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Ross Fulton Analysis: Is The Ohio State Defense For Real? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Friday, September eight. I'm your host,
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  tom Or. The Youngstown State game is tomorrow, the game against Michigan in
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  seventy eight days. On yesterday's show, you got to take a little bit
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  of a deep dive on the Ohio State offense, what we learned from Week
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  one, the quarterback battle, all that fun stuff that people have been arguing
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  about all week. Today we're gonna be taking a look at the Ohio State
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  defense and how things went during Week one against that Indiana game. This is
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  a little weird. Everyone feels great about the defense right now, everyone feels
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  very concerned about the Ohio State offense. We are this is a little bit
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  of a through the looking glass kind of situation. We'll try and make sense
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  of some things, and we're gonna do that once again with Buckey Huddles,
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  XS and nose Guru Ross Fulton Ross week one. I think everyone sort of
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  had a sense that this should be a better defensive year for Jim Knowles and
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  his unit. But it was way better. It was way better immediately.
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  And I guess the first question everyone's gonna have is, so is Indiana that
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  bad? Or is this reallygitimately an improvement from the defense. Yeah, I
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  mean I think I think a combination thereof. How about that Indiana is both
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  I don't think nearly as good on offense as they are on defense. I
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  think also what they were trying to do in terms of running the ball and
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  running the option plays right into all high straight strengths. I mean, you
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  have safeties. You have a you know, two hundred and thirty pound nicol
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  safety Josh Proctor as your pre safety who really likes to come downhill and play
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  the run. And so, I you know, I do think you saw
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  some promising signs from the ISA corners against the past. So that was very
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  good, but I do think it still leaves questions in terms of how exactly
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  the safety situation is going to work against a team that wants to throw the
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  ball all over the yard. Yeah, and that was something that Ryan Day
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  and Jim Noles both kind of talked about a little bit on Tuesday, that
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  that, you know, Josh Procter, it is a safety. He loves
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  to come downhill and hit in the run game. And then the question is
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  if they're trying to you know, if he has to be the deep guy
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  will there be people who get behind him, and that's just sort of you
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  know that they have not really been tested in that way yet, So we'll
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  keep an eye on that one. That'll be We'll talk about that a little
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  later on. But I guess let's start with a Josh Proctor play and Josh
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  Procter crashing and really going after the run, you know, making a big
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  stop in the run game. This was one of the you know, one
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  of the early triple option plays, which you know, before we even get
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  to the play, Jim Nol said they practiced about five snaps against the triple
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  option in week one. Is the fact that they were able to be so
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  effective against that and adjust to that so quickly when it wasn't there. You
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  know, this was not what they were expecting. Is that? And you
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  know, is this like a positive sign of year two in the system and
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  guy who sort of understand what they're supposed to be doing in the terminology and
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  you can communicate that quickly and they can adjust to a complete curveball from the
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  opposing team. Yeah, No, I think that was promising. I will
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  caveat that. It's it's not literally the triple option because it's it's more of
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  a straddle option where you're running like a zone play to one side and then
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  the quarterbacks running one guy. Then if he keeps it, he's reading the
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  other one. So technically a triple option, you're literally blocking off of two
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  guys. You're reading off of two guys to the front side of the play.
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  Be that as a man, they I agree that it was. It
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  was a promising sign that they handled it well. Again, I to me,
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  like, that's probably not the way you're gonna want to take on this,
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  so I stay defense. You know, I kind of laughed when I
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  first saw them come out because you know, they're they're essentially running like it's
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  like speaking of flashbacks like nineteen, you know, ninety nine all over again.
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  They're running like a four to three cover three, and like you know,
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  people want to talk about like all the position Sunny Style is playing.
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  I'm like, he's a Sam linebacker. I mean, he's like he's a
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  Sam linebacker that they feel comfortable and we can we'll talk about that in a
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  little bit, like lining up deeper. But you know, you look at
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  what they're doing, like if you want to play them in a phone booth,
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  you're getting you're gonna get a lot of guys coming downhill at them.
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  And so, you know, the thing that I wanted to share with this
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  play is I joke that they're I'm like, oh, there are four three
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  Cover three team. You know, you see again you see Styles lined up
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  basically right as a line as a Sam linebacker like great, you know he's
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  in the overhanging area outside the wing, but up near the line scrimmage.
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  But the one thing they were doing with their Cover three is that they were
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  rotating it depending on the action. And you know, I'm not whether that
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  was a response to the option or just something you're going to see, but
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  what that did is it actually flipped in some ways the rules of Procter and
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  Ransom. And so that'll be something to watch going forward because like last year,
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  for instance, they generally had the boundary safety as the guy often coming
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  down as the Cover three buzz defender and they're like being there and so because
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  of that, he was like responsible to the weak side for a run gap.
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  Here, what they're doing is they're they're rotating their Cover three strong and
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  so that puts Frocter coming downhill. You have now Ransom as the deep middle
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  guy, and so I think, you know, again, something to watch
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  against a more conventional offensive set is like do they continue to essentially read their
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  cover three such that they determine at the snap which way they're going to rotate?
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  All right, so there's a little just a little taste of the run
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  defense. Let's talk a little bit about the past defense as well. This
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  was actually the very next play in the game, and Denzel Burke playing way
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  off his guy and ends up making a nice break on the ball to break
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  up a pass here. Yeah, and again I think like from that perspective,
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  as I mentioned, like I thought the corners played played the ball well,
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  like I Davison, you know, his physicality is really a welcome site.
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  It's been a while since I say it'side of a corner that can do
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  that and also be a factor in the run game. I mean, you
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  can squat him and the as a corner. But you know, the other
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  thing you notice here again is I might joke about sunny styles like he is
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  deep, So this is you know, more of like snools is three high
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  look, and so you're what this ends up being is actually just cover one
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  and they're just covering everyone from depth and so you know, again you're trusting
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  Styles in this situation to be the slot, you know, cover the slot
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  now again. I mean, I think Western Kentucky will be our real taste
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  like question of this, like and actually here Styles kind of gets beat,
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  but it's it takes so long that it doesn't hurt him too much as you
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  can see sort of falls for the move. But like again, so like
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  the first third downplay of the game, as I think someone asked Noels on
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  Tuesday and noted that they've in Cam Martinez for Styles on like like a third
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  and six or whatever, and I don't they didn't do that again for the
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  rest of the game until they think the last series are two. They just
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  put Kim Martinez in when the game was you know, pretty much out of
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  reach. So you know, I think it still begs the question, like
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  how comfortable are they going to be with if a team is just all spread
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  out with Styles being the you know, playing in space. You know,
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  they I would say on Saturday, overall they ran a lot of Cover three
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  on early downs rundowns, and then they mixed in Cover one in Tampa two
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  quite a bit on passing downs, kept it pretty basic and so you know,
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  maybe if they're playing zone they feel comfortable with that. But if you're
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  in man on like a good slot receiver, I don't know, maybe he
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  can do it. I just think we have to still see. And similar
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  like with Proctor, you know, so here you're playing your cover one.
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  Styles has a slot, Ransom has the tight end of the boundary like kind
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  of how it's drawn up like most offenses a line up, and he of
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  Proctors your deep middle, and again like can he do that? As you
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  mentioned, he's you know, Noels likes to talk about how he comes downhill,
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  but what they really need to do. It's like, I don't I
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  don't doubt their ability to defend the run, so you know, they do
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  need to be able to defend the pass. And so you know, I
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  mean, I think Proctor played well. Hartford came in for most of the
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  second half and I thought he did a pretty nice job as well. But
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  again, I just think, not that I'm saying they can't do these things,
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  just that Indiana did not provide adequate test of whether they can. And
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  I know, yeah, and I know you mentioned that Western Kentucky might be
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  the week that we kind of see what a stress test of this Ohio State
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  defense. Looks like the Hilltoppers will throw the ball all over the yard.
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  There's a technical term for you. That's going to be a little bit more
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  of an interesting test against this Ohio State pass defense. But this weekend against
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  Young Town State, I feel like kind of one of the narratives this week
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  is is there anything you could see that would be like a really positive that,
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  oh boy, this is a great sign that they're able to do build
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  in the blank against Young's Town State, Or is this a week where it
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  just becomes there's you know, nothing you can see would be good news.
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  It's just the only thing you could learn would be bad. I tend to
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  you know, I hate to say it can only be bad, but I
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  think though what you want to just see as like domination. I mean really
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  like they should over overmatch them and it should not be issues and that really
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  is like what you should see. I mean, I think they're going to
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  be you know, I think even if Indiana was like not well suited team
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  to go against the High State, you know, I think you can still
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  see like the talent is there. I mean, they're super experience, they're
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  very long in the back, end. You know, the defensive line controlled
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  the line of scrimmage, and so you want to I'll see those things,
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  you know, to the extent that Young Sound State tries to more conventionally pass
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  against them. I mean, I think it'd be nice to get the opportunities
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  to see the pass rush. Now they handle that. As the game progressed
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  against Indiana, when Indiana was starting a little bit more, he started to
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  see Ohio State stunt more upfront, which created some pressure. I thought Kaden
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  Curry did a nice job, and their third down package they bring him as
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  a defensive tackle, and so you know, I think you just want to
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  see evidence of them against more of a conventional passing game, just you know,
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  out of see how it goes. But as I said, I think
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  that it would be nice for them also to prepare for that for because the
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  next week question Kentucky will throw at a time. All right, And now
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  to the story of the week, possibly the story of the season. Quarterback
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  quarterback to Electric Boogaloo, this was Kyle McCord will be starting again for the
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  Buckeyes. Devin Brown supposedly going to be playing again. What are you looking
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  for? What would be good news for High State fans in terms of the
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  quarterback battle this week what what is a good thing for them to be watching
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  other than just hey, they scored a bunch of touchdowns get Youngstown State.
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  What what would you see that would be like, Okay, this is like
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  real tangible progress from the quarterback position this weekend. Yeah, I mean,
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  I think it's improving on some of the states, not coming off of his
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  downfield progressions too quickly, and the couple of instances he did so you know,
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  when he's not getting locked onto a receiver downfield, there are a couple
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  instances of that, you know, finding the right reading the coverage correctly when
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  someone's open, making the throw accurately. I'd also, again, I'd like
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  to see the offense, you know, as we discuss it, adjust itself
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  somewhat to match his strengths, to match the strengths of the team and how
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  defense are playing them, you know, take advantage of the of the quick
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  games throws, the RPO throws. And you know, I think similarly,
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  it's not just the quarterback too, Like you want to see the offensive line
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  improve, you know, improve in terms of reading what the defense is doing,
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  picking up run throws. Uh, you know, executing their assignments correctly
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  and so you know, and similarly, like run game scheme, you want
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  to see the continued diversification of the run game with you know, going beyond
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  outside zone to counter empower wind back the things we saw against Indiana. So
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  I think there's things for everyone to improve, not just the quarterbacks, but
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  you certainly want to see, you know, from accord at least you know,
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  Vin Brown basically didn't get to play, so it's it's essentially like a
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  week one for him, but from accord like tangible progress on the things,
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  you know, the reps that he needed to improve on, and building on
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  the things he did do well against Indiana. All right, So we will
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  all be keeping a close eye on the quarterback position this weekend. When the
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  Bucks take on Youngstown State tomorrow at the Horseshoe kickoff at noon, we will
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  have our usual pregame look at the availability report for the Buckeyes, Tony Grdon
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  and I will have that from Ohio Stadium for you in the morning, and
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  then of course the usual postgame show, lots of insight, lots of analysis,
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  interviews Brian Day and the players, much much more, all coming to
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  you live on our YouTube channel at YouTube dot com slash Buckeye Huddle immediately after
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  the game. I'm going to guess there will be plenty to talk about.
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  We'll be answering your questions and much much more all at YouTube dot com slash
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  Buckeye Huddle after the game. That will be quite a lot of fun.
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  I guess we will see you then, but thank you guys all for joining
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  us. Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.