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Ross Fulton Analysis: Kyle McCord And The Improving Ohio State Passing Game · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Wednesday, October fourth. I'm your host,
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  tom Or. The Maryland game is in three days. The game against Michigan
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  in fifty two days. All right, we got to talk one more time
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  about the Notre Dame game. I know the Maryland game is in three days,
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  but there has been a lot to talk about, and our buddy Ross
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  Fulton has joined us. I think this is the fourth time we've talked about
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  something related to that game. But man o, man Ross, it was
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  quite a game. There was a lot of drama, and there was a
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  lot I think get maybe stressed in a few different ways. They hadn't been
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  stressed before. So there's a little more stuff to talk about. Let's start
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  right at the beginning of the game. We're gonna talk. We're talking in
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  the passing attack this week or today at least, and you know, let's
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  start right off the top of the game. First drive. This is a
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  third down play and I'm sure everyone's gonna remember this as the one where the
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  ref got absolutely leveled. So all right, let's start with this. It's
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  a nice completion. Tocade Stover. Were they intentionally using the ref as a
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  pick on this one or was that just like a happy accident. I think
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  that's up in stance. But you know, you do know that ref is
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  going to be there in the middle of the field, and so hey,
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  you know, use us what you got. But yeah, I mean,
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  I think the bye weeek is a good opportunity here to sort of assess,
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  you know, Kyle McCord specifically the passing game. More generally, you know,
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  I think what's working, what can improve on in this play, even
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  putting aside the ref. The rep pick is a good encapsulation, so you
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  know, to back it up a bit, there's a third down play.
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  Notre Dame on the night ran quite a bit of man coverage, but they
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  would run as they did hear as of Tampa two on third down, So
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  you see, I would say using a concept against that like this another Ryan
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  Days. We saw our friend Justin Whitlock noted postgame Ryan Day use a lot
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  of air rate concepts against their names. Sell a lot all Curl, a
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  lot of white cross mesh routs. This is all Curl. And I do
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  think this play sort of and you know, a lot of motion to diagnose
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  whether manners out, but kind of company encompasses both some good things about calm
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  record and maybe like an area where like there's some room for improvements. So
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  like right away, you know, cover two, he sees the Mike Bak
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  kids skates sober pretty first down. You know, he's very good at like
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  going through his progression quickly. He gets the ball off quickly. He does
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  not bloy it, which I think generally is a good thing. However,
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  there's some examples, and this is one of them to some extent, and
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  we'll show another one later keeping for but like there are times where I and
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  you know, some of this is just probably feel plan position, but like
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  he holds it a little bit longer, like Morvin Harrison in particular as someone
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  who's suffering a little bit from this tendency because they tend to use Harrison on
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  keep for prowns take bit more time. So like you see here, like
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  yes, he's sober for a short completion, terms in a bigger one because
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  of the rep but like if you waited to set hit longer, Harrison comes
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  up and on a deep and so you know there's some in the bad.
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  I don't think you want to discourage a young quarterback from you know, getting
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  the ball out and obviously down but like it's something where you know, it's
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  it's maybe limiting their exist the pack, all right, And I have a
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  feeling that this next one is one of the other ones you were talking about.
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  They're sort of in reference to, you know, maybe waiting just a
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  hair longer to let something come up and downfield. This isn't the second quarter
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  you're gonna see Calmo cored take a look downfield. It looks like it kind
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  of pumps a little bit, like maybe he's thinking about it, and then
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  he decides no, you know, discretion is the better pattern. Part of
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  Valor tucks. It runs, has a nice little you know, a nice
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  little pickup gets you know, maybe five yards something like that. But you
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  know, I'm getting the sense that we might be might be able to talk
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  about another opportunity that was downfield that maybe just if you just wait another second
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  or so, it's you got a bigger, bigger play than five yards exactly.
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  So he had a couple of these, particularly earlier in the game.
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  I don't know if coincidence not. They came up when Ohio State did some
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  different things with personnel to get some matchups. So earlier drive they had one
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  where they ran a mesh on third down, they put Trayvon Henderson. They
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  basically flipped Travy on Henderson and a Mecca Boo guts such that Henderson ran the
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  shallow cross and a Buca ran a quick flap route and I frankly think both
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  were open and McCord didn't pull the trigger here. Similarly, so they do
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  a you know, a short motion such that Harrison starts out on the outside
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  and becomes the slot receiver, and they stack and they just do this.
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  It's just some window dressing to run, which is another Grand Day stable,
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  which is a sale concept. So outside receiver goes vertical, the slot receiver
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  runs a deep out, and then you have a third receiver coming underneath in
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  the flat. And you know, as you can see is particularly from the
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  replays that we're helpfully provided for this play from the game, the Harrison is
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  open like that, that's open out of his break. You know, I
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  don't know if McCord maybe felt a little bit of the interior pressure and decided
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  he couldn't step into the throw, but you know, I just think that
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  these are that the players are again where I think there's there's some room for
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  improvement pushing the football down the field, which you know, I think is
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  somewhat responsible for Harrison's you know, relative lack of production comparative to some expectations,
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  Like I do think you know, there are Notre Dame. Definitely there
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  were times where they bracketed him. Uh. You know, he's had some
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  unfortunate situations between the Indiana game where he's going out of bounds and the rep
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  said they were wrong about that. I think in this game, in the
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  Notre Dame game, that cad should not have been overturned. Putting all these
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  things together, but I do think there's some some additional opportunities downfield that they
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  did not hit. However, you know, I think McCord there's good news
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  from same perspectives. I think you continue to see the signs of improvement.
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  That's both game and the game and even within game. Obviously, as you
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  know occurred in this game, and he made it happen when when he needed
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  to, obviously, but one example of him making it happen when he needed
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  to, and I mean really needed to, was on that last drive of
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  the game, it's fourth and seven. He throws it to Julian Fleming and
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  he does one of my least favorite things for any college football quarterback to do,
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  which is throw it short of the sticks on fourth down. But he
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  threw it in exactly the right spot where he gave Fleming the chance to kind
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  of keep going. He didn't if he had thrown it, you know,
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  just hadn't led him the way he did, he probably gets stopped short of
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  the sticks. Instead, he hits Fleming and stride. Fleming picks up the
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  first down. And I don't want to say the rest is history, because
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  we've got two more places from that drive to talk about. But before we
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  get to those two plays, let's talk about what was a little bit close
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  for comfort, get it picking up a fourth and seven. Yeah, I
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  mean, you know, I think that they got what they wanted here,
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  right, And if you go back and watch the game, like you can
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  see Ryan Day on the sidelines before this play talking to Julian Fleming, I
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  think they knew that's where the ball would likely go. They got the match
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  that they wanted. So again, notre names and cover one's turning another mesh
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  concept. So again, there are complaints, you know, generalized complaints about
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  the play call, and I guess that always happens when there's not as many
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  points scored. But like, obviously he's a lot of really solid passing concepts
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  in this game. And this is another example, Like they know they're gonna
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  get cover one, they run this at a deeper though depth to get the
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  rub they want because because they're in this bunch set to the boundary, Notre
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  Dame has to Basically it's called playing locking levels. So you'll see like the
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  three d friensive backs are at different levels so that they don't run into each
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  other. But by doing that, that means that Flemming, when he runs
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  a shout across the Notre Dame corner, has to chase him from death.
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  So that gives you the separation you need. And then obviously Harrison's route puts
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  a pick on him, and so you know, yes, it's sure the
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  sticks a little bit, but Flemming is big and strong, and obviously McCord
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  put in the right spot. And like again, so when you're talking about
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  like again, the record really on these like intermediate routes is really strong,
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  Like he will deliver it right on the right spot, hit an earlier one
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  like on a big third down to Meca book on a knife concept a little
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  you know, slant underneath the vertical route where he like put it right on
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  the money before Notre Dame on a creeper pressure trying to drop into this sound.
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  So like you see him particularly on these or like the Xavier Johnson where
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  he quickly read that like Notre Dame was blitzeing and he got it right to
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  him. Like I think there's you know, he provides his receivers a lot
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  of opportunities for runs after the catching and gets the ball out, which is
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  again largely good thing. You know, He's not like someone who's he's not
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  Patrick Mahomes or Caleb Williams. It's gonna like improvised in the pocket a bunch
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  like he did make some plays getting out of trouble and staying up. But
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  you know, I think he knows that his strength is and uh, you
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  know, trying to diagnose what's going on and getting the football out all right.
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  And then next up, we're gonna we're gonna just move a little,
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  We're gonna move you a little further in the action, as they say in
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  those Big ten Football in sixty kind of shows. Next later in this drive,
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  this is another one where they hit. This is a nice throw.
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  Marvin Harrison makes a great play. This is one where I was watching through
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  the camera lens and he through it and I'm going, who on earth is
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  he throwing it too? And then Marvin Harrison goes flying in like a like
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  a superhero, makes a really nice catch down inside the fifteen that helps set
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  up the winning score. Boy, you know this is this is one of
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  those cases where anytime you can throw the ball to Mervin Harrison, good things
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  are probably going to happen. Yeah. And the good thing about these clips,
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  they're they're serving multiple purposes for me, right, So I get to
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  I get to show some of the concepts that I say was using throughout the
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  game, as well as you know McCord and the offensive development. So again
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  mentioned earlier, why cross, So there's another white cross and Notre Dame is
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  actually in a cover three here, and so the principal read you can see
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  from McCord how he's has pointed he's actually his number one read is two a
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  Meca book on that's it's called Wye Cross, but it's like a deeper crossing
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  route, and he sees that Notre Dames basically has like two buzz defenders like
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  so both their saint he's dropp into this middle zone right around the twenty yard
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  line and so there basically expect you know how to say, to target them
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  addle of the field in this way. So McCord does a nice job working
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  back to this deep dig round to Harrison, which is basically an add on
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  to the route. It's not kind of the principal read. And so again
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  yeah, and then he obviously fits it in there, you know, and
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  Harrison makes a great catch even though he had a bum ankle. And so
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  again you know you see that development, you know for a young quarterback,
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  like obviously things to improve on. But it's not like he's locking onto receivers
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  or forcing the football. I mean there's you know, a couple of throws
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  that he maybe forced it, but he is he is trying to find the
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  open receiver, you know, almost so fault. There's probably times where he
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  could throw it up to Marvin Harrison and you know, make a play.
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  But I think he's he's very focused on, you know, figuring out what
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  the defense is giving him and and taking the football there. And you know,
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  also I should add that for you know, as much as focus there's
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  been in the run game like dolphinsivelign did a nice job and pass protection for
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  the most part. You know, Notre Dame throws a bunch of pressures out,
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  particularly in this last drive, different types of you know, four and
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  five man pressures, and yeah, there's obviously some pressure. But I thought,
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  oh, I say, did a night job handling it overall. And
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  another spot Worldhouse State did a great job handling the pressure. It was the
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  play that got it down to the one yard line. That was. That
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  was about the most big boy throw I think you saw Kyle McCord make all
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  night long, and he did it in a real big boy spot too,
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  where they would you know, you're you're in the final seconds of the game.
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  You absolutely had drive the ball down the field to set yourself up to
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  get a couple of cracks at the end zone. I knew that, which
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  means Notre Dame knew that. And Kyle McCord still found in Mecca Obuca down
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  there. This was This was maybe the single biggest play of the game for
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  Ohio States to walk us through it. Yeah, absolutely again, you know,
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  another Bryan Day, I say, favorite concepts. You had all articles
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  here and you know again that the third that obviously days pointing this out,
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  others pointed out the key for both with both the book game and McCord is
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  they let his buga settles down and McCourt does not lead him into the coverage.
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  You know, at first I think he was looking at Stover actually down
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  the scene, but he got rerouted and so he again worked his way over.
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  But yeah, I mean these are just straight there and the question situations,
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  And obviously again these are examples as well of him pushing the football down
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  the field vertically more and you know, so to the extent you can do
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  that, I think that's going to really open up things in the offense.
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  All right, So we we already talked about some of the short yardage running
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  situations. So we we've talked about the winning touchdown already. You can go
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  back and find that on one of the previous episodes of this show. And
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  if you hear if you've heard us talking about clips and you're listening to this
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  on the podcast and going what are they talking about? Well, good news.
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  You can find all of these on our YouTube channel at YouTube dot com
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  slash Bucket Huddle. We've included some of the highlights replays different angles to kind
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  of show you really what Ross is talking about, so you can really understand
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  better what we're what we're breaking down here. Uh. That's so. That's
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  our YouTube channel, YouTube dot com slash Bucket Huddle And if you want to
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  get an early look at these I have, we tend to try to record
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  these a day or two early so we can post them on the huddle board,
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  which is members only at buckeyehetdle dot com. You can get a chance
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  to see this a little bit early and then get a chance to ask Ross
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  questions. We've got Ross and Justin and Mikey and Devin, all of our
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  xs, and those guys tend to jump in those in those threads and answer
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  questions, and you know, kind of the goal is to make you a
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  smarter football fan, help you understand what you're watching a little bit more.
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  So then you can, you know, you can talk to your friends about
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  why Cross at tailgates or as you're watching the game in your house and they
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  can go, wait, what what did you Where did you hear that?
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  And you can say, oh, I I have a smart, smart football
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  friend named Ross and he told me all about it. So you can find
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  us at buckeyehetdle dot com. You can find us at YouTube dot com slash
• 13:41
  Buckeye Huddle. So hopefully you guys are enjoying these as much as I'm enjoying
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  putting these together for you. And we're putting in Ross and Russ and I
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  working together and put these put these all together. So that will do it
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  for today. Thank you guys all for joining us. Ever a great day.
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  We'll talk to you tomorrow