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Ross Fulton Analysis: How Will Ohio State Defend Oregon's High-Flying Offense? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Thursday, October tenth.
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  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tom or the Oregon game in two days,
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  Speaker 1: the game against Michigan in fifty one days. We're back
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  Speaker 1: with another conversation about the X's and o's, taking a
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  Speaker 1: little bit of a deep dive with our buddy Ross Wilton,
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  Speaker 1: one of the x's and o's gurus at buckehuddle dot com,
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  Speaker 1: looking at the Ohio state defense against the Iowahawk guys.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe taking a little bit of a look ahead at
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  Speaker 1: the Ohio State defense against the Oregon Ducks this weekend
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  Speaker 1: in that massive number two versus number three game. When
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  Speaker 1: we have Ross on the show, we were presented by
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  Speaker 1: Jeff Ruby Stakhouse, the award winning upscale steakhouse in downtown Columbus,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: named one of the top fifty steakhouses in America by
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  Speaker 1: Food Network. Just go to Jeffruby dot com slash Columbus
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  Speaker 1: to check out the menu and make a reservation. Today,
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  Speaker 1: All right, Ross, We're going to start with what they did,
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  Speaker 1: what they showed against Iowa. And this is one of
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  Speaker 1: these things where it's going to be a different, you know,
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  Speaker 1: obviously a very different type of look a very different
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  Speaker 1: personnel than what they're going to face against Oregon this weekend.
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  Speaker 1: Is there anything to take away from this that is
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  Speaker 1: going to apply forwarders? This more were of a you know, hey,
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  Speaker 1: this worked against Iowa, don't worry about it for next weekend.
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  Speaker 2: I think there's there actually is a little bit. Let's
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  Speaker 2: let's start with what they did right and so you know,
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  Speaker 2: you got a lot of this, so like to say
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  Speaker 2: four to three under. So we talked about the under
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  Speaker 2: verse the over. Uh. So with an underfront, the Sam
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  Speaker 2: linebacker sunny style, you know, you put the one technique
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  Speaker 2: Ty Hamilton to the field. Uh, the Sam linebacker is
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  Speaker 2: up on the line of scrimmage outside of the tight end.
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  Speaker 2: So you end up with two two linebackers. So it
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  Speaker 2: looks like a five to two if you will. From
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  Speaker 2: like the all from this wide angle, they played a
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  Speaker 2: lot of cover one. They especially on rundowns, and they
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  Speaker 2: rock and roll. Say so, like Iowa gave him a
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  Speaker 2: lot of this motion, you know, back and forth, and
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  Speaker 2: they just would rock and roll the defensive backs, which means,
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  Speaker 2: you know, corner, if the let's say the corner is
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  Speaker 2: up on the wide receiver, he goes back to safety.
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  Speaker 2: Safety then comes down to play the wide receiver uh
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  Speaker 2: in man and so you're not losing leverage on like
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  Speaker 2: a fly sweet for instance, you saw a lot of
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  Speaker 2: you know, I think it was hardened. Like when I
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  Speaker 2: look at some of this is like they clearly took
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  Speaker 2: lessons from the Michigan State game, right, so like they
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  Speaker 2: use a lot more of this underfront because I think
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  Speaker 2: Sunny Styles is best in this sort of overhang under
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  Speaker 2: sam linebacker position compared to playing off the ball, although
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  Speaker 2: I think he did better at that as well. In
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  Speaker 2: the game, he took on the some isolation blocks really well.
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  Speaker 2: They have Davis Enigmuinos and not a lot more press coverage,
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  Speaker 2: particularly when he was to the boundary, and so letting
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  Speaker 2: him use his physicality, and then just a continuation of
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  Speaker 2: like letting the safeties be really aggressive. They you know,
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  Speaker 2: they used them on blitzes. They had him fly down
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  Speaker 2: hill against the run. I mean, kalob Downs and Lathan
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  Speaker 2: Ranson are so good at that. And then you know,
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  Speaker 2: I think the last thing I'd take note of is
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  Speaker 2: like especially you can see it from like the behind
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  Speaker 2: the line of scrimmage view, like just how controlling the
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  Speaker 2: High State defensive tackles were like they've really missed you know,
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  Speaker 2: Tyreek Williams. You know, so you can see him here
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  Speaker 2: control of the bag gap, shed make the block on
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  Speaker 2: this week inside to him, but like ty Hamilton as well,
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  Speaker 2: controlling I mean it just makes everything else they want
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  Speaker 2: to do on defense work really well and lets them
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  Speaker 2: play down numbers if they want to, Like we talked
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  Speaker 2: about that against Marshall and i You know, I think
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  Speaker 2: both of those comparisons are relevant. You know, one thing
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  Speaker 2: would be interesting to me to start with in terms
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  Speaker 2: of how much this applies to the organ is how
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  Speaker 2: much this organ come out in twelve personnel hoping to
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  Speaker 2: get Ohio State and three linebackers, And how does Ohio
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  Speaker 2: State respond to that? Do they play Jordan Hancock knowing
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  Speaker 2: that Organ's like not a heavy twelve personnel team, do
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  Speaker 2: they go to three linebackers? And then I think it's
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  Speaker 2: just a question of like again, the defense, you know,
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  Speaker 2: they really out physical at Iowa, Like that was impressive.
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  Speaker 2: The tackling was impressive. They show their hap they can
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  Speaker 2: play in a phone booth, right, and then it's a
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  Speaker 2: question like how much you trade that off, Like in
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  Speaker 2: terms of aggressitives, Like again, I continue to believe the
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  Speaker 2: downs and ransom are like best coming downhill, and so
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  Speaker 2: like how much are you going to do that versus
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  Speaker 2: you know, playing a little bit more of that safe
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  Speaker 2: cover four look they used in previous weeks, like against
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  Speaker 2: a Marshall if Iowa you know, takes a page from
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  Speaker 2: Marshall and tries to spread them out, you know, and
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  Speaker 2: go open sets and run the quarterbacks some or rpo,
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  Speaker 2: and so I think it'll be interesting to see, like,
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  Speaker 2: you know, do they does gym Knowles go back to that?
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  Speaker 2: Does he continue sort of? I think putting the pedal
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  Speaker 2: down like he has in the last two weeks and
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  Speaker 2: being more aggressive with blitz is like he brought styles
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  Speaker 2: a lot more on Saturday. I think he was pretty
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  Speaker 2: effected at that along with the safeties, and so that
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  Speaker 2: those will be things to look out for.
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  Speaker 1: So that first play was a four to three, and
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  Speaker 1: we've seen a whole lot of four to three the
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  Speaker 1: last couple of weeks with the Buck guys playing. Michigan
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  Speaker 1: State and Iowa do have the more let's say, not
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  Speaker 1: so high flying off in the Big ten. The Ducks, Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: they're they're a little bit more a little bit more aggressive,
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  Speaker 1: a little bit more explosive. Potentially feels to me like
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  Speaker 1: you're probably going to see more Jordan Hancock this week.
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  Speaker 1: We did see some Jordan Hancock last weekend against Iowa.
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  Speaker 1: This next one is one of those Nickel package plays
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  Speaker 1: where you did see Jordan Hancock in there.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I thought this was interesting. So this goes
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  Speaker 2: to a bit of a conflict for me because I've
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  Speaker 2: called for obviously more fire zones and more creepers, and
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  Speaker 2: they have definitely increased the usage of them. I will
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  Speaker 2: say they were not always successful against Iowa. In fact,
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  Speaker 2: those are probably led to some of Iowa's you know,
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  Speaker 2: successful passing plays. And so this is an interesting one, right, right,
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  Speaker 2: So they're showing too high at the staff. This is
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  Speaker 2: actually a dime look. So you if Jordan Hancock is
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  Speaker 2: a deep safety and you have Lorenzo Styles, the backup
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  Speaker 2: nickel over the number two receiver, and they bring Styles
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  Speaker 2: on a blitz, it's a zone blitz because you're gonna
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  Speaker 2: they drop the boundary defensive end. They roll to a
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  Speaker 2: three high three under zone blitz, bring a linebacker as well.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I think the one downside continues to be
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  Speaker 2: like in some of these zone looks. You know, as
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  Speaker 2: we've discussed, they do not match routes, right they are
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  Speaker 2: more of a spot drop team. And so some of
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  Speaker 2: these like backside dig routes like you see here, like
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  Speaker 2: a you know, deep end kind of routes are getting
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  Speaker 2: sort of loss in between the zone defenders, like as
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  Speaker 2: opposed to the linebacker carrying it all the way vertically.
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  Speaker 2: And so I would you know, I think part of
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  Speaker 2: it is they didn't rep any of this stuff the
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  Speaker 2: first three weeks, right, Like we talked about them being
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  Speaker 2: vanilla and not running a lot of this stuff. I
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  Speaker 2: guess the downside of doing that it can be like
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  Speaker 2: now they're doing some of it for the first time
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  Speaker 2: in the game, and so it's gonna maybe take a
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  Speaker 2: little bit of time. Like I would hate to see
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  Speaker 2: them lose this though, because I think this is keeping
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  Speaker 2: variety and giving the opponents different looks, and I think
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  Speaker 2: with more reps they will improve. But I so we
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  Speaker 2: saw you know, some of this we saw again like
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  Speaker 2: them run the two steel creepers, So you know, I
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  Speaker 2: was hardened, regardless of the success of them, to see
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  Speaker 2: it continue to diversify the playbook because I think it's needed.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, I think these dime looks like they
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  Speaker 2: ran this one. They ran a separate dime look where
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  Speaker 2: Jermaine Matthews came in as a sixty defensive back. I
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  Speaker 2: think those could be critical On Saturday as well, we.
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  Speaker 1: Have seen We talked a lot on the Offense Show
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  Speaker 1: yesterday about the fact that the Buckeyes are sort of
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  Speaker 1: iterating on stuff and doing some new things each week,
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  Speaker 1: to Kelly getting into his bag a little bit. Jim
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  Speaker 1: Noles got into his bag a little bit against the
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  Speaker 1: Iowa Hawk guys as well. There was some criticism, Hey,
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  Speaker 1: they're being a little passive, a little bit ross. Can
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  Speaker 1: I interest everyone in a triple A gap cover zero blitz?
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  Speaker 1: That feels like about as aggressive as you can get.
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  Speaker 1: So let's see what walk us through what Jim Knowles
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  Speaker 1: had on had dialed up on this one.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't really see as much of Like you know,
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  Speaker 2: I know there's some continue to can play. It's about
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  Speaker 2: the off coverage. I mean, Denzel Berg played off to
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  Speaker 2: the field some and you know, the turf monster at
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  Speaker 2: Ohio Stadium right now is an issue. He slipped several
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  Speaker 2: times breaking on routes that led to completions that I'm
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  Speaker 2: not sure would have otherwise been But yes, there's definitely
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  Speaker 2: no off coverage or anything in this example. You know,
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  Speaker 2: everyone's pressed up. This is so they're going to bring
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  Speaker 2: both linebackers in the A gap and then Kleb Downs
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  Speaker 2: comes flying down from center field right. So the goal
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  Speaker 2: is to pick off the offensive line or running back.
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  Speaker 2: Really you're probably going to get the center with one
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  Speaker 2: back er a running back to the other and that
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  Speaker 2: just opens a gap for Kale Downs and his like
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  Speaker 2: explosiveness on these concepts from twenty yards away is pretty impressive.
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  Speaker 2: But what it is is that it's not just a
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  Speaker 2: peer cover zero blitz. They're actually dropping both defensive tackles
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  Speaker 2: who are actually defensive ends in this third down package,
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  Speaker 2: but they fake like they're rushing and then they drop
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  Speaker 2: into underneath coverage. So like the technical terms sometimes is
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  Speaker 2: called rats, which is just sort of like, you know,
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  Speaker 2: there's a rat in the hole, and you can see
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  Speaker 2: how that takes away this sort of tight end, shallow
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  Speaker 2: cross or inside route that Kid mcnamher could go to.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, sometimes this concept is referred to like
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  Speaker 2: as a trained concept. Not sure why, but you get
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  Speaker 2: to so basically you have no deep safety, but you
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  Speaker 2: do have a couple underneath zone defenders with the odds of
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  Speaker 2: the quarterback. The thought being like the quarterback's gonna have
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  Speaker 2: to dump it quickly, and so you want guys to
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  Speaker 2: impede that. And so we saw this once from Knowles
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  Speaker 2: or maybe a couple times last year. And so again, yes,
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  Speaker 2: as you said, like I think these concerts are going
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  Speaker 2: to continue, you know, So there now they are like
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  Speaker 2: some of my complaints earlier the season, like mixing in
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  Speaker 2: four man pressures five man pressures, this is like a
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  Speaker 2: six man pressure and kind of coming up with different
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  Speaker 2: ways to impact the quarterback.
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  Speaker 1: All right, there have been pieces of this that have
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  Speaker 1: felt like they might apply more to the organ game
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  Speaker 1: or less to the organ game. This is one that
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  Speaker 1: were gonna see some RPOs. I don't want to spoil
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  Speaker 1: the surprise. You're going to see some RPOs out of
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  Speaker 1: Oregon on Saturday night. So this next, this last one
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  Speaker 1: is how Ohio State sort of addressed some of the
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  Speaker 1: RPOs they saw against Iowa. This one feels like it's
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  Speaker 1: something that's going to apply pretty directly to what we
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  Speaker 1: see on Saturday night as well.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, It's funny because, like, you know, as much as
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  Speaker 2: we talk about RPOs and putting players in conflict, like,
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  Speaker 2: there actually is a relatively simple answer to RPOs. It's
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  Speaker 2: played man coverage and like show like there's no there's
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  Speaker 2: no conflict, right because the man defenders have their man
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  Speaker 2: and if you could stop the run with everyone else,
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  Speaker 2: that takes away. Now obviously it's easy to say that
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  Speaker 2: on paper, your men have to be able to cover
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  Speaker 2: their men or else you're in trouble quickly, right, But
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  Speaker 2: like if you're like this, I mean, this is just
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  Speaker 2: like their as I said, they've they pressed Ignanos and
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  Speaker 2: more on Saturday. He's obviously happy to do that. He's
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  Speaker 2: a good squad, cover two corner, good press defender. He
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  Speaker 2: would prefer to play physically then to play in space,
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  Speaker 2: to be honest. Probably you know they've cover one, so
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  Speaker 2: it's covered. The you know, technical term is cover one lurk.
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  Speaker 2: All that means is Caleb Downs is the safety is
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  Speaker 2: responsible for the tight end that frees up the linebackers.
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  Speaker 2: So like the linebacker in theory, if it's a pass play,
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  Speaker 2: whichever way the running back would release, that linebacker would
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  Speaker 2: have that running back and cover one, but that frees
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  Speaker 2: them up to play the run play you have a
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  Speaker 2: deep safety. But yeah, I mean obviously like this, this
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  Speaker 2: RPO has no chance. Like I guess mattamer is reading
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  Speaker 2: the linebacker and when he sees him come down, uh,
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  Speaker 2: he pulls to throw. But like it's again its Cover
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  Speaker 2: one and Ignosen's shoving the wide receiver out of bounce.
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  Speaker 2: J T Twomloa obviously tips the ball, which leads to
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  Speaker 2: the interception and allows Leabanosen to bury the wide receiver
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  Speaker 2: three yards off the sideline. But again, I think this
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  Speaker 2: kind of goes to like we've we've seen such different
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  Speaker 2: things from Ohio State defensively this year. So like when
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  Speaker 2: you put it together in total, now like it's a
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  Speaker 2: pretty big package chef concepts. But it will be interesting
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  Speaker 2: to see, you know, as I said, do they take
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  Speaker 2: the Marshall approach where they want to like sort of
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  Speaker 2: play a softer cover four and like handle the RPOs
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  Speaker 2: with numbers and you know, stop the run inside with
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  Speaker 2: the remaining five guys and maybe that's or six and
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  Speaker 2: maybe that's they can do a better job of that
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  Speaker 2: now that Williams is back right and they can control
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  Speaker 2: the interior more and that makes up for some of
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  Speaker 2: those linebackers in conflict, or do they be more aggressive,
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  Speaker 2: bring safeties down, play more cover one. I mean, obviously
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  Speaker 2: Oregon has very good wide receivers and running backs, So
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  Speaker 2: how do they feel about that matchup? That's why, you know,
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  Speaker 2: going back to my earlier comment, I like the concept
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  Speaker 2: of playing a dime on third down when you're bringing
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  Speaker 2: in Jermaine Matthews is another cover corner. And so I think,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we may and the answer maybe some of
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  Speaker 2: all right, some of the above, and you keep mixing
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  Speaker 2: it up and try to pick your spots. But you know,
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  Speaker 2: I think they have shown an ability to do this.
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  Speaker 2: I you know, I don't worry about their ability to
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  Speaker 2: stop the run as long as they can gap things out.
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  Speaker 2: I think, you know, there remains some issues with their
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  Speaker 2: zone coverage. You know that every team is exploited, and
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: you know, like if you look at the advanced stats,
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  Speaker 2: like Ohio State's pass defense on dropbacks is not as
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  Speaker 2: good as everything else they've done this year. And so
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  Speaker 2: I think you know that that remains some questions of
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  Speaker 2: how they're going to handle the organ passing game. More
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  Speaker 2: just from a concept standpoint less, you know can they
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  Speaker 2: do it? I think it's more just how do they
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  Speaker 2: want to do it?
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  Speaker 1: Well, we will find out how they want to do
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: it on Saturday night inside Auton Stadium number two, Ohio,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: State number three, Oregon. Should be a doozy. I can't wait.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: This will be the last show. You see me sitting
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: in front of the familiar background at my house. Tomorrow's
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: morning show, we will be coming to you them in
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: the airlines do their part from Portland, Oregon, home of
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: the Orgon Ducks.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: Sort of close to the home of the organ Ducks.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Well, we'll have our show coming to you tomorrow, will
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: hopefully again if all courters goes according to plan, have
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: you a live show on Thursday evening as well at
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: YouTube dot com, slash Bucket, Hudle, and then pretty much
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: wall to wall coverage Friday and Saturday from Oregon. Tony,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Kevin and I will be out there for a little
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: bit of an extended trip.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: This is a big game.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: We're making it a little bit more of a big trip.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: We'll have plenty of coverage for you all weekend long
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: at bucke huddle dot com and YouTube dot com, slash Bucket, Hudle.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Thanks again to our sponsors, Jeff Ruby's Steakhouse of Columbus,
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  Speaker 1: for today. That will do it for today. Thank you
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: guys all for joining us. Have a great day.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: We'll see you tomorrow.