Latest / Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning / Scheme Insider: How Matt Patricia Has Improved Ohio State's Run Defense
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Thursday, October 22nd. I'm
- 0:03Speaker 1: your host, Tom Orr. The USC game in nine days,
- 0:06Speaker 1: the game against Michigan in 37 days. Today's episode presented
- 0:09Speaker 1: by our friends at Jeff Ruby's of Columbus, proudly offering
- 0:11Speaker 1: nationally acclaimed USDA prime steaks, seafood and sushi, impeccable service,
- 0:15Speaker 1: live entertainment, and an attention to detail that is simply unmatched.
- 0:18Speaker 1: Just go to jeffruby.com slash Columbus to check out the
- 0:21Speaker 1: menu and make a reservation today. Today is going to
- 0:24Speaker 1: be one of our Scheme Insider episodes. We're going to
- 0:26Speaker 1: welcome in Michael Pettit. He is our defensive specialist. This
- 0:30Speaker 1: show is going to focus just on the Ohio State
- 0:32Speaker 1: run defense. Guess what tomorrow's show is going to focus on? Yes,
- 0:35Speaker 1: you got it. The Ohio State pass defense. The good
- 0:40Speaker 1: news is that there's pretty much good news on both
- 0:43Speaker 1: sides of that, on the run defense and the pass defense. Michael,
- 0:48Speaker 1: looking at the run defense.
- 0:51Speaker 1: It has felt like they have just kind of consistently
- 0:53Speaker 1: gotten better all season. And Matt Patricia is always very
- 0:57Speaker 1: upbeat when we talk to him. We got a chance
- 0:58Speaker 1: to talk to him on Tuesday. He was once again,
- 1:00Speaker 1: very upbeat. He talked, you know, the first name he
- 1:03Speaker 1: mentioned when he was talking about how well they've played
- 1:05Speaker 1: was Edward Houston. Jay Timmons came up as well, but
- 1:09Speaker 1: it just feels like, man, they have taken some really
- 1:12Speaker 1: tangible steps on defense since the start of the season
- 1:16Speaker 1: to improve in a lot of areas.
- 1:20Speaker 2: Yeah, it's pretty amazing, honestly. I mean, it's tough thinking
- 1:24Speaker 2: back to that Texas game and thinking that this is
- 1:26Speaker 2: the same defense, especially thinking this is the same defensive
- 1:30Speaker 2: line and stuff like that. I mean, Edrick Houston, he's
- 1:34Speaker 2: been phenomenal. We'll talk about him today. He's got some
- 1:37Speaker 2: highlights on here. But the entire defensive line has really
- 1:42Speaker 2: taken a step forward. The linebackers are also playing better.
- 1:46Speaker 2: And I think they're kind of like settling into a scheme.
- 1:49Speaker 2: You know, early on, I was pretty critical of the
- 1:51Speaker 2: scheme at times. And, you know, admittedly, I think some
- 1:55Speaker 2: of that on my part was like, they're doing some
- 1:59Speaker 2: stuff that I'm not used to seeing. And I had
- 2:01Speaker 2: to make sure that I understood it fully. And I
- 2:05Speaker 2: think I've got a better understanding on it now. And
- 2:07Speaker 2: I also think there's been some other tweaks that have helped.
- 2:10Speaker 2: But yeah, this defense has just gotten so much better.
- 2:13Speaker 2: And obviously the run defense is gotten a lot better. But,
- 2:17Speaker 2: you know, really running past the events have been really good.
- 2:21Speaker 2: I'm pretty happy about where things are at right now.
- 2:25Speaker 1: So on this show, we're going to be looking at
- 2:27Speaker 1: seven different plays, and it's sort of a combination of
- 2:30Speaker 1: different coverages that they've been working in and different schemes
- 2:32Speaker 1: they've been working in, as well as some different types
- 2:35Speaker 1: of runs that they've been going up against. And this
- 2:37Speaker 1: is going to be mostly a good vibes show for you,
- 2:40Speaker 1: so you can enjoy that. We're going to start with
- 2:43Speaker 1: Tampa 2, and this is one of these things where
- 2:45Speaker 1: we're Generally, when we talk about Tampa 2, that's a
- 2:49Speaker 1: sort of back-end pass coverage kind of thing. So when
- 2:51Speaker 1: you're in that defense, you think, okay, maybe you're a
- 2:53Speaker 1: little more vulnerable against the run. They were able to
- 2:56Speaker 1: be pretty effective against the run in that as well.
- 2:59Speaker 2: Yeah, so this clip is a good look, this diagram
- 3:03Speaker 2: and this clip, it's a good look at what this
- 3:05Speaker 2: defensive structure is now. They've got three defensive tackles on
- 3:09Speaker 2: the field, usually two four-eyes, and then a nose tackle,
- 3:13Speaker 2: who they sometimes play in a zero-tech right over the center.
- 3:16Speaker 2: Sometimes they'll shade them as a one technique. A stand-up
- 3:19Speaker 2: defensive end, usually to the boundary, and then they've got
- 3:23Speaker 2: a flex linebacker to the field. It's not quite close
- 3:28Speaker 2: enough to the line to be what I would consider
- 3:31Speaker 2: a stand-up defensive end, but certainly not in an off-ball
- 3:35Speaker 2: linebacker position either. And it's usually Christian Allegro or Riley
- 3:39Speaker 2: Patajan playing there. You've got your off-ball linebacker. And you've
- 3:43Speaker 2: got three high safeties. Earl Little is the safety who
- 3:48Speaker 2: plays that pole runner spot in the middle of the field.
- 3:50Speaker 2: And so he's kind of in a position to fill
- 3:55Speaker 2: against the run as needed. And that's kind of one
- 3:58Speaker 2: of the keys to this. I think, first of all,
- 4:00Speaker 2: they're only using odd spacing now for the most part.
- 4:04Speaker 2: when they go to this three high package, which is
- 4:06Speaker 2: a lot better, like earlier in the year, they were
- 4:08Speaker 2: using both odd and even spacing, but I think using
- 4:12Speaker 2: odd spacing is best if you're going to use this
- 4:15Speaker 2: approach and they're just executing better. So like right here, Indiana,
- 4:20Speaker 2: you get a good look at the Tampa two coverage
- 4:22Speaker 2: they're running is Indiana's running an ISO draw play, but
- 4:26Speaker 2: this is a great rep from, you know, Riley Pettijohn
- 4:29Speaker 2: really stands out in this rep to me and the
- 4:31Speaker 2: defensive tackles do well. So Indiana runs, because it's a draw,
- 4:34Speaker 2: you get a good look at the initial pass drops,
- 4:37Speaker 2: but the defense reacts so quickly, and this play is
- 4:43Speaker 2: essentially stopped for nothing. But I think just the wide
- 4:46Speaker 2: view of this play is a pretty good look at
- 4:48Speaker 2: the overall kind of structure of this defense as it
- 4:50Speaker 2: currently stands.
- 4:53Speaker 1: All right, next up, we're going to watch them try
- 4:55Speaker 1: and stop Indiana's inside zone, and this is one of
- 4:58Speaker 1: these plays where We've talked a bunch about gaps and
- 5:02Speaker 1: do they have all the gaps covered earlier in this year?
- 5:04Speaker 1: And there was a lot of questions about, okay, are
- 5:09Speaker 1: they doing it correctly? What's the scheme here? Do you
- 5:12Speaker 1: have all the gaps covered? This is one where you
- 5:16Speaker 1: watch from the end zone view and it's like, yep,
- 5:17Speaker 1: you can see exactly what they're trying to do. And
- 5:19Speaker 1: it's like, oh, there's a gap. And then boom, there's
- 5:21Speaker 1: a little to wrap them up and make a stop
- 5:24Speaker 1: for not much.
- 5:25Speaker 2: Yeah, so Earl Little has just been a phenomenal player.
- 5:28Speaker 2: I mean, they like him in this middle safety, this
- 5:30Speaker 2: pull spot, because, you know, again, against the pass, he'll
- 5:35Speaker 2: be in coverage. But Earl Little is a very aggressive player.
- 5:38Speaker 2: This puts him in a spot to come fill against
- 5:40Speaker 2: the run. And really what his job is in this
- 5:42Speaker 2: defense is, like, to fill wherever's needed. And that's kind
- 5:48Speaker 2: of what he does here.
- 5:48Speaker 1: So....
- 5:50Speaker 2: Here, you're going to see a gap open up. What
- 5:52Speaker 2: they're having the defensive linemen do on some levels, they're
- 5:55Speaker 2: playing a gap and a half, which means it's almost
- 5:59Speaker 2: like they're responsible for two gaps. They've got a primary
- 6:02Speaker 2: gap that if the ball declares to a different gap,
- 6:05Speaker 2: they're also supposed to fill that too. I know it
- 6:08Speaker 2: sounds unsound, but it is pretty common. Little is just
- 6:15Speaker 2: filling as needed. You're going to see him do that here,
- 6:17Speaker 2: get downhill pretty quickly. stop the ball carrier on this.
- 6:22Speaker 2: And this is just a good example of Little being
- 6:26Speaker 2: just really good in this role.
- 6:27Speaker 1: All right, next up, we're going to start that. We're
- 6:31Speaker 1: going to watch them defend a couple of counter plays.
- 6:33Speaker 1: First one is GT counter, which is guard first, then tackle.
- 6:37Speaker 1: That's how they designate it. You get the guard pulling
- 6:41Speaker 1: first and then the tackle. That's the G and the T.
- 6:43Speaker 1: This is one where this is a little bit of
- 6:46Speaker 1: an Edric Houston appreciation clip, but You watch the end
- 6:50Speaker 1: zone on this one and it's like, man, there is,
- 6:52Speaker 1: you want to look at what nothing there looks like?
- 6:54Speaker 1: This is what nothing there looks like in the run game.
- 6:57Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. And I think a big reason for that
- 7:01Speaker 2: is what I believe to be a schematic tweak and
- 7:03Speaker 2: not just a player making a play. I think it's both.
- 7:06Speaker 2: We'll give them both credit. They both deserve it. But
- 7:09Speaker 2: so usually when a guard pulls, the defensive tackle over
- 7:12Speaker 2: the guard, which is like Edric Houston in this case,
- 7:16Speaker 2: depending on the defensive call, they're either going to hold
- 7:18Speaker 2: that gap or they're going to fight over the top
- 7:21Speaker 2: of like the center's block, just one gap. But Edward
- 7:24Speaker 2: Houston here tracks the guard all the way across the
- 7:27Speaker 2: formation to where the ball is supposed to hit. And
- 7:30Speaker 2: that's not something very many defensive lines are coached to do. Ironically,
- 7:34Speaker 2: one of the only defensive lines I've seen who's coached
- 7:37Speaker 2: to do that on a regular basis is Indiana, um,
- 7:40Speaker 2: which makes sense. It kind of goes along with their
- 7:42Speaker 2: whole stunting and twisting mentality, but yeah, you'll watch this.
- 7:46Speaker 2: Edward Houston, um, You know, once the guard pulls, he's
- 7:52Speaker 2: not just moving over one gap. He's tracking and following
- 7:55Speaker 2: that guard all the way across the formation. And he's
- 7:59Speaker 2: the one who meets the ball carrier, which I would
- 8:02Speaker 2: say in the hole. But as you kind of pointed out,
- 8:03Speaker 2: there's really no hole here. It's completely shut down. But yeah,
- 8:07Speaker 2: this was an interesting tweak in my opinion. And just,
- 8:10Speaker 2: you know, a great way to, you know, show Edgar
- 8:13Speaker 2: Houston some love and appreciation because he's been playing so well.
- 8:18Speaker 1: All right, so that was GT counter. Now we're going
- 8:20Speaker 1: to go to GY counter. So instead of guard and tackle,
- 8:23Speaker 1: you've got a guard and a tight end pulling on
- 8:25Speaker 1: this one. And instead of Edric Houston, this is going
- 8:29Speaker 1: to be a Will Smith play. And man, that felt
- 8:32Speaker 1: like the best game of Will Smith's career by a
- 8:35Speaker 1: not insignificant margin on Saturday.
- 8:38Speaker 2: It was absolutely the best game of Will Smith's career.
- 8:41Speaker 2: And on a similar note, we're going to get to
- 8:44Speaker 2: this other guy later, but the other Smith, James Smith,
- 8:47Speaker 2: had his best game of the season as well. I mean,
- 8:50Speaker 2: the whole defensive line room was very, very good. So
- 8:54Speaker 2: this is another example. I've got the safeties circled here
- 8:57Speaker 2: just to, again, just kind of for a look at
- 8:59Speaker 2: the three-high structure. Earl Little does come down and help
- 9:02Speaker 2: and run support on this play. Once again, you're going
- 9:05Speaker 2: to see Edrick Houston track this guard all the way
- 9:08Speaker 2: across the formation. It's kind of amazing, though, because the
- 9:13Speaker 2: center is able to just straight-up tackle Edrick Houston, and
- 9:16Speaker 2: of course there's no flag, but when Carson Hinsman cleanly
- 9:19Speaker 2: pancakes an Indiana defensive tackle. There's apparently a flag. So
- 9:23Speaker 2: I just wanted to show that. But again, you see
- 9:26Speaker 2: this little tweak here. But yeah, you've got Will Smith
- 9:30Speaker 2: here making a play. And this isn't the first play
- 9:32Speaker 2: we're going to cover of Will Smith today either. But
- 9:35Speaker 2: just again, just a really good look. This run defense,
- 9:38Speaker 2: this defensive front is really starting to control things at
- 9:41Speaker 2: the line of scrimmage throughout the course of games.
- 9:45Speaker 1: All right, the next one is full. You just have
- 9:47Speaker 1: it labeled as full line reduction, which sounds like you
- 9:50Speaker 1: need to put the defensive line at a low simmer
- 9:52Speaker 1: for several hours on the stove. I'm guessing that's not
- 9:55Speaker 1: what it actually means. But this is one, once again,
- 9:58Speaker 1: this is another Will Smith play.
- 10:00Speaker 2: Yeah. So a line reduction, that's just kind of a
- 10:02Speaker 2: fancy way to say that you're slanting your defensive line
- 10:06Speaker 2: one way completely. Like everyone's just going to slant over
- 10:09Speaker 2: one gap. So here, you know, they start in an
- 10:11Speaker 2: odd front, odd spacing, um, and, uh, everyone is just
- 10:17Speaker 2: going to slant over one gap to their right, our
- 10:21Speaker 2: left from where we're looking at on the screen. And
- 10:25Speaker 2: it's just a good example of like how stunting and
- 10:29Speaker 2: moving can put guys in positions to make plays. Like
- 10:33Speaker 2: I often kind of refer to this type of stuff
- 10:35Speaker 2: as like a cheap tackle for loss. And I'm not
- 10:37Speaker 2: trying to like diminish it, but I refer to it
- 10:39Speaker 2: as being cheap because like the player didn't do anything.
- 10:43Speaker 2: Like the stunt that was called for the players, what
- 10:45Speaker 2: got him in the backfield was, Like, which, again, I
- 10:48Speaker 2: don't even want to diminish the player's effort from there.
- 10:50Speaker 2: But the point is, it's like we see Ohio State's
- 10:52Speaker 2: offensive line struggle with these. And it's like, you know,
- 10:55Speaker 2: I think when I think when offensive linemen get beat
- 10:58Speaker 2: this way, I think they're the ones they probably view
- 11:01Speaker 2: it as cheap. Like they don't like this. They would
- 11:03Speaker 2: rather block people straight up. But, you know, Patricia mixed
- 11:07Speaker 2: in these line reductions a couple of times. And here,
- 11:10Speaker 2: you know, you get to see Will Smith make another
- 11:12Speaker 2: good play.
- 11:13Speaker 1: Next up, we're going to be looking at a play
- 11:15Speaker 1: where Indiana's running wine back, and that's a play we've
- 11:17Speaker 1: talked about a bunch on the offensive shows. Now you're
- 11:20Speaker 1: going to kind of get the flip side of it,
- 11:21Speaker 1: where how does the defense defend it? This is a
- 11:24Speaker 1: James Smith play, but this is also a TJ Alford play.
- 11:28Speaker 1: Those are two more guys who have been really solid and,
- 11:31Speaker 1: I mean, feels like taking some significant steps over the
- 11:34Speaker 1: last month or so.
- 11:36Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, TJ Alford, man, he's really impressed me recently.
- 11:40Speaker 2: You know, early in the year, there was a lot
- 11:42Speaker 2: of calls for TJ Alford to play more. And I
- 11:45Speaker 2: was kind of watching and like, you know, I don't
- 11:48Speaker 2: quite get the, get the reasoning behind that yet. Like
- 11:52Speaker 2: all the, I don't quite get the hype behind it yet,
- 11:56Speaker 2: but in recent weeks, he's, he's really improved. I mean,
- 11:58Speaker 2: you can just tell his, his instincts, the way he
- 12:01Speaker 2: reads plays have gotten so much better. And so that's
- 12:04Speaker 2: really great to see him coming on. Um, another interesting
- 12:07Speaker 2: thing about this play is, uh, this just shows you
- 12:10Speaker 2: how highly they think of Earl Little and, you know, um,
- 12:14Speaker 2: how versatile of a player Earl Little is because they're
- 12:17Speaker 2: in cover one here, which is why Earl Little is
- 12:20Speaker 2: walked down over that tight end. Um, the tight end
- 12:24Speaker 2: who's right outside of Indiana's right tackle. And, but essentially
- 12:28Speaker 2: by being walked down there on a play like this,
- 12:31Speaker 2: Earl Little really is just, you know, a second off
- 12:33Speaker 2: ball linebacker, but they like him in that position. They
- 12:36Speaker 2: like him when he's, you know, near the ball. Uh,
- 12:39Speaker 2: But yeah, the offense is running a windback insert. So
- 12:44Speaker 2: this is like a typical windback, but instead of that
- 12:48Speaker 2: tight end blocking down and the windback player coming all
- 12:52Speaker 2: the way around, they're kind of just going to create
- 12:54Speaker 2: a hole for that windback player to come through. So
- 12:57Speaker 2: it's like an insert or an iso play. But yeah,
- 13:01Speaker 2: the star of the show in this play was definitely
- 13:04Speaker 2: James Smith and He had some other plays, too. I
- 13:07Speaker 2: know he's been a guy who most Buckeye fans have
- 13:09Speaker 2: been kind of underwhelmed by. I think they expected a
- 13:12Speaker 2: little more from the transfer. But I'll tell you, man,
- 13:16Speaker 2: on Saturday, he had some really, really good reps. I
- 13:19Speaker 2: think he's definitely trending in the right direction.
- 13:22Speaker 1: All right, and the last one we're going to look at,
- 13:26Speaker 1: this is a cat blitz. I'm pretty sure this is
- 13:28Speaker 1: the first time we've talked about this particular blitz. uh,
- 13:31Speaker 1: this particular blitz concept on one of these shows. So
- 13:34Speaker 1: explain a cat blitz.
- 13:36Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, a cat blitz is just a fancy
- 13:38Speaker 2: way to say a cornerback blitz. Um, and, uh, this
- 13:41Speaker 2: is against the run here, but you know, you can
- 13:43Speaker 2: kind of tell the coverage is fire zone. Uh, so
- 13:46Speaker 2: that's three deep, three underneath coverage. And you'll see that
- 13:50Speaker 2: I have the, uh, the safety kind of marked as
- 13:53Speaker 2: being in man coverage on that wide receiver to the boundary,
- 13:57Speaker 2: but that's pretty common. Usually on these cornerback fire zones, uh,
- 14:01Speaker 2: you're going to have the safety kind of take that
- 14:03Speaker 2: receiver and man coverage instead of just dropping back as
- 14:06Speaker 2: a zone defender. Just, you know, because you're leaving the corner.
- 14:11Speaker 2: The corner's leaving the play. He's blitzing. So, but yeah,
- 14:14Speaker 2: this is against the run. So I just wanted everyone
- 14:17Speaker 2: to be able to get a wide view of this
- 14:18Speaker 2: play first, and then we'll look at it from the
- 14:21Speaker 2: end zone view as well. But, The end zone view, again,
- 14:26Speaker 2: because they're running that cap blitz, everyone has to get
- 14:29Speaker 2: over a gap, so you've got that full line reduction
- 14:32Speaker 2: built into this already. The star of the show in
- 14:36Speaker 2: this play is Jason Moore. My, what a surprise is
- 14:40Speaker 2: Jason Moore, Ben. This was a guy who did virtually
- 14:44Speaker 2: nothing through his first three years at Ohio State, and
- 14:47Speaker 2: a lot of that wasn't his fault. He had a
- 14:49Speaker 2: lot of bad injury luck, and at one point, like
- 14:52Speaker 2: in 2024, you had Tyleek Williams, Ty Hamilton, Kaden McDonald,
- 14:58Speaker 2: Hero Canoe, Edrick Houston. You have all of those guys
- 15:02Speaker 2: in one defensive tackle room as it was. So tough
- 15:06Speaker 2: to get on the field with that much in front
- 15:07Speaker 2: of you. And he's had some bad luck. But man,
- 15:10Speaker 2: Jason Moore has been really good this year. He's the
- 15:14Speaker 2: starting nose tackle. And here you see him make a
- 15:18Speaker 2: good play. He had multiple good plays on Saturday.
- 15:24Speaker 1: All right, so there you go. A run through seven
- 15:25Speaker 1: plays against the Indiana run game and how the Buckeyes
- 15:29Speaker 1: defended them. On the next show, we're going to take
- 15:31Speaker 1: a look at the pass defense. There's mostly good news
- 15:33Speaker 1: there as well. The vibes on the Ohio State offense
- 15:36Speaker 1: this week, a little mix. The vibes on the Ohio
- 15:38Speaker 1: State defense, pretty darn good. Of course, they head to
- 15:42Speaker 1: USC next week, and that is generally the Lincoln-Riley teams.
- 15:46Speaker 1: You're generally more worried about your pass defense and how
- 15:48Speaker 1: it will hold up than your run defense. So we'll
- 15:51Speaker 1: be looking at that on tomorrow's show. And if you
- 15:54Speaker 1: want to talk about all of this with us, you
- 15:55Speaker 1: want to go a little deeper on this stuff with us,
- 15:58Speaker 1: the best place to do that is at BuckeyeInsiders.com. That's
- 16:01Speaker 1: where we got our whole team of scheme insiders. They're
- 16:03Speaker 1: to make you a smarter football fan. They're on our
- 16:06Speaker 1: board constantly answering questions, responding to, you know, hey, what
- 16:10Speaker 1: did you see on this one? What do you think
- 16:12Speaker 1: about how this guy's playing? We've had a whole lot
- 16:14Speaker 1: of questions about, so the change at the quarterback position,
- 16:17Speaker 1: what's that going to mean? You want to talk to
- 16:19Speaker 1: us about all that? The best way to do that
- 16:21Speaker 1: is to go to BuckeyeInsiders.com right now. Click that subscribe button.
- 16:24Speaker 1: Get access to our Insiders Board. Talk to all of
- 16:27Speaker 1: our Scheme Insiders. Get the very best in Ohio State
- 16:30Speaker 1: Scheme information all in one convenient spot. at buckeyeinsiders.com. And
- 16:37Speaker 1: thanks again to our friends at Jeffery's of Columbus, the
- 16:39Speaker 1: award-winning upscale steakhouse in downtown Columbus, named one of the
- 16:42Speaker 1: top 50 steakhouses in America by Food Network. Just go
- 16:44Speaker 1: to jeffery.com slash Columbus to check out the menu and
- 16:47Speaker 1: make a reservation today. That'll do it for today. Thank
- 16:49Speaker 1: you guys all for joining us. Have a great day.
- 16:51Speaker 1: We'll talk to you tomorrow.