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Ross Fulton Analysis: Grading The Ohio State Offense vs Rutgers · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Thursday, November ninth. I'm your host,
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Tom Moore. The Michigan State game is in two days. The game
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against Michigan in sixteen days. Today is a Ross Fulton Show, which means
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today is sponsored by Jeff Ruby Steakhouse in Columbus, proudly offering nationally acclaimed USDA
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Prime stakes, seafood and sushi, impeccable service, live entertainment, and intention
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to detail that is simply unmatched. Learn more, check out the mouth bordering
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menu, make a reservation at Jeffruby dot com slash Columbus. Today we're visiting
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with our buddy, Ross Fulton, one of Bucket hurdles X's and nose Gurus.
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We're talking about the Ohio State offense, the play of quarterback Kyle McCord,
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and the improved run game with the return of Trevion Henderson. The offense
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has definitely been lagging a little behind the defense for much of the year,
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but it does feel like there has been some tangible progress the last couple of
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weeks. Ross, Let's start with just the play of Kyle McCord. You
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posted on our board earlier this week. People will think a little uncertain how
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to grade that performance out. It felt like, you know, you seem
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like you were you were relatively positive on his play, and you know,
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there was a lot of criticism about him checking down in the first half and
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you know, not taking shots downfield. But I guess in some cases that
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you know, the safe play is the correct play. Yeah, I mean,
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obviously, I guess your your mileage can differ in terms of like how
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much you think a quarterback should push and slash force the football downfield into soft
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coverage versus taking what's available. You know, I just cal McCord is.
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I think it's a tough one for this modern environment because like he's pretty good.
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I think like his QBR is like, you know, like eleventh or
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twelfth in college football, and I think that's probably right around like where he
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is. Like he's not, you know, he's not an All American level,
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he's probably not a first team All Big Ten level, but he's like
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he's plays pretty well, so like you can catch certainly like every game he's
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had plays where you want them to have back and he has some inconsistency,
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and he's consistently been better in the second half than the first half. But
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like, you know, I think he is. I do think he's making
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strides. I think I continue to sort of beat the horse that you know,
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there's this common refrain out there like oh, high Stayed has all these
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weapons, like this is you know what's going on? We're wasting them on.
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I'm like, you know, do they really like again, we had
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another game, like Kate Stover was out, Like we'll talk about what Rutgers
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are doing, but it would have been really helpful to have Kate Stover down
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the scene against all the cover two they were seeing, you know, a
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Mecca Buka to me did not look super healthy still like I thought he was.
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You know, they're trying to obviously get his feet underneath them and hopefully
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he continues to improve on his ankle. I think Xavier Johnson has a role,
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as we've talked about. I don't think he is a NFL caliber receiver.
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I don't think Chilian Fleming is, although he does Yeoman's effort as a
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blocker and Carnel tap they're obviously using him more and more in his place,
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but still freshman. So again, it's not twenty twenty one with you know,
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three first rounders at wide receiver. And I do think the running game,
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though, is becoming more and more important, which which will help.
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Particularly they're they're seeing this weird dichonomy where at the beginning of season, I
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think they really wanted to rely on the run game and they're getting super heavy
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boxes, and now as they've as the season's gone on, it's kind of
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flipped. In the last couple of weeks, they've seen quite a bit of
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split coverage and lighter boxes, and you know, fortunately for them, they're
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able to run against those fronts when they're evened up, and I think the
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run game diversity is making a big help in that. All Right, So
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let's start taking our look at Kyle McCord and his play. We start with
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some we've talked about a number of times before, the sale concept, and
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this is one of these checkdowns. And you know, they were it sounded
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like the broadcast, I guess was a little bit critical of this. But
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what did you what did you think of this play? Yeah, so again,
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like this, going back, I kind of alluded to this or as
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Ryan Day said postgame, Wruckers was playing a ton of very soft split safety
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coverage, quite a bit of cover two both like regular cover two in Tampa
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and quarter quarter half, which is cover for the field, cover to the
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boundary as they run here on this play, and they were basically like cloud
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covering, so like sagging underneath, particularly when Marvin Harrison was to the side,
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as we'll get into, like they would either lock him, so they
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would man Harrison almost like a box and one in defense and play zone on
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everyone else, and so as you kind of get a bracket or they would
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like they're underneath. The fenders were cognizant of where Harrison was at all times.
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It would it would get depth with him. But so here's an example
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of as you said, like the broadcast was like, well, Harrison's wide
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open. He checked it down, but like if you see it, and
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it's a little hard to see from the TV copy, they did get the
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replay, but in the quarter quarter half, the cornerback is actually trying to
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bait this throad to Harrison like he is ready to pounce on it. He's
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trying to sag off but his eyes and the whole time around eighteen and I
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do think McCord saw that and checked it down in terms of how he was
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coming up. I mean, I do think there are examples of like where
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he could have probably tried to take the whole shot early meeting, like you
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know behind the cuver two corner that's in the flat and in the deep safety
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like those you know smash concepts that they kept using, or like this deep
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out this one though it was it was dicey because I can see what he's
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thinking. Maybe he could have still fitted in there even with them baiting it,
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but it is it was somewhat similar situation to what happened against Wisconsin where
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that corner on the interception on McCord's second interception in that game, or the
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corner purposely laid back off off of Harrison and then kind of and tried and
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jump the pass. So they are again like a healthy I like beating a
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dead horse at this point, but like healthy other options because you know,
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they teams are definitely doing things that would just even within the coverages they are
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running, they are very cognizant of where Harrison is and are trying to do
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things to take him away well. And so the first the first play we
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just talked about there kind of McCord caught a little flak for not throwing it
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to Marvin Harrison the next play he caught a little flag forth throwing it to
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Marvin Harrison and ended up getting intercepted. But you know, I on the
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field, I'm down on the field and I do not have a great angle,
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and I thought, boy, that was not a good choice there.
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But it looks like after watching it, it looks like it was maybe not
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a bad choice, but just bad execution on the throw more than anything else.
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Yeah, I actually think that, Like, you know, again back
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to the more general mccor discussion, I think he does a good job of
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reading the coverages and dissecting where to go with the football, like a lot
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of times at Ohio State, you know, especially against Rutgers, who was
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changing up coverages. I mean they did this a lot to c J.
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Stroud last year too, And I say, I had some issues throwing the
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ball just be at the super soft zones. But like so, Ohio State
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would pair. But then you know, Rutgers would have sporadically mixed in a
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man coverage blitz like the one the big you know, the unfortunate sack at
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least from the ISA perspective, where they you know, were driving the ball
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after scoring the possession before and then they you know, all of a sudden
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there in second to nineteen because Trevon Henderson did not pick up the pressure correctly,
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Like that was a cover zero, so they threw they throw that in
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occasionally, so Ohio State often was like pairing a cover two beater is the
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concept, so like things that are good against cover two to one side with
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like a man coverage to the other side, you know routes. And I
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generally think McCord would get to the right side of the field. Again,
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Like as I said, I think you can quibble sometimes with whether he should
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have pushed it downfield more this one he does. Again, I agree it's
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the right read. This is a smash concept. So it's like a basic
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cover two beater, right, You're like you're getting a two on one against
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the cover two corner in the flat, so you like have an underneath hitch
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rout told that corner and then the smash concept, which is basically a corner
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route behind it. And the problem is the execution here just doesn't put enough
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air under it. I mean, I guess you could think there's an argument
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that maybe he should have tried to look it off and not focus so much
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on Harrison to get the will linebacker. But like again, like you have
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to give Rutgers credit, like we're gonna show I'll show a clip after this.
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Like the way they treated Harrison on these things versus other wide receivers is
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pretty noticeable, like they would sag, so like you're playing your cover too
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with your underneath defenders. But like if Harrison was to their side, they
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just keep getting depth with them. And so I again, it's ultimately like
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the right to me the right read just like poor execution, Like it's a
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nice play by the linebacker for Rutgers. I mean he gets adapt the jump
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seat. You know, it's a nice catch, but like you just got
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to put a little bit more air under it. But I don't have a
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problem with the read, all right, next up third and two play We
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know a house did is not exactly excelled in third and short this year,
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but they found a way to get it done a few times against Rutgers.
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One of them was finding someone who was not Marvin Harrison, but was also
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not a Mecca Abuka or Cad Stover. You know, the guys who are
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maybe not one hundred percent at true. Freshman Carneal Tait starting to make his
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presence felt this was this was a big play in the game for them to
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pick this one up, so un us run us through this next one.
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Yeah, I mean I think you could almost notice that there's a bit of
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when we want to throw, we're going to put tit at Z and flaming
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at Z when we want to run, going on increasingly, and so part
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of yes, to your pointed, this reminds me, like, you know,
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on the good side of things, like I think Ohio State converted every
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short yardage opportunity, every goal to go opportunity, Like I was. I
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liked some of the concepts they were using, Like they used that you know,
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little counter wedge to chip train him as the fullback for the one they
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obviously did another sneak you know with Trayvon Henderson flailing his hands like you I
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wasn't getting the play call in and then McCord went up and snuck it,
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and I personally like, I was happy to see them continue to throw it
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to Harrison in Golden Gost situations at one on one coverage, like took a
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couple of times to get Burt, but they got them both, and one
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was the fade and then the comeback for the last touchdout. So you know,
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I've we've been beating the drum all year that that is a good way
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in goal line situations for them. Hey like throw it to Marvin Harrison in
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single coverage and a lot of times good things were hopping and those were good
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both good balls by McCord. As is this one so again too are like
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you know, Colin McCord isn't perfect, but he's playing pretty well. Like
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this is another example, Like so you know he made the mistake same this
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is the same exact thing. So again you're running smash to one side,
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double slants to the other. He sees cover two, he goes to the
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smash side and he throws it right where it needs to go to Cardinal Tate
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on the same exact route. So again, like improving in the second half.
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I do think he's learning from his mistakes. And you know, again
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like maybe check down a little bit too much. I personally am okay with
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like a quarterback that that gets those progressions. He gets the ball out even
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if it's not perfect. And so you know, I do think there are
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things that they can build on and continue to improve going forward. One thing
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they've been able to build on quite a bit. The last couple of weeks
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is the play of Treyvon Henderson. He said two hundred total yards in each
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of his two games since returning from injury. He did it. He was
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very effective on the ground. He was very effective in the air against Rutgers.
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Let's talk about that. One of those big plays through the air.
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This was another. This was a third nine and not only did he convert
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it, he can picked up a lot more yardage in what ended up being
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a very important drive early in the fourth quarter for the buck Eyes. Yeah.
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You know, I had people asking me in responsible on the core post
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on Buckeheadle whether did Ryan Day call the right plays against cover two or Rutgers
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was doing Did they adjust quickly enough? Like I think they did a pretty
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good job. And we'll talk about like, especially in the run game.
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I'm super heartened by what they've been doing. But you know, as I
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said, we showed the smash concepts, like they kept running cover two concepts
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and here was a very nice adjustment on third nine because this is very similar
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to what happened to them several times against Wisconsin where they get in these third
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lungs and they get super soft coverage and try to run four verticals and there
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wouldn't be anyone open, and they ended in a couple of potential grounding.
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So here they attacked that situation. So they motion Henderson out and he basically
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runs like a little just a little inside mini curl route. But the point
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is that if you're gonna Rutgers, is looks like running a Cover five here,
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which is Cover two with man under you know, if you're gonna and
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they you know, I say it runs four verticals, and like, if
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you're going to run everyone off, then we'll just throw it to Henderson underneath.
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And you know, you're giving the court options in those situations, which
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I like. But it's also nice design just taking advantage of the soft coverage.
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So again I guess the cynic would say, like, oh, McCord,
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just check this down, but it's actually the correct read. And the
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concept is that, hey, we know we're throwing the short of the sticks,
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but you know, we think the triviaon Henderson can pick this up.
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And obviously he turned what I think would have been a first down no matter
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what, into an explosive play. And you know, part of their problem
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has been these last few weeks is not necessarily their efficiency. I mean the
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success rate like against Rutgers was pretty good overall. Like again, the same
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thing happen against Wisconsin. Like, you know, they generally moved the football.
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The problem is they're just not getting the explosive plays that they've got in
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the past, and you know, few and far between sixty yard touchdown passes.
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Some of that, again is on mcord. Some of that is on
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the lack of a BUCA now Stover. Some of that is also on how
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defenses are playing them. But you know, Henderson is obviously bringing back that
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explosive element and so the extent you can get it out of him in the
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passing game as well, that's definitely going to help them going forward. And
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something that has helped them quite a bit in the run game has been the
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return of Travon Henderson. Yes, but also something we talked about on the
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last I think was on last week's show, maybe even the week before that,
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the run game's getting a little more diverse. They're sort of breaking out
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some different stuff and they're having success with more stuff. And then the return
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of Travon Henderson has also turned meant not only staying on schedule, but also
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the return of explosive plays on the ground. So let's wrap up with some
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more diversity in the run game and some another explosive play on the ground from
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Travon Henderson. Yeah, and again, so for someone who I've been complaining
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for several years now about the lack of diversity in the run game, it's
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been really positive to see the last few weeks from Ohio State, just the
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volume of concepts they're using, you know, even on So this play in
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particular is a one back power, so you're instead of like a traditional power
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where you're kicking out with a fullback and then wrapping around the guard, here
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you're just base blocking the front side and then pulling the guard to lead through
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the hole. And there you'll see they bring plumbing into the short motion,
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which they kept doing because again since Rutgers was playing so much to cover two,
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they wanted to give that zero receiver leverage to dig out the corner who
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was the force defender and get Henderson to the second level. Again, like
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I think the gap schemes that they're using, and again we saw a bunch
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of them Saturday, not just power, but we saw counter GT counter gh
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they use some cracked toss in addition to like they're also more diverse with the
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zone schemes, like they ran a weak mid zone a few times from pistol
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to attack the a gap bubble for some explosive plays. They're just mixing and
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matching more. And but you know, I thought this play in particular,
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like it also really fits Henderson well, Like we've been talking about how they've
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been doing a better job using concepts that suit him, like again one back
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power, it makes one cut, gets behind his guard and gets downhill.
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So once you get him to the second level, as you said, there's
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always a chance for an exposed to play. And I do think the offensive
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line has continued to improve, particularly as run blockers. It's a much better
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job getting to the second level, much better job pulling and identifying who they're
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supposed to block. So you know, tight end blocking remains at a little
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iffy at times. I did think that Patrick Gird actually really has helded things
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in the second half in terms of tight end blocking. He was pretty effective
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as a split zone blocker, and so I would not be surprised to continue
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to see him in that role, particularly in twelve percent when they want to
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run it. But I do think they're just this continued improvement. So the
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more that they can run the ball like this and they don't open things up
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in the passing game. Or conversely, as Ryan Day said, if teams
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want to continue to sit in soft zones against them, then they'll continue to
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run the football effectively. Well, we will see how the Buckeyes do they
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continue that can continue their success on the ground and in the air on offense
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this weekend against Michigan State, Tony Gerdaman Kevin noon and I will be there
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covering that for you. Ross will be back tomorrow with another another episode of
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The Buck Guys tomorrow morning, looking at the Ohio State defense against Rutgers.
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I'm gonna see if I can talk him into talking about that fumble Rooskie play.
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That was a really fun and creative call by Rutgers. Once again,
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I'm super impressed with joh Greyciano has done there. So we'll be back with
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that tomorrow and also we will tomorrow's episode just like today, We'll be sponsored
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by Jeff Ruby Steakhouse Award winning Upscale steakhouse in downtown Columbus, one of the
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top fifty steakhouses in America as named by Food Network. Learn more at Jeffruby
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dot com slash Columbus. That will do it for today. Thank you guys
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all for joining us. Have a great day. We'll talk kay tomorrow