Latest / Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning / Ross Fulton Analysis: What Went Wrong For The Ohio State Defense At Oregon?

Transcript

Ross Fulton Analysis: What Went Wrong For The Ohio State Defense At Oregon? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

0:00
Speaker 1: All right, here is your second Ross Fulton bonus show
0:03
Speaker 1: of the week. We're gonna be doing a bunch of
0:05
Speaker 1: new shows with Ross coming up a little later on
0:07
Speaker 1: the week. You'll see those in your feed in just
0:09
Speaker 1: a day or so. I'm going to see them even
0:10
Speaker 1: earlier than that. If you're a member of bucke Huddle
0:12
Speaker 1: dot com, we'll have those up a little early on
0:15
Speaker 1: our members only huddle board presented by Jeffrubi's Columbus at
0:18
Speaker 1: bucket huddle dot com.
0:19
Speaker 2: So if you want to see this.
0:20
Speaker 1: Stuff now, you can. You can hop on our board
0:23
Speaker 1: and it'll be up there shortly. It'll be up in
0:25
Speaker 1: the public feeds a little bit later on in the week,
0:28
Speaker 1: but for now, here's a little bit of bonus Ross coverage.
0:31
Speaker 1: This is a look at the Ohio State defense and
0:33
Speaker 1: how they did against Oregon out in Eugene earlier in
0:36
Speaker 1: the season. Now, this was a game that really kind
0:38
Speaker 1: of changed the Ohio State defense. They've made a lot
0:42
Speaker 1: of major major changes to the defense since this game,
0:45
Speaker 1: and much you know, most of that has been for
0:48
Speaker 1: the best. So what went wrong for the Buckeyes out
0:51
Speaker 1: in Eugene and then what did he feel need to
0:54
Speaker 1: be changed at that time, and then we'll talk with
0:56
Speaker 1: him a little later on in the week about what
0:58
Speaker 1: they actually did change and how that's work and why
1:00
Speaker 1: that has worked as well as it has. So here
1:02
Speaker 1: is a look at the Ross Fulton analysis of the
1:06
Speaker 1: Ohio State defense against Oregon from back in October.
1:11
Speaker 2: All Right.
1:12
Speaker 1: I don't know if this is a show you guys
1:13
Speaker 1: have been looking forward to, but it's a show you
1:15
Speaker 1: guys have been asking for, sort of indirectly, I think
1:19
Speaker 1: ever since the Oregon game ended. We're going to be
1:23
Speaker 1: taking a look at the Ohio State defense.
1:25
Speaker 2: What went right?
1:25
Speaker 1: What went wrong against the Oregon Ducks. It has been
1:28
Speaker 1: a hot topic all week. We're gonna have Ross Fulton,
1:30
Speaker 1: our ex's nose guru, on to break it all down
1:32
Speaker 1: for us. And when we have Ross on the show,
1:34
Speaker 1: we are proudly sponsored by jeff Rubies of Columbus, proudly
1:38
Speaker 1: offering nationally acclaimed USDA Prime Stakes, seafood, sushi and peckable service,
1:42
Speaker 1: live entertainment, and in attention to detail that is simply unmatched.
1:46
Speaker 1: Just go to Jeffrey dot com slash Columbus today. All right, Ross,
1:50
Speaker 1: the attention to detail by the Ohio State defense that
1:53
Speaker 1: may have been matched at times in the past. Things
1:56
Speaker 1: did not always go great, and there were things that
1:59
Speaker 1: they did that they were trying to accomplish, things that
2:01
Speaker 1: everyone has been saying, why can't you do this more?
2:04
Speaker 1: And then when it doesn't work, everyone says, why did
2:06
Speaker 1: you do that? So one thing they've been looking to
2:09
Speaker 1: try and generate more of is pressure, and so sometimes
2:12
Speaker 1: generate pressure, you got to take some chances. Sometimes that works,
2:15
Speaker 1: sometimes that didn't. What did the Buckeyes do on Saturday
2:19
Speaker 1: to try and bring more pressure, more heat on Dylan Gabriel.
2:23
Speaker 3: So we saw at least four to five times cover
2:27
Speaker 3: zero pressure schemes. I think the to me, I'm guessing
2:32
Speaker 3: there is a as you said, they wanted to try
2:35
Speaker 3: to create some pressure. The Organs track worker this year,
2:38
Speaker 3: as we talked about going to the game, is a
2:40
Speaker 3: lot of short throws. So I presume the thought process
2:45
Speaker 3: was this is the way to generalate pressure, that we
2:47
Speaker 3: drop some guys into the underneath zones, take away the
2:50
Speaker 3: easy quick mesh throw crossers or outlets, the tight end
2:56
Speaker 3: that Organs relied upon.
2:58
Speaker 2: So win win, you know, and I go.
3:01
Speaker 3: There's been a lot of discussion at least I've seen
3:04
Speaker 3: on X on Bucke huddle others about the play. I'm
3:09
Speaker 3: sure everyone can think of it where Ohio State quote
3:13
Speaker 3: unquote brought to rushers and Denzel Birt got beat over
3:16
Speaker 3: the top with it right before half times. So we're
3:18
Speaker 3: going to get I'm going to get into that, but
3:21
Speaker 3: I want to start with what they used three or
3:23
Speaker 3: four times that was effective. That's a similar type of concept,
3:28
Speaker 3: which is train. We talked about training. Just last week.
3:32
Speaker 3: They ran it against Iowa where they brought Caleb Downs
3:35
Speaker 3: up the middle, and they ran it in a few
3:37
Speaker 3: different ways on Saturday, I grabbed the one here that
3:42
Speaker 3: was literally the play before they that reed pressure that
3:46
Speaker 3: we were talking about. And so you know train we've
3:49
Speaker 3: talked about, you can see it here. You basically are
3:52
Speaker 3: you're trying to occupy all the off the offensive linemen.
3:57
Speaker 3: So you're bringing six right, so the offensive line has five,
4:00
Speaker 3: lock them with. You want your two guys that are
4:02
Speaker 3: dropping to engage with the offensive line. That'll be important
4:07
Speaker 3: going forward. And so here they're going to drop both
4:10
Speaker 3: defensive ends. They also did it with both defensive tackles.
4:14
Speaker 3: They so they drop or at least they faint. That
4:19
Speaker 3: is an issue. Instead of engaging the defensive ends drop
4:22
Speaker 3: as rats. You can see everyone's in cover one. Jordan
4:25
Speaker 3: Hancock follows the motion. That was another issue that I
4:29
Speaker 3: honestly down on Saturday, particularly in man coverage getting lined
4:33
Speaker 3: up handling motion. Especially early, you see a lot of
4:36
Speaker 3: guys kind of looking at each other trying to figure
4:38
Speaker 3: out where everyone's supposed to go. Oregon used it tempo
4:42
Speaker 3: effectively as well to cause problems. But so anyways, it works,
4:46
Speaker 3: works like it's supposed to hear right, Like you have
4:49
Speaker 3: again the shallow crossing route from the tight end Kenyata
4:53
Speaker 3: Jackson dropping right into that zone. Jack Sawyer gets tripped
4:57
Speaker 3: up with the Oregon wide receiver, or Gabriel tries to
5:02
Speaker 3: throw a digger out across the field. David Davison Vanosa
5:05
Speaker 3: breaks it up to work, so the second time in
5:07
Speaker 3: a row. Now, I think part of the issue here
5:10
Speaker 3: is but you do see already on this place some
5:13
Speaker 3: of the some of the issues that will come up
5:15
Speaker 3: on the replay. And it's not just the scheme, it's
5:20
Speaker 3: in the execution right. Like as I said, like the
5:23
Speaker 3: goal is to engage first with the offense. You have
5:27
Speaker 3: to occupy the offensive linement, so he can't redirect to
5:30
Speaker 3: the blitzer that you want unoccupied, and the defensive ends
5:34
Speaker 3: don't really do that here. The other issue is these
5:39
Speaker 3: are sort of plays that you can only use so often.
5:42
Speaker 2: It's you know, you're picking your spots right.
5:45
Speaker 3: You want to show pressure or simulate pressure if you will,
5:50
Speaker 3: but not always call it right.
5:52
Speaker 2: So Oregon now has seen this. This is the second time,
5:55
Speaker 2: as I said, the very next play.
5:57
Speaker 3: You show it again right. This time we use Jim
6:00
Speaker 3: Knowles uses the redconcept. The problem is again, first issue
6:06
Speaker 3: is Oregon, as I said, has seen this. So they're
6:09
Speaker 3: tired of throw an underneath throughout so they can you
6:11
Speaker 3: know will Stein called a good game on Saturday. Uh,
6:14
Speaker 3: you know they get paid well too, right, so they
6:17
Speaker 3: make this you can see right away like on this concept,
6:21
Speaker 3: and before I get into the specifics of it though,
6:23
Speaker 3: I want to say, like this is a tried and
6:25
Speaker 3: true concept. This is not Jimnles rolling up in the dirt.
6:28
Speaker 3: Let's only rush two and drop six guys in within
6:31
Speaker 3: five yards and play have no deep safeties.
6:33
Speaker 1: Like.
6:34
Speaker 3: This is a concept that Bred Fennables has used a lot,
6:36
Speaker 3: that Save Intry has used The basic framework again is
6:41
Speaker 3: like you're bringing your you they have five guys a block,
6:45
Speaker 3: as I show in the picture, like I put a
6:47
Speaker 3: five against six, right, So what you want to do
6:50
Speaker 3: is you want to occupy those five offensive linemen, but
6:54
Speaker 3: you're not going to keep rushing, right. You want them
6:56
Speaker 3: to engage you. You then drop that frees up here.
7:00
Speaker 3: I think the designer is to get sunny styles.
7:02
Speaker 2: Coming free up the middle.
7:03
Speaker 3: You get a free rusher, but you also drop then
7:06
Speaker 3: have guys dropping into like the hot routes.
7:08
Speaker 2: Right.
7:08
Speaker 3: So if the quarterback's got an unblocked rusher in his face,
7:12
Speaker 3: he wants to get the ball out quick and you
7:14
Speaker 3: have some guys there to deal with it. So that
7:15
Speaker 3: that's the general concept. The problem again is in the execution.
7:21
Speaker 3: First of all, Ohio State, like Oregon has this wide
7:24
Speaker 3: bunch set out here, problems all day with handling, and
7:29
Speaker 3: this is like we're going to talk about other issues
7:31
Speaker 3: they had when they were playing man coverage and the
7:34
Speaker 3: lack of diversity in how they play cover. One have
7:37
Speaker 3: trouble handling these three these three bunch receivers here, they
7:41
Speaker 3: traded them off. You can see pre snap at the
7:44
Speaker 3: bottom of the screen. Which doesn't come into a factor.
7:47
Speaker 3: But you know, Caleb Dowas is telling David ign noticing,
7:50
Speaker 3: like you need to get on the inside receiver. They're
7:51
Speaker 3: communicating styles and putting Simon look at each other. They
7:57
Speaker 3: seem somewhat confused. So they again, like the communication problems
8:01
Speaker 3: were evident throughout. Then on the execution again like watch
8:06
Speaker 3: the defensive ends, watch the defensive tackles. The only person
8:10
Speaker 3: of those guys simulating pressure that engages with the actual
8:13
Speaker 3: offensive lineman is Lathan Ransom. None of the defensive line
8:17
Speaker 3: do what they're supposed to do. Now, again, like that's
8:21
Speaker 3: a coaching issue. It's a different coaching issue than saying
8:25
Speaker 3: that Jim Knowles is running an unsound scheme.
8:28
Speaker 2: Obviously this is not a good rep you know, whether
8:30
Speaker 2: you put that on.
8:31
Speaker 3: Knowles, on on Larry Johnson as the defensive line coach,
8:34
Speaker 3: on guys just not doing what they did in practice
8:37
Speaker 3: in the moment.
8:39
Speaker 2: So the problem though is you don't get the unblocked.
8:43
Speaker 3: Rusher because the offensive line, specifically the center, is able
8:48
Speaker 3: to when he gets that fake from the defensive tackle
8:52
Speaker 3: who drops out right away, he can then redirect the
8:55
Speaker 3: style so he doesn't get engaged, so you don't get
8:58
Speaker 3: the pressure, then you get the situation. Now, denzil Burg
9:01
Speaker 3: again bites on a double move that was also an
9:05
Speaker 3: issue before. I didn't clip the first time he did that,
9:08
Speaker 3: because it's just it was a boring old cover four
9:10
Speaker 3: quarters coverage gym. Knowles runs that to be it's like
9:14
Speaker 3: a super safe. We've talked about how it's like sort
9:16
Speaker 3: of his sort of conservative go to right, but like
9:20
Speaker 3: a corner. Still, if you're going to fight on a
9:22
Speaker 3: double move, there's there's no one to help you with that.
9:25
Speaker 3: So that happened twice here, obviously to really bad detriment.
9:28
Speaker 3: It's one thing to give up twenty to thirty yard
9:31
Speaker 3: explosive plays. It's another to give up fifty forty to
9:33
Speaker 3: fifty sixty yard touchdown explosive plays. I think that you
9:37
Speaker 3: can critique Knowle's here for going to the well one
9:41
Speaker 3: too many times with these cover zero concepts, and obviously
9:44
Speaker 3: organ adjust it, I think, But I think the concept here,
9:48
Speaker 3: you know again, is based on scouting. He's like, they're
9:51
Speaker 3: going to try to throw the sticks. It's a minute
9:54
Speaker 3: and a half to go. We're trying to keep them
9:55
Speaker 3: out of field goal range. Let's try to get a
9:58
Speaker 3: stop and get the ball. And so I'm sure all
10:01
Speaker 3: those thoughts went into it, but I think again, it's
10:04
Speaker 3: it's that it's emblematic of It's not necessarily that they're
10:08
Speaker 3: doing things that no one's done before. It's just their
10:12
Speaker 3: their execution issues evident in those schemes. But again, I
10:17
Speaker 3: think to your original point, to bring it all the
10:19
Speaker 3: way back, like it is a little tough when I
10:22
Speaker 3: hear people complain that Ohio State is not generating pressure,
10:27
Speaker 3: but then they get mad when gymnals uses different types
10:31
Speaker 3: of pressure schemes to generate pressure, and then they're like,
10:34
Speaker 3: why are you rushing your defensive ends? Like, but you're
10:37
Speaker 3: also complaining that those defensive ends aren't generating pressure. So like,
10:40
Speaker 3: if they can't win one on one, you need to
10:43
Speaker 3: do different things that generate pressure. You know, there are
10:46
Speaker 3: waste that I think they can help them again by
10:48
Speaker 3: like stunting the defensive line as well, that they just
10:52
Speaker 3: don't do. But I don't have a problem with you know,
10:56
Speaker 3: simulated pressure zone, blitzes, fire zones. I think they need
11:00
Speaker 3: of It's just that they need to execute a better
11:03
Speaker 3: and you know, part of it, I fear is they
11:05
Speaker 3: wasted the first three weeks of the season not doing
11:07
Speaker 3: any not showing anything, and so now they just don't.
11:11
Speaker 2: Have game reps.
11:13
Speaker 1: Well, they got plenty of game reps and Cover one
11:16
Speaker 1: on Saturday they saw them running running that a bunch
11:19
Speaker 1: and unfortunately at times Oregon also saw them running that
11:22
Speaker 1: a bunch and figured out ways to use some of
11:24
Speaker 1: the things that they do against them. So what did
11:27
Speaker 1: that look like on Saturday?
11:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we talked about this also last week.
11:32
Speaker 3: Is I said, On the one hand, Cover one's great
11:35
Speaker 3: for limiting RPOs because in theory, you've taken away any conflict,
11:39
Speaker 3: you got your man, and the remaining players can play
11:41
Speaker 3: the run again. The problem is is the devil's and
11:46
Speaker 3: the details. There are variations in Cover one to try
11:50
Speaker 3: to limit some of these problems that I'm going to
11:52
Speaker 3: show you, and obviously just doesn't do them or you
11:56
Speaker 3: don't see them, and so they're there.
11:59
Speaker 2: They can get exposed. It's not just that they can't.
12:02
Speaker 3: You know, obviously Burt got beat right, that wasn't in
12:04
Speaker 3: Cover one, But like that's that's like one way you
12:07
Speaker 3: beat Cover one, right, if you find the guy that
12:09
Speaker 3: your receivers better than but you also can do it
12:12
Speaker 3: by putting them into by using these kind of plays
12:16
Speaker 3: that hurt them.
12:16
Speaker 2: So like.
12:18
Speaker 3: First play here right, like this is Oregon gets the
12:21
Speaker 3: ball back after the Quinn Shawn Junkins fumble, so they're
12:25
Speaker 3: at first play after that they run this just basically
12:29
Speaker 3: in an outside zone with a slide threat, right, So
12:32
Speaker 3: they're like in two back personnel. So I guess you know,
12:35
Speaker 3: the first question was Ohio State really prepared for any
12:39
Speaker 3: kind of two back looks? But like you know, that happens, right, Like,
12:42
Speaker 3: I don't think that's but so because the way Ohio
12:46
Speaker 3: has this designed is Cody Simon is responsible for the
12:50
Speaker 3: B gap and and Jordan Hancock the nickel has the
12:53
Speaker 3: C gap because that's just how Ohio State.
12:56
Speaker 1: We're going to talk.
12:56
Speaker 3: About this again, like we've talked about it before they play.
12:59
Speaker 3: They set the nickel to THEE to the passing strength,
13:02
Speaker 3: and they don't mess with it no matter what kind
13:04
Speaker 3: of formation they see. But but Jordan Hancock also has
13:09
Speaker 3: that you know, technically a full back. Really he's just
13:12
Speaker 3: a wide receiver lined up in the backfield when he
13:14
Speaker 3: releases on sort of this threat to the flat that
13:17
Speaker 3: they fake on play action, Hancock follows him, So now
13:21
Speaker 3: they have no player for the sea gap. Maybe this
13:26
Speaker 3: is a bust, but I saw it twice, and so
13:29
Speaker 3: like you need to do one or two things, like
13:31
Speaker 3: there are calls within cover one where when that receiver
13:34
Speaker 3: goes to the opposite side of the center, like Hancock
13:36
Speaker 3: basically trades him. Could trade him off either too sunny
13:40
Speaker 3: styles of the will could trade him off to the
13:42
Speaker 3: backside safety. Someone on the other side of the field
13:45
Speaker 3: becomes responsible, so you like still have your gap integrity
13:50
Speaker 3: or I guess if Hancock's in a follow then like
13:52
Speaker 3: the safeties need to roll down hard and you're basically
13:54
Speaker 3: trading off the opposite way with like you know, the
13:57
Speaker 3: play side safety becoming the seagap player, the safety backsite
14:01
Speaker 3: safety rotating up. But like you just can't do this
14:04
Speaker 3: to yourselves over and over again. And so it's just
14:08
Speaker 3: like they use lots of concepts, right, Like we're gonna
14:13
Speaker 3: talk about like I've seen him run cover one, I've
14:15
Speaker 3: seen him run Cover four, quarter quarter a half, cover three,
14:17
Speaker 3: but like they don't have variation within any of them,
14:20
Speaker 3: so it makes it easier.
14:23
Speaker 2: To exploit.
14:24
Speaker 3: And so like that happens again on this the Dylan
14:29
Speaker 3: Gabriel's touchdown run. So this this is one who has
14:33
Speaker 3: like a couple of issues with it. So again cover one,
14:36
Speaker 3: so we're gonna we're gonna use the cover one with
14:39
Speaker 3: our pos put them in conflict and so you know
14:41
Speaker 3: the way they're aligned here, they actually are what you
14:45
Speaker 3: can see I'm labeled as cheap and so cheat is
14:48
Speaker 3: a concept where instead of Lathan Ransom as the deep
14:51
Speaker 3: safety be in the middle of the field, he's cheating
14:53
Speaker 3: towards the side that Gabriel would keep on and this
14:58
Speaker 3: allows him to help play the quarterback run. So it's
15:01
Speaker 3: not like they're not doing anything right. Like again, they're
15:04
Speaker 3: they're aware of the situation, they're aware of the look.
15:06
Speaker 3: But as they're aligned here, Sunny Styles and I'm sure JT.
15:11
Speaker 3: Twomloa think Sonny Styles has the quarterback as the edge player.
15:17
Speaker 3: But what they do is they run a little air
15:19
Speaker 3: route Oregon does with the tight end, so he releases
15:21
Speaker 3: the flat right and so this is again you have
15:25
Speaker 3: a essentially like a triple option like we talked about.
15:29
Speaker 3: Ohio State did this a few weeks ago, right where
15:31
Speaker 3: Devin Brown would keep and he could run or he
15:33
Speaker 3: could dump it out of the flat. So you have
15:35
Speaker 3: the same thing here. So Styles has to again cover one.
15:39
Speaker 3: Styles is responsible for the tight end. He has to
15:42
Speaker 3: play him to the flat right. So the first issue
15:46
Speaker 3: here is like JT when he feels unblocked, he needs
15:52
Speaker 3: to recognize the situation he's in. I'm not saying it's
15:55
Speaker 3: an easy ask again, like these are good concepts from Oregon,
15:58
Speaker 3: it's well designed, but he has to feel that and
16:03
Speaker 3: slow himself down, like he gets himself repeatedly caught. We've
16:07
Speaker 3: showed other examples of guessing and trying to make a play.
16:13
Speaker 3: Sometimes it works, sometimes you get caught like this. The
16:17
Speaker 3: other issue is then like Latham Ranson, yes, like as
16:20
Speaker 3: the cheat, he's there to help principally with the past threat,
16:24
Speaker 3: but like you.
16:25
Speaker 2: Got to get him down. You got to get Gabor.
16:27
Speaker 3: Over the ground somehow, someway like you know, I hate
16:31
Speaker 3: to bad Latham Ransom showed himself to be honest on
16:35
Speaker 3: Saturday again, like he's been really good. But like the
16:37
Speaker 3: mistackles that we saw two years ago against Michigan where
16:41
Speaker 3: they you know, where he's the lead loan deep safety,
16:43
Speaker 3: Like you got to get someone to the ground, like
16:45
Speaker 3: even if like take a less aggressive angle, I just
16:48
Speaker 3: too many mistackles out of him. On Saturday, obviously Kale downs.
16:51
Speaker 3: They liked to use him on if they can near
16:56
Speaker 3: the box to help shore up some of these issues.
16:57
Speaker 3: And like he made some great plays down there, but
16:59
Speaker 3: like on this play, he's near the box, so he
17:01
Speaker 3: cannot help.
17:03
Speaker 2: You know.
17:03
Speaker 3: It certainly does not help Lathan Ransom here either that
17:06
Speaker 3: Davidson Iigmanosen is getting driven ten yards down the field,
17:09
Speaker 3: which cuts off his path to really pursue Gabriel. And
17:15
Speaker 3: so you're just seeing like a combination, right, And like,
17:19
Speaker 3: obviously we're picking out bad plays here. I do think
17:22
Speaker 3: there are plays where like Ohio State when they had
17:24
Speaker 3: the numbers, they did pretty well against the run, and
17:28
Speaker 3: you know it.
17:28
Speaker 2: Wasn't all bad.
17:30
Speaker 3: But when you put together this combination of like you're
17:33
Speaker 3: in a scheme deficit and then you make mistakes within it,
17:36
Speaker 3: that's how you get these explosive plays against you.
17:40
Speaker 1: All right, Well, we talked, you've talked a minute ago
17:42
Speaker 1: about how if you kind of if the other team
17:45
Speaker 1: knows what's happening, they can kind of use it against you. Well,
17:47
Speaker 1: here's another example where Oregan was able to take what
17:51
Speaker 1: Ohios it does in certain coverages and make it work
17:55
Speaker 1: against him. This time, Jordan Hancock was the one who
17:57
Speaker 1: got kind of put in a pretty bad spot.
18:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, and okay, so here here we go. This is
18:02
Speaker 3: what I talked about. And I remember you asked me
18:04
Speaker 3: at the time, like was this them being vanilla. I'm like, well,
18:06
Speaker 3: they did this against Missouri, they did this against Michigan.
18:09
Speaker 2: So it's just.
18:11
Speaker 3: I always there are reasons again, so to say it again,
18:16
Speaker 3: like Ohio say it always sets the nickel to the
18:18
Speaker 3: passing to the to the field how they define the
18:21
Speaker 3: field if it's in the middle of the field, But
18:23
Speaker 3: like and here if you're on the hashmark to the
18:25
Speaker 3: wide side, there are reasons to do it. I just
18:29
Speaker 3: I think I don't understand why you do anything all
18:32
Speaker 3: the time regardless, right, Like you just have to change
18:35
Speaker 3: it up sometimes just to change it up. But so
18:37
Speaker 3: you get this formation into like Oregon puts formation into boundary,
18:41
Speaker 3: which just means they put them, you know, their numbers
18:44
Speaker 3: to the to the short side of the field, right, So
18:45
Speaker 3: you got to trips to the boundary, and the result
18:48
Speaker 3: of that is that sunny styles walks out as the
18:53
Speaker 3: will because he's to that side, so he's not an apex.
18:56
Speaker 3: And now you have Jordans to Handcock responsible for the
18:59
Speaker 3: B gasp right, which is between the guard and the tackle.
19:04
Speaker 3: You can see it really well. I included the shot
19:06
Speaker 3: behind them defense as well. And now you've got they
19:10
Speaker 3: played I think a cover three. It's sometimes start to
19:12
Speaker 3: tell with with run plays whether there's cover win or
19:15
Speaker 3: cover three because some kind of single hive that allows
19:18
Speaker 3: Galeb Downs to roll down right.
19:20
Speaker 2: So he's got the sea gaps. You got Jordan Agot
19:22
Speaker 2: for the B gap.
19:23
Speaker 3: Galeb Downs for the sea gap between the outside the tackle.
19:29
Speaker 3: Excuse me, And so when you when you have a
19:31
Speaker 3: poller here, or when you when this guy leads the
19:34
Speaker 3: guard leads on Hancock right, he has to fit inside
19:37
Speaker 3: of him. Downs fits on the other side of them.
19:41
Speaker 3: That's easier so than Ton when you're asking the nickel
19:43
Speaker 3: to get set inside of an offensive guard right, and
19:46
Speaker 3: so Downs goes out outside Hancocks.
19:49
Speaker 2: Driven out of his gap.
19:49
Speaker 3: The game again like also not helped by the fact
19:53
Speaker 3: that Ty Hamilton on this plague just loses the A
19:56
Speaker 3: gap and gets beat. Now I will say I think
20:00
Speaker 3: the defensive tackles overall had plenty of plays I could
20:03
Speaker 3: show you where they controlled the interior and they sort
20:07
Speaker 3: of made up for some of these scheme issues, you know.
20:10
Speaker 3: So I don't think this is like an emblematic issue.
20:13
Speaker 3: I think those defensive tackles help them. Like there were
20:15
Speaker 3: times where like you could tell the difference when they
20:18
Speaker 3: were down a body, but Tyler Williams can close down
20:20
Speaker 3: that backside B gap and take away that like two
20:22
Speaker 3: gap issue we talked about for Cody Simon against Marshall.
20:26
Speaker 2: So but the again, this gets to like.
20:30
Speaker 3: The like the unwillingness or refusal whatever it is to
20:36
Speaker 3: slant or stunt the defensive line. Most of the time,
20:40
Speaker 3: it's just it just kills them because it makes it
20:43
Speaker 3: really predictable for the offense where the defensive line is
20:46
Speaker 3: going to be. And it just they can't take care
20:48
Speaker 3: of these issues, like if you look from the behind
20:51
Speaker 3: the defense, like if Mitchell Melton just gets wide, set
20:54
Speaker 3: out wide, and.
20:55
Speaker 2: It's just easy for the tackle to just push them out.
20:57
Speaker 3: Like if your nickel is set to the field like this,
21:01
Speaker 3: I think you should be checking to We're going to
21:03
Speaker 3: pinch the defensive line. We're going to stunt something that
21:05
Speaker 3: gets our bigger bodies inside to allow Jordan Hancock and
21:10
Speaker 3: Klee Downs to play the football from outside in. There
21:13
Speaker 3: just have to be answers and they just don't have
21:16
Speaker 3: enough of them, and that just leads to these issues
21:17
Speaker 3: where they can stop the run and what I would
21:20
Speaker 3: call fair fight where they have the numbers, but they
21:22
Speaker 3: just have too many plays where they get gashed because
21:25
Speaker 3: of these scheme issues that they can't they don't have
21:28
Speaker 3: answers or solutions too.
21:30
Speaker 1: They did find some solutions eventually in the run game.
21:33
Speaker 1: One of the things that they did that worked was
21:35
Speaker 1: quarter quarter half. But as with pretty much everything on
21:38
Speaker 1: this show, only you give up seven point six yards
21:40
Speaker 1: per play and five yards brought per rush, it didn't
21:43
Speaker 1: work Forever there were there's always a counter punch to
21:46
Speaker 1: your punch. So let's start with the good news on
21:48
Speaker 1: the quarter quarter half and then you can get into
21:50
Speaker 1: the less good news.
21:52
Speaker 2: Yeah.
21:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, I didn't want to believe it totally again that
21:55
Speaker 3: it's the sky's falling, right, So I do think you
22:00
Speaker 3: saw more and more so quarter quarter half where you're
22:04
Speaker 3: playing this like this one where you're playing cover four
22:07
Speaker 3: to the field and cover two to the boundary. You
22:10
Speaker 3: also saw them in response later in the game to
22:13
Speaker 3: some of those formation in the boundary issues playing half
22:17
Speaker 3: quarter quarter or cover eight, which is when now you're
22:20
Speaker 3: playing cover four to the boundary and cover two to
22:23
Speaker 3: the field to give you know, again, I think they're
22:26
Speaker 3: getting bodies and the safeties against the run to the
22:29
Speaker 3: short side with Cover eight.
22:31
Speaker 2: But here, you know, they do some of the things
22:33
Speaker 2: that I'd like to see them do. Right. So the
22:35
Speaker 2: first thing about quarter quarter.
22:37
Speaker 3: Half is it's sort of in some ways like a
22:42
Speaker 3: single high cover three scheme and that you're getting you
22:44
Speaker 3: have another defensive back in the run fit, but it
22:48
Speaker 3: still gives you some of the split safety benefits of
22:51
Speaker 3: like Cover four, you know, keeping in Cover two and
22:53
Speaker 3: keeping like four or three or three or two.
22:55
Speaker 2: So it's you know, it's a.
22:57
Speaker 3: Solid sort of workman scheme, right, But they also do
23:02
Speaker 3: what I just was saying. So like when you watch
23:04
Speaker 3: this play, you obviously have again you have two wide receivers.
23:08
Speaker 3: You have two guys out wide for organ right to
23:10
Speaker 3: the field, which is you know, Oregon RPO threat all
23:15
Speaker 3: over it. So styles is sort of splitting the difference
23:19
Speaker 3: between the tackle and the receivers. And so what they
23:24
Speaker 3: do rather than ask him put him in that conflict.
23:26
Speaker 3: They spike JT. Twomlow inside both defensive ends spike inside
23:31
Speaker 3: of the B gap. Now Styles can play the sea gap.
23:34
Speaker 3: Jordan Hancock to the opposite side can play the sea gap.
23:37
Speaker 3: You can and you'll see on this play they can
23:39
Speaker 3: basically shrin it out right by doing that, and so
23:43
Speaker 3: you'll see, you know, as I said, they had quite
23:45
Speaker 3: a few run plays where they did limit organ and
23:49
Speaker 3: especially like when the defensive tackles can control the Atlanta
23:52
Speaker 3: scrimmage like they do much better here here's a good
23:54
Speaker 3: rep from Ty Hamilton. He's resetting the line of scrimmage
23:57
Speaker 3: against the center when you can see from behind the
23:59
Speaker 3: play Styles is able to force, you know, string it.
24:02
Speaker 2: Out and Cody Simon's able to company it up.
24:05
Speaker 3: So I think, you know, and we can talk about
24:08
Speaker 3: this more like part of my solutions within within the
24:11
Speaker 3: framework of what we have right Like you're not going.
24:13
Speaker 2: To change your entire scheme scheme.
24:15
Speaker 3: I mean, I would like to see more of this,
24:18
Speaker 3: as I said, quarter quarter a half concepts, more of
24:21
Speaker 3: Cover three where you're bringing downs down, you know, things
24:25
Speaker 3: that within the four down scheme that they single gap
24:30
Speaker 3: that they play short of the jack coming out and
24:34
Speaker 3: short of Noel's doing the things he's done in the
24:35
Speaker 3: past with you know, getting a gap and a half
24:39
Speaker 3: from defensive.
24:39
Speaker 2: Linemen mixing up gaps.
24:42
Speaker 3: I just think they need to be gaps sound to
24:44
Speaker 3: start with, and some of these schemes allow you to
24:46
Speaker 3: do it. And obviously the more that they can change
24:51
Speaker 3: up where the gaps that the defensive line is playing,
24:55
Speaker 3: like on this one, the more it's going to help them.
24:58
Speaker 3: I will say though that, like there's other issues for
25:02
Speaker 3: them right on these zone looks, and maybe this is
25:04
Speaker 3: why they were playing so much cover one because again,
25:09
Speaker 3: these are all things we've talked about in the past
25:11
Speaker 3: that have been like issues. So it's not a surprise
25:15
Speaker 3: that a good team, the good coaching staff that is
25:19
Speaker 3: you know, I thought pull Stein was you know, he
25:22
Speaker 3: was reaching. They were reaching deep on Saturday right Oregon, like,
25:25
Speaker 3: especially in the second half, Like they ran the fourth
25:27
Speaker 3: down play where they slipped the tight end out of
25:29
Speaker 3: the backfield. They ran the third and six against Ohio
25:33
Speaker 3: States dime. Look, they ran a crack toss sweep to
25:35
Speaker 3: the boundary. Like these are pretty pretty gutsy calls. And
25:39
Speaker 3: here you get sort of the organ another variation of
25:43
Speaker 3: we're going to purposely put twelve men on the field.
25:45
Speaker 3: We're going to do an on site kick that tries
25:48
Speaker 3: to trilli you're upman in the in the chop stomach
25:51
Speaker 3: like Dylan Gabriel fakes like he's looking to the sideline
25:54
Speaker 3: for the play and they snapped the ball right, and
25:56
Speaker 3: so that's supposed to get you off off guard. So
25:59
Speaker 3: you know, again credit to organ if you or you
26:02
Speaker 3: can say, like Oregon knew they had to pull out
26:05
Speaker 3: all the stops how you want to look at it, right,
26:08
Speaker 3: But like these this like deep breaking in route to
26:13
Speaker 3: the tight end here you just like see too often
26:16
Speaker 3: against Ohio States coverage because they don't they don't carry
26:20
Speaker 3: receivers like we talked about, like if someone releases vertical,
26:23
Speaker 3: they don't run with them in zone. They don't even
26:25
Speaker 3: reroute them. So like you know here Cody Simon kind
26:29
Speaker 3: of pushes the tight end. I mean, I think you
26:31
Speaker 3: would want to see a more aggressive reroute, but I
26:35
Speaker 3: know they don't want to do that because they don't
26:37
Speaker 3: want to lose their like zone integrity. So I know
26:39
Speaker 3: that it's not like that's not on Steinman that's like
26:41
Speaker 3: the scheme, but like they just have the deep safeties
26:44
Speaker 3: there and they're just green grass. And so Dylan Gabriel
26:48
Speaker 3: foray a really good game Saturday, Like I thought he
26:50
Speaker 3: made throws at Frankly, like I was impressed with. I
26:52
Speaker 3: didn't know he had some of those in him, So
26:56
Speaker 3: credit to him.
26:57
Speaker 2: But I do think that.
26:58
Speaker 3: The Ohio States scheme at times allows opposing quarterbacks to
27:02
Speaker 3: get comfortable because they know what the picture is, they
27:05
Speaker 3: know where their reads are, and they can get into
27:08
Speaker 3: a rhythm and.
27:09
Speaker 2: You know, again, like you just got to close down
27:11
Speaker 2: on these routes.
27:12
Speaker 3: And so I'm not saying that plane quarter, quarter a
27:16
Speaker 3: half or any particular concept is going to be a
27:18
Speaker 3: total panacea because I just think there's a series of
27:22
Speaker 3: systemic issues that go together. I just think at a minimum,
27:26
Speaker 3: you kind of have to go back to like we a,
27:28
Speaker 3: we can't give up those big explosive plays and we're
27:31
Speaker 3: gonna you know, in the second half, it certainly wasn't perfect.
27:35
Speaker 3: I mean, Oregon had long drives, but they didn't give
27:38
Speaker 3: up the big plays.
27:39
Speaker 2: They forced a couple of field wals, they forced the
27:41
Speaker 2: fourth down on downs.
27:42
Speaker 3: I certainly thought it was a better performance in the
27:44
Speaker 3: second half than the first. They seemed more comfortable getting
27:48
Speaker 3: lined up. I just think you have to come up
27:51
Speaker 3: with ways a again to like you got to go
27:54
Speaker 3: all your gap integrities covered, so that to me is
27:57
Speaker 3: like got to use more single high zone concepts. You
28:00
Speaker 3: got to remove these man beater conflicts. You need to
28:05
Speaker 3: come up with many ways as possible to allow Caleb
28:07
Speaker 3: Downs to be your answers, because like he did erase
28:12
Speaker 3: a lot of problems for them on Saturday, to the
28:13
Speaker 3: extent he could, Like he can't be everywhere at once, obviously,
28:16
Speaker 3: but I think that he can clean up a lot
28:19
Speaker 3: of things in the box. And then, you know, I
28:21
Speaker 3: just think, on the one hand, I don't I don't
28:24
Speaker 3: think the sky is falling out right like there's still a.
28:27
Speaker 2: Top five, top ten defense.
28:29
Speaker 3: I just think they are limited by some of these
28:31
Speaker 3: scheme choices in terms of their ceiling. And I just
28:34
Speaker 3: think that means that in games like this, you know
28:37
Speaker 3: you're gonna have to score at least thirty plus. You know,
28:40
Speaker 3: if I'm Dank and Chip Kelly, like I'm going into
28:43
Speaker 3: a game against in Oregon thinking I need to score
28:46
Speaker 3: thirty five the next time to win.
28:49
Speaker 2: But I do think there's things they can do.
28:50
Speaker 3: As I said, these things moving the line around that
28:53
Speaker 3: I think they can clean some of this stuff up.
28:55
Speaker 3: And obviously, like yeah, I don't know whether it was overconfidence, whether.
29:00
Speaker 2: Was just film study of scene.
29:01
Speaker 3: Oregan throw a lot of short routes, like you know,
29:03
Speaker 3: you can't have your corners doing that kind of stuff
29:06
Speaker 3: on double moves.
29:08
Speaker 1: Well, we will see whether the Buckeyes can clean some
29:10
Speaker 1: of that stuff up. We will also see whether Ryan
29:12
Speaker 1: Day and Chip Kelly can put up thirty five points.
29:14
Speaker 1: And the next time they have a significant game like this,
29:17
Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking about the fact they put up
29:18
Speaker 1: thirty one points. Pretty good, pretty close, not quite enough,
29:21
Speaker 1: but pretty close. We talk about the offense the next
29:24
Speaker 1: time period. We always do the offense first. The defense
29:27
Speaker 1: has feels like it has been the story for good
29:29
Speaker 1: or for ill this week in Columbus. So started with them.
29:31
Speaker 1: This week we back, have Ross back. You talk about
29:34
Speaker 1: the offense next time, but for now, I want to
29:36
Speaker 1: thank our sponsors. Jefferuby Steahouse, the award winning upscale steakhouse
29:39
Speaker 1: in downtown Columbus, named one of the top fifty steakhouses
29:41
Speaker 1: in America by Food Network. Just go to Jeffruby dot
29:44
Speaker 1: com slash Columbus, check out the menu, and make a
29:47
Speaker 1: preservation today. That will do it for today. Thank you
29:49
Speaker 1: guys all for joining us. Have a great day. We'll
29:51
Speaker 1: talk to you tomorrow.