Latest / Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning / Ohio State 42, Illinois 19: 3 Things We Learned From The Buckeyes' Win

Transcript

Ohio State 42, Illinois 19: 3 Things We Learned From The Buckeyes' Win · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes Tomorrow Morning. For Sunday, September 27th, I'm
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: your host Tom Orr. The Iowa game in six days,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the game against Michigan in 62 days. We're sponsored today
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: by our friends at Jeff Ruby's Columbus, proudly offering nationally
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: acclaimed USDA prime steaks, seafood and sushi, impeccable service, live entertainment,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: and an attention to detail that is simply unmatched. Just
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: go to jeffruby.com slash Columbus to check out the menu
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: and make a reservation today. Alright, so we're going to
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: be talking about Ohio State's 42-19 win over Illinois Buckeyes
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Open Big Ten season with a more than three touchdown win.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: So is everyone happy?
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: Well, I don't know.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: We'll talk to our buddy Tony Gerderman about that. I'm
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: plenty happy about that. Tony Gerderman of BuckeyeInsiders.com joins me.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Tony, we're going to start with the good news. Jeremiah Smith,
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: pretty good.
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: Sure is, but not to the bad news. Now, 12 catches,
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: 217 yards, four touchdowns.
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: When you have somebody, the question posed to Ryan Day
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: is like, Ryan, when you have a cheat code like Jeremiah,
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: and he absolutely is, I think, can you go to
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: him too much? Maybe, was this too much?
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: No.
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: Like this, you got a comfortable win against a decent
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: opponent in Big Ten play.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: And why would you not use your best player?
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: It's almost like when a running back carries a ball
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: 35 times for 240 yards, nobody's ever like, Do you
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: think you used them too much? Do you think maybe
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: you should have, you know, run some other people? Like,
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: when you've got a workhorse, a bell cow, you're supposed
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: to run them. But when it's a receiver, you're like, well,
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: what about everybody else?
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: It's like, no.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Well, and I think you have to look at everybody
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: else on the Ohio State offense this year.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: And it's, you know, they don't have... A J.K.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: Dobbins.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: They don't have a Travion Henderson. They don't have a
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Quinshawn Judkins at running back. They don't have a Carnell
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Tate on the other side of the formation at wide receiver.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: They don't have a quarterback who's going to run the
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: ball that much.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Julian Sane ran the ball more than he has in
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: the whole rest of his career and was immensely effective
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: in running the ball. But he's not going to, he's
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: not Michael Vick. He's not going to win you a
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: game with his legs. He's going to extend drives with
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: his legs, pick up first downs with his legs. He
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: made some great, very important plays. But he's not, you know,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: his legs are not going to be the things that
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: make the offense go. Jeremiah Smith is, why don't they
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: build the whole plane out of Jeremiah Smith?
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: You can't.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: He's the entire fuselage.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: He is a lot of it.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: And I was watching that today and I thought, I
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: wonder how many teams the rest of the season are
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: going to say, we're going to take away Jeremiah Smith
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: and make someone else beat us.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: And if they do.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: Who is the person who steps up and beats them?
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: Well, and I think there are opportunities for others to
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: do that, whether it's Devin McEwen. I saw Brock Boyd
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: open a couple of times today. Went on the Julian
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: Sane touchdown run. Brock Boyd running across the middle as
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: Julian Sane was going the other way. It's like, hey,
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: ship's passing in the night sort of thing.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: But.
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: It has to be the guy opposite Jeremiah in terms
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: of the passing. In terms of the running, if they
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: want to keep a safety over there, that should open
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: up some of the running game. But if the running
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: backs can't get to the safeties, they continue to get
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: stopped by the linebackers or whatever, then you might be
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: able to get away with doubling and doing more towards
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: Jeremiah's side. Illinois just felt like, you know what? We're
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: going to make sure that nobody else beats us. Maybe
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: I don't exactly know what their entire philosophy was because
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: I don't know how much of a philosophy they had
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: when it came to Jeremiah Smith because he was in
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: one-on-one situations a lot. And I guess if you want
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: to see Jeremiah get the ball a lot, play him one-on-one. Now,
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: if you think you've got somebody that can handle it, like, boy,
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: wouldn't it be great to watch Notre Dame and Ohio
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: State play? If the Irish would be like, you know what,
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: we'll go one-on-one with Leonard Moore.
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: Let's watch that. But this is not Leonard Moore.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: No, this was definitely not Leonard Moore, and Jeremiah Smith
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: definitely made them pay.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: The defense is probably.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: The single biggest concern right now for Ohio State fans because.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: They got run on. They got thrown on as well.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: But they didn't get off the field. Zero three and
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: outs during the course of the game. And to me,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: a lot of that boils down to you got a
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: couple pieces on the defensive line, but this is just
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: not as good an Ohio State defensive line as we've seen.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: In most of the last five to ten years.
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I would agree.
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: And just looking at the entirety of the game against Texas, boy,
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: they collapsed in the fourth quarter.
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: They were worn down. This one.
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: Illinois had 119 yards in the first quarter, 102 in
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: the second, 128 in the third, 113 in the fourth.
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: It was just consistent. They were able to run the ball.
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: They were able to throw it.
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: And in.
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: Every quarter, now they weren't necessarily able to finish, which
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: the whole don't break thing and you make them earn it.
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: You play however you want to play inside the 20s.
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: And then, you know, once you get to the red zone,
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: Things are more compact. Obviously, Ohio State's skill maybe has
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: a bit of an advantage then. But without the defensive
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: line getting after it, I think the red zone is
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: going to suffer down the line as well if the
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: defensive line doesn't step up. Because Ryan Day and all
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: coaches will talk about, you have to be able to
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: run it in the red zone. Well, if you can't
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: stop the run that well... then you're going to be
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: giving up yards in the red zone. And with these
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: RPOs and stuff now where you're– the defense is always
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: at a disadvantage against a good quarterback and a good
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: running game and just one good receiver with that sort
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: of stuff. So, yeah, I wonder if we start seeing
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: more like– if Ohio State starts having some red zone
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: issues because of the inability of the defensive line to
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: do more.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean, they had red zone issues against Texas,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: you know, and that caught up to them eventually.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: It's a concern, I think, that.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: You look at the yards per play for Illinois by quarter,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: and it's 7.9, 6.8, 5.6, and 6.3. None of those
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: are winning numbers. And this was not an Illinois team
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: that it was like, well, they had all these 90-yard touchdowns,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: and that skews the numbers. No, they had a 37-yard run.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: They had a 33-yard reception. They had a couple 27-yard receptions.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: They had a 21-yard reception. They had a 25-yard run.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: They had a 22-yard run. It was just kind of consistently...
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: chunk plays. Illinois had three runs, at least three runs,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: longer than anything Ohio State had, which before the game,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: we talked about Ohio State potentially having the opportunity to
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: really tear through this Illinois defense because they were not
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: very good at tackling, and they didn't do that.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: The running was fine. It was consistent.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: It was, you know, 5.6 yards per carry for Jacoby Jackson, 4.8
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: for Bo Jackson, 4.1 for Julian Sands, 7.5 for Isaiah West,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: But no one had it run longer than 15. So
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: the good news is you're consistently getting four and five
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: yards on the ground.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: That's good.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: But you don't have that explosiveness. And that, I think,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: is my third takeaway is, boy, I think the running
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: game for Ohio State might just be an is-what-it-is situation
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: right now.
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I would agree.
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: And it will get better, he said, because eventually, and
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: when I say better, eventually a home run is going
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: to happen. Even pitchers hit home runs with enough swings,
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: as we know. But I don't think you can rely
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: on it. And maybe you can add to it with
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: Legend Bay, maybe. But you're going to be relying right
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: now on Bo Jackson, Jacoby Jackson, and I don't even
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: know if you could say you're relying on Isaiah West.
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: I think there's still an opportunity for Isaiah West to
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: show that he can be relied upon because neither Bo
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: Jackson or Jacoby Jackson are playing to the point where
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: now it's like, well, we can't take that guy off
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: the field. Although I do start to wonder if Jacoby
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: Jackson played more. would they start to find that guy? Or,
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: I guess you could ask the same question of Bo Jackson. Like,
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: if any of these guys got to play more, Bo Jackson,
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: 11 carries, Jacoby Jackson, 10 carries. We say that, but
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: Travion Henderson, I don't think he ever had more than
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: 9 or 10 carries in 2024 when he was splitting
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: carries with Quinshawn Judkins. Now, none of these guys are
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: Travion Henderson, right? But, Yeah, they definitely are what they are.
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: Perhaps they can become a little bit more and maybe
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: that requires more extended blocking into the next level, whether
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: that's receivers or whomever. Maybe that requires some just. Worst defenses, Tom?
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: Whatever it takes?
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is, you know, boy, I don't know how
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: many worse defenses they're going to play this year. I mean,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: Maryland is probably going to be a worse defense in
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: a few weeks. Iowa this upcoming week is going to
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: be a challenge.
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: Iowa.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: If you were familiar with anything related to Iowa football
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: in the last 30 years or so, you know what
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: this year's Iowa's team is. They don't run the ball well,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: they don't throw the ball particularly well, but they play
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: some defense and they'll play some special teams and they will...
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: just try to drag you underwater as best they can
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: for as long as they can. And, you know, you've
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: got Indiana still. You've got Oregon still. You've got Michigan still.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: I mean, you've got some challenging teams left on this schedule. USC,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: probably goes in the other defensive category probably as I'm
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: thinking through this now. But, yeah, this is not necessarily
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: something that is just going to resolve itself for Ohio State.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: And they might just have to figure out a way
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: around it. And, you know, the good news is you
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: have a Jeremiah Smith to try and paper over some
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: of this stuff. Yeah, very much so. And he can
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: get you through a lot of it.
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: If you can ride a running back to a championship game,
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: can you ride a wide receiver to that same sort
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: of thing?
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: And, yeah, I'll probably end up writing about it.
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: Like, Ohio State does not have a bell cow running back,
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: but they have a bell cow receiver.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: Don't get upset about using it too much.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, and they're probably going to lean on him
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: quite a bit as the season goes along. They leaned
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: on him quite a bit on Saturday to the tune
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: of four touchdowns in a 42-19 win over the Illinois
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Fighting Illini. Buckeyes now 3-1 on the season, 1-0 in
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Big Ten play. They will hit the road to Iowa
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: this weekend. Tony Jock and I, we will be there.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Team arrival Friday night, pregame from, I was going to
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: say Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Nope, it would be Kinnick Stadium in
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Iowa City.
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: Maybe it'll be raining.
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: Maybe, maybe.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: We will wave at the kids, we will watch a
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: football game, and then we'll be back for a postgame show.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: But man, is there going to be a lot to
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: talk about before we head to Iowa City tonight. all
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: week long at BuckeyeInsiders.com. We've got our whole team of
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: scheme insiders who I'm going to guess it is going
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: to be a busy, busy week for our scheme insiders. Oh, boy,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: is there going to be a lot to talk about.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: We're going to be talking about it all at BuckeyeInsiders.com.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: We would love to have you there with us. We
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: talk all the time about wanting to make you a
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: smarter football fan. Those are the guys who are going
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: to help make that happen. Ross Fulton, Michael Pettit, Justin Whitlatch.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: They are very good at what they do. They are
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: very good at explaining concepts– complex things and making them simple,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: you can find those guys all at BuckeyeInsiders.com. Sign up today,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: get access to our whole team of insiders and much more,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: that really fun community on the Insiders Board.
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: That'll do it for now. Thank you guys all for
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: joining us. We'll talk to you tomorrow.