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Ross Fulton Analysis: How Ohio State Took Away Notre Dame's Run Game · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Saturday, January twenty fifth.
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Speaker 1: I'm your host, tom Or. The Texas game is in
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Speaker 1: two hundred and seventeen days, the game he gets Michigan
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Speaker 1: in three hundred and eight days. That they were going
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Speaker 1: to be breaking down the Ohio State defensive performance against
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Speaker 1: Notre Dame. You're not going to the look like the
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Speaker 1: way it starts stick with us. Don't worry. It gets better.
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Speaker 1: It gets a whole lot better very quickly. We're going
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Speaker 1: to be doing that with our buddy Ross Fulton, the
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Speaker 1: ex's and those guru buckehead all dot com and when
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Speaker 1: Ross is on the show, we're sponsored by Jeff Rubies
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Speaker 1: make a reservation today. All right, Ross, we're going to
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Speaker 1: start with the opening drive and you're never going to
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Speaker 1: guess it, but this is a Riley Leonard run that
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Speaker 1: we're going to start with. This is something that was
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Speaker 1: incredibly successful for Notre Dame. But even you know, even
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Speaker 1: before you knew how Ohio State was going to counter
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Speaker 1: it defensively, he's like, well, they can't do this the
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Speaker 1: whole rest of the game or he will be legally dead.
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Speaker 1: So you know, Ohio State did their part to take
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Speaker 1: that away and probably help keep Briley Leonard a little
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Speaker 1: more upright than they would have otherwise. But the first drive,
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Speaker 1: Notre Dame, this is something Notre Dame had some success with.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think incredibly successful is very much
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Speaker 2: too strong of a word.
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Speaker 3: When people were.
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Speaker 2: Freaking out throughout my text after that drive, it was
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Speaker 2: it's not a sustainable strategy to gain like three and
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Speaker 2: a half yards of play, right, Like, that's there's one
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Speaker 2: thing advanced stats are good for. It's proven that that
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Speaker 2: is not as you know, that's not going to be replicable,
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Speaker 2: even putting aside the fact that you can't run your
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Speaker 2: quarterback forty two times in a game for three and
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Speaker 2: a half yards to carry I hope, to sustain offense.
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Speaker 2: But they did have some success or at least, you know,
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Speaker 2: enough to string together the opening drive with a lot
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Speaker 2: of plays. And this is just a you know, one
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Speaker 2: example of many could have picked out, but it sort
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Speaker 2: of provides why. Like they ran their name, ran a
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Speaker 2: lot of QB counter both on an opening drive and
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Speaker 2: try to afterwards. So they're gonna you know, this is
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Speaker 2: guy counter. They're gonna pull the backside guard, pull the
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Speaker 2: tight end right here there. Ohio States and a cover
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Speaker 2: four here. It's all quite a bit of Cover four
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Speaker 2: from a high state against ned to day, maybe more
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Speaker 2: than they played some other games this season, likely trying
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Speaker 2: to get some split safety looks, but also cover four
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Speaker 2: allows the safeties it will be a little bit more
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Speaker 2: aggressive against the run. And you know, you can apply
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Speaker 2: either side downhill against the quarterback run game in particular.
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Speaker 2: But by doing this here, you like they stretch out,
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Speaker 2: they send the running back in motion, not name use
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Speaker 2: a lot of spread formations and we'll get into some
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Speaker 2: of that against Ohio State, trying to get those linebackers
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Speaker 2: out of the safeties out of the box, particularly like
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Speaker 2: trips looks three wide receivers to the one side of
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Speaker 2: the field, and so this is cover four and they
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Speaker 2: just basically like as a demonstrate here, they have a
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Speaker 2: half for a hat right like you can see that
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Speaker 2: from the tight view as well, you know, block down
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Speaker 2: on the nose guard, you kick out the defensive end.
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Speaker 2: Jack Stawyer pull around for the front side for Cody
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Speaker 2: Simon picked up study styles, blocked back on him with
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Speaker 2: the leat side tackle, and you know, again four or
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Speaker 2: five yard game. Leonard's a big guy. He's very good
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Speaker 2: at falling forward. So, as we said, like enough to
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Speaker 2: sustain drives and enough, I'm not sure i'd say changed
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Speaker 2: Ohio State strategy per se, but they definitely leaned into
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Speaker 2: some of the concepts we're going to talk about here
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Speaker 2: to largely limit the Notre Dame run game the rest
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Speaker 2: of the contest.
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Speaker 1: Well, the next one we're gonna we're gonna be looking
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Speaker 1: at is one where they brought pressure right up the
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Speaker 1: middle and right you know, they didn't they didn't sack Leonard,
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Speaker 1: but they got him out of the pocket, sort of
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Speaker 1: flush him out and just ended up with an incomplete pass.
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Speaker 2: And so right away we see like some of what
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Speaker 2: they what Ohio State wants to do the rest of
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Speaker 2: the game, right, and so this is a this is
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Speaker 2: a gymn nole staple. Cody Alexander has a great video
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Speaker 2: breakdown of a lot of these like interior gap pressures
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Speaker 2: Ohio State used against Notre Dame.
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Speaker 3: Uh.
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Speaker 2: He can explain them far more detail than I can.
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Speaker 2: So I highly recommend that Mike Pettitt for Bucket Huddle
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Speaker 2: has drawn this this one up in particular and explained
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Speaker 2: it as well. But it's just an a gap pressure.
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Speaker 2: This is actually like a run concept. You're gonna, you know,
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Speaker 2: both defensive the noseguard and the three technique are gonna
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Speaker 2: are gonna play go outside of the b gaps and
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Speaker 2: Cody Simon's gonna come right up the middle. You'll notice
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Speaker 2: it's a it's a sim pressure, right, so they're gonna
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Speaker 2: drop uh j T twomlow out here is the boundary
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Speaker 2: defensive end. He's gonna play like the flat and a
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Speaker 2: three deep And so as you said, like this is
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Speaker 2: this is actually like what led to uh you know,
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Speaker 2: maybe the biggest UH chier of the night from Ohio
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Speaker 2: State fans because it was the first holding call against
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Speaker 2: Ohio State and UH year so he got a nice
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Speaker 2: Bronx cheer out of this one. But you know, I
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Speaker 2: mean credit to Leonard, like he made a lot of
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Speaker 2: play sort of out of structure. In fact, he's probably
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Speaker 2: better out of structure than he was in structure, trying
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Speaker 2: to like pick apart zone coverages and deliver the ball accurately,
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Speaker 2: and so sometimes that sort of played in his hands,
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Speaker 2: bringing this pressure. But a lot of these concepts, like
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Speaker 2: you see it here against the pass, and but we're
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Speaker 2: going to show also how they worked against the run
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Speaker 2: as well.
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Speaker 1: And this next one, it's another QB counter that Notre
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Speaker 1: Dame runs, and this is where you sort of start
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Speaker 1: to see Ohio State defending that a little bit better.
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Speaker 1: We did our rewatch show and came up with the
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Speaker 1: stat that about the first play of the third drive,
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Speaker 1: Riley Leonard had run for thirty nine yards in the game,
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Speaker 1: and the seven carries he had the rest of the
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Speaker 1: game he ran for one yard. So that was Ohio
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Speaker 1: State getting a lot better at figuring out how to
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Speaker 1: defend that.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, obviously some stacks in there, but also like very
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Speaker 2: you know, even less if the first drive was more like,
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Speaker 2: you know, four yards of carry that the rest were
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Speaker 2: two to three yards of carry, right, And some of
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Speaker 2: that is just just applying additional numbers against the run game.
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Speaker 2: Again like recommend Cody's discussion, but like by using these
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Speaker 2: these run pressures. They're Chymnles is forcing the football to
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Speaker 2: go into a certain spot. Instead of like everyone has
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Speaker 2: a gap and reading reacting, you're now like using pressure
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Speaker 2: schemes to force the football right. And so this one
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Speaker 2: is a it's a nickel pressure. And they're also bringing
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Speaker 2: the backside or study styles. We'll talk about this a lot.
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Speaker 2: Like on a run blitz up the front side, he's
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Speaker 2: reading the center and depending on which way the center blocks,
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Speaker 2: he's going to attack that side of the center of blocks.
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Speaker 2: So the center blocks back here, he's going to attack
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Speaker 2: the front side a gap. Jordan Hancock comes down, Caleb
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Speaker 2: down replaces them so or easing another cover three concepts
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Speaker 2: here and again and now look at and you can
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Speaker 2: also see how again JT. Tmolo is sort of surfing
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Speaker 2: on the backside of this play. This is going to
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Speaker 2: be a constant here in some of these clips. If
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Speaker 2: this was a pass, just like the last clip we saw,
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Speaker 2: he's going to drop into that boundary flat right. But
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Speaker 2: what you're gonna do here is h Tyler Williams the
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Speaker 2: three technique is actually going to be the contained defender
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Speaker 2: and you'll see him playing outside and J. T. Twomlow
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Speaker 2: is going to sort of surf here, and he's playing
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Speaker 2: the quarterback. So like if the quarterback keeps on a read,
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Speaker 2: he's he's helped on that side, but he can come
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Speaker 2: and he can then sort of mirror the quarterback and
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Speaker 2: come around and close down. So like the linebackers take
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Speaker 2: on the bowlers and now you've got to now you've
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Speaker 2: got a free hitter. As opposed to that first clip,
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Speaker 2: you know, in some ways, what they have the defensive
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Speaker 2: ends do here in this game would it's pretty similar
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Speaker 2: to the jack roll, to be honest, like they're sort
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Speaker 2: of they're applying them in different run gaps, particularly in
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Speaker 2: the interior, to you know, mess up the blocking schemes.
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Speaker 2: Added additional hat in the hole, so you know, less
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Speaker 2: not so much moving around pre step, but using them
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Speaker 2: as sort of an extra body that you can apply
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Speaker 2: in the interior by by changing gap responsibilities at the defense.
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Speaker 2: Here the defensive tackle taking the outside and the defensive
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Speaker 2: end been able to mirror the quarterback inside.
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Speaker 1: Next one is a concept we've talked about before called
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Speaker 1: cross dog, and it's another one where you're gonna have
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Speaker 1: guys sort of changing which gaps. It looks like they're
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Speaker 1: going to and this is one that we have talked
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Speaker 1: about this, I think in the past in terms of
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Speaker 1: getting linebackers home in terms of you know, generating sacks
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Speaker 1: in the past. Game this is one where you get
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Speaker 1: Cody Simon right in the hole where they're not necessarily
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Speaker 1: expecting him and it is a run play that goes
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Speaker 1: absolutely nowhere.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, and so it's like you know, the two main
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Speaker 2: concepts that you saw one earlier with that a gap
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Speaker 2: where one linebackers puts it in the a gap and
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Speaker 2: then the other one could sort of float behind them. U.
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Speaker 2: This is a cross dog again like Sunny Stock, everyone's
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Speaker 2: the defensive line is stuntingwards the running back Sunny Styles
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Speaker 2: is going to attack the backside a gap. And as
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Speaker 2: you can see from like this behind the camera, like
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Speaker 2: what both these concepts do.
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Speaker 3: We've talked about this in the past.
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Speaker 2: Is almost create a bear front, right where like if
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Speaker 2: you paused it at the handoff, you've got five up
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Speaker 2: on the line of scrimmage, you've got both guards at
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Speaker 2: the center and both guards covered up. You're just doing
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Speaker 2: it with a linebacker, right, and as you said, like
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Speaker 2: that is going to force the football to the gap
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Speaker 2: where Cody Simon's waiting for it. You get the added
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Speaker 2: benefit here of Tyler Williams. He swims around the tackle
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Speaker 2: and is able to ricochet back into the hole and
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Speaker 2: make the play. But it's really designed to force the
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Speaker 2: football to the free hitter, which is Cody Simon.
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Speaker 3: So whereas on the play before that we.
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Speaker 2: Were creating a free hitter with the defensive end, here
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Speaker 2: we're doing it the linebacker with this cross dog blitz,
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Speaker 2: so you know, eating up the guards so they can't
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Speaker 2: get off a double team to the Mike linebacker on
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Speaker 2: zone concepts. So again like both both differents particulars they're using,
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Speaker 2: but like the same principle of reducing the front and
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Speaker 2: forcing the football one way as opposed to like giving
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Speaker 2: a running back a two way go or as it said,
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Speaker 2: like start of everyone having a particular gap and reading reacting.
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Speaker 2: And this was these run blitzes have always been really
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Speaker 2: effective for Jim Knowles in terms of like limiting particularly
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Speaker 2: zone run games. They're also you know Notre Dame through
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Speaker 2: some gap schemes at them. They were effected there too,
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Speaker 2: and you know, really limited the notre Ame and no
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Speaker 2: run game to speak of with their tailbacks obviously, they
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Speaker 2: had to rely on Riley Leonard for anything, and as
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Speaker 2: we talked about, that had diminishing returns.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and one more really successful run play run defense play.
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Speaker 1: Here again a sim pressure and again Tody Simon pops
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Speaker 1: up right in the hole right where the running back
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Speaker 1: is coming, and that pretty much is the end of that.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
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Speaker 2: So one more here for the So we showed this
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Speaker 2: from the past when against the past, and now we've
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Speaker 2: got to hear against the same concept. Right, So again
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Speaker 2: like we're bringing the Sunny Styles here is attacking that
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Speaker 2: a gap and then so again you get this sort
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Speaker 2: of like the both defensive tackles go to the B
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Speaker 2: gaps and so again you've got this five man front
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Speaker 2: essentially right once you apply one of the linebackers where
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Speaker 2: Sunny Styles is taking up the center, the guards are
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Speaker 2: occupied with the defensive tackles and Cody Cody Simmon can
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Speaker 2: then be a free hitter in the hole against this
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Speaker 2: this counterplay, it's a guy counter So Tyler Williams again
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Speaker 2: by going to the B gap, he takes on the
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Speaker 2: lead poller and again they not only do you have
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Speaker 2: Cody Simon, but then Kayden Curry now is sort of
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Speaker 2: in that Jack Roll floating role where he can come
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Speaker 2: back and take on the lead blocker, and that that
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Speaker 2: freeze Cody Simon up because they can't pull.
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Speaker 3: Around for him.
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Speaker 2: So again, just a few examples of how using simulated
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Speaker 2: pressures to uh, you know, force the football certain places
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Speaker 2: to a free hitter in the run game, particularly after
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Speaker 2: that opening drive.
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Speaker 1: All right, and now we're going to get into the
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Speaker 1: portion of the game. Not name remembered that they could
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Speaker 1: in fact move the ball forward on offense every once
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Speaker 1: in a while. This next one is that first Jaden
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Speaker 1: Greathouse touchdown, and watching this live, this felt like this
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Speaker 1: was probably not a scheme issue as much as a
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Speaker 1: execution issue because there were a couple of Buckeyes there
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Speaker 1: and guys who don't normally miss tackles just misstackles. Is
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Speaker 1: this just sort of a tip your hat to Jaden
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Speaker 1: Greathouse play or was there something more that happened here
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Speaker 1: on this one?
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Speaker 3: Yeah? I mean it both.
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Speaker 2: It's I mean, it's obviously a great spin move by him,
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Speaker 2: and he, you know, I think has shown in the
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Speaker 2: playoffs that he's quite the slot receiver. But and obviously
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Speaker 2: you don't expect Caleb Downs miss tackle I mean, this
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Speaker 2: is basically like seeing a unicorn this year, but it
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Speaker 2: also is sort it is a byproduct in some ways
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Speaker 2: of what they were doing. It's the run, right, so
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Speaker 2: this is like the same frost dog pressure with the
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Speaker 2: mics where you're and you can see Jack Sawyer looping
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Speaker 2: around for the run, so it's the same. This is
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Speaker 2: basically a run call, but they're playing Cover one and
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Speaker 2: so like you know, hat tip to like Mike Denbrock
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Speaker 2: had a lot of good passing concepts and showed a
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Speaker 2: lot of variety against our stay and stressed the particularly
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Speaker 2: like the underneath coverage in a lot of ways. But
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Speaker 2: it was also a situation where Ohio State played more
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Speaker 2: man coverage than they have certainly in the playoffs and
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Speaker 2: probably like the last couple of months of the season.
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Speaker 2: And like a lot of Interrename's big hits, came up
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Speaker 2: with Cover one in particular, like against third and long.
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Speaker 2: We'll get into here, you know. I that was a
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Speaker 2: little surprising to me. I'm not sure why, particularly with
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Speaker 2: the lead, they were using so many Cover one pressures
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Speaker 2: or why Jim Knowles was when they've been so good,
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Speaker 2: like we showed a bunch of Cover three examples, they've
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Speaker 2: been so good matching as we've talked about, but be
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Speaker 2: that as to may like neuroda inthic advantage of it. Right,
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Speaker 2: like they knew they were going to Cover one here
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Speaker 2: because they've run this little man beater where Greathouse comes
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Speaker 2: outside for and then breaks back in so it gets
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Speaker 2: leverage on the corner.
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Speaker 3: Obviously have to get into the ground.
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Speaker 2: But I think as as we'll talk about, like this
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Speaker 2: was against Cover one on third nineteen that David and
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Speaker 2: Iguanosen passer filance penalty on Mitchell Evans, that was that
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Speaker 2: really kind of let Notre Dame get going again back
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Speaker 2: in the game. That was Cover one, and as well
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Speaker 2: the slot fade that we'll discuss here in a second
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Speaker 2: was Cover one. So you know, I'm not saying like
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Speaker 2: they're perfect in zone. Like as I said, they played
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Speaker 2: a bunch of more Cover four concepts than they have.
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Speaker 2: There's maybe some mistakes and how to like distribute routes
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Speaker 2: in that, but I just I would not I personally
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Speaker 2: would not put this up there as like the Jim
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Speaker 2: Knowles's best game in the last few mon months play
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Speaker 2: calling wise, Like that's obviously a high bar because they've
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Speaker 2: been really good. I just I don't really have a
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Speaker 2: good answer for they were using so much Cover one
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Speaker 2: in like third long situations, which is where pretty much
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Speaker 2: all of Notre Dame's big hits came on third law,
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Speaker 2: like they were getting them behind the stakes and couldn't
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Speaker 2: get off the field, and it just seemed like, given
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Speaker 2: the situation, like sort of unnecessary. I know, like Riley
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Speaker 2: Leonard was tough to create some pressure against given his athleticism,
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Speaker 2: but as I said, in the first half, I thought
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Speaker 2: he was struggling within the structure like dissectings that don't coverage,
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Speaker 2: so I think it gave him some some easier reads.
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Speaker 1: All right, Next up, this is one we normally talk
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Speaker 1: about on the Offense show. This is why Cross. This
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Speaker 1: is one of these Ryan Day staples that we talk
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Speaker 1: about all the time. Notre Dame uses this one, and
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Speaker 1: this is one that ended up I think this was
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Speaker 1: Mitchell Evans on this. On this one, there's a nice
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Speaker 1: pickup down downfield. Did either Mitchell Evrans or Jaden greathouse?
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Speaker 3: It's another great house.
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Speaker 1: Another great house one.
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Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, you know this is my comment about cover one,
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Speaker 2: and not to say that everything else was perfect or
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Speaker 2: that you know, every Cover one repper is bad, right,
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Speaker 2: So this is like this is a Cover two pressure concept.
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Speaker 2: So they bring five so again like really amping up
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Speaker 2: the pressure, particularly as the game went on in the
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Speaker 2: second half, you know, but Notre Dame goes to trips here,
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Speaker 2: like again a lot of trips to get toward Greathouse
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Speaker 2: as the number three inside receiver, and it's like a
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Speaker 2: to the field they're playing. It's a five man pressure, right,
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Speaker 2: So like once the motion goes away sunny styles and
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Speaker 2: David's if you notice, and come off the boundary edge,
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Speaker 2: so you're playing like two deep four under to the field.
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Speaker 2: It's really like a standard Cover two to the boundary.
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Speaker 2: It's the two safeties Caleb Downs and Lathan Ransom are
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Speaker 2: sort of like playing an inside outside coverage. And so
16:41
Speaker 2: what happens though, is Cody Simon and Cover two has
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Speaker 2: to carry that inside receiver. But what he's expecting is
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Speaker 2: a deep safety there to help as you would in
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Speaker 2: Cover two. But there's no one for this crosser coming
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Speaker 2: the other way from the tight end, and so Caleb
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Speaker 2: Downs has to cut that. What needs to happen is
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Speaker 2: Lathan Ransom then needs to replace him and go back
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Speaker 2: because there's no one for Latham Ransom, like there's no
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Speaker 2: threat to the flat uh, and he's just late doing that.
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Speaker 2: So it looks like you've got Cody Simon on Notre
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Speaker 2: Dame's best receiver. But really, really what it is is
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Speaker 2: like good design to pull out the deep safety and
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Speaker 2: this pressure scheme. And as I said, like I thought,
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Speaker 2: I you know, I was pretty impressed, like the different
17:22
Speaker 2: types of concepts as a team that's not really been
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Speaker 2: a pass heavy team or like explosive passing the football,
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Speaker 2: Like they had a lot of volume to go to
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Speaker 2: and answers for Ohio State's various coverages, so they kind
17:36
Speaker 2: of caught Ohio State here. As I said, like, I
17:38
Speaker 2: thinknes State had some issues as the game went on
17:41
Speaker 2: with like these trips formations and dealing with that as someone,
17:48
Speaker 2: you know, we'll get here to how I wish they
17:50
Speaker 2: would have done it more. But that that was, you know,
17:54
Speaker 2: be that as it may, obviously, uh, you know, held
17:57
Speaker 2: out at the end.
17:59
Speaker 1: Well again here here's sort of the gallant version of
18:03
Speaker 1: the goofis and gallant of ways to just defend the
18:06
Speaker 1: White Cross. This is a comedy. Another thing we've talked
18:09
Speaker 1: about in the past. Poach and this one much better
18:12
Speaker 1: coverage downfield.
18:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean this is the very next play.
18:16
Speaker 2: So it's like you can see it when it didn't
18:18
Speaker 2: work and when it did work, and with all the
18:21
Speaker 2: trips that Notre Dame was using the motion to trips,
18:24
Speaker 2: you know, I just think, like you know, Texas took advantage.
18:27
Speaker 3: Of this too.
18:28
Speaker 2: I still think they probably were a little lacking in
18:32
Speaker 2: answers to trips or like two predictable and what they'd
18:37
Speaker 2: give you. And so here's poach, which Billy use a
18:40
Speaker 2: little bit this year. We've talked about it. I wish
18:43
Speaker 2: they'd use it more because you're basically right by like
18:45
Speaker 2: by poach, we just mean Latham Ransom as the backside safety.
18:48
Speaker 2: Year I sort of dotted it is he's helping on
18:51
Speaker 2: that number three inside receiver if he runs exactly what
18:55
Speaker 2: we just should, which is like a deep white cross,
18:57
Speaker 2: like he's going to pick that up and that takes
18:59
Speaker 2: the pressure off that hook linebacker Cody Simon doesn't have
19:03
Speaker 2: to carry it. Now you still have uh, you know,
19:05
Speaker 2: three over two then to the the trip side for
19:09
Speaker 2: the remaining two wide receivers and yeah, and then you
19:12
Speaker 2: just man up the backside. So you're basically rolling the
19:16
Speaker 2: coverage to the trips, which leads you more vulnerable to
19:19
Speaker 2: the boundary. But like especially Notre Dame, like obviously, uh,
19:23
Speaker 2: you know, if you're gonna do it over again, I
19:24
Speaker 2: think you'd want to know where number one is at
19:27
Speaker 2: all times. And that's obviously like the biggest threat with
19:29
Speaker 2: maybe the tight end of second and so this is
19:32
Speaker 2: just an example of like, there are answers there that
19:35
Speaker 2: could have helped would have probably wished to see him
19:38
Speaker 2: a little bit more. Obviously it's all all water under
19:40
Speaker 2: the bridge and worked out. But if we're nippicking here,
19:43
Speaker 2: you know, these are things that that in hindsight could
19:46
Speaker 2: have probably helped a little bit more as opposed to
19:49
Speaker 2: you know, relian so much on manned coverage to the
19:52
Speaker 2: three receiver side well.
19:55
Speaker 1: And the last one we're gonna do. This is another
19:56
Speaker 1: example of Number one Jaden great House making a great
20:00
Speaker 1: play against Ohio State. Six catches, one hundred and twenty
20:03
Speaker 1: eight yards and two touchdowns for him. This is the
20:05
Speaker 1: second of those two touchdowns. It was this is the
20:08
Speaker 1: one where Jordan Hancock commits some pretty significant pass interference
20:13
Speaker 1: and great House makes a great catch.
20:15
Speaker 2: Anyway, Yeah, as a sixteen game season where they just
20:20
Speaker 2: won the National Championship. We've done a lot of these.
20:22
Speaker 2: I hate to end on a negative note here, but
20:24
Speaker 2: I do think, like you know, from a big picture perspective, right,
20:28
Speaker 2: like all we showed about like stopping the Notre Dame
20:31
Speaker 2: run game, stopping the quarterback red game, Like that's what
20:33
Speaker 2: I would have said going into.
20:34
Speaker 3: The football game was the most important thing.
20:38
Speaker 2: And then you know, once you get a lead, I
20:40
Speaker 2: guess it then becomes a question of, like what's the
20:42
Speaker 2: best way to protect it? You know, a lot of
20:44
Speaker 2: these cover one again, like we're seeing Knowles bring a
20:47
Speaker 2: five man pressure here, like it wasn't He was definitely
20:51
Speaker 2: not playing prevent defense like they may have like provided
20:54
Speaker 2: a little bit more cushion in some ways, but he
20:57
Speaker 2: definitely amped up the pressure that just left him with
21:01
Speaker 2: this like base cover one. Then again, like this is
21:03
Speaker 2: third long, right, They've had two good plays before that,
21:07
Speaker 2: but this is just pretty telegraphed Cover one.
21:11
Speaker 3: Again.
21:11
Speaker 2: We're doing this to the Trip's side of the field,
21:13
Speaker 2: so that means Caleb downs and coverage on number three
21:16
Speaker 2: and Lathan Ranson as the deep safety's never gonna get
21:19
Speaker 2: over there. From the boundary side, and so yeah, they
21:22
Speaker 2: hit this slot fade. So you know, again like credit
21:25
Speaker 2: to or Dame, like I didn't Riley Leonard as is
21:27
Speaker 2: kind of have alluded to in the first half, like
21:30
Speaker 2: you know, in the pocket, he struggled with his accuracy
21:33
Speaker 2: and like diagnosing someone was going on. You know, he
21:36
Speaker 2: made plays in the second half, like a few of
21:37
Speaker 2: these throws, including this one, like his arms literally getting
21:41
Speaker 2: hit as he's throwing. I'm not sure exactly how he
21:44
Speaker 2: got the football there, but as I said, like he's
21:46
Speaker 2: obviously a big, strong guy, he has a good arm,
21:49
Speaker 2: so he was able to overcome some of that. But
21:51
Speaker 2: in some ways, like the pressure just sort of in
21:52
Speaker 2: the cover one like kind of made the decisions for him.
21:57
Speaker 3: But in the end they won.
22:01
Speaker 2: So you know, these are sort of again things that
22:04
Speaker 2: like as I said, like if I was going to
22:05
Speaker 2: put a pantheon of like how well the Ohio State
22:09
Speaker 2: defense has played this year, like what games I thought,
22:11
Speaker 2: like schematically were better, like certainly would highlight you know,
22:15
Speaker 2: what they did against Oregon, what they did against Texas, Tennessee,
22:19
Speaker 2: over this one Indiana, but you know, I think you
22:24
Speaker 2: obviously came in the game worried about stopping the run,
22:27
Speaker 2: and you know, the offense carried on. I mean, that
22:30
Speaker 2: was the thing about Ohio State this season is like
22:33
Speaker 2: when you look at the advanced stats, it was always like,
22:36
Speaker 2: you know, the defense was probably overall more reliable than
22:41
Speaker 2: the offense, but it was only marginal, right, Like they're
22:43
Speaker 2: pretty much towards the top, and in fact, like I.
22:45
Speaker 3: Think in.
22:48
Speaker 2: FBI, in fact, by the end of the season, the
22:50
Speaker 2: offense was number one, the defense was number two. Sp
22:53
Speaker 2: Plus had them flipped where the defense was number one,
22:55
Speaker 2: I think the offense is like number three. So it
22:57
Speaker 2: was never like one of those things where we like
22:59
Speaker 2: we talked about, you know, playing Tennessee or Texas, it
23:03
Speaker 2: was like they had a really good defense and a
23:04
Speaker 2: lesser offense and then Oregon that was flipped, right, Like
23:07
Speaker 2: that was the strength of our stated the season.
23:09
Speaker 3: It is just how well rounded they were.
23:12
Speaker 1: So we've talked about this a bunch and you know,
23:16
Speaker 1: broader terms and in certain sort of minutia kind of
23:20
Speaker 1: terms as well in terms of what they changed this year,
23:24
Speaker 1: what was the single biggest positive change Because I know
23:27
Speaker 1: this is this is all stuff we've talked about a
23:29
Speaker 1: bunch of different elements of it. But if you had to,
23:31
Speaker 1: you know, give me the elevator pitch. Someone says, all right,
23:34
Speaker 1: what was the biggest thing that Jim Knowles changed on
23:37
Speaker 1: the defense that really turned them from thirty two points
23:42
Speaker 1: at Oregon to what they were at the end of
23:44
Speaker 1: the season. Yeah, I'll give you three long elevator right,
23:49
Speaker 1: all right.
23:50
Speaker 2: Exactly, Well, hang on, we're gonna hit all the buttons
23:53
Speaker 2: on the way down the So what they did up front, right,
23:58
Speaker 2: like the things we just showed, the techniques like slant team,
24:01
Speaker 2: using heavy techniques, like changing gaps up like you just
24:05
Speaker 2: did not see that nearly as much in the first
24:08
Speaker 2: quarter half of the year, where it was much more
24:10
Speaker 2: just like these are the six gaps.
24:12
Speaker 3: Everyone's playing that gap. The offense knows who has that gap.
24:15
Speaker 2: Like again, like we showed that as opposed to that
24:17
Speaker 2: first play we showed with Riley Leonard, where that's you know,
24:21
Speaker 2: people can kick down, pull around and you know you're
24:25
Speaker 2: getting you're forcing the football to certain places. The second
24:29
Speaker 2: is in the secondary much more, as I said, like
24:33
Speaker 2: putting this game aside, much more zone matching concepts, a
24:37
Speaker 2: lot more cover two, cover three, less cover one, and
24:41
Speaker 2: within those zones like as I said, carrying routes and
24:44
Speaker 2: keeping quarterbacks off balanced by being able to change those
24:47
Speaker 2: up and not be dependent.
24:48
Speaker 3: And the last is more personnel.
24:50
Speaker 2: The use of Caleb Downs like playing him such so
24:54
Speaker 2: much more at the second level, as you know, in
24:56
Speaker 2: a nickel role or is that three high safety in Tampa,
25:00
Speaker 2: just make him much more impactful against the run and
25:02
Speaker 2: closer to the line of scrivage.
25:05
Speaker 1: Well, there you go. You got your happy ending Ohio
25:07
Speaker 1: State fans, and now we'll have a little celebration thing
25:11
Speaker 1: in the stadium on Sunday, and then we get to
25:13
Speaker 1: start talking about, oh boy, they're losing a bunch of
25:15
Speaker 1: guys on the defense. How are we going to do
25:17
Speaker 1: this again? Next year we get to you get to
25:19
Speaker 1: start worrying again. We'll maybe get to that next week sometime,
25:22
Speaker 1: maybe a little after that, But for now, Ohio State
25:25
Speaker 1: is your national champion. Another great season with Ross. Always
25:29
Speaker 1: enjoy having Ross in these shows. I always feel like
25:31
Speaker 1: I learned a lot talking to him, and I know
25:33
Speaker 1: other folks find that true as well. So and when
25:35
Speaker 1: we have Ross on the show, of course, we are
25:37
Speaker 1: sponsored by Jeff Rubies of Columbus. The award winning Upscale
25:40
Speaker 1: steakhouse in downtown Columbus, named one of the top fifty
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25:45
Speaker 3: Just go to Jeffruby dot.
25:46
Speaker 1: Com slash Columbus, check out the menu, and make your
25:49
Speaker 1: reservation today. That'll do it for today. Thank you guys
25:51
Speaker 1: all for joining us. Have a great day. We'll talk
25:53
Speaker 1: to you tomorrow.