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Ross Fulton Analysis: How Ohio State's Defense Held Notre Dame In Check · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Friday, September twenty ninth. I'm your host,
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  tom Or. The Maryland game is in eight days. The gaming gets
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  Michigan in fifty seven days. Earlier in the week, we talked to our
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  buddy Ross Fulton about Ohio State struggles in short yardage head is some bad news
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  in that show for Ohio State ended on a high note. Today we're gonna
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  talking about the Ohio State defense. So this is going to be a mostly
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  good news show. What a change of pace that is from a year ago.
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  And we're gonna be talking to Ross about six different plays here, a
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  lot of different things to talk about. And one of the reasons I love
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  talking to Ross about this stuff is he'll look at plays and he'll send me
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  a description and just you know, hey, the first one is JT wrong
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  arming and spelling to Davis Nigbu nosen and this is something he views as a
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  JT twe molo out play. And then when you watch the broadcast, no
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  one mentions j T twemlow out. No One the replay doesn't show j T
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  twemolo doing anything. It's all a Davis Nibu noos in play. So Ross,
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  let's start with this one. Tell us about the JT TWI moloil play
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  that completely escaped notice at the time, give a shout out to Devin Radcliffe
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  giving it a hard time about my office being a mess yesterday desided to clean
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  up my background there. So the I wanted to focus here on sort of
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  some of the good and the bad of the Ohio State run defense, and
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  I think there has been some focus on that. I mean, on the
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  one hand, you know, Notre Dame did have some success on the ground
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  they played keepaway, you know, I think I heard a stat that like
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  Notre Dame had something like eight runs go for seventy some yards, and then
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  the other twenty though went for only seventy yards too, So there was some
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  good, there's some bad. I this first one is definitely the good Notre
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  Dame. It ran a lot to the boundary, which we've talked about a
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  lot with the offense. The Notre Dame just like war out running to the
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  short side of the field, which it makes sense against the how State defense
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  when you think about it, because Jim Knowle sets his defense to the field.
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  He doesn't set it by formation, so most of the time you're going
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  to get that overhang Nickel Sunny styles or the same adjuster Josh Proctor to the
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  field and so you know, here's but when Notre Dame was in eleven personnel
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  or twelve when they had won back Ohio State, it was pretty successful and
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  run defense. So here you know what I wanted to focus on with j.
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  T. Mlow was really good all game handling, split blocks, fullers.
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  He would wrong arm or dent them to use a Greg Madison turn to
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  still the football, and when Ohio State had someone there to still the football
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  too, it worked well. So here you have you know, JT.
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  You wrong arms, he forces the football outside and Davis and Igmanos is there
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  for the tackle. I think that, you know, I appreciate Agma Nos
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  and is a very physical corner. It's been a while Socio statesprently had a
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  corner that really like to tackle in the run game like he does. So
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  you know, I also wanted to note that. But this is an example
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  of you know, I think there has been quite a bit of talk about,
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  you know, potential issues of the high state run game. You know,
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  the PFF braides for the Ohio State linebackers were very poor, I thought
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  kind of ridiculously so, to be honest, but I think that there was
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  a lot of instances where Ohio State handled the Notre Dame run game well.
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  And these are two guys who stand out. We're going to talk about a
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  couple more, but you know that gets into then the next play where I
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  want to show how where Ohio Sate did have some struggles against the Notre Dame
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  run game. Yeah, if they couldn't run the ball with one backs,
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  two backs must be twice as good. And that actually was kind of true
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  for long stretches on Saturday night. So let's let's take a look at this
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  two back ISO play. This is the area where Ohio State really did have
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  some struggles was handling two backs. And my guess is that this is a
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  new wrinkle that Notre Dame showed. I don't know if they had any film
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  of them using twenty one personnel. You know, tight end with two backs
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  and using that one back is essentially a fullback to lead block. So you
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  know when you're inserting a fullback or a lead blocker, that changes the run
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  fits for the defense, right, You're creating essentially another extra gap between where
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  that that blocker is inserting himself, and you know, High State had struggles
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  and particularly like on this play, it's a lead drawl or an isolation play,
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  kind of old school. You don't see it a lot that much anymore.
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  And they also had some issues with the gap scheme. And part of
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  it was just, you know, Jim Knowles took a lot of criticism last
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  year for being too you know, playing two aggressively and giving up explosive play,
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  and he talked earlier this season about how, you know, he had
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  learned from that he was not looking to do that this year, and like
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  that showed him this game, right, Like Notre Dame came into it and
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  had quite a few explosive pass plays, and they really did not in this
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  I State limited them. I think they had maybe three passes over twenty yards
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  and like two of those runs one or two of those were screen passes.
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  And then he you know, he hit the tight end a couple of times,
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  so you're you're they didn't kind of have a bend but don't break.
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  And but part of that was, you know, they were not over committee
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  for the run game. So like I'm gonna give a couple of examples,
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  like where they did did commit more numbers and the difference it made, but
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  like on this play, like they're just doubting me, Like, you know,
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  they have an extra gap. Tommy Eikenberg takes on the lead blocker in
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  the hole and basically, though you need someone there to handle that, you
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  have too. And so it's this is how long is it going to take
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  them to come down the lot, you know, come down and make a
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  play as opposed to essentially bring an eighth defender in the box to account for
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  the fact that you now have you know, seven blockers in the game.
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  All right, so now we're going to go to another one. This is
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  another raw special where the TV is talking all about Mike Hole and the replay
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  is focused on Mike Hole and Ross says Proctor and Hole making tackle. So
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  okay, why is this a Josh Proctor play and not a Mike Whole play?
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  So this is kind of what I'm what I'm trying to drive out again,
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  right, So, like you know, there's been a lot of talk
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  after the game of you know, Ohio States got worn down, like that's
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  kind of a classic football trip, right, Like I still got wormed down
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  up front? Or like linebackers got tired and didn't fill the proper gaps.
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  And I'm not saying some of that didn't happen, but like a lot of
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  what did happen. As I'm saying, it's like Notre Dame at times created
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  more gaps in the run game that Ohio State wanted to defend. They essentially,
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  as I said, made the choice to trade off giving up a little
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  bit more in the run game to defend against big past plays. And like
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  conversely on this play where they didn't do that, you can see the difference
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  it. So again, we got a two backs here, we got two
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  tight ends effectively, and we got but on the flip side, this is
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  one of those situations where you got sunny styles essentially a SAM linebacker on the
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  edge. You have Josh Proctor or as essentially a fourth three over playing the
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  C gap as a SAM linebacker. So you saw some of that during the
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  game and he was pretty effective doing it right. And so now the difference
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  is you do have every gap cover Like, yes, Mike Paul makes a
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  swim move, he makes some nice play in the backfield, but even without
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  that, again, same situation, like you've got you got Eikenberg taking on
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  a lead blocker with his outside shoulder, and but now the difference is you
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  have safety sitting there that can make the tackle on the GAPO. So it
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  does go beyond just like they were tired. Again, like defensively, you
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  can't always do it all right, like they are, in fact playing a
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  good team, So you sometimes have this I don't know if it's an Ohio
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  State specific phenomenon, maybe it happens with other teams or its like before the
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  game, you know, there's lots of national media, there's other people picking
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  under him to win. Then after the game, it's like, well,
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  why wasn't you Tommy Ikenberg perfect filling every gap play? Why was he getting
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  locked up by Joel All? You know, it's like when you play other
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  good teams, like you're not going to be perfect, like they are going
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  to beat you at times, but like it does sometimes come down to just
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  how many numbers and you know, I just it. You can see that
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  like Noels could have made alternative choices, like the play after this he goes
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  back to playing Tampa two and Notre Dame gets big run play, So like
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  maybe that wasn't the right call there, but like his goal clearly was to
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  focus on keeping Sam Hartman off balance, like they mixed in man. He
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  mixed in a lot of zone. He played some soft zone like and he
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  did catch them off balance, like Notre Dame kept pointing and run mesh on
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  third and fourth and short and like Ohio State would which is a man beat
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  or in a high state would drop into his own So hard to know the
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  counterfactual, like what would have happened if Ohio State played you know, snap
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  after snap? It gets their name like this with eight guys in the box
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  and single high and like dare you to throw play after play? Don't you
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  know? Maybe you get a few more stops, maybe you get some expensive
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  players. It's sort of a trade off. But there there were scheme reasons
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  why they had some issues against the Narre Dame run game to the boundary,
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  particularly from two back. Well, let's go next to a play where old
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  Hoise stthead no issue stopping the run. This is this is one you're definitely
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  gonna be. Everyone is going to remember this one. I think some of
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  the stuff earlier was a little bit you know, maybe maybe not something that
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  jumped out to everyone. This is what everyone's gonna remember. J T.
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  Twee Molow while getting in the backfield, stopping Sam Hartman for a big loss
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  on that last Notre Dame drive. This is one of the biggest plays of
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  the game. Yeah, and so you know, again this is sort of
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  the culmination of part of this. You know, I grabbed this because there's
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  again a lot of focus on the defensive ends, and like it's all the
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  focus is always about sacks or lack there up and particularly in a game like
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  this, I mean, they their principal job for most of it is playing
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  the run and Chet Tomas is again an excellent run defender. You see that
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  come for here, So you know, the same the same thing app applies,
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  Like they Notre Dame runs a two back power here, which is an
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  issue play they've been having trouble with all game. But he's so forceful and
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  wrong army and taking on the pulling guard that essentially it forces Sam Hartman to
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  keep the ball. And I mean he would have made the play on the
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  running back. He would have made the play on the quarterbacks. So you
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  know, there was a stat out there today I saw all about Ohio State's
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  adjusted pressure raid and you know, showing it's one of the best the nation.
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  And you know, so maybe there is some you know, how much
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  pressure the defensive ends are getting or one thing, but like you can't sacrifice
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  playing the run to do it either. So you know, we talked about
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  that the other week with Jim Knowles, and like some of their techniques that
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  they use to force the football outside and so again, like anything else,
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  like they have a multifaceted job, so it has to be taken into context.
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  But but yes, this to me is the play that obviously changed the
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  game because they had to finally force Snarre Dame behind the sticks, all right,
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  And something we've talked about a bunch in the pasting and the context of
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  the Ohio State defense is sim pressures and you know they need to be running
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  more sim pressures. Next up is a play where they do that, and
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  Tyler Williams Darner has what could have been one of the great large gentleman interception
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  returns of all time and just missed it. But it still worked out as
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  a worked out pretty well for Ohio State. So Ross run us through this
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  one. Yeah, you knew after all that we've talked about sim directors that
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  couldn't help draft. Fine, and so this is the first time we've seen
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  this from Nols, right, So it's like a double be gap pressure from
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  the lie backers. But a lot of times he's done that in propit defensive
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  ends as rats. So it is covers zero with two like quote unquote rats,
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  which just means they're sort of underneath defenders watching the quarterbacks eye. But
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  here he does with the defensive tackles, which obviously works out really vintageous.
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  I'm assuming Sam Hartman, you know, he's seen the same tape and assume
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  that the it would be defensive ends dropping, and so he looks immediately to
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  the middle of the field where Tylie Williams is sitting. But you know,
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  I think bigger picture again, like we've been sort of saying, like the
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  defense continues to develop, right, and like this is another sign of it.
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  And you know, I think there's an argument in this game, and
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  we'll talk about this with the next play that maybe at times they almost almost
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  went to the other extreme and got a little too ben but don't break.
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  You know, it's it's hard to find the right balance, I think,
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  keeping to mix in some pressures like this, particularly if you don't feel like
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  your front force creating pressure is a nice way to get some pressure. You
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  know, there was, It's just it's a different that you're seeing more zone
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  coverages out of them. They're matching more and cover three. There's some pickups
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  I think in their zone coverages, which is maybe why they continue to like
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  to use man when they run these kind of four man pressures. But I
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  do think you're seeing like continued growth and sort of like you know, when
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  people are talking about, well, what's the difference between one in year two,
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  and like you're obviously from Jim Knowles's perspective, he thought that they could
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  only handle so much last year, and now with the more experience group,
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  you're seeing more and more volume of scheme being introduced. All right. And
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  then finally this is something Ohio State fans probably pulled their hair out a little
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  bit on another one of these passes to the tight end just kind of up
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  the seam, and this was a big you know, this was a third
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  and ten conversion for Notre Dame. It feels like you saw I think Mitchell
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  Effins had but seven catches something like that. It felt like every single one
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  of them was a big first down. I don't know if that was actually
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  right but it sure felt like at times on Saturday night. So what was
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  Notre Dame doing here that found a weak spot in the host to do?
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  Yeah, and so I guess this goes and what we're started talking about this
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  sort of the opposite side of it, right, So guess on the one
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  hand, I agree with your assessment, like the tight end definitely made some
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  big I guess, like, you know you gave Jim Noles, true sir,
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  I bet you would probably be like, well, you know, a
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  couple of explosive players, we give up to the tight end for twenty yards,
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  Like that's not that bad of a trade off, but this one,
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  you know, this one hurt because it's third and ten in the situation,
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  and like this this is the drive that leads no there name go ahead score
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  I believe one of their two scores, and you know this is your chance
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  to get off the field. Right. So like when you're talking about Benvitt,
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  don't break like you get them behind the chains. This sort of goes
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  to the development of the defense. And like what we've seen in Caviteen,
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  so we're talking about the sim pressure. This has covered two and you know,
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  as I said, so like you cover three. They're matching some now.
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  So like you saw that on a third and three Hartman through a little
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  hook route and Proctor was guarding that man and broke it up. But it
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  was a really nice play, and that's because he was Matt you know,
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  he was matching that route. Cover two. You're not seeing it so much,
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  right, and so like at a minimum, Tody Simon's in here at
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  will linebacker, so you know a little bit of probably you know, you
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  give him a little bit of slack. He hasn't played it. Ton Noel's
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  running in for like a series each in the first and second half for Steel
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  Chambers, and I don't know if that was because of chambers performance against the
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  run or because you know, Coody Simon's a good run defender. So they
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  want to change it up. But you gotta at least get your hands on
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  tighten. I'd like to see them re route and carry that route down the
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  field, like against covered two. You shouldn't allow this route to be completed.
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  I mean, I guess Notre Dame allowed the same route to be completed
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  to a mecha a Buca to the one yard line, So you know,
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  it's not like out of the question. But like you do have to disrupt
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  this route so much. So I do think that there's still growth to be
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  had in terms of, you know, matching some of these routes in zone
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  and sort of again mixing up the pressure schemes like again this is covered too,
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  be nice if they you know that it wouldn't just be the one sim
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  pressure that we'd have to show like that. There'll be other ones that they
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  could perhaps used in this situation where you could use it with the zone.
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  So maybe that's still to come. But you know, I think obviously these
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  are big steps for it. I think, you know, Notre Dame or
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  Ohio State's strategy made quite a bit of sense, particularly if like you know,
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  if obviously it had a couple of breaks like that we've talked about on
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  offense, you know, whether they convert some of the short yardages we talked
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  about, or a Buka catches that ball in the end zone and they kind
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  of builds the lead that they could never quite get to even though they kept
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  moving the football. Then like Ohio States strategy have really forcing Knit or Dame
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  to sort of string together these small yardages really made more sense. But even
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  as it is obviously it kept Ohio State in the game when they're weren't converting
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  offensively, and so you know, there's trade offs everything, but I think
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  there they still need to calibrate that middle ground a little bit more. All
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  right, Well, hope you guys enjoyed that. And if you're listening to
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  this on a podcast platform and you're thinking, you know, the show would
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  better if I can actually see what he's talking about. Oh friends, Oh
• 16:56
  friends, I have great news. You can watch it all on our YouTube
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  channel YouTube dot com slash Buckeye Huddle. We are showing written, you know,
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  showing the broadcast what they showed on the broadcast. Sometimes that means there's
• 17:07
  even a replay you can look at it from a different angle. So if
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  you want to watch this, you can just find it on our YouTube channel
• 17:14
  dot com slash Bukee Huddle. And if you're thinking, I wish I didn't
• 17:15
  have to wait so long for the next raw show, well, friends,
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  we post these as soon as they're done. We typically record these a day
• 17:22
  or maybe more than a day early. When we do. When we record
• 17:26
  him early, I try and get him edited early and get him posted early,
• 17:29
  just exclusively before our members at Buckeye Huddle dot com. And not only
• 17:32
  do you get to watch it early, we also get to ask Ross questions
• 17:34
  there and the thread on our huddle board. So if you were interested in
• 17:37
  watching these little early and maybe getting a little bit of you know, Hey,
• 17:41
  I have a follow up question and I keep talking into my phone or
• 17:45
  yelling at YouTube and it doesn't nothing's happening. Well, check us out on
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  the huddle board a Buckeye huddle dot com. Ross will answer your questions there
• 17:52
  one with some of our other scheme guys he mentioned Devon off the beginning of
• 17:56
  the show. We'll get Justin and Mikey, whole team full of ex's and
• 18:00
  those guys all at bucket huddle dot com. So if you like to listen
• 18:03
  to this, you like reading about this, well that would be the place
• 18:06
  to do it. That will do it for today. Thank you guys all
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  for joining us. Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.