Latest / Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning / Ross Fulton Analysis: What Went Wrong For The Buckeye Defense At Oregon?

Transcript

Ross Fulton Analysis: What Went Wrong For The Buckeye Defense At Oregon? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes Tomorrow morning for Thursday, October seventeenth. I'm
0:03
Speaker 1: your host, tom Ore the Nebraska game in nine days,
0:05
Speaker 1: the game against Michigan.
0:06
Speaker 3: In forty four days. All right.
0:08
Speaker 1: I don't know if this is a show you guys
0:10
Speaker 1: have been looking forward to, but it's a show you
0:12
Speaker 1: guys have been asking for, sort of indirectly. I think
0:16
Speaker 1: ever since the Oregon game ended. We're going to be
0:19
Speaker 1: taking a look at the Ohio State defense.
0:21
Speaker 3: What went right?
0:22
Speaker 1: What went wrong against the Oregon Ducks. It has been
0:25
Speaker 1: a hot topic all week. We're gonna have Ross Fault
0:27
Speaker 1: in our ex's nose Guru on to break it all
0:29
Speaker 1: down for us. And when we have Ross on the show,
0:31
Speaker 1: we are proudly sponsored by jeff Rubies of Columbus, proudly
0:34
Speaker 1: offering nationally acclaimed USDA Prime Stakes, seafood, sushi and peckable service,
0:39
Speaker 1: live entertainment, and an attention to detail that is simply unmatched.
0:42
Speaker 1: Just go to Jeffrey dot com slash Columbus today. All right, Ross,
0:47
Speaker 1: the attention to detail by the Ohio State defense that
0:50
Speaker 1: may have been matched at times in the past, things
0:53
Speaker 1: did not always go great, and there were things that
0:56
Speaker 1: they did that. They were trying to accomplish things that
0:58
Speaker 1: everyone has been saying, why can't you do this more?
1:00
Speaker 1: And then when it doesn't work, everyone says, why did
1:02
Speaker 1: you do that? So one thing they've been looking to
1:05
Speaker 1: try and generate more of is pressure, and so sometimes
1:08
Speaker 1: generate pressure, you got to take some chances. Sometimes that works,
1:12
Speaker 1: sometimes that didn't. What did the Buckeyes do on Saturday
1:15
Speaker 1: to try and bring more pressure more heat on Dylan Gabriel?
1:20
Speaker 2: So we saw at least four to five times cover
1:24
Speaker 2: zero pressure schemes. I think the to me, I'm guessing
1:29
Speaker 2: there is a as you said, they wanted to try
1:31
Speaker 2: to create some pressure. The Organ's track recer this year,
1:35
Speaker 2: as we talked about going to the game, is a
1:37
Speaker 2: lot of short throws. So I presume the thought process
1:42
Speaker 2: was this is the way to general pressure that we
1:44
Speaker 2: drop some guys into the underneath zones, take away the
1:47
Speaker 2: easy quick mesh throw, you know, crossers or outlets to
1:51
Speaker 2: the tight end that Organs relied upon.
1:54
Speaker 3: So win win, and you know, and I go.
1:57
Speaker 2: There's been a lot of discussion, at least I've seen
2:00
Speaker 2: it on X on Bucke huddle others about the play
2:05
Speaker 2: I'm sure everyone can think of it where Ohio State
2:09
Speaker 2: quote unquote brought to rushers and Denzel Burt got beat
2:13
Speaker 2: over the top with the right before halftime. So we're
2:15
Speaker 2: going to get I'm going to get into that, but
2:17
Speaker 2: I want to start with what they used three or
2:19
Speaker 2: four times that was effective. That's a similar type of concept,
2:24
Speaker 2: which is train. We talked about train just last week.
2:28
Speaker 2: They ran it against Iowa where they brought Caleb Downs
2:32
Speaker 2: up the middle, and they ran it in a few
2:34
Speaker 2: different ways on Saturday. I grabbed the one here that
2:39
Speaker 2: was literally the play before they that reed pressure that
2:43
Speaker 2: we were talking about. And so you know train we've
2:45
Speaker 2: talked about, you can see it here. You basically are
2:49
Speaker 2: you're trying to occupy all the off the offensive linemen.
2:53
Speaker 2: So you're bringing six right, so the offensive line has
2:56
Speaker 2: five to block them with. You want your two guys
2:58
Speaker 2: that are dropping to gauge with the offensive line. That'll
3:03
Speaker 2: be important going forward. And so here they're going to
3:06
Speaker 2: drop both defensive ends. They also did it with both
3:08
Speaker 2: defensive tackles. They so they drop or at least they faint.
3:15
Speaker 2: That is an issue. Instead of engaging the defensive ends
3:18
Speaker 2: drop as rats. You can see everyone's in cover one.
3:21
Speaker 2: Jordan Hancock follows the motion. That was another issue that
3:26
Speaker 2: totly down on Saturday, particularly in coverage getting lined up
3:30
Speaker 2: handling motion. Especially early, you see a lot of guys
3:33
Speaker 2: kind of looking at each other trying to figure out
3:35
Speaker 2: where everyone's supposed to go. Oregon used to tempo effectively
3:39
Speaker 2: as well to cause problems. But so anyways, it works,
3:43
Speaker 2: works like it's supposed to hear. Right, Like you have
3:46
Speaker 2: again the shallow crossing route from the tight end Kenyata
3:49
Speaker 2: Jackson dropping right into that zone. Jack Sawyer gets tripped
3:53
Speaker 2: up with the Oregon wide receiver. Gabriel tries to throw
3:58
Speaker 2: a dig route across the David Davison Vanosa breaks it
4:02
Speaker 2: up to work, So the second time in a row.
4:04
Speaker 2: Now I think part of the issue here is but
4:08
Speaker 2: you do see already on this place some of the
4:10
Speaker 2: some of the issues that will come up on the replay.
4:13
Speaker 2: And it's not just the scheme, it's in the execution
4:18
Speaker 2: right Like as I said, like the goal is to
4:21
Speaker 2: engage first.
4:22
Speaker 3: With the offense.
4:23
Speaker 2: You have to occupy the offensive linement so he can't
4:26
Speaker 2: redirect to the blitzer that you want unoccupied, and the
4:30
Speaker 2: defensive ends don't really do that here. The other issue
4:34
Speaker 2: is these are sort of plays that you can only
4:38
Speaker 2: use so often.
4:39
Speaker 3: It's you know, you're picking your spots right.
4:41
Speaker 2: You want to show pressure or simulate pressure if you will,
4:47
Speaker 2: but not always call it right.
4:48
Speaker 3: So Oregon now.
4:50
Speaker 2: Has seen this. This is the second time, as I said,
4:52
Speaker 2: the very next play, you show it again right. This
4:56
Speaker 2: time we use gym Knowles uses the redconcept. The problem
5:00
Speaker 2: is again, first issue is Oregon, as I said, has
5:04
Speaker 2: seen this. So they're tired of throw an underneath ro outs.
5:07
Speaker 2: They can you know Will Stein called a good game
5:09
Speaker 2: on Saturday.
5:10
Speaker 1: Uh.
5:11
Speaker 2: You know they get paid well too, right, so they
5:14
Speaker 2: make this you can see right away like on this
5:16
Speaker 2: concept and before I get into the specifics of it, though,
5:19
Speaker 2: I want to say, like, this is a tried and
5:21
Speaker 2: true concept. This is not Chymnales rolling up in the dirt.
5:25
Speaker 2: Let's only rush two and drop six guys in within
5:28
Speaker 2: five yards and play I have no deep safeties. Like
5:30
Speaker 2: this is a concept that Bred Pennables has used a lot,
5:33
Speaker 2: that Save Intry has used. The basic framework again is
5:38
Speaker 2: like you're bringing your you they have five guys a block.
5:41
Speaker 2: As I show in the picture like I put a
5:43
Speaker 2: five against six, right, So what you want to do
5:46
Speaker 2: is you want to occupy those five offensive linemen, but
5:50
Speaker 2: you're not going to keep rushing right, you want them
5:52
Speaker 2: to engage you. You then drop that frees up here.
5:56
Speaker 2: I think the designers to get sunny styles coming free
5:59
Speaker 2: up the middle. You get a free rusher, but you
6:01
Speaker 2: also drop then have guys dropping into like the hot routes. Right,
6:05
Speaker 2: So if the quarterback's got an unblocked rusher in his face,
6:09
Speaker 2: he wants to get the ball out quick, and you
6:10
Speaker 2: have some guys there to deal with it. So that
6:12
Speaker 2: that's the general concept. The problem again is in the execution.
6:18
Speaker 2: First of all, Ohio State, like Oregon has this wide
6:21
Speaker 2: bunch set out here, problems all day with handling, and
6:26
Speaker 2: this is like we're going to talk about other issues
6:28
Speaker 2: they had when they were playing man coverage and the
6:30
Speaker 2: lack of diversity in how they play cover. One have
6:34
Speaker 2: trouble handling these three these three bunch receivers here, they
6:38
Speaker 2: traded them off. You can see pre snap at the
6:41
Speaker 2: bottom of the screen, which doesn't come into a factor,
6:43
Speaker 2: but you know, Caleb Downs is telling David Ignosing, like
6:46
Speaker 2: you need to get on the inside receiver. They're communicating
6:49
Speaker 2: styles and uh putting simon look at each other. They
6:53
Speaker 2: seem somewhat confused. So they again like the communication problems
6:57
Speaker 2: were evident throughout. Then on the execution again, like watch
7:03
Speaker 2: the defensive ends, watch the defensive tackles. The only person
7:07
Speaker 2: of those guys stimulating pressure that engages with the actual
7:10
Speaker 2: offensive lineman is Lathan Ransom. None of the defensive line
7:13
Speaker 2: do what they're supposed to do. Now, again, like that's
7:18
Speaker 2: a coaching issue. It's a different coaching issue than saying
7:21
Speaker 2: that Jim Knowles is running an unsound scheme. Obviously this
7:25
Speaker 2: is not a good rep you know, whether you put
7:27
Speaker 2: that on Knowles, on on Larry Johnson's the defensive line coach.
7:31
Speaker 2: On guys just not doing what they did in practice
7:33
Speaker 2: in the moment. So the problem though is you don't
7:37
Speaker 2: get the unblocked rusher because the offensive line, for specifically
7:43
Speaker 2: the center, is able to when he gets that fake
7:47
Speaker 2: from the defensive tackle who drops out right away, he
7:50
Speaker 2: can then redirect the style so he doesn't get engaged.
7:54
Speaker 2: So you don't get the pressure. Then you get the situation. Now,
7:57
Speaker 2: denzil Burke again bites on a double move. That was
8:01
Speaker 2: also an issue before. I didn't clip the first time
8:03
Speaker 2: he did that because it's just it was a boring
8:06
Speaker 2: old cover four quarters coverage gym. Knowles runs that to
8:10
Speaker 2: be it's like a super safe. We've talked about how
8:12
Speaker 2: it's like sort of his sort of conservative go to right,
8:16
Speaker 2: but like a corner still, if you're going to bite
8:18
Speaker 2: on a double move, there's there's no one to help
8:20
Speaker 2: you with that. So that happened twice here, obviously to
8:24
Speaker 2: really bad detriment. It's one thing to give up twenty
8:27
Speaker 2: to thirty yard explosive plays. It's another to give up
8:29
Speaker 2: fifty forty to fifty sixty yard touchdown explosive plays. I
8:33
Speaker 2: think that you could critique Knowles here for going to
8:37
Speaker 2: the well one too many times with these cover zero concepts,
8:40
Speaker 2: and obviously organ adjust it, I think, But I think
8:44
Speaker 2: the concept here, you know, again, is based on scouting.
8:47
Speaker 2: He's like, they're going to try to throw at the sticks.
8:49
Speaker 2: It's a minute and a half to go, we're trying
8:51
Speaker 2: to keep them out of field goal range. Let's try
8:54
Speaker 2: to get a stop and get the ball back, and
8:57
Speaker 2: so I'm sure all those thoughts went into it, but
9:00
Speaker 2: I think again, it's it's a it's emblematic of It's
9:04
Speaker 2: not necessarily that they're doing things that no one's done before.
9:08
Speaker 2: It's just their their execution issues evident in those schemes.
9:13
Speaker 2: But again, I think to your original point to bring
9:16
Speaker 2: it all the way back, Like it is a little
9:18
Speaker 2: tough when I hear people complain that Ohio State is
9:21
Speaker 2: not generating pressure, but then they get mad when gymnals
9:26
Speaker 2: uses different types of pressure schemes to generate pressure, and
9:30
Speaker 2: then they're like, why are you rushing your defensive ends? Like,
9:33
Speaker 2: but you're also complaining that those defensive ends aren't generating pressure.
9:36
Speaker 2: So like, if they can't win one on one, you
9:39
Speaker 2: need to do different things that generate pressure. You know,
9:43
Speaker 2: there are waste that I think they can help them
9:44
Speaker 2: again by like stunting the defensive line as well, that
9:48
Speaker 2: they just don't do. But I don't have a problem
9:51
Speaker 2: with you know, simulated pressure zone blitz is fire zones.
9:55
Speaker 2: I think they need more of. It's just that they
9:58
Speaker 2: need to execute a better And you know, part of
10:00
Speaker 2: it I fear is they wasted the first three weeks
10:03
Speaker 2: of the season not doing any not showing anything, and
10:06
Speaker 2: so now they just don't have game reps.
10:10
Speaker 1: Well, they got plenty of game reps and Cover one
10:12
Speaker 1: on Saturday they saw them running running that a bunch,
10:16
Speaker 1: and unfortunately at times Oregon also saw them running that
10:19
Speaker 1: a bunch and figured out ways to use some of
10:21
Speaker 1: the things that they do against them. So what did
10:24
Speaker 1: that look like on Saturday?
10:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we talked about this also last week.
10:28
Speaker 2: As I said, on the one hand, Cover one's great
10:31
Speaker 2: for limiting RPOs because in theory, you've taken away any conflict,
10:35
Speaker 2: you got your man, and the remaining players can play
10:38
Speaker 2: the run again. The problem is is the devil's and
10:42
Speaker 2: the details. There are variations in Cover one to try
10:47
Speaker 2: to limit some of these problems that I'm going to
10:49
Speaker 2: show you, and ohistly just doesn't do them or or
10:53
Speaker 2: you don't see them, and so they're there. They can
10:55
Speaker 2: get exposed. It's not just that they can't. You know,
10:59
Speaker 2: obviously Burke got beat right, that wasn't in Cover one.
11:02
Speaker 2: But like that's that's like one way you beat Cover one,
11:04
Speaker 2: right if you find the guy that your receivers better than.
11:07
Speaker 2: But you also can do it by putting them into
11:10
Speaker 2: by using these kind of plays that hurt them so
11:13
Speaker 2: like first play here, right, like this is Oregon gets
11:17
Speaker 2: the ball back after the quin Shawn Junkins fumble, so
11:21
Speaker 2: they're at first play after that, they run this just
11:24
Speaker 2: basically in an outside zone with a slide threat, right,
11:28
Speaker 2: So they're like in two back personnel. So I guess
11:32
Speaker 2: you know, the first question was Ohio State really prepared
11:35
Speaker 2: for any kind of two back looks? But like you
11:37
Speaker 2: know that happens, right, Like, I don't think that's but
11:40
Speaker 2: so because the way Ohio has this designed is Cody
11:45
Speaker 2: Simon's responsible for the B gap and Jordan Hancock the
11:49
Speaker 2: nickel has the C gap because that's just how Ohio State.
11:52
Speaker 2: We're going to talk about this again, Like we've talked
11:54
Speaker 2: about it before they play. They set the nickel to
11:57
Speaker 2: the to the passing strength and they don't mess with
11:59
Speaker 2: it no matter what kind of formation they see. But
12:03
Speaker 2: but Jordan Hancock also has that, you know, technically a
12:07
Speaker 2: full back. Really he's just a wide receiver lined up
12:10
Speaker 2: in the backfield. When he releases on sort of this
12:12
Speaker 2: threat to the flat that they fake on play action,
12:16
Speaker 2: Hancock follows him.
12:18
Speaker 3: So now they have no player for the sea gap.
12:22
Speaker 2: Maybe this is a bust, but I saw it twice,
12:25
Speaker 2: and so like you need to do one or two things,
12:27
Speaker 2: like there are calls within cover one where when that
12:30
Speaker 2: receiver goes to the opposite side of the center, like
12:32
Speaker 2: Hancock basically trades him. Could trade him off either too,
12:36
Speaker 2: Sundy styles of the will could trade him off to
12:38
Speaker 2: the backside safety, someone on the other side of the
12:42
Speaker 2: field becomes responsible, so you like still have your gap
12:44
Speaker 2: integrity or I guess if Hancock's in a follow then
12:48
Speaker 2: like the safeties need to roll down hard and you're
12:51
Speaker 2: basically trading off the opposite way with like you know,
12:54
Speaker 2: the play side safety becoming the seagap player, the safety
12:57
Speaker 2: backside safety rotating up. But like you just can't do
13:01
Speaker 2: this to yourselves over and over again. And so it's
13:04
Speaker 2: just like they use lots of concepts, right, like we're
13:09
Speaker 2: gonna talk about like I've seen him on cover one,
13:11
Speaker 2: I've seen him run cover four, quarter quarter a half,
13:13
Speaker 2: cover three, but like they don't have variation within any
13:17
Speaker 2: of them, so it makes it easier.
13:20
Speaker 3: To exploit.
13:21
Speaker 2: And so like that happens again on this the Dylan
13:25
Speaker 2: Gabriel's touchdown run. So this this is one it has
13:29
Speaker 2: like a couple of issues with it. So again cover one.
13:33
Speaker 2: So we're gonna we're gonna use the cover one with
13:35
Speaker 2: our pos to put them in conflict. And so you
13:38
Speaker 2: know the way they're aligned here, they actually are what
13:42
Speaker 2: you can see I'm labeled as cheap and so cheat
13:45
Speaker 2: is a concept where instead of Lathan Ransom as the
13:47
Speaker 2: deep safety be in the middle of the field, he's
13:49
Speaker 2: cheating towards the side that Gabriel would keep on and
13:55
Speaker 2: this allows him to help play the quarterback runs. So
13:57
Speaker 2: it's it's not like they're not doing anything right. Like again,
14:00
Speaker 2: they're they're aware of the situation, they're aware of the look.
14:03
Speaker 2: But as they're aligned here, Sunny Styles and I'm sure JT.
14:08
Speaker 2: Twomloa thinks Sonny Styles has the quarterback as the edge player.
14:13
Speaker 2: But what they do is they run a little air
14:15
Speaker 2: route Oregon does with the tight end, so he releases
14:18
Speaker 2: the flat right and so this is again you have
14:21
Speaker 2: a essentially like a triple option like we talked about.
14:26
Speaker 2: Ohio State did this a few weeks ago, right where
14:28
Speaker 2: Devin Brown would Keith and he could run or he
14:30
Speaker 2: could dump it down on the flat.
14:31
Speaker 3: So you have the same thing here.
14:33
Speaker 2: So Styles has to again cover one styles is responsible
14:36
Speaker 2: for the tight end, he has to play him to
14:39
Speaker 2: the flat right. So the first issue here is like
14:44
Speaker 2: JT when he feels unblocked, he needs to recognize the
14:49
Speaker 2: situation he's in. I'm not saying it's an easy ask again,
14:53
Speaker 2: like these are good concepts from Oregon, it's well designed,
14:57
Speaker 2: but he has to feel that and slow himself down,
15:01
Speaker 2: like he gets himself repeatedly caught. We've showed other examples
15:06
Speaker 2: of guessing and trying to make a play. Sometimes it works,
15:11
Speaker 2: sometimes you get caught like this. The other issue is
15:14
Speaker 2: then like Latham Ransom, yes, like as the cheat, he's
15:17
Speaker 2: there to help principally with the pass threat, but like
15:22
Speaker 2: you got to get him down. You got to get
15:23
Speaker 2: Gabor over to the ground somehow, some way, like you know,
15:28
Speaker 2: I hate to bad. Latham Ransom showed himself to be
15:31
Speaker 2: honest on Saturday again, like he's been really good, but
15:34
Speaker 2: like the mistackles that we saw two years ago against
15:36
Speaker 2: Michigan where they you know, where he's the leap loan
15:39
Speaker 2: dep safety, Like you got to get someone to the ground,
15:41
Speaker 2: Like even if like take a less aggressive angle, I
15:44
Speaker 2: just too many mistackles out of him on Saturday. Obviously
15:47
Speaker 2: Kale downs. They liked to use him on if they
15:52
Speaker 2: can near the box to help shore up some of
15:54
Speaker 2: these issues. And like he made some great plays down there,
15:56
Speaker 2: but like on this play, he's near the box, so
15:58
Speaker 2: he cannot help.
16:00
Speaker 3: You know.
16:00
Speaker 2: It certainly does not help Lathan Ransom here either that
16:03
Speaker 2: Davidson Iigminosen is getting driven ten yards down the field,
16:06
Speaker 2: which cuts off his path to really pursue Gabriel. And
16:12
Speaker 2: so you're just seeing like a combination, right, And like,
16:15
Speaker 2: obviously we're picking out bad plays here. I do think
16:18
Speaker 2: there are plays where like Ohio State when they had
16:21
Speaker 2: the numbers, they did pretty well against the run, and you.
16:25
Speaker 3: Know it wasn't all bad.
16:26
Speaker 2: But when you put together this combination of like you're
16:29
Speaker 2: in a scheme deficit and then you make mistakes within it.
16:33
Speaker 3: That's how you get these explosive plays against you.
16:37
Speaker 1: All Right, Well, we talked, you just talked a minute
16:39
Speaker 1: ago about how if you kind of if the other
16:41
Speaker 1: team knows what's happening, they can kind of use it
16:43
Speaker 1: against you. Well, here's another example where Oregan was able
16:47
Speaker 1: to take what Ohio State does in certain coverages and
16:51
Speaker 1: make it work against them. This time, Jordan Hancock was
16:53
Speaker 1: the one who got kind of put in a pretty
16:55
Speaker 1: bad spot.
16:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, and okay, so here here we go. This is
16:59
Speaker 2: what I talked about. And I remember you asked me
17:01
Speaker 2: at the time, like was this them being vanilla. I'm like, well,
17:03
Speaker 2: they did this against Missouri, they did this against Michigan.
17:05
Speaker 3: So it's just I always there are reasons.
17:10
Speaker 2: Again, so to say it again, like Ohio say, it
17:13
Speaker 2: always sets the nickel to the passing to the to
17:16
Speaker 2: the field how they define the field if it's in
17:18
Speaker 2: the middle of the field, But like and here, if
17:21
Speaker 2: you're on the hashmark to the wide side, there are
17:23
Speaker 2: reasons to do it. I just I think I don't
17:27
Speaker 2: understand why you do anything all the time regardless, right,
17:31
Speaker 2: Like you just have to change it up sometimes just
17:32
Speaker 2: to change it up. But so you get this formation
17:35
Speaker 2: into like Oregon puts formation into boundary, which just means
17:38
Speaker 2: they put the you know, their numbers to the to
17:41
Speaker 2: the short side of the field, right, So you got to
17:42
Speaker 2: trips to the boundary. And the result of that is
17:46
Speaker 2: that Sunny Styles walks out as the will because he's
17:50
Speaker 2: to the that side, so he's not an apex. And
17:53
Speaker 2: now you have Jordans to Handcock responsible for the B
17:56
Speaker 2: gap right, which is between the guard and the tap. Well,
18:00
Speaker 2: you can see it really well. I included the shot
18:03
Speaker 2: behind them defense as well. And now you've got they
18:07
Speaker 2: played I think a cover three. It's sometimes start to
18:09
Speaker 2: tell with with run plays whether it's cover one or
18:12
Speaker 2: cover three because some kind of single hive that allows
18:15
Speaker 2: Galeb Downs to roll down right.
18:16
Speaker 3: So he's got the sea gaps. You got Jordan Agot
18:18
Speaker 3: for the B gap.
18:19
Speaker 2: Galeb Downs for the sea gap between the outside the tackle.
18:25
Speaker 2: Excuse me, And so when you when you have a
18:27
Speaker 2: poller here, or when you when this guy leads the
18:30
Speaker 2: guard leads on Hancock, right, he has to fit inside
18:33
Speaker 2: of him.
18:34
Speaker 3: Downs fits on the other side of them.
18:37
Speaker 2: That's easier so than Ton when you're asking the nickel
18:40
Speaker 2: to get set inside of an offensive guard, right, and
18:42
Speaker 2: so Downs goes out outside. Hancock's driven out of his
18:46
Speaker 2: gap again again like also not helped by the fact
18:50
Speaker 2: that Ty Hamilton on this plague loses the A gap
18:54
Speaker 2: and gets beat. Now, I will say I think the
18:57
Speaker 2: defensive tackles overall had plenty of plays. I could show
19:00
Speaker 2: you where they controlled the interior and they sort of
19:04
Speaker 2: made up for some of these scheme issues, you know.
19:07
Speaker 2: So I don't think this is like an emblematic issue.
19:09
Speaker 2: I think those defensive tackles help them. Like there were
19:12
Speaker 2: times where like you could tell the difference when they
19:14
Speaker 2: were down a body, but Tyler Williams can close down
19:17
Speaker 2: that backside b gap and take away that like two
19:19
Speaker 2: gap issue we talked about for Cody Simon Geinst Marshall.
19:22
Speaker 3: So but the again, this gets to like.
19:27
Speaker 2: The like the unwillingness or refusal whatever it is to
19:32
Speaker 2: slant or stunt the defensive line. Most of the time,
19:36
Speaker 2: it's just it just kills them because it makes it
19:40
Speaker 2: really predictable for the offense where the defensive line is
19:42
Speaker 2: going to be. And it just they can't take care
19:44
Speaker 2: of these issues, like if you look from the behind
19:47
Speaker 2: the defense, like if Mitchell Melton just gets wide set
19:51
Speaker 2: out wide and it's just easy for the tackle to
19:53
Speaker 2: just push them out. Like if your nickel is set
19:56
Speaker 2: to the field like this, I think you should be
19:58
Speaker 2: checking to We're going to pinch the defensive line. We're
20:00
Speaker 2: going to stunt something that gets our bigger bodies inside
20:04
Speaker 2: to allow Jordan Hancock and Kale Downs to play the
20:07
Speaker 2: football from outside in. There just have to be answers
20:11
Speaker 2: and they just don't have enough of them, and that
20:13
Speaker 2: just leads to these issues where they can stop the
20:16
Speaker 2: run and what I would call fair fight where they
20:18
Speaker 2: have the numbers, but they just have too many plays
20:20
Speaker 2: where they get gashed because of these scheme issues that
20:23
Speaker 2: they can't they don't have answers or solutions too.
20:27
Speaker 1: They did find some solutions eventually in the run game.
20:30
Speaker 1: One of the things that they did that worked was
20:31
Speaker 1: quarter quarter half. But as with pretty much everything on
20:35
Speaker 1: this show, only you give up seven point six yards
20:37
Speaker 1: per play and five yards brought per rush, it didn't work.
20:40
Speaker 1: Forever there were there were there's always a CounterPunch to
20:42
Speaker 1: your punch. So let's start with the good news on
20:45
Speaker 1: the quarter quarter half and then you can get into
20:47
Speaker 1: the less good news.
20:48
Speaker 3: Yeah.
20:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't want to believe it totally again that
20:52
Speaker 2: it's the sky's falling, right, So I do think you
20:56
Speaker 2: saw more and more so quarter quarter half where you're
21:00
Speaker 2: playing this like this one, where you're playing cover four
21:04
Speaker 2: to the field and cover two to the boundary. You
21:06
Speaker 2: also saw them in response later in the game to
21:09
Speaker 2: some of those formation in the boundary issues playing half
21:14
Speaker 2: quarter quarter or Cover eight, which is when now you're
21:17
Speaker 2: playing cover four to the boundary and cover two to
21:20
Speaker 2: the field to get you know, again, I think they're
21:23
Speaker 2: getting bodies and the safeties against the run to the
21:25
Speaker 2: short side with Cover eight. But here, you know, they
21:29
Speaker 2: do some of the things that I'd like to see
21:30
Speaker 2: them do, right. So the first thing about quarter quarter
21:34
Speaker 2: half is it's sort of in some ways like a
21:38
Speaker 2: single high Cover three scheme and that you're getting you
21:41
Speaker 2: have another defensive back in the run fit, but it
21:44
Speaker 2: still gives you some of the split safety benefits of
21:48
Speaker 2: like Cover four, you know, keeping and Cover two and
21:50
Speaker 2: keeping like four or three or three or two. So
21:53
Speaker 2: it's you know, it's a solid sort of workman scheme, right,
21:56
Speaker 2: But they also do what I've just was saying. So
22:00
Speaker 2: like when you watch this play, you obviously have again
22:03
Speaker 2: you have two wide receivers. You have two guys out
22:06
Speaker 2: wide for organ right to the field, which is you know,
22:09
Speaker 2: Oregon RPO threat all over it. So styles is sort
22:15
Speaker 2: of splitting the difference between the tackle and the receivers.
22:19
Speaker 2: And so what they do rather than ask him put
22:22
Speaker 2: him in that conflict, they spike JT. Twomlow inside both
22:26
Speaker 2: defensive ends spike inside of the B gap. Now Styles
22:29
Speaker 2: can play the sea gap. Jordan Hancock to the opposite
22:31
Speaker 2: side can play the sea gap. You can and you'll
22:35
Speaker 2: see on this play they can basically shrin it out
22:37
Speaker 2: right by doing that, and so you'll see, you know,
22:40
Speaker 2: as I said, they had quite a few run plays
22:43
Speaker 2: where they did limit organ and especially like when the
22:47
Speaker 2: defensive tackles can control the Atlanta scrimmage like they do
22:49
Speaker 2: much better. Here here's a good rep from Ty Hamilton.
22:52
Speaker 2: He's resetting the line of scrimmage against the center when
22:55
Speaker 2: you can see from behind the play Styles is able
22:58
Speaker 2: to force you know, string it out and Cody Simons
23:00
Speaker 2: able to company it up. So I think, you know,
23:03
Speaker 2: and we can talk about this more like part of
23:05
Speaker 2: my solutions within within the framework of what we have
23:09
Speaker 2: right Like you're not going.
23:10
Speaker 3: To change your entire scheme mid scheme.
23:11
Speaker 2: I mean, I would like to see more of this,
23:15
Speaker 2: as I said, quarter quarter a half concepts, more of
23:18
Speaker 2: cover three where you're bringing downs down. You know, things
23:21
Speaker 2: that within the four down scheme that they single gap,
23:26
Speaker 2: that they play short of the jack coming out and
23:30
Speaker 2: short of Noel's doing the things he's done in the
23:32
Speaker 2: past with you know, getting a gap and a half
23:35
Speaker 2: from defensive linemen, mixing up gaps. I just think they
23:39
Speaker 2: need to be gaps sound to start with, and some
23:42
Speaker 2: of these schemes allow you to do it. And obviously
23:45
Speaker 2: the more that they can change up where the gaps
23:50
Speaker 2: that the defensive line is playing, like on this one.
23:52
Speaker 3: The more it's going to help them.
23:55
Speaker 2: I will say though that, like there's other issues for
23:59
Speaker 2: them right on his own looks, and maybe this is
24:01
Speaker 2: why they were playing so much cover one, because again,
24:06
Speaker 2: these are all things we've talked about in the past
24:08
Speaker 2: that have been like issues. So it's not a surprise
24:12
Speaker 2: that a good team, the good coaching staff that is
24:15
Speaker 2: you know, I thought ull Stein was you know, he
24:18
Speaker 2: was reaching. They were reaching deep on Saturday right Oregon, Like,
24:21
Speaker 2: especially in the second half, Like they ran the fourth
24:24
Speaker 2: down play where they slipped the tight end out of
24:26
Speaker 2: the backfield. They ran the third and six against Ohio
24:29
Speaker 2: States dime. Look, they ran a crack toss sweep to
24:32
Speaker 2: the boundary. Like these are pretty pretty gutsy calls. And
24:35
Speaker 2: here you get sort of the organ another variation of
24:40
Speaker 2: we're going to purposely put twelve men on the field.
24:42
Speaker 2: We're going to do an on site kick that tries
24:45
Speaker 2: to drill you're upman in the in the chop stomach,
24:47
Speaker 2: like Dylan Gabriel fakes like he's looking to the sideline
24:51
Speaker 2: for the play and they snapped the ball right, So
24:52
Speaker 2: that's supposed to get you off off guard. So you know,
24:56
Speaker 2: again credit to organ if you or you can say,
24:59
Speaker 2: like knew they had to pull out all the stops
25:03
Speaker 2: how you want to look at it, right, But like
25:05
Speaker 2: these this like deep breaking in route to the tight
25:10
Speaker 2: end here you just like see too often against Ohio
25:13
Speaker 2: State's coverage because they don't they don't carry receivers like
25:17
Speaker 2: we talked about, like if someone releases vertical, they don't
25:20
Speaker 2: run with them in zone.
25:21
Speaker 3: They don't even reroute them.
25:22
Speaker 2: So like you know here Cody Simon kind of pushes
25:26
Speaker 2: the tight end. I mean, I think you would want
25:28
Speaker 2: to see you a more aggressive reroute, but I know
25:31
Speaker 2: they don't want to do that because they don't want
25:33
Speaker 2: to lose their like zone integrity. So I know that
25:35
Speaker 2: it's not like that's not on Steinman, that's like the scheme,
25:38
Speaker 2: but like they just have the deep safeties there and
25:41
Speaker 2: there's just green grass. And so Dylan Gabriel played a
25:45
Speaker 2: really good game Saturday, Like I thought, he made throws
25:47
Speaker 2: at frankly, like I was impressed with. I didn't know
25:50
Speaker 2: he had some of those in him, So credit to him.
25:53
Speaker 3: But I do.
25:54
Speaker 2: Think that the Ohio States scheme at times allows opposing
25:58
Speaker 2: quarterbacks to get comfortable because they know what the picture is,
26:02
Speaker 2: they know where their reads are, and they can get
26:04
Speaker 2: into a rhythm and you.
26:06
Speaker 3: Know, again like you just got to close down on
26:08
Speaker 3: these routes.
26:08
Speaker 2: And so I'm not saying that plane quarter, quarter a
26:12
Speaker 2: half or any particular concept is going to be a
26:15
Speaker 2: total panacea, because I just think there's a series of
26:19
Speaker 2: systemic issues that go together. I just think at a minimum,
26:23
Speaker 2: you kind of have to go back to like we a,
26:25
Speaker 2: we can't give up those big, explicitive plays and we're
26:28
Speaker 2: gonna you know, in the second half, it certainly wasn't perfect.
26:31
Speaker 2: I mean, Oregon had long drives, but they didn't give
26:35
Speaker 2: up the big plays. They forced a couple of field wals,
26:37
Speaker 2: they forced the fourth down on downs. I certainly thought
26:40
Speaker 2: it was a better performance in the second half than
26:42
Speaker 2: the first. They seemed more comfortable getting lined up. I
26:46
Speaker 2: just think you have to come up with ways a
26:49
Speaker 2: again to like, you gotta got off all your gap
26:51
Speaker 2: integrities covered, So that to me is like got to
26:54
Speaker 2: use more single high zone concepts. You got to remove
26:58
Speaker 2: these man Beeter conflicts. You need to come up with
27:02
Speaker 2: many ways as possible to allow Caleb Downs to be
27:04
Speaker 2: your answers, because like he did erase a lot of
27:08
Speaker 2: problems for them on Saturday, to the extent he could,
27:11
Speaker 2: Like he can't be everywhere at once, obviously, but I
27:14
Speaker 2: think that he can clean up a lot of things
27:16
Speaker 2: in the box. And then you know, I just think,
27:19
Speaker 2: on the one hand, I don't I don't think the
27:22
Speaker 2: sky is falling out right like there's still a top five.
27:24
Speaker 3: Top ten defense.
27:25
Speaker 2: I just think they are limited by some of these
27:28
Speaker 2: scheme choices in terms of their ceiling. And I just
27:31
Speaker 2: think that means that in games like this, you know
27:34
Speaker 2: you're gonna have to score at least thirty plus. You know,
27:37
Speaker 2: if I'm Dank and Chip Kelly, like I'm going into
27:39
Speaker 2: a game against in Oregon thinking I need to score
27:42
Speaker 2: thirty five the next time to win. But I do
27:46
Speaker 2: think there's things they can do as I said these
27:47
Speaker 2: things moving the line around that I think they can
27:51
Speaker 2: clean some of this stuff up, and obviously like, yeah,
27:54
Speaker 2: I don't know whether it was over confidence, whether it
27:56
Speaker 2: was just film study of seeing Oregon throw a lot
27:58
Speaker 2: of short routes, like you know, you can't have your
28:00
Speaker 2: corners doing that kind of stuff on double moves.
28:04
Speaker 1: Well, we will see whether the Buckeyes can clean some
28:06
Speaker 1: of that stuff up. We will also see whether Ryan
28:08
Speaker 1: Day and Chip Kelly can put up thirty five points.
28:11
Speaker 1: And the next time they have a significant game like this,
28:13
Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking about the fact they put up
28:15
Speaker 1: thirty one points. Pretty good, pretty close, not quite enough,
28:18
Speaker 1: but pretty close. We talk about the offense the next time. Period.
28:21
Speaker 1: We always do the offense first. The defense has feels
28:24
Speaker 1: like it has been the story for good or for
28:26
Speaker 1: ill this week in Columbus. So I started with them
28:28
Speaker 1: this week. I'll be back, have Ross back. You talk
28:30
Speaker 1: about the offense next time, but for now, I want
28:33
Speaker 1: to thank our sponsors. Jefferuby Steakhouse, the award winning upscale
28:35
Speaker 1: steakhouse in downtown Columbus, named one of the top fifty
28:37
Speaker 1: steakhouses in America by Food Network. Just go to Jeffruby
28:40
Speaker 1: dot com slash Columbus, check out the menu and make
28:43
Speaker 1: a preservation today. That will do it for today. Thank
28:46
Speaker 1: you guys all for joining us. Have a great day.
28:48
Speaker 1: We'll talk to you tomorrow