaker 2: if or saying wasn't seeing it or feeling like comfortable
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Speaker 2: with the picture, I tend to lean towards they just
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Speaker 2: shut them off. They had the one on the first
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Speaker 2: series of the game. It was that glance route to
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Speaker 2: Carnel Tate where it was wide open. It would have
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Speaker 2: been explicit play. But again Max Claire blocked the wrong guy,
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Speaker 2: let someone come right down to his inside hip who
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Speaker 2: batted the pass down. So maybe again, you know, with
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Speaker 2: the lead be an ultra conservative, don't want to push things,
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Speaker 2: don't want to get a tipball that leads to an interception.
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Speaker 3: They just like turn them off.
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Speaker 2: But like, again, this is like an easy right if
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Speaker 2: Sayin's actually reading this as like an easy free access
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Speaker 2: throw and you're getting the ball to your best two
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Speaker 2: players in Smith and Tate, and.
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Speaker 3: So we're going to see again on the next clip.
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Speaker 2: But like until they like fully embrace the RPOs, the
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Speaker 2: offense is going to be held back because they're getting
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Speaker 2: these one high looks, so they don't have numbers in
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Speaker 2: the box and they don't have a quarterback run threat
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Speaker 2: to a quick numbers, so you're just always going to
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Speaker 2: be down. Like again, like blocking not great up front
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Speaker 2: if you look at the back end this view, like
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Speaker 2: Montgomery does get off to the linebacker, Sarah Villa gets beat.
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Speaker 2: You know, I think you would say here, like looking
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Speaker 2: at it from CJ. Donaldson's perspective, like you'd like to
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Speaker 2: see him try to either cut out a side of
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Speaker 2: tiger shabola or bounce at a minimum, bounce back to
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Speaker 2: where the tight ends actually have held their blocks decently
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Speaker 2: on this play. But again, like the running back situation
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Speaker 2: kind of is that it is like CJ. Donaldson is
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Speaker 2: gonna run downhill and that's pretty much what you're gonna get.
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Speaker 2: So I think like a really talented bat could have
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Speaker 2: made something of this, But without that, like the way
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Speaker 2: this offense is going to be explosive is like hitting
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Speaker 2: these RPOs and then we'll talk about the downfield the
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Speaker 2: play action game. But you know they just without the RPOs,
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Speaker 2: like you're just letting teams steal from you to be
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Speaker 2: able to sit and like that cover three and leave
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Speaker 2: Colonel Tait and you know Smith out there single it
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Speaker 2: up with soft coverage and not do anything about it.
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Speaker 1: That to me, I mean, it seems like that should
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Speaker 1: be a relatively fixable issue, right, I mean that you know,
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Speaker 1: of the issues you could have on offense, that feels
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Speaker 1: like one that you could you know, just either like
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Speaker 1: you said, you turn it on or you just say,
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Speaker 1: hey do this make this throw and you know, if
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Speaker 1: if it's a blocking issue up front, you have to
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Speaker 1: you know, you have to you tweak that as necessary.
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Speaker 1: But of all the issues you could have, that feels
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Speaker 1: to me like one that should be something that's you know,
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Speaker 1: not a two month fix. That might be a fix
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Speaker 1: it and practice this week kind of fix.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: I have to, Like, if I to guess, I think
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Speaker 2: they're just turned off because I've seen saying throw them.
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Speaker 2: He throws them very well, he's got he obviously has
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Speaker 2: a quick release, he's accurate. We've all seen him do it,
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Speaker 2: so that would be my guest. So I think that
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Speaker 2: again is like we've got a couple of score lead,
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Speaker 2: we're on the road against a good team, we have
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Speaker 2: a really good defense. We're gonna like keep the car
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Speaker 2: and they're we're gonna just cruise in the parking lot. Basically,
15:23
Speaker 2: you know, obviously, people are gonna get mad when they
15:26
Speaker 2: hear that, right, like we've we've seen it on Buckeye huddle,
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Speaker 2: Like and I, you know, I don't know what to
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Speaker 2: tell you, Like I guess that I find it frustrating too,
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Speaker 2: Like you know, this again is a game that Smith
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Speaker 2: and Tate could have probably had double digit receptions if
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Speaker 2: they just like hit those plays, even putting aside like
15:44
Speaker 2: throwing the football downfield. But you know, again, as you
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Speaker 2: said long season, you know it could simp It could
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Speaker 2: be as as simple as like we want teams to
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Speaker 2: keep playing us like this, so when we get to
15:56
Speaker 2: the place where we need those those RPOs, like we
15:58
Speaker 2: want to get this you know, very transparent cover three
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Speaker 2: and we want Julian Sane to be playing with a
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Speaker 2: ton of confidence and not have thrown you know, a
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Speaker 2: bad pick six on the road because he makes a
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Speaker 2: bad RPO read like, you know, there's a lot it's
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Speaker 2: a long season, and as you said, like they're comfortably
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Speaker 2: the number one team right now and pretty much like
16:18
Speaker 2: in the playoffs already, so you know, you got to
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Speaker 2: build over time well.
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Speaker 1: And another area where we have seen them struggle and
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Speaker 1: people go absolutely crazy is in the red zone. They've
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Speaker 1: kind of bogged down in the red zone at times,
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Speaker 1: and especially in the run game, and it felt like
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Speaker 1: there was at least some incremental progress there. I think
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Speaker 1: this is not the play we're showing, but I think
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Speaker 1: the CJ. Donaldson touchdown where he basically walked into the
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Speaker 1: end zone that was at least a very similar concept
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Speaker 1: to the fourth and one at Washington where Nate Roberts
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Speaker 1: I think blocked the wrong guy at Washington. He blocked
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Speaker 1: the right guy this time, and then c J. Donaldson
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Speaker 1: basically waltzz into the ed zone. And this is another one,
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Speaker 1: This next one we're going to. This is another one
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Speaker 1: where he doesn't score on this play, but this is
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Speaker 1: you know, Field is compacted lots of defenders in a
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Speaker 1: relatively small area, and they pick up a nice game
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Speaker 1: here to really set up I think this ended up
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Speaker 1: setting up a touchdown.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, they're putting a lot of effort into the diversity
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Speaker 2: of what they're doing, and like goal line and short
17:15
Speaker 2: yardageree like saw with the Nate Roberts carry some of
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Speaker 2: it better than others. Not a big fan of that,
17:20
Speaker 2: like shovel pass on third and four, especially if you're
17:23
Speaker 2: not going to go for it on fourth down. They
17:26
Speaker 2: you know, we saw a down g lead again, which
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Speaker 2: is a great goal line play. The passing game in
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Speaker 2: this area I think could again leaves a little bit
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Speaker 2: to be desired. Like they kept running four verts in
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Speaker 2: the red zone, which is like, you know, vertical routes
17:41
Speaker 2: in the red zone isn't a necessarily great concept. Again,
17:46
Speaker 2: you wonder about like the just kind of being getting
17:48
Speaker 2: the filled position they did, Like you know, Illinois ran
17:51
Speaker 2: a ton of covered you know, single high as I said,
17:53
Speaker 2: except when they got in the red zone, you got
17:55
Speaker 2: a lot more tampa from them, which kind of threw
17:58
Speaker 2: them off. But like again, so yeah, is this run
18:01
Speaker 2: play bad?
18:03
Speaker 1: No?
18:03
Speaker 2: Right, I mean they gain what like four yards, so
18:06
Speaker 2: it's probably you'd consider a successful play. However, like again,
18:11
Speaker 2: got glance routes to Smith and Tate. You know this
18:16
Speaker 2: split zone and the glance routes wide open. Right, So
18:21
Speaker 2: again backsite safety coming down late, you just hit I mean,
18:25
Speaker 2: that's an easy They threw it against Minnesota, right, the
18:28
Speaker 2: exact same, exact, same play, hit Smith for a second touchdown.
18:31
Speaker 2: Like throw that to the l in the second l
18:34
Speaker 2: in Illinois, and it's an easy touchdown. As it is,
18:39
Speaker 2: it's an okay play, except you've got a back. You know,
18:41
Speaker 2: everything's blocked up fine up front, it's just the plays
18:44
Speaker 2: made by the safety and you don't account for him
18:47
Speaker 2: in the blocking scheme. Like again, there's several situations where
18:50
Speaker 2: number seven, the safety may tackles near the line of scrimmage.
18:54
Speaker 2: Be great if you had running backs that could occasionally
18:56
Speaker 2: beat that guy, but it's that's not really happening. So again,
19:00
Speaker 2: and it's just gonna limit it's just gonna make it
19:02
Speaker 2: like they did move the ball.
19:03
Speaker 3: They were efficient.
19:04
Speaker 2: It's not like they're going three and outs, you know
19:06
Speaker 2: until the fourth quarter where they like really kind of
19:07
Speaker 2: putts around. But like the it's just making them have
19:11
Speaker 2: to grind out drives. So they're just they're making it
19:14
Speaker 2: a little bit harder on themselves. Again, your mileage may
19:18
Speaker 2: varius to the why why they're doing it, you know,
19:21
Speaker 2: whether you are okay with like the long term goals
19:24
Speaker 2: of it, but like you know, again, Jeremi Smith walking
19:28
Speaker 2: the ends out really should not let them people single
19:31
Speaker 2: cover him down there. I did like the touchdown throw
19:34
Speaker 2: to him getting under center and throwing that like that's
19:36
Speaker 2: a nice thing to get under center because it really
19:38
Speaker 2: throws off the defense and you get cover zero. But
19:42
Speaker 2: I just you'd like to see a little bit more
19:44
Speaker 2: of expanding the passing game inside the ten or inside
19:48
Speaker 2: the twenty.
19:50
Speaker 1: Well, they certainly have expanded the passing game to include
19:52
Speaker 1: Max player more in the last few games. And we've
19:55
Speaker 1: talked about him as a blocker before, and he is
19:58
Speaker 1: probably if you're going to be in a let and
20:00
Speaker 1: he's probably not going to be the one in eleven
20:02
Speaker 1: that's going to be Will Cosmeric. So I'm wondering, you know,
20:06
Speaker 1: and I want you to get to your first play
20:08
Speaker 1: here where this is kind of a play action passed
20:10
Speaker 1: down to to Claire. But when you're looking at twelve
20:14
Speaker 1: personnel is there, can you just split? Can you use
20:19
Speaker 1: Max Clayer in the slot and basically have him be
20:22
Speaker 1: the you know, I know he's not the prototypical slot
20:24
Speaker 1: receiver in a lot of ways. But if Brandon Innes
20:27
Speaker 1: is a better blocker and Max Clayer is a better receiver,
20:30
Speaker 1: can you use Max Clayer sort of split out in
20:32
Speaker 1: the slot and maybe you're using Brandon Innis. You're an
20:35
Speaker 1: eleven personnel, but he's kind of more of a blocker
20:38
Speaker 1: and he's closer to formation. Is that something that you
20:40
Speaker 1: could see them maybe working on or working in in
20:42
Speaker 1: the next couple of games.
20:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, or just using Claire.
20:46
Speaker 2: I mean you said you did see Annis like on
20:49
Speaker 2: those wind back plays where they come back with the
20:53
Speaker 2: wide receiver coming across the formation that weren't particularly successful
20:56
Speaker 2: on Saturday, but they run that with him as a
20:58
Speaker 2: blogger or just Claire, like going away from the run scheme,
21:02
Speaker 2: you know, like part of the RPO rather than as
21:04
Speaker 2: a as an inline blocker. I agree, Like I do
21:08
Speaker 2: think some of the personnel, like bigger picture is you
21:12
Speaker 2: could say it's out in.
21:13
Speaker 3: You could say it's because of who they have.
21:14
Speaker 2: You could say it's out of necessity, right, Like as
21:17
Speaker 2: I said, they they kind of they don't really have
21:20
Speaker 2: a slot receiver, Like I mean, Brennan in Is like
21:22
Speaker 2: doing fine, like they obviously aren't featuring him and saying
21:27
Speaker 2: isn't really looking to him. And then your second, your
21:30
Speaker 2: best receiving tight end is probably your sixth best blocking
21:34
Speaker 2: tight end. I don't even know if they have six
21:35
Speaker 2: blocking tight ends on their roster, but that's my point.
21:38
Speaker 2: And so you kind of have this weird mix right
21:41
Speaker 2: where you're like trying to get you're trying to sort
21:45
Speaker 2: of hybridize things together. So yeah, clear clearly you want
21:50
Speaker 2: to use him more as a receiver, right, So this
21:53
Speaker 2: is a nice concept. I do think I like the
21:56
Speaker 2: run game diversity, and they're doing a much better job
21:59
Speaker 2: of playing action from under center and pissol right, Like
22:02
Speaker 2: we see a lot more of that I think in
22:05
Speaker 2: the past, So like they deserve credit for that. This
22:07
Speaker 2: is a good again Cover three. This is a good
22:10
Speaker 2: concept against Cover three where you're getting it's a sale route,
22:15
Speaker 2: right like you got the deep route. You got it's
22:17
Speaker 2: a flood concept, right like the deep out and then
22:20
Speaker 2: the flat route. You read this deep to the middle
22:25
Speaker 2: to low. I think that this is again, like I
22:30
Speaker 2: think this is someone in the eye the beholder, right,
22:33
Speaker 2: like Julian's saying, could he throw that ball at a
22:36
Speaker 2: colonel Tate. Colonel Tate definitely thinks he should throw the
22:39
Speaker 2: ball at Colonel Tate. You can see in his hands, right,
22:42
Speaker 2: you have that he's reading that flat defender. The flat
22:45
Speaker 2: defender is getting depth at the time. You can see
22:47
Speaker 2: Saints thinking about throwing it, and he throws in the flat.
22:50
Speaker 2: So again, I think saying he's very accurate, he is efficient.
22:58
Speaker 2: I think he's trying very hard. He's he's being a
23:02
Speaker 2: little conservative, right, and so again, like every person has
23:06
Speaker 2: a different personality, He's not killing you with these plays
23:09
Speaker 2: like this is a first down, right, Like this is
23:10
Speaker 2: an efficient play. Could he have pulled it? Could he
23:14
Speaker 2: have Could he have pulled the trigger and thrown it
23:17
Speaker 2: to tape? Maybe and maybe over time he gets more comfortable.
23:20
Speaker 2: So in some I to this play to me is
23:22
Speaker 2: sort of uh aptly captures where things are, like with
23:27
Speaker 2: saying in the Ohio pass offense, like he's not he
23:31
Speaker 2: is being efficient, he is keeping the chains moving, like
23:35
Speaker 2: he's making he's seeing things. He probably makes the right
23:37
Speaker 2: read here even but he's just being pretty conservative with
23:42
Speaker 2: the football and so like that's kind of reflected how
23:44
Speaker 2: the offense is right with you know, this play moves
23:47
Speaker 2: as I said, it gets a first down, but it's
23:48
Speaker 2: not there.
23:50
Speaker 3: He's win in doubt. He's not pushing the football downfield
23:53
Speaker 3: if the read is muddy at the moment, and and
23:56
Speaker 3: probably that confidence to do so will probably grow over time.
24:00
Speaker 1: Right, next up, we have another one that is going downfield.
24:02
Speaker 1: This is one's going a little further downfield to Max
24:04
Speaker 1: Clayer just kind of a seam shot here where again
24:07
Speaker 1: not the most exciting play, but kept Ohio State on schedule,
24:10
Speaker 1: kept the chains moving.
24:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I mean this is the one explosive pass
24:15
Speaker 2: play of the game. So you know, I just would say,
24:18
Speaker 2: like this is I've obviously was critical of Max player's blocking.
24:22
Speaker 2: This is much more where he is at his best
24:26
Speaker 2: to be utilized right, Like again without sort of having
24:30
Speaker 2: a slot receiver that they can feature like in a
24:31
Speaker 2: Mecca Abuka or a Jackson Smithy jigba. You know, this
24:35
Speaker 2: is much more where Claire needs to come into play,
24:38
Speaker 2: right And so again just getting so much single high
24:41
Speaker 2: coverage here. They run four verticals here and this is
24:44
Speaker 2: Clayer down the seam. You know, I think that I
24:47
Speaker 2: would like to see like a little bit more of like,
24:51
Speaker 2: you know, you're getting this much cover three and Cover one,
24:54
Speaker 2: like a little bit more attacking the seams, you know
24:56
Speaker 2: between that middle of the field safety. You know they
24:59
Speaker 2: ran they did run a weak flood, some hitting Jeremi
25:03
Speaker 2: Smith on the dig route earlier in the game. You know,
25:07
Speaker 2: some ye cross even if you have to, you know,
25:09
Speaker 2: if you don't want to go to the slot receiver,
25:11
Speaker 2: like put Smith thirty in the slot to run the
25:13
Speaker 2: white cross, like some things some Cover three beaters like
25:17
Speaker 2: this that sort of stretched the field a little bit more,
25:21
Speaker 2: you know, as we'll talk about the next one, like
25:23
Speaker 2: really good at hank like curl flat, they're good at comebacks,
25:26
Speaker 2: like they've got that down against Cover three, but like
25:28
Speaker 2: some Cover three concepts that sort of pushed the field.
25:32
Speaker 1: All right, well you've you just went ahead and set
25:34
Speaker 1: up the next clip very nicely. So I will just
25:36
Speaker 1: say this is one of these plays. It was third
25:37
Speaker 1: and six, and this is one of these plays where
25:39
Speaker 1: I just you watch it and it just looks so
25:42
Speaker 1: easy and it has to be so annoying to play
25:46
Speaker 1: against Ohio State and it's third and six. It's a
25:49
Speaker 1: passing situation. It's like, oh, got it behind the chains,
25:52
Speaker 1: here we go. And then it just looks so effortless
25:55
Speaker 1: to pick it up and move the chains.
25:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean this is this place sort of I
25:59
Speaker 2: wanted it to be last because it encapsulates like where
26:02
Speaker 2: things are. Like, on the one hand, because of all
26:04
Speaker 2: the things we've talked about, they put a lot on
26:06
Speaker 2: themselves to like these third and six, third and seven situations.
26:10
Speaker 2: Like on the other hand, unlike a lot of teams,
26:13
Speaker 2: like they can run these routes and get first sounds
26:15
Speaker 2: out of them, right, like this is like I mean,
26:18
Speaker 2: just a ton of like pump, comeback, pearl concepts. As
26:22
Speaker 2: always this in theory shouldn't really work against this because
26:26
Speaker 2: it's cover one like curls. You want to run against
26:29
Speaker 2: cover three, like you stretch the four underneath defenders. But
26:33
Speaker 2: with again with Smith and Tate, like they completed this
26:37
Speaker 2: multiple times against man coverage because you're just there's such
26:39
Speaker 2: a vertical threat. They're so big and physical, right and
26:42
Speaker 2: saying like you can whatever you want to say about him,
26:45
Speaker 2: like he throws these like these comeback routes, Curl routes,
26:49
Speaker 2: those out routes like really well, like the timing's really good.
26:53
Speaker 2: He puts the ball on the right spot, right so
26:55
Speaker 2: they can again, like this is why they are still
26:59
Speaker 2: a top ten offense and not like lower than that,
27:02
Speaker 2: despite like the inefficiency of the run game and not
27:04
Speaker 2: taking the top off the defense and like not fully
27:07
Speaker 2: kicking into gear right because it can just be efficient
27:09
Speaker 2: because like in these third and medium situations, they have
27:13
Speaker 2: two receivers and a quarterback that can sort of bail
27:15
Speaker 2: them out from things they might have done on earlier downs.
27:18
Speaker 2: Just put a lot on their plate on Saturday to
27:21
Speaker 2: do make these kind of throws on third down rather
27:25
Speaker 2: than like running them on earlier downs. There's you know
27:28
Speaker 2: a lot of run run pass going on, and especially
27:32
Speaker 2: you know, for two yards at a time. Is whereas
27:35
Speaker 2: they probably could have thrown, like, as boring as it
27:37
Speaker 2: may be, they could have probably thrown curl flat like
27:40
Speaker 2: fifty times in.
27:40
Speaker 3: That game if they wanted to and just move the
27:43
Speaker 3: football that way.
27:45
Speaker 1: All right, Well, there you go. The world not in
27:48
Speaker 1: fact ending with the Ohio State offense, despite what people
27:51
Speaker 1: may have felt at various times on Saturday. Buck guys
27:54
Speaker 1: did give up double digits on defense, multiple touchdowns in fact,
27:58
Speaker 1: in one game. Is the world ending on defense? Well
28:00
Speaker 1: we will find that out on tomorrow's show when we
28:02
Speaker 1: were welcome ross back, and when we do, we will
28:04
Speaker 1: once again be sponsored by Jeff Rubies of Columbus, the
28:07
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28:10
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Speaker 1: go to Jeffreuby dot com slash Columbus to check out
28:15
Speaker 1: the menu and make a reservation today. That'll do it
28:17
Speaker 1: for today. Thank you guys all for joining us. Have
28:19
Speaker 1: a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.