Latest / Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning / Ross Fulton Analysis: How Matt Patricia Locked Down Michigan, Big Ten Championship Preview
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes Tomorrow morning for Thursday, December fourth, I'm
- 0:03Speaker 1: your host, Tom Or the Big Ten Championship game against
- 0:05Speaker 1: Indiana in two days, the game against Michigan in three
- 0:08Speaker 1: hundred and fifty nine days. On today's show, we're going
- 0:11Speaker 1: to be breaking down the Ohio State defense, its performance
- 0:13Speaker 1: against the Michigan Wolverines, and what it all might mean
- 0:17Speaker 1: this weekend against Indiana. Do a little bit of a
- 0:19Speaker 1: preview of the Hoosier offense as well. That should be
- 0:22Speaker 1: a really interesting matchup. We're doing that with our buddy
- 0:24Speaker 1: Ross Fulton, the x's and o's guru from bucke Huddle
- 0:27Speaker 1: and one Bross's On the show. We're sponsored by Jeff
- 0:29Speaker 1: Rubies of Columbus, proudly offering nationally acclaimed USDA Prime Stakes, seafood,
- 0:34Speaker 1: sushi and peckable service, live entertainment, and an attention to
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- 0:40Speaker 1: com slash Columbus to check out the menu and make
- 0:42Speaker 1: a reservation today. All right, Ross, this ended up being
- 0:46Speaker 1: essentially what I was expecting from the Ohio State defense,
- 0:48Speaker 1: but it didn't start that way. We're going to start.
- 0:51Speaker 1: We're going to take a look at some of the
- 0:52Speaker 1: stuff that did not go well for the Buckeyes in
- 0:55Speaker 1: the run game. All that starts with the very first
- 0:58Speaker 1: play from scrimmage, which ended up being the long play
- 1:00Speaker 1: of the game on the ground for the Wolverines.
- 1:04Speaker 2: I think even Ryan Day after the game at some
- 1:05Speaker 2: point said like, oh my gosh, I can't believe that
- 1:08Speaker 2: this is how this thing is starting out with this run.
- 1:11Speaker 3: It was an interesting call by Matt Patricia to start
- 1:15Speaker 3: the game. You know, Michigan came out trying to do a.
- 1:18Speaker 2: Lot of what I thought, what we talked about last week,
- 1:22Speaker 2: sort of taking a page from Penn State in some
- 1:24Speaker 2: ways against High State, like a lot of trying to
- 1:26Speaker 2: get Ohio State spread to the field and then run
- 1:30Speaker 2: to the short side of the field. They use a
- 1:31Speaker 2: lot of like six man offensive line unbalanced, just trying
- 1:36Speaker 2: to get at Ohio State out number, and they caught
- 1:38Speaker 2: High State right away. So State here, it looks like
- 1:41Speaker 2: what they're doing playing is too steel that concept we've
- 1:44Speaker 2: talked about a lot of the zone blitz where you
- 1:47Speaker 2: you know, get to the to the field side and
- 1:50Speaker 2: trap the wide flat, which is an interesting call. On
- 1:55Speaker 2: first and ten. First play of the game. Maybe they
- 1:57Speaker 2: were expecting something in the flat, but said, you know,
- 2:00Speaker 2: Michigan gives this a lot of this like slide rpo action.
- 2:03Speaker 2: They use that all game. We'll talk about like a
- 2:06Speaker 2: high State defended that really well. Talked about that as
- 2:08Speaker 2: being a potential worry coming in, but they were just
- 2:11Speaker 2: out But then they run gt counter back to the
- 2:13Speaker 2: boundary and they're outnumbered. So David Senning Gonosen as the
- 2:16Speaker 2: boundary side corner has that s gap And we've talked
- 2:20Speaker 2: about in the past like when your corner corner has
- 2:23Speaker 2: a interior run fit, it's never like a great situation.
- 2:26Speaker 2: And so obviously Jordan Marshall able to get to the
- 2:29Speaker 2: second level, and you know, State was able to get
- 2:32Speaker 2: him down. So you know how State had a few
- 2:34Speaker 2: situations where they were just outnumbered in the run fit,
- 2:38Speaker 2: particularly the short side of the field. And some of
- 2:41Speaker 2: that's trade offs and some of that just Michigan having
- 2:45Speaker 2: a good plan in terms of being able to get
- 2:47Speaker 2: those numbers to the boundary. But you know, it's sort
- 2:50Speaker 2: of like not as as your only strategy, not as
- 2:53Speaker 2: sustainable one, which is sort of why things played out
- 2:55Speaker 2: how they did well.
- 2:56Speaker 1: We are going to get one more where they have
- 2:58Speaker 1: numbers to the boundary and this is now Bryson Kusdaal
- 3:02Speaker 1: running the ball for Michigan instead of Jordan Marshall, but
- 3:05Speaker 1: again a nice long run. Is this kind of the
- 3:07Speaker 1: same issues or is this a little bit of different?
- 3:09Speaker 3: Pretty much the same issues.
- 3:11Speaker 2: So again we've got a field pressure from Ohio State
- 3:14Speaker 2: come from the wide side with Caleb Downs coming up
- 3:17Speaker 2: to the second level from the second level, and Michigan
- 3:20Speaker 2: has again as I mentioned, they have six offensive linemen
- 3:22Speaker 2: in the game. They're unbalanced, so you can see to
- 3:26Speaker 2: the field side that what is in theory the left
- 3:29Speaker 2: tackle is actually a tight end and they have multiple
- 3:32Speaker 2: offensive linemen to the short side the field, So they
- 3:35Speaker 2: have six and a half got men if you like,
- 3:38Speaker 2: divide it down the center line to the boundary, and
- 3:40Speaker 2: Ohio State only is four and a half, so you're
- 3:43Speaker 2: obviously going to be out numbered in that situation. Michigan's
- 3:45Speaker 2: is just running power oh here, kicking out and leaning through.
- 3:48Speaker 2: But again same situation where this is just like a
- 3:51Speaker 2: scheme win for Michigan. Ohio State really just needed to,
- 3:54Speaker 2: like we've talked about this with sort of the five
- 3:57Speaker 2: upfront or the Penny front, like and how balance is
- 4:00Speaker 2: when you get these unbalanced looks, you got to just
- 4:02Speaker 2: bump everything over. So they really just needed to push
- 4:05Speaker 2: the front towards the boundary, which would have helped with
- 4:08Speaker 2: this situation. But again, Michigan kind of caught them on
- 4:11Speaker 2: this one. But as I said, I personally think you
- 4:14Speaker 2: can only do that so many times. You know, it's
- 4:16Speaker 2: similar to Penn State, Like they caught him a few
- 4:18Speaker 2: times and that sort of, you know, was the end
- 4:20Speaker 2: of that.
- 4:21Speaker 3: All right.
- 4:21Speaker 1: So from that one where it was sort of a
- 4:23Speaker 1: scheme win from Michigan to this one where my recommendation
- 4:28Speaker 1: as a professional football media person would be I would
- 4:31Speaker 1: not have a tight end black block Kennette Jackson right
- 4:33Speaker 1: at the point of attack. That would not be what
- 4:35Speaker 1: I would do. And I think this play is a
- 4:37Speaker 1: great example of why.
- 4:40Speaker 3: Yeah, Kendonnat Jackson had a great game.
- 4:44Speaker 2: I think he's been probably underrated this entire season in
- 4:47Speaker 2: terms of but he's really good at particularly against the run,
- 4:49Speaker 2: in particular when he's sort of in this Penny front
- 4:52Speaker 2: as a you know, interior defensive end, almost like a
- 4:56Speaker 2: three four defensive end, you know, traditional we're inside the
- 4:59Speaker 2: outside li i'nebacker. Uh and you know o High State's
- 5:02Speaker 2: block destruction is so good on these throughout the game
- 5:05Speaker 2: when they were single blocked by Michigan, you know, resetting
- 5:09Speaker 2: the line of scrimmage and winning. But this is the
- 5:12Speaker 2: sort of like one dog that didn't bite. I guess
- 5:16Speaker 2: you would say, you know, the other concept Michigan had
- 5:19Speaker 2: that we also thought could be in the in their
- 5:21Speaker 2: game plan was trying to use Bryce Underwood on designed runs.
- 5:25Speaker 2: And so they're doing the same thing here right. They're
- 5:27Speaker 2: they're setting Jordan Marshall. He's a you know, as a
- 5:32Speaker 2: RPO screen threat to the field, so you're getting that
- 5:34Speaker 2: same trips to the field and running opposite it. And
- 5:37Speaker 2: obviously when you run the quarterback you gain a number.
- 5:40Speaker 2: So it's g F counter with the fullback as the
- 5:43Speaker 2: lead blocker. But this one, you know, they tried this
- 5:46Speaker 2: a couple of times. Did not work, partially helped by
- 5:49Speaker 2: like Underwood did not seem comfortable as a lead runner.
- 5:52Speaker 2: He kept trying to bounce it. But obviously, as you said,
- 5:55Speaker 2: like even regardless of that, like when when you're losing
- 5:59Speaker 2: at the point attack like or you know, from the
- 6:01Speaker 2: High State perspective, when Kenyana Jackson beats the tight end here,
- 6:05Speaker 2: that's not going to go well for any counterplay.
- 6:07Speaker 1: All right, This next one is also Bryce Underwood in
- 6:10Speaker 1: the run game. Does it does not look like it
- 6:12Speaker 1: was the plan to have this be right Bryce Underwood
- 6:15Speaker 1: in the run game? But having watched a bunch of
- 6:17Speaker 1: Indiana with Bernando Mendoza where sometimes it's a designed run
- 6:21Speaker 1: and sometimes they're just doesn't something they are and he
- 6:23Speaker 1: will kind of take off, I wonder, you know, does
- 6:26Speaker 1: is this anything that is going to be potentially you
- 6:29Speaker 1: know the concepts we're gonna be talking about here, Is
- 6:31Speaker 1: this anything that's gonna be particularly meaningful for this weekend's game.
- 6:35Speaker 2: Yeah, we like to touch on it with the from
- 6:37Speaker 2: the Michigan side of things first, or Michigan game side
- 6:40Speaker 2: of it.
- 6:40Speaker 3: First. We talked about like you know, they really liked Michigan.
- 6:44Speaker 2: I mean to get under what on the edge with
- 6:46Speaker 2: a lot of you know, these like flood easy flood
- 6:49Speaker 2: concepts one you know, one side of the field reads
- 6:53Speaker 2: and I stay defended these really well throughout, like especially
- 6:56Speaker 2: these like slide routes from the opposite side.
- 7:00Speaker 3: So here, you know, Caleb Downs comes.
- 7:02Speaker 2: Down playing basically a couarte or quarter a half here,
- 7:06Speaker 2: so you got cover forward to the field, cover to
- 7:08Speaker 2: the boundary downs taking that in the flat everyone's covered.
- 7:12Speaker 2: So Underwood runs here. So this is not a designed run.
- 7:15Speaker 2: Uh And you know, I mean, I guess you would
- 7:17Speaker 2: say it was a successful gain. But you know, I
- 7:21Speaker 2: think similarly for mendo Uh, Fernando Mendoza, you know, as
- 7:26Speaker 2: you said, like he he can provide provide some type
- 7:28Speaker 2: of run threat, particularly scrambling.
- 7:31Speaker 3: You know, you could use them on some design runs,
- 7:34Speaker 3: you know.
- 7:34Speaker 2: I think overall, High State did a very good job
- 7:37Speaker 2: boxing Underwood into the pocket and then obviously using r
- 7:40Speaker 2: VL Reese as a spy. I don't know if Ohio
- 7:44Speaker 2: will quite take that strategy with Mendoza. I'm not sure
- 7:48Speaker 2: they'll be quite as concerned about coming to them and
- 7:50Speaker 2: forcing him to play quarterback. But I think that it's
- 7:54Speaker 2: obviously I do think Mendoza has enough of a run
- 7:57Speaker 2: threat that it's something that they have to account for,
- 8:01Speaker 2: whether it's on you know, reading in the run game.
- 8:04Speaker 2: We can talk about Indiana, you know, for more rpo
- 8:07Speaker 2: than run reads, but or as a scramble threat or
- 8:10Speaker 2: even you know, when they get down in the low
- 8:12Speaker 2: red zoneer inside the twenty. They do like to do
- 8:15Speaker 2: some you know, design quarterback run, so again, something you
- 8:18Speaker 2: gotta be cognizant of.
- 8:19Speaker 1: One of the things we talked about on last week's
- 8:21Speaker 1: show was the fact that Caden McDonald might play a very,
- 8:24Speaker 1: very big part in Ohio States defense and what they
- 8:27Speaker 1: were or what they were not able to do against
- 8:29Speaker 1: Michigan's run game. This next play is a great example
- 8:33Speaker 1: of that, in where Ohio State just was winning in
- 8:36Speaker 1: the middle of the line a lot more often than
- 8:39Speaker 1: they have been in recent years.
- 8:41Speaker 2: Agreed, And what I should have noted first off is
- 8:44Speaker 2: that you know, part of why Michigan on that first clip,
- 8:47Speaker 2: even with the first play of the game, you know,
- 8:50Speaker 2: it was using a lot of counter We talked about
- 8:51Speaker 2: before the game. They hadn't been a big counter team,
- 8:53Speaker 2: but Ohio State had run so much penny. Ironically, Ohio
- 8:56Speaker 2: State was in a four down front on that first play.
- 9:00Speaker 3: Still obviously didn't sup it, so you.
- 9:02Speaker 2: Did get a lot more for down from what I
- 9:04Speaker 2: say in this game, but here they're in a penny front.
- 9:05Speaker 2: One adjustment Matt Patricia made in the second half, or
- 9:11Speaker 2: as the game progressed, is making sure that Caden McDonald
- 9:14Speaker 2: was aligned to the boundary. So in that first clip
- 9:17Speaker 2: you can see Kate McDonald's in a one technique to
- 9:19Speaker 2: the field, and here he is in a one technique
- 9:22Speaker 2: to the boundary. So it's it's a penny front, but
- 9:26Speaker 2: with the line pushed over to the to the boundary.
- 9:29Speaker 2: So they're basically now sitting in the front a little
- 9:32Speaker 2: bit more to the short side of the field, particularly
- 9:34Speaker 2: when when Michigan's putting its run strength to the field.
- 9:36Speaker 2: So here we go with the same GT counterplay with
- 9:39Speaker 2: that you know slide concept to Andrew marsh you can
- 9:42Speaker 2: see how RVL Reese is sitting on that slide. Again,
- 9:45Speaker 2: as I said, I don't Ohio State was seem pretty
- 9:47Speaker 2: cognizant of not giving up that easy throat Underwood, probably
- 9:50Speaker 2: to prevent him from sort of, you know, get going
- 9:52Speaker 2: that way with some easy reads and you know, McDonald
- 9:55Speaker 2: just wins up front and you know, beats the center.
- 9:58Speaker 3: Again.
- 9:59Speaker 2: There's lots of clips out there of Ohio State, you know,
- 10:02Speaker 2: and single blocks winning. I think there's one flip or
- 10:05Speaker 2: when Taiwan alone, you know, basically one arm puts the
- 10:10Speaker 2: center on the ground and so a lot of this.
- 10:13Speaker 2: You know, as you went on, just obviously block destruction.
- 10:15Speaker 2: If you're winning single blocks, you're gonna be good shape.
- 10:17Speaker 2: But as I said, strategically, there's just more of an
- 10:20Speaker 2: emphasis of the game went on is let's make sure
- 10:22Speaker 2: our front in particularly ninety eight is to that short
- 10:25Speaker 2: side of the field to equate numbers in the red
- 10:28Speaker 2: game that way.
- 10:30Speaker 1: Now we're going to shift it to the passing game.
- 10:32Speaker 1: And going back and watching, there were times that it
- 10:35Speaker 1: felt like Michigan had potentially something downfield, and Andrew marsh
- 10:40Speaker 1: had zero targets during the course of the game. This
- 10:42Speaker 1: one is where he probably should have been targeted because
- 10:44Speaker 1: he's kind of breaking over and open in sort of
- 10:46Speaker 1: a soft spot in the zone. But you can almost
- 10:49Speaker 1: see Bryce Underwood how fast the game is going for
- 10:52Speaker 1: him here because there's not any pressure in his face.
- 10:54Speaker 1: Well house, he rushing three and sunny style is just
- 10:57Speaker 1: sort of sitting there as a spy. But he's in
- 11:00Speaker 1: and there's no real pressure on him. He has time
- 11:02Speaker 1: to wait and take a second in the pocket. But
- 11:05Speaker 1: you can just tell the clock in his head is
- 11:07Speaker 1: just going really really fast, and he ends up checking
- 11:10Speaker 1: it down and kind of throwing it behind the guy
- 11:11Speaker 1: for an incompletion.
- 11:14Speaker 2: You could tell that he was not comfortable with what
- 11:16Speaker 2: he was seeing out there, and part of that is
- 11:17Speaker 2: Ohio State changing up like the one explosive play Michigan
- 11:20Speaker 2: got on that seam route. You know, we've talked about
- 11:24Speaker 2: those seam routes first cover three. Ironically, like Ohistate was
- 11:27Speaker 2: actually like carrying that seam route in that situation, and
- 11:30Speaker 2: they did throughout the game.
- 11:30Speaker 3: But you could tell, like underwooded prep for that.
- 11:32Speaker 2: He saw Cover three and you hit that seam route
- 11:35Speaker 2: like he was going to throw that right, but like
- 11:37Speaker 2: for the rest of the game, like Ohio State was
- 11:38Speaker 2: giving him different looks and he just like he just
- 11:41Speaker 2: was not comfortable with him. So in particular, they're playing
- 11:43Speaker 2: a lot of Cover four concepts in the second half,
- 11:46Speaker 2: as they do here, So Michigan's in a trip's look
- 11:50Speaker 2: and Ohio State's basically playing like a Cover four. Yes,
- 11:54Speaker 2: Saban would call this stump to the field where you're
- 11:56Speaker 2: sort of zoning off and the Jermaine Matthews and Caleb
- 12:00Speaker 2: a kind of reading those into inside number two and
- 12:02Speaker 2: three receivers to trade off their routes, and then you're
- 12:06Speaker 2: just playing quarters as well to the boundary, and so
- 12:09Speaker 2: you got you know, four over three, three over two.
- 12:12Speaker 2: And as you said, I mean you can tell that
- 12:16Speaker 2: Underwood was just not comfortable with what he was seeing.
- 12:18Speaker 2: But I would think like this in particular, you know,
- 12:22Speaker 2: i'd say less cover three in this game, sort of
- 12:25Speaker 2: a continuation of what we saw against Ruckers where they're
- 12:28Speaker 2: using a lot of cover two concepts.
- 12:30Speaker 3: I do think we will see.
- 12:31Speaker 2: A lot of these quarters split safety looks against Indiana.
- 12:37Speaker 2: We can get into more of that here at the
- 12:39Speaker 2: end of talking about like their RPO game, but I
- 12:41Speaker 2: do think they're going to want to change up the looks,
- 12:43Speaker 2: change up the reads for Mendoza, so he does not
- 12:46Speaker 2: know necessarily who the conflict player is on those RPO throws.
- 12:52Speaker 1: All right, we got one more, one more throw to
- 12:55Speaker 1: get to here, and that this is the uh it's
- 12:58Speaker 1: probably the last throw of the game because this was
- 13:00Speaker 1: the interception by Davis and Igbinos and and another one
- 13:03Speaker 1: where you know there is this is a very freshman
- 13:07Speaker 1: quarterback play where you got a receiver who's open and
- 13:10Speaker 1: you throw it one hundred miles an hour even though
- 13:12Speaker 1: he's not, you know, not particularly close. You're not throwing
- 13:14Speaker 1: into it. He's not particularly far away, You're not throwing
- 13:17Speaker 1: into a particularly tight window. But at this point, it
- 13:20Speaker 1: just this just felt like Bryce Underwood just kind of
- 13:22Speaker 1: throwing his hands up in the air and going, yeah,
- 13:24Speaker 1: I think we're done here.
- 13:26Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
- 13:26Speaker 2: So again other quarters concept, you know, we're you know,
- 13:29Speaker 2: to the to the field side, Devin Sanchez is going
- 13:32Speaker 2: to play like a deep third, Matthews is going to
- 13:35Speaker 2: take the first receiver to the flat. Downs is going
- 13:39Speaker 2: to take the first receiver inside and then to the boundary. Again,
- 13:42Speaker 2: you've got styles in the flat taking the first receiver
- 13:44Speaker 2: of the flat. You got to cover four safety, and
- 13:46Speaker 2: then you've got Ignitos and having that deep quarter and
- 13:50Speaker 2: as you said, like they're just sort of sitting on
- 13:52Speaker 2: all these routes. Underwood clearly not comfortable with these looks,
- 13:55Speaker 2: as I said, And so from Ohio State perspective, obviously,
- 13:59Speaker 2: once they got that lead, they were able to throw
- 14:03Speaker 2: these different cover four looks at him and he was
- 14:05Speaker 2: never comfortable. But I do think it just shows, you know,
- 14:08Speaker 2: there were some talk about how simple or not Patricia's
- 14:12Speaker 2: defense is before the game last week, and yeah, there's
- 14:16Speaker 2: been some games this year where they we've seen them
- 14:18Speaker 2: play a lot of single high cover three. But as
- 14:21Speaker 2: we discussed, like there's a lot in the toolbox if
- 14:24Speaker 2: they want to use it. And so as I said,
- 14:27Speaker 2: against Rutgers, there's a lot of Cover two type concepts.
- 14:30Speaker 2: Against Michigan, it was a lot of these quarters looks,
- 14:33Speaker 2: particularly once Michigan is running the boundary to get you know,
- 14:36Speaker 2: bodies on both sides of the center line. So I
- 14:38Speaker 2: do think, you know, there's lots of possible zone match
- 14:42Speaker 2: concepts that Patricia can pull out like this one.
- 14:47Speaker 1: All right, and now we're going to kind of go
- 14:49Speaker 1: back in time. You've probably noticed that the snow is
- 14:51Speaker 1: getting more and more thick on the field as we
- 14:53Speaker 1: kind of go through these clips, because we're more or
- 14:55Speaker 1: less doing the sequentially this one, we're going back in
- 14:58Speaker 1: time because this one we're actually taking a little bit
- 15:00Speaker 1: of a look ahead because this is Caleb downs and
- 15:03Speaker 1: run support in the red zone, which you know that
- 15:06Speaker 1: you know, how much does this impact or for the
- 15:09Speaker 1: sort of foreshadow what you know, part at least part
- 15:12Speaker 1: of what his role might be this weekend against Indiana.
- 15:15Speaker 2: I yeah, I mean, going back, for instance, to me,
- 15:19Speaker 2: Indiana is still like everything for them flows from the RPOs,
- 15:23Speaker 2: particularly in getting like easy pass reads and hitting, whether
- 15:28Speaker 2: it's those back shoulder throws, whether it's clans routes and
- 15:31Speaker 2: creating explosives out of the RPOs. And then those RPOs
- 15:34Speaker 2: open up the run game. And from ohiwid safe perspective,
- 15:38Speaker 2: I think you want to be able to play them
- 15:41Speaker 2: frankly similar to what they did last year under Jim Knowles,
- 15:45Speaker 2: Like I went back and listened to our show from
- 15:48Speaker 2: last year, and I, you know, would recommend checking that
- 15:51Speaker 2: out like a lot of light boxes, and which is
- 15:55Speaker 2: why if people were called Indiana had a little bit
- 15:57Speaker 2: of success in the second half running the football because
- 16:00Speaker 2: High State was playing with like a lot of you know,
- 16:02Speaker 2: they were mixing it cover one, which is really good
- 16:04Speaker 2: against RPOs because everyone's accounted for. But they're also mixing
- 16:08Speaker 2: in quarters concepts like we just showed, creating some brackets
- 16:12Speaker 2: playing cone en Sat and basically just like taking away
- 16:16Speaker 2: those easy read RPO throws and forcing Indiana to play
- 16:21Speaker 2: left handed like and then they you know, use some
- 16:23Speaker 2: of the three high Tampa just like oh Hi Patricia
- 16:26Speaker 2: did against Michigan, where Downs is the fitter. So I
- 16:30Speaker 2: would expect a lot of like as I said, A
- 16:32Speaker 2: you want to change up the read from indos as
- 16:35Speaker 2: to like who the RPO read is and then be
- 16:39Speaker 2: you know, Caleb Downs is obviously, uh just such a
- 16:42Speaker 2: weapon in this situation because you can play from depth,
- 16:46Speaker 2: he can play as a nickel, you know. So this
- 16:49Speaker 2: is like you're not exactly analogous to what Michigan would do,
- 16:52Speaker 2: is or excuse me what Indiana is going to do.
- 16:55Speaker 2: But you have this slide or again another slide like
- 16:58Speaker 2: and you got split zone and so that the defensive
- 17:00Speaker 2: backs have to rotate, and so Downs goes from being
- 17:03Speaker 2: an overhang player. It's responsible for the playside a gap
- 17:06Speaker 2: and obviously like stops it for little to no game.
- 17:09Speaker 2: And so you want to use Downs in the alley
- 17:11Speaker 2: against RPOs. You want to you know, play some three
- 17:14Speaker 2: high where he's the you know, the fitter as the
- 17:17Speaker 2: mic or you know that Aztec position as we've shown
- 17:20Speaker 2: many times in the three high. You just again like
- 17:24Speaker 2: changing it up and using his versatility, particularly as an
- 17:27Speaker 2: extra hat against the run game once they declare, uh.
- 17:32Speaker 3: To to fit it.
- 17:33Speaker 2: Because as I said, if I'm Ohio State, I my
- 17:37Speaker 2: goal is to take away those easy RPOs make them
- 17:40Speaker 2: run the football, you know, I want to prove Indiana's
- 17:43Speaker 2: I think offensive line is pretty technically sound, but does
- 17:46Speaker 2: not have like the you know, the natural size or
- 17:49Speaker 2: you know, they're not potential high round NFL draft picks.
- 17:54Speaker 2: So I want to see if they can really handle
- 17:56Speaker 2: McDonald and Jackson all those guys in single blocks like
- 17:58Speaker 2: we just showed, and then force them, you know, to
- 18:02Speaker 2: have to throw the football with more of a traditional
- 18:04Speaker 2: dropback passing game.
- 18:06Speaker 1: And when you're looking at defending this Indiana passing game,
- 18:09Speaker 1: this is to me the deepest group of wide receivers
- 18:12Speaker 1: they've faced all season. Tony Gerderman and I have, I
- 18:14Speaker 1: think watched four or five Indiana games at this point.
- 18:17Speaker 1: And the trio of Elijah Surat, Charlie Becker, who's really
- 18:21Speaker 1: come on strong the last month or so, and Omar Cooper.
- 18:24Speaker 1: This is a team that has four different guys who
- 18:26Speaker 1: have multiple one hundred yard receiving games this season. So
- 18:29Speaker 1: this is a deep and pretty talented wide receiver group.
- 18:32Speaker 1: You talked a lot about the the rpo element of
- 18:35Speaker 1: it and trying to make them run, but I think
- 18:38Speaker 1: when I look at Indiana playing and like forget example,
- 18:42Speaker 1: against Wisconsin a couple weeks ago, they gave up five sacks.
- 18:45Speaker 1: So it feels like, if you can get pressure, that
- 18:48Speaker 1: can really screw up the Indiana passing game. But if
- 18:50Speaker 1: you can't get pressure, where could Indiana with three pretty
- 18:54Speaker 1: good wide receivers, where do you think they are you know,
- 18:58Speaker 1: where are they looking at the Ohio State defense and going, Okay,
- 19:01Speaker 1: we're gonna we're going to try and do this first.
- 19:03Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think they'll probably try to attack
- 19:05Speaker 2: with some vertical, you know, back shoulder throws. You know,
- 19:09Speaker 2: let's see if they get the pass interference calls on
- 19:12Speaker 2: Ignosi and Matthews. You know, I think that they're going
- 19:15Speaker 2: to try to attack those underneath zones with you know,
- 19:18Speaker 2: run action, get the linebackers up, attack the flats.
- 19:23Speaker 3: But you know, I think a lot of it you'll get.
- 19:26Speaker 2: Is some of these combo coveragers right where High State's
- 19:30Speaker 2: giving you know, some brackets, whether it's in a cover four,
- 19:33Speaker 2: whether it's like with that two invert we showed against Rutgers.
- 19:36Speaker 2: I do think you'll see some like some of those
- 19:38Speaker 2: like two steel concepts that you know, bringing overloaded pressure
- 19:42Speaker 2: uh to make mendoes uncomfortable, and you know, I just
- 19:46Speaker 2: I just think so much Like even Signetti himself said,
- 19:49Speaker 2: like it all sort of starts with their run pass
- 19:52Speaker 2: option passing game, right, so even despite those wide receivers,
- 19:57Speaker 2: Like if I'm O High State, I'm happy to take
- 19:58Speaker 2: my chances if I'm forcing Indiana to a pure drop
- 20:02Speaker 2: back game, both in the protection schemes as well as
- 20:05Speaker 2: you know, forcing to diagnose coverages. And obviously you got
- 20:09Speaker 2: to feel pretty good with if you're a High State
- 20:11Speaker 2: with their defensive backs.
- 20:13Speaker 1: And Indiana, we talked every once in a while about
- 20:15Speaker 1: skate teams with scaling issues, where when Indiana is playing
- 20:18Speaker 1: a bad team, man Oman in Indiana light it up.
- 20:21Speaker 1: And then you see them play Penn State, you see
- 20:23Speaker 1: them play Oregon, you see them play Iowa, and it's
- 20:25Speaker 1: all of a sudden, it's like twenty points and twenty
- 20:28Speaker 1: four points. You're kind of right in that range. My
- 20:32Speaker 1: expectation is that they will run into some of those
- 20:34Speaker 1: same scaling issues against Ohio State. Is there a magic
- 20:39Speaker 1: number that Indiana gets to that you think, you know
- 20:42Speaker 1: this is this is where it becomes a problem for
- 20:44Speaker 1: Ohio State, because you know, the buck Eyes have not
- 20:46Speaker 1: given up seventeen points yet this season, can Indiana get
- 20:50Speaker 1: to seventeen points? Does Indiana get to seventeen points? And
- 20:53Speaker 1: then do they you know, can they get into the
- 20:55Speaker 1: mid twenties, can they get into the thirties or you know,
- 20:58Speaker 1: outside of outside of like a picks or you know,
- 21:00Speaker 1: punt return or something like that, can the Indiana offense
- 21:04Speaker 1: get into the mid to high twenty points or is that?
- 21:06Speaker 1: Do you do? You see that probably not being something
- 21:09Speaker 1: that happens.
- 21:11Speaker 2: It's I mean, it's so hard when when you have
- 21:13Speaker 2: a defense hasn't given up more than fourteen. Obviously, Indiana
- 21:17Speaker 2: is better offensively than anyone who High State's played this year.
- 21:22Speaker 2: You know when you they're probably you know, good ten
- 21:24Speaker 2: spots above Illinois or Washington for instance. But it's hard
- 21:31Speaker 2: for me to see them getting more like okay, so
- 21:34Speaker 2: that let's add on another touchdown, right, So now we're
- 21:37Speaker 2: talking low twenties. I would think Indiana like to win.
- 21:43Speaker 2: It's got to be like twenty four to twenty one.
- 21:45Speaker 2: And they're causing a bunch of problems for High State
- 21:51Speaker 2: using a bunch of stunts and games up front.
- 21:54Speaker 3: High States offensive lines with better against those.
- 21:56Speaker 2: But as we talked about Michigan did not throw a
- 21:59Speaker 2: bunch of those kind of games at them. Indiana will
- 22:02Speaker 2: throw a ton. But you know, then I get into, well,
- 22:06Speaker 2: this is its side. I mean, if so if Ohio
- 22:08Speaker 2: State has to throw forty times on first down, like
- 22:11Speaker 2: that's and now we're not talking to your scaling point.
- 22:14Speaker 2: Now we're not talking about like regular season. So I
- 22:19Speaker 2: but I do think that's kind of the range that
- 22:22Speaker 2: I'm looking for for Indiana.
- 22:23Speaker 3: Like you know, Michigan.
- 22:24Speaker 2: You know, teams have shown that there's some areas like
- 22:27Speaker 2: you can run the ball in Ohio State at times,
- 22:29Speaker 2: you know, you get them in the right looks, you
- 22:31Speaker 2: can attack the flats at times. It's just nothing has
- 22:34Speaker 2: been like sustainable over the course of a game.
- 22:38Speaker 1: All Right, So there you go, a little breakdown of
- 22:40Speaker 1: the win over Michigan, a little preview of the game
- 22:42Speaker 1: against Indiana. We'll have Ross back next week to talk
- 22:46Speaker 1: about what happened in that Big Ten championship game and
- 22:48Speaker 1: then maybe start taking a little bit of a look
- 22:50Speaker 1: ahead at the college football playoff and what matchups might
- 22:54Speaker 1: be coming from the Buckeyes at that point. And when
- 22:56Speaker 1: Ross is back on, we will once again be sponsored
- 22:58Speaker 1: by Jeff Rubies of Columbus. The award win Upseales Teakhouse
- 23:01Speaker 1: in downtown Columbus name one of the top fifty steakhouses
- 23:03Speaker 1: in America by Food Network. Just go to jeffruby dot
- 23:06Speaker 1: com slash Columbus and check out the menu and make
- 23:08Speaker 1: a reservation today. That will do it for today. Thank
- 23:10Speaker 1: you guys all for joining us. Have a great day.
- 23:12Speaker 1: We'll talk to you tomorrow.