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Ohio State Scheme Insider: Buckeye Defense Breakdown Vs. Texas · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Thursday, September 17th. I'm
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: your host, Tom, or the Kent State game in two days,
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  Speaker 1: the game against Michigan in 72 days. We're sponsored today
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  Speaker 1: by our friends at Jeff Ruby's Columbus, proudly offering nationally
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  Speaker 1: and make a reservation today. All right, on today's show,
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  Speaker 1: we're going to be talking about the Ohio State defense,
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  Speaker 1: their performance against Texas, what they tried to do, what worked,
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  Speaker 1: What didn't work and why they just ran out of
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  Speaker 1: gas at the end of the game really maybe does
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  Speaker 1: not tell the whole story. You're going to welcome in
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  Speaker 1: Michael Pettit. He's one of our scheme insiders at BuckeyeInsiders.com.
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  Speaker 1: And Michael, one of the things you've talked about on
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  Speaker 1: our board a bunch over the last couple days since
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  Speaker 1: the game is the fact that there were a bunch
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  Speaker 1: of different issues for the Ohio State defense that started
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  Speaker 1: way before they started getting gassed at the end of
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  Speaker 1: the game. One of them was that a lot of
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  Speaker 1: times they just didn't even get lined up correctly.
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  Speaker 2: I want to start tonight by saying you might be
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  Speaker 2: able to hear it in my voice. I'm a little
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  Speaker 2: under weather tonight, so please excuse me if it's not
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  Speaker 2: my best performance. With that being said, there were problems
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  Speaker 2: on the defensive side of the ball the entire night.
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  Speaker 2: I don't think it's fair and accurate to say that
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  Speaker 2: the defense was fine just until they got gassed at
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  Speaker 2: the end. First of all, as we both saw, the
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  Speaker 2: whole Kim Coleman dropping that pass off his chest and
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  Speaker 2: becoming an interception, arguably the luckiest thing I've ever seen
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  Speaker 2: happen in a football game. So if that doesn't happen,
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  Speaker 2: Texas is probably walking away with at least three. Later
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  Speaker 2: in the half, Ryan Wingo drops a wide open pass
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  Speaker 2: in the end zone, which would have been seven. So
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  Speaker 2: first of all, if neither of those plays happen, I
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  Speaker 2: don't think anyone is going on with this narrative about
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  Speaker 2: how the defense was fine until they were gassed. But Furthermore,
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  Speaker 2: the run defense was kind of a problem all night
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  Speaker 2: for a number of different reasons. I mean, I think
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  Speaker 2: if I were Sark, I know offensive coordinators, it's a
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  Speaker 2: thing that basically all of them have. They want things
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  Speaker 2: to look pretty, but I don't know why Sark was
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  Speaker 2: not more committed to the run game. And that's what
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  Speaker 2: we're going to look at first is a few of
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  Speaker 2: the problems Ohio State had in the run game.
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  Speaker 1: All right. Well, let's get started right there. One of
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  Speaker 1: the things that Texas did was they went into some
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  Speaker 1: unbalanced looks and Ohio State did not line up correctly,
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  Speaker 1: didn't get matched up correctly against those. Can you start
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  Speaker 1: just sort of by explaining what an unbalanced look is? Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: So an unbalanced formation, think of it this way. In
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  Speaker 2: a typical formation, you've got your five offensive linemen in
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  Speaker 2: the line of scrimmage and you've got one receiver or
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  Speaker 2: one tight end to each side on the line of scrimmage.
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  Speaker 2: You need seven men on the line of scrimmage and
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  Speaker 2: then four who are not, you know, the quarterback, the
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  Speaker 2: running back, and then maybe a slot receiver and a
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  Speaker 2: fullback or something, whatever it may be. But what makes
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  Speaker 2: a formation unbalanced is when the two receivers who are
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  Speaker 2: on the line of scrimmage are lined up to the
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  Speaker 2: same side of the formation. So I'm going to put
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  Speaker 2: a picture up on the screen here Texas in an
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  Speaker 2: unbalanced look and as you can see they have four
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  Speaker 2: receivers to one side of the formation and the number
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  Speaker 2: two receiver which is the slot and the number four
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  Speaker 2: receiver which is the tight end with his hand in
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  Speaker 2: the dirt closest to the tackle are both lined up
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  Speaker 2: on the line of scrimmage so this is an unbalanced
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  Speaker 2: formation and when you get an unbalanced formation you know
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  Speaker 2: as a defense you need certain checks and you know
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  Speaker 2: calls and to adjust to that. And that's why next
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  Speaker 2: I want to show the end zone view of this
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  Speaker 2: unbalanced formation and how Ohio State was aligned to it,
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  Speaker 2: just so you can get a better idea before we
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  Speaker 2: actually show the play. So up on the screen here,
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  Speaker 2: what you're going to see is the end zone view
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  Speaker 2: of Ohio State's alignment to this unbalanced look. And we
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  Speaker 2: don't need to get super nitty gritty into X's and
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  Speaker 2: O's here. This is basic math. There are three gaps
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  Speaker 2: to the defense's left. There's an A gap, a B gap,
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  Speaker 2: and a C gap. But there are four players to
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  Speaker 2: the defense's left. The flip side is there are five
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  Speaker 2: gaps to the defense's right. There's an A gap, a
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  Speaker 2: B gap, a C gap, a D gap, and an
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  Speaker 2: E gap. But there are only four defenders to that side.
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  Speaker 2: So you have four defenders on one side for three gaps,
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  Speaker 2: which is too many, and then you have four defenders
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  Speaker 2: on the other side for five gaps, which is not enough.
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  Speaker 2: Texas is running duo here. So running duo against this
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  Speaker 2: front is a literal, I mean, this was third and short.
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  Speaker 2: This is one of the easier first down conversions you're
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  Speaker 2: going to see. And I know something that will surely
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  Speaker 2: stand out to the fan base on this play here
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  Speaker 2: as we take a look at the video clip is
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  Speaker 2: that this was not a great rep by Peyton Pierce.
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  Speaker 2: And I am not, certainly not going to argue that.
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  Speaker 2: You want to see him get off a block a
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  Speaker 2: little easier, and you don't want to see him missing
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  Speaker 2: a tackle. But Peyton Pierce having a bad rep just
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  Speaker 2: shouldn't be the biggest takeaway of this play. The defense
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  Speaker 2: was not put in a spot to be successful. This
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  Speaker 2: was a coaching issue, an alignment issue. Something that can
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  Speaker 2: be fixed, but incredibly concerning that something like this would happen.
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  Speaker 1: Next up, we're going to be looking at another play.
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  Speaker 1: This is ISO, and this is just another example of
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  Speaker 1: issues of getting the right people into the right spots.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so right here, Texas is in 12 personnel. They've
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  Speaker 2: got one of their tight ends in the backfield, kind
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  Speaker 2: of as a fullback. So it's really, in a sense,
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  Speaker 2: more like 21 personnel. And usually, as many of us know,
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  Speaker 2: when the offense puts in an extra tight end or
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  Speaker 2: a fullback and they're in 12 or 21 personnel, Ohio State,
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  Speaker 2: under Matt Patricia, has responded by bringing in a third
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  Speaker 2: linebacker to get in four or three personnel. That's not
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  Speaker 2: the case here. If you look at the screen, Ohio
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  Speaker 2: State is in their base 4-2 personnel. Four defensive linemen,
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  Speaker 2: two linebackers. Christian Allegro is the linebacker attached to the
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  Speaker 2: line of scrimmage here on the right side of the
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  Speaker 2: screen as an edge player. Peyton Pierce is the lone
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  Speaker 2: off-ball linebacker. Right off the bat, you've got a matchup
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  Speaker 2: problem as a result of this. The offense is running iso.
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  Speaker 2: An iso play... I've discussed it here before, but the
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  Speaker 2: offensive line is trying to create a lane for a
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  Speaker 2: lead blocker to come through and get an isolation block
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  Speaker 2: and a linebacker. In this case, that tight end who's
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  Speaker 2: lined up in the backfield is going to get an
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  Speaker 2: isolation block in Peyton Pierce. Once the tight end gets
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  Speaker 2: through the line, though, to make that block, that creates
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  Speaker 2: an extra gap to that side of the play. As
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  Speaker 2: I have drawn out here, Once again, Ohio State does
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  Speaker 2: not have enough men in the box to account for
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  Speaker 2: every gap. Peyton Pierce, based on this alignment, is expected
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  Speaker 2: to be responsible for both the tight ends inside shoulder
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  Speaker 2: as well as the B-gap between Texas' left guard and
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  Speaker 2: left tackle. So, once again... This is going to be
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  Speaker 2: a rep where you might like to see more from
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  Speaker 2: Peyton Pierce, and I am not here to refute that.
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  Speaker 2: But this is just not setting– the coaching staff is
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  Speaker 2: not setting the defense up for success here. They're not
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  Speaker 2: in the right personnel grouping to be going up against
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  Speaker 2: the Texas' offensive personnel grouping, and they do not have
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  Speaker 2: enough men in the box to account for every gap.
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  Speaker 1: All right, next up. We're going to take a look
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  Speaker 1: at one of the kind of more common approaches they
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  Speaker 1: took on defense, dropping eight. And that was something that
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  Speaker 1: I know there was some criticism at times that maybe
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  Speaker 1: they were a little bit too conservative and should have
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  Speaker 1: brought more pressure. But can you sort of explain what
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  Speaker 1: the thinking was behind this being something that they leaned
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  Speaker 1: on fairly heavily throughout the night?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. If there's one thing I've learned about Matt Patricia
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  Speaker 2: in his time at Ohio State, he does not want
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  Speaker 2: an athletic quarterback to lose. beat his defense scrambling. So
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  Speaker 2: what he often did was he would play Tampa 2 coverage,
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  Speaker 2: drop eight Tampa 2s, so only three pass rushers, eight
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  Speaker 2: defenders dropping into coverage playing Tampa 2. And that kind
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  Speaker 2: of makes sense because Arch Manning, he did struggle finding
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  Speaker 2: holes and everything against Tampa 2 in this game last year.
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  Speaker 2: And what the defensive line is doing, again, back to
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  Speaker 2: Matt Patricia's desire to contain dual threat quarterbacks is they
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  Speaker 2: are cage rushing, which means they're not necessarily trying to
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  Speaker 2: sack Arch Manning so much as they are trying to
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  Speaker 2: keep him in the pocket or cage him in the pocket.
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  Speaker 2: So that's what they're going to run here. And there's,
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  Speaker 2: you know, Texas doesn't have a big player or anything here.
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  Speaker 2: This is more just to give you an idea of
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  Speaker 2: kind of what the approach was. And if you move
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  Speaker 2: on to the end zone view of this, I just
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  Speaker 2: wanted to give illustration of what the rush lanes are
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  Speaker 2: supposed to look like. Again, you've got the nose tackle
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  Speaker 2: who's one-on-one with the center, but both of the four-eye techniques,
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  Speaker 2: the down linemen on the inside shoulders of the offensive tackles,
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  Speaker 2: although they're starting on the inside shoulders of the offensive tackles,
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  Speaker 2: they are still responsible for being the outside contain rushers.
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  Speaker 2: Because again, the whole point of what they're doing here
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  Speaker 2: is trying to cage the quarterback into the pocket and
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  Speaker 2: not let him escape with his legs. All right.
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  Speaker 1: So the goal is to contain him, not let him
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  Speaker 1: escape with his legs, except there were times when they
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  Speaker 1: tried this strategy and it really kind of didn't work.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so later in the game, they're going with this
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  Speaker 2: same approach, drop eight, Tampa two coverage, three-man rush, supposed
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  Speaker 2: to be cage rushing. But you'll notice Arch is able
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  Speaker 2: to get outside of the pocket and scramble for a
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  Speaker 2: pretty solid gain. And if you go look at the
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  Speaker 2: end zone view of this play, you can kind of
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  Speaker 2: see why. Edrick Houston, I believe, I believe that's Edrick Houston,
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  Speaker 2: the four-eyed technique, inside of Texas's left tackle, he does
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  Speaker 2: not get to the outside. He gets a little greedy
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  Speaker 2: and tries to shoot the B gap because he sees
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  Speaker 2: an opening for a sack. Now, maybe they are coached
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  Speaker 2: to do that if that opening is there, but just
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  Speaker 2: given that Patricia seems to be so intent on playing
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  Speaker 2: it safe and keeping Arch Manning in the pocket, it
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  Speaker 2: just doesn't seem like that's something that should be going
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  Speaker 2: on there. And so because of the lack of discipline
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  Speaker 2: and lack of just doing your job, Arch is able
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  Speaker 2: to get outside here for a nice scramble and help
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  Speaker 2: Texas keep moving the ball while they're in the course
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  Speaker 2: of their comeback.
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  Speaker 1: One concept that I know we saw a lot, and
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  Speaker 1: I've heard both you and Ross talk about this already
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  Speaker 1: and have seen you guys talking about this on our
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  Speaker 1: board this week, is cover three double buzz. And it
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  Speaker 1: was one of those things that Matt Patricia was really
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  Speaker 1: kind of leaning on quite a bit during the course
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  Speaker 1: of the game, but it got to a point late
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  Speaker 1: in the game when it, you know, maybe he went
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  Speaker 1: to the well one too many times. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Cover three double buzz is a very common Matt Patricia
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  Speaker 2: call and passing situations and on third downs. And, uh,
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  Speaker 2: here is calling it on a fourth down after having
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  Speaker 2: just called the same play on the third down prior
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  Speaker 2: and calling it on another third down earlier in the
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  Speaker 2: game as well. Uh, So cover three double buzz, your
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  Speaker 2: corners and your deep safety are responsible for the deep
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  Speaker 2: thirds of the field. You're going to have your two
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  Speaker 2: other safeties kind of drop down to be your hook defenders.
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  Speaker 2: And you're going to have a linebacker and a nickel
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  Speaker 2: in this case as the curl flat defenders. And it's
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  Speaker 2: a three man rush with the other linebacker. In this case,
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  Speaker 2: Riley Pettijohn is a spy. That's another Patricia staple on
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  Speaker 2: third downs is kind of a safe rush with a
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  Speaker 2: spy who's just mirroring the quarterback. Unfortunately here, Arch is
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  Speaker 2: able to play some backyard football and they're able to
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  Speaker 2: convert this fourth down. The reason I wanted to show
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  Speaker 2: this play is essentially just to kind of kickstart the
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  Speaker 2: conversation of, I understand the desire to be conservative and
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  Speaker 2: kind of have a goal of just playing contain with
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  Speaker 2: an athletic quarterback and not wanting to get beat too badly.
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  Speaker 2: But I think that Patricia sometimes plays things way too
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  Speaker 2: safe on third down situations. And I just think there
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  Speaker 2: should be a little more creativity just as an example.
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  Speaker 2: You can do something like run a creeper or a
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  Speaker 2: simulated pressure where you're sending it back seven defender, but
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  Speaker 2: dropping a defensive end in coverage, in exchange for that.
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  Speaker 2: So you're rushing a four and you're changing the picture
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  Speaker 2: post snap, and you've still got seven back in coverage,
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  Speaker 2: you know, just stuff like that. And, you know, even
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  Speaker 2: like I talked about on this exact show last week,
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  Speaker 2: all the stunting and stuff that he was doing, which
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  Speaker 2: is something I hadn't seen from him before. I really
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  Speaker 2: think just even doing that, anything that just changed the
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  Speaker 2: picture post snap and stress the offensive line is something
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  Speaker 2: that I would like to see a little more of
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  Speaker 2: on third downs going forward this year.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and if people want to know more about creepers
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  Speaker 1: and sim pressures, Michael and I did a show all
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  Speaker 1: about that just a few weeks ago. So you can
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  Speaker 1: just search creepers and sim pressures and on our channel
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  Speaker 1: and you can find the video on that sort of
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  Speaker 1: explaining what those are, the difference between those and sort
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  Speaker 1: of when you would when you would use them. And
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  Speaker 1: Patricia was, as you said, fairly conservative for a lot
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  Speaker 1: of the evening. But there were points and especially late
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  Speaker 1: where he did get more.
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  Speaker 2: Aggressive with bringing pressure.
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  Speaker 1: And this time, you know, this also didn't end up
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  Speaker 1: working out.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I wanted to include this one too. First
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  Speaker 2: of all, I just concede that it is really easy
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  Speaker 2: to criticize a blitz or any sort of play call
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  Speaker 2: after it doesn't work, right? And I admit that. However,
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  Speaker 2: I find it a little strange that the one time
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  Speaker 2: you decide to gamble a little bit and get a
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  Speaker 2: little creative, this was another fourth down that You know,
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  Speaker 2: if you get off the field here, there's a 99.9%
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  Speaker 2: chance you walk out of that stadium victorious. And the
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  Speaker 2: one time you get creative or anything on a third
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  Speaker 2: down situation, you're running a triple A gap fire zone.
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  Speaker 2: And a fire zone is a five man zone pressure
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  Speaker 2: with three deep, three underneath coverage. And this particular fire zone,
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  Speaker 2: you are blitzing a safety from depth and you're dropping
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  Speaker 2: not one, but both of your defensive ends in the coverage.
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  Speaker 2: And so of your six men who are back defending
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  Speaker 2: the pass, two of them are defensive ends and you
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  Speaker 2: only have six. Whereas, you know, if you're running a
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  Speaker 2: simulated pressure, yeah, sure. You'll have a defensive end defending
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  Speaker 2: the pass, but it's only one of them and you're
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  Speaker 2: still having seven guys back in coverage. So yeah, this is,
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  Speaker 2: this play was a little too aggressive in my opinion
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  Speaker 2: for this situation. And you look at the end zone view,
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  Speaker 2: you can see that the blitzing safety is so far
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  Speaker 2: out of the box. He's blitzing from such depth that
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  Speaker 2: he's actually not even in the screen when this end
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  Speaker 2: zone view is first shown. And unfortunately, this was a
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  Speaker 2: gamble that didn't work. I would have preferred to see
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  Speaker 2: some indifferent. I understand that it's a little easy to
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  Speaker 2: say that in hindsight. But yeah, I wasn't always pleased
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  Speaker 2: with the change-ups. I wasn't pleased with the lack of
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  Speaker 2: change-ups when plays were needed in passing situations on Saturday either.
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  Speaker 1: All right, so there you go. A look at the
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Ohio State defense and their performance against Texas and why
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: some of the narrative that you've heard coming out of
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: that game might not be entirely accurate. So if you
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  Speaker 1: today thank you guys all for joining us have a
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  Speaker 1: great day we'll talk to you tomorrow