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Ross Fulton Analysis: It All Starts Up Front For Matt Patricia's Ohio State Defense · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes Tomorrow Morning for Thursday, October ninth. I'm
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  Speaker 1: your host Tom or the Illinois game in two days,
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  Speaker 1: the game against Michigan in fifty one days. Today we're
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  Speaker 1: talking with our buddy Ross Fulton, the ex's and nosguru
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  Speaker 1: at buckeyehuddle dot com. And when Ross's on the show,
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  Speaker 1: we're sponsored by Jeff Rubies of Columbus, the award winning
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  Speaker 1: Upscale steakhouse in downtown Columbus, name one of the top
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  Speaker 1: fifty steakhouses in America by Food Network. Just go to
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  Speaker 1: Jeffruby dot com slash Columbus to check out the menu
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  Speaker 1: and make your preservation. Today, all right, we're gonna be
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  Speaker 1: talking about the Ohio State defense and their performance against
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  Speaker 1: the Minnesota Golden Gophers, and it was really a tale
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  Speaker 1: of two games. The first game was Minnesota's opening drive,
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  Speaker 1: which they went down the field and ended up kicking
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  Speaker 1: a field goal, and then the rest of the game
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  Speaker 1: in which they did basically nothing. So we're gonna be
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  Speaker 1: talking about that, the first drive versus the rest of
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  Speaker 1: the game, what changed there, and also just where it
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  Speaker 1: all starts, and that is upfront for the Buckeyes and
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  Speaker 1: some of the creative things the Buck guys are doing
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  Speaker 1: under new defensive coordinator Matt Patricia.
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  Speaker 2: Ross.
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  Speaker 1: Let's start on that opening drive. Minnesota had more success
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  Speaker 1: in the opening drive throwing the ball than they did
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  Speaker 1: in basically the entire rest of the game combined. So
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  Speaker 1: what was it that allowed them to get off to
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  Speaker 1: a little bit of a start, you know, and not
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  Speaker 1: even a fast start, just a medium start when they
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  Speaker 1: were basically stuck in the mud for the rest of
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  Speaker 1: the game.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean they kind of had a game plan
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  Speaker 2: of like getting.
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  Speaker 3: Twelve personnel to get Ohio State to match you with
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  Speaker 3: three linebackers like you'll see here, and like then run
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  Speaker 3: sort of these quick like spacing routes or quick slants
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  Speaker 3: and you know, kind of game five four to five
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  Speaker 3: yards at a time to keep the chains moving, like
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  Speaker 3: get underneath these Ohio State zones, you know, which that's
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  Speaker 3: pretty much what they did with the one exception of
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  Speaker 3: the seam route to the tight end. We're uh, these
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  Speaker 3: are like again you sort of like and we're gonna
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  Speaker 3: talk about this, like all these different four to three
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  Speaker 3: looks Ohio State used under Matt Patricia on Saturday, But
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  Speaker 3: you kind of have a six to one. Here you're
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  Speaker 3: gonna get like your standard cover three from this, and
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  Speaker 3: you know they just kind of hit the little sit
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  Speaker 3: route underneath that, right, and it's like not a big deal,
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  Speaker 3: but you know, if you like are one hundred percent
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  Speaker 3: efficient on those, like you can get down the field
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  Speaker 3: and like, that's very hard to sustain in a game,
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  Speaker 3: as we'll discuss, and obviously Minnesota was not able to
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  Speaker 3: but for like pulling out their opening series, they were
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  Speaker 3: able to do.
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  Speaker 1: So, Yeah, I was kind of surprised when Minnesota won
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  Speaker 1: the toss and took the ball. You almost never see that,
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  Speaker 1: especially in the road, and it was like, Okay, they
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  Speaker 1: obviously feel like they have something here to get off
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  Speaker 1: to a good start. And it ended up, you know,
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  Speaker 1: mostly mostly working. They got some points on the board
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  Speaker 1: and but not everything worked, even on that opening drive.
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  Speaker 1: This next one, this is one where I watching, especially
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  Speaker 1: the end zone camera, how fast the back end crashes
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  Speaker 1: on this because this was a run play and it
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  Speaker 1: would it looked like, oh, maybe there's something there, and
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  Speaker 1: then boy, the buck eye, the back end of that
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  Speaker 1: Buckeye defense gets there so fast and so violently, and
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  Speaker 1: it's like, you see why this team is so good.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think the harbinger of doom from
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  Speaker 3: Minnesota even on that first drive, as they had zero
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  Speaker 3: success running the football and they never really did the
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  Speaker 3: entire game. But like sort of my theme of today is, like,
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  Speaker 3: you know, the area where you really see the most
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  Speaker 3: difference between Jim Knowles and Matt Patricia in terms of
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  Speaker 3: what Knowles did last year and Patricia this year is
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  Speaker 3: not so much like in personnel in the coverage schemes.
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  Speaker 3: It's just like the variety of front formationally and all
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  Speaker 3: the things that they throw at opposing offensive lines and
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  Speaker 3: run games and like so you know here again, so
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  Speaker 3: now this is the opening series. I have States in
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  Speaker 3: the four two five, except they're in a three high right,
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  Speaker 3: and so now you basically have you know, recent styles
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  Speaker 3: are still in sort of like those outside linebacker positions
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  Speaker 3: we saw in the last clip, but now instead of
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  Speaker 3: a linebacker, it's Caleb Downs in that middle hole role.
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  Speaker 3: And again, like just like last year, though, we see
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  Speaker 3: you know, a lot of spilling going on it and
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  Speaker 3: that you know, it's I know there's been a lot
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  Speaker 3: of discussion of RVL Reese this year, but this was
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  Speaker 3: a game where like Caleb Downs is like, no, I'm
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  Speaker 3: still definitely here. And so you know, Reese does a
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  Speaker 3: great job. This is single back power. He spills it.
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  Speaker 3: Kenyatta Jackson uses a heavy tech technique we talked about,
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  Speaker 3: like he gets to the inside the b gap, resteps
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  Speaker 3: it down into the sea gap. They spill the ball
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  Speaker 3: out and so David Siniguinosen and downs are there and
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  Speaker 3: so yeah, I mean one of the many things that
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  Speaker 3: makes this High State defense really good.
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  Speaker 2: And like PJ.
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  Speaker 3: Fleck was over the moon and his praise of the
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  Speaker 3: High State defense worth listening to is just like how
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  Speaker 3: well they the secondary tackles, Like how aggressive they are
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  Speaker 3: coming down hill, and then like how sounded tacklers they
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  Speaker 3: are all right.
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  Speaker 1: So the end of that first drive, Minnesota gets down
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  Speaker 1: into the red zone. This is one of these great
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  Speaker 1: plays where there's sort of a playfake to No One
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  Speaker 1: and they sort of bootleg and you the coverage in
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  Speaker 1: the red zone was really good, and we have talked
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  Speaker 1: about that a bunch. Where you're down in the red area,
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  Speaker 1: there's just not as much area to cover and not
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  Speaker 1: as much space to space out. So not a huge
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  Speaker 1: surprise that most of the guys were open. There was
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  Speaker 1: one guy on this one where it looked like maybe
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  Speaker 1: there was a slow, slight window to hit someone in
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  Speaker 1: the back corner of the end zone, but not a
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  Speaker 1: whole lot of space there and ended up sort of
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  Speaker 1: a throwaway.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, this was kind of like the beginning of the
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  Speaker 3: end for Minnesota, as we've discussed, So obviously we'll run
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  Speaker 3: more man coverage down in the red zone, and like
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  Speaker 3: this is sort of like you're faking this, sort of
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  Speaker 3: like Spider why Banana and John Gruten parlance right where
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  Speaker 3: you roll out and you hit that flower out, but
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  Speaker 3: it's actually a tight end throwback play. Minnesota trying to
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  Speaker 3: run this twice and both times it was just like
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  Speaker 3: completely stuffed out right, and so again like Kalem Downs
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  Speaker 3: is responsible for that. They kind of try to even
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  Speaker 3: hide that tight end like in between the tackle and
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  Speaker 3: then the on the line tight end and he sort
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  Speaker 3: of comes down like he's he's blocking and then releases in.
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  Speaker 2: You know, Downs is right there.
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  Speaker 3: So like we've seen a few times, like another aspect
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  Speaker 3: of this defense has really got is their very sound
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  Speaker 3: and like a starts with Downs, like he sniffs this
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  Speaker 3: stuff out all the time, but like you know, you
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  Speaker 3: just don't see them biting on stuff a lot, and
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  Speaker 3: so you know, this basically turns into a throwaway, which
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  Speaker 3: leads to three third long which has you know, they
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  Speaker 3: have to settle for a field goal.
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  Speaker 2: And as I said, that was sort of the beginning
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  Speaker 2: of the end.
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  Speaker 3: So you know, hoping to catch how I say, on
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  Speaker 3: their heels and get an early score, and like they
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  Speaker 3: just the defense does not allow that.
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  Speaker 1: And you've mentioned that was sort of the beginning of
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  Speaker 1: the end for the Minnesota offense. And we've got three
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  Speaker 1: more plays and it doesn't get any better. So this
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  Speaker 1: first one, this is one of these different defensive looks
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  Speaker 1: where you've got the three defense, three down linemen all
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  Speaker 1: pinched in inside the tackles, which then when you're trying
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  Speaker 1: to run the ball inside, it doesn't leave you a
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  Speaker 1: whole lot of room to run.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean again, so like as I alluded to,
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  Speaker 3: we I think Ohio State used three linebackers more in
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  Speaker 3: this game than I have seen thus far this year
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  Speaker 3: from them, you know, particularly with Minnesota using quite a
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  Speaker 3: few multiple tight end sets. But again, like the difference
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  Speaker 3: is like last year or under Noles, they would just
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  Speaker 3: generally run like a four to three over and that
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  Speaker 3: third linebacker was coming in as a sand to replace
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  Speaker 3: the nickel on Saturday.
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  Speaker 2: They were just like at least four or five different fronts.
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  Speaker 3: And how say use with three linebackers right, So here
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  Speaker 3: they're in a bear front, so you've got a head
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  Speaker 3: up nose, you've got two four eyes, and you have
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  Speaker 3: the two linebackers stacked. Caleb Downs is coming on a
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  Speaker 3: sea gap blitz. You have Reese as an outside linebacker essentially, right,
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  Speaker 3: but like as a show again, like they ran, you know,
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  Speaker 3: in addition to a standard four downlook, they use more
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  Speaker 3: of like an OK three four front where the defensive
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  Speaker 3: ends are more like in five techniques wider.
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  Speaker 2: They use a six to one that I'll show here.
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  Speaker 2: It's just lots of different looks for the deep the offense.
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  Speaker 2: So again, like even though the personnel is staying the same,
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  Speaker 2: you're getting a lot more of, you know, just variety
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  Speaker 2: that teams have to deal with.
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  Speaker 1: This is this next one is both variety and also disguise,
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  Speaker 1: which is somebody we've talked about a bunch we've talked about,
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  Speaker 1: especially disguising on the back end. This is a little
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  Speaker 1: bit of disguising on the front end where you've got
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  Speaker 1: seven guys showing pressure on the line and three of
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  Speaker 1: them are going to drop, but you have no idea
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  Speaker 1: which the three are, and that that makes blocking assignments
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  Speaker 1: and also reading the deep, reading the pass coverage pretty difficult.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. Again, this is sort of like a standard what
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  Speaker 3: Noel's like or what Matt Patricia likes to do on
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  Speaker 3: third down, right, was showing this walked up pressure. Uh there,
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  Speaker 3: Actually this is like not this is just your standard.
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  Speaker 3: You end up getting a rush from just your four
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  Speaker 3: down linemen. It's cover one. And like so one of
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  Speaker 3: the responses after that first drive is like they played
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  Speaker 3: a lot more one rat right, That just means cover
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  Speaker 3: one with Caleb Downs walking down is like the low
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  Speaker 3: hole player. So you saw a lot more of that.
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  Speaker 3: You also like saw them tighten up even when they
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  Speaker 3: were in like Cover three, tighten up a little bit
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  Speaker 3: underneath on those routes, and like once that happened, and
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  Speaker 3: like Phil Lindsay had, he had nowhere to go with
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  Speaker 3: the football, right, just like this one. I mean, they
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  Speaker 3: couldn't create separation and he basically has to try to
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  Speaker 3: get out of there, throws it away, gets hit. They're
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  Speaker 3: just like and in Minnesota as I said, like they
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  Speaker 3: couldn't sustain like hitting those you know, the next drive
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  Speaker 3: after that first one, they tried to run a similar
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  Speaker 3: space you're at. I stayed like was in cover three
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  Speaker 3: in a little tighter coverage, and you know, they misfired, right,
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  Speaker 3: And it's just like hard to see, as I said,
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  Speaker 3: the hardest sustained four yard throws like play after play
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  Speaker 3: after play. So the combination of the two things. And
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  Speaker 3: once that happened, like then they just as I said,
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  Speaker 3: they nuked the Minnesota run game and they basically couldn't
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  Speaker 3: move the football.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and they this next one is great and a
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  Speaker 1: great example of nuking the Minnesota run game. I mean
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  Speaker 1: after the game, PJ. Fleck during the postgame press conference
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  Speaker 1: basically just did the shrug emoji and said like, yeah, man,
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  Speaker 1: what do you want us to do? Did you? Did
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  Speaker 1: you see those guys and how big and fest they
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  Speaker 1: were and how well coached they were. And this was
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  Speaker 1: another example where Minnesota. You know, Minnesota over the years
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  Speaker 1: has has a reputation for being able to run the ball,
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  Speaker 1: even against difficult defenses to run the ball against. They
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  Speaker 1: couldn't get anything going. This is a great example here
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  Speaker 1: where you think, Okay, we're going to run the ball.
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  Speaker 1: You know they very clearly. You can tell where they're
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  Speaker 1: trying to run the ball in this next one. Nope,
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  Speaker 1: and then you cut back and nope, there's two one
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  Speaker 1: block guys there too. That is that's a pretty good
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  Speaker 1: summation of what that night went like for them.
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  Speaker 3: Exactly like and so again just talking about like front variety,
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  Speaker 3: like we've talked, we've seen obviously running six to one,
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  Speaker 3: but it's based like the Penny front right where you're
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  Speaker 3: like they're in three linebackers, but they have the nose
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  Speaker 3: covering up the center. This is like an old school
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  Speaker 3: six to one where like the Philadelphia Eagles used to
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  Speaker 3: run like in the nineteen fifties. It just like the
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  Speaker 3: variety that Patricia brings to the fronts because you're like,
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  Speaker 3: it's a four to three, but instead of like the
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  Speaker 3: four to three like odd you know over front where
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  Speaker 3: you have the three.
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  Speaker 2: Linebackers off the ball.
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  Speaker 3: Here again you have like recent styles on front and
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  Speaker 3: like against zone runs, there's just no for the football
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  Speaker 3: to go right, so it's an outside zone. Every GAP's
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  Speaker 3: counted for the running back tries to cut back. Really
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  Speaker 3: nice play by Will Smith, who I think is sort
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  Speaker 3: of like one of those like yeoman effort guys under
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  Speaker 3: the radar, Like you know, I put Lorenzo Styles in
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  Speaker 3: that category. Two we obviously like with Styles we talked
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  Speaker 3: about like the long pass and so you but I
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  Speaker 3: think about like when you think about what he really
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  Speaker 3: does for his team is which is function as a safety.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, he's as much a deep defender as he
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  Speaker 3: is in the slot guy, and which allows downs to
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  Speaker 3: move around a lot, and you know he's ready and willing.
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  Speaker 2: To trigger and come down field, you know.
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  Speaker 3: Similarly, like I think Will Smith has played pretty well
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  Speaker 3: this year in sort of an unheralded role.
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  Speaker 1: All right, Well, he may be a little bit unheralded,
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  Speaker 1: Matt Patricia, He's plenty heralded, but he has definitely earned
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  Speaker 1: it so far this year with Ohio State. They will
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  Speaker 1: get another test this weekend against Illinois in Champagne. Luke
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  Speaker 1: Oldmeyer and the Illinois offense a little more explosive than
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  Speaker 1: you probably think of for the Illinois offense traditionally. But
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  Speaker 1: Buck guys will get a test there and after that
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  Speaker 1: we will get a chance to talk to Ross about
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  Speaker 1: that next week, so we'll be talking about that with
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  Speaker 1: him next week. But between now and then, you should
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: treat yourself a nice dinner at Jeff Ruby's, probably offering
• 12:16
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  Speaker 1: Just go to jeffruby dot com slash Columbus to check
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  Speaker 1: out the menu and make a reservation today.
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  Speaker 2: That will do it for today.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you guys all for joining us.
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  Speaker 2: Have a great day.
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  Speaker 1: We'll talk to you tomorrow.