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Ohio State Scheme Insider - Why The Buckeyes' Defense Had A Big-Play Problem At USC · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Friday, November 6th. I'm
0:02
Speaker 1: your host, Tom, or the Oregon game in one day,
0:05
Speaker 1: the game against Michigan in 22 days. Today's episode presented
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Speaker 1: by our friends at Jeff Ruby's of Columbus proudly offering
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Speaker 1: nationally acclaimed USDA prime steaks, seafood and sushi, impeccable service,
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Speaker 1: live entertainment, and an attention to detail that is simply unmatched.
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Speaker 1: Just go to jeffruby.com slash Columbus and check out the
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Speaker 1: menu and make a reservation today. On today's show, our
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Speaker 1: topic is going to be a group whose attention to
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Speaker 1: detail was not simply unmatched or was simply unmatched brackets
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Speaker 1: derogatory on, uh, On Saturday, that would be the Ohio
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Speaker 1: State defense and their performance against the USC Trojans. Going
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Speaker 1: to welcome in Ross Fulton, one of our scheme insiders
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Speaker 1: from BuckeyeInsiders.com. But Ross, before we get to the defense,
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Speaker 1: I had a couple things we wanted to talk about
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Speaker 1: on the offensive side of the ball, sort of follow-up
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Speaker 1: questions after what we did a whole show on them
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Speaker 1: a couple days ago. Let's start first with the pre-snap penalties.
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Speaker 1: I know there's been a lot of discourse around those
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Speaker 1: this week and sort of what's causing those. Want to
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Speaker 1: get your thoughts on all of that.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I have to say that it was
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Speaker 2: not unexpected to me that there were some free snap
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Speaker 2: penalties on Saturday with a new quarterback making his first
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Speaker 2: start in a road game. I know that it wasn't,
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Speaker 2: you know, the most hostile environment ever, but it was
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Speaker 2: still on the road. It's loud. It's raining. You know,
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Speaker 2: I know that Landon T. Well, you know, tweeted out
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Speaker 2: that it's gotten quite a bit of notice about Ohio
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Speaker 2: State going from the you know, they were using a cadence,
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Speaker 2: they clapped, then they went to the silent count. Ryan
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Speaker 2: Day did address that and said that they were struggling,
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Speaker 2: whether it's to hear Luke Fahey's like on his cadence
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Speaker 2: or the clap or, you know, they were having, that
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Speaker 2: was causing some of the issues. Um, I, and then
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Speaker 2: that's why they went to the silent count. I think again, like,
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Speaker 2: you know, people can say, well, they had two weeks
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Speaker 2: to prepare and it's like, it's, you know, being in
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Speaker 2: practice is still not like being on a road game
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Speaker 2: and dealing with having a new quarterback who's, um, a freshman.
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Speaker 2: I mean, the good news for our state is, I mean,
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Speaker 2: the bad news, I guess I'd say is like, it
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Speaker 2: wasn't like they had some, the pre-snap penalties were pretty harmful, right?
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Speaker 2: It wasn't just like the two of the scene on particular,
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Speaker 2: obviously at the one inch line. And then, you know,
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Speaker 2: that fourth and four one, which I thought was a
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Speaker 2: little iffy, to be honest, in terms of like whether
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Speaker 2: there was really actually movement there, guys weren't set, but
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Speaker 2: that went from being what looked like it was going
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Speaker 2: to be probably an easy completion on a sprint out
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Speaker 2: to Jeremiah Smith to the disastrous punt that followed. And so,
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Speaker 2: you know, again, I think those are things that they
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Speaker 2: can get cleaned up. But I think it was probably
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Speaker 2: unrealistic if people expected it to be perfect in that
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Speaker 2: environment with a new quarterback.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, that one, that penalty, that fourth and four, that
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Speaker 1: started the series of unfortunate events to steal a title
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Speaker 1: from a book where you had the fourth and four,
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Speaker 1: which turned to fourth and nine, which turned into a punt.
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Speaker 1: where the coverage over and the returner, which turned into
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Speaker 1: a long return, which turned into a 15-yard penalty for
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Speaker 1: a late hit at a bounds. And all of a sudden, yeah,
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Speaker 1: instead of maybe picking up a first down, USC starts
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Speaker 1: its drive on the Ohio State 31. That was a
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Speaker 1: bad sequence and a game full of some bad sequences
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Speaker 1: for the Buckeyes. The other thing that I know we
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Speaker 1: wanted to sort of touch on coming out of that
3:13
Speaker 1: offense show and then sort of maybe addressing some of
3:15
Speaker 1: the things that Ryan Day talked about during the press
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Speaker 1: conferences this week, Was the use of tempo and, you know,
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Speaker 1: should there have been more use of tempo on that last,
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Speaker 1: you know, that touchdown drive? I guess I don't need
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Speaker 1: to specify which touchdown drive because there was only one.
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Speaker 1: But on that touchdown drive where they were kind of
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Speaker 1: running out of time and maybe could have hit the
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Speaker 1: gas a little harder.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. And again, I think, you know, I know Dave's
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Speaker 2: been asked a couple of times about it this week. And,
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Speaker 2: you know, I think right after the game, he's like,
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Speaker 2: I think that was we thought that was about as
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Speaker 2: fast as we could go again with Luke Fahey making
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Speaker 2: his first start. On Tuesday, he said, well, maybe we
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Speaker 2: could have gone a little faster. Again, I sort of
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Speaker 2: get it. You're not wanting to have things fall apart
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Speaker 2: because you're trying to go too fast with a new quarterback.
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Speaker 2: I think, again, I sort of put that along with
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Speaker 2: the pre-snap penalties, not making excuses, but I do think
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Speaker 2: the context here of the situation matters. I think all
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Speaker 2: this stuff, the penalties, a lot of the sloppiness can
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Speaker 2: fall under this this sort of umbrella of, you know,
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Speaker 2: bi-week cross country game. It's a third Ohio state hadn't had,
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Speaker 2: hasn't had a home game in a month. You know,
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Speaker 2: all these things do matter. People aren't robots. And so,
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Speaker 2: you know, but back to the tempo specifically, like, I
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Speaker 2: think the thing that I get why they didn't go
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Speaker 2: rocket tempo and I take day's point on the, once
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Speaker 2: they got inside the red zone, it took them a
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Speaker 2: while to score. Like they had that mesh route we
4:45
Speaker 2: talked about where, he threw it to Bo Jackson and,
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Speaker 2: you know, I think a better throw could have been
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Speaker 2: a touchdown, but Devin McHugh is wide open. Like long
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Speaker 2: story short, if they score with more like four minutes
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Speaker 2: to go, it's not a big deal. I would say
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Speaker 2: the one place I would critique it is they were
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Speaker 2: just substituting a lot. And I know they, they've really
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Speaker 2: liked using these personnel groupings and, you know, this gets
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Speaker 2: us back to the multiple tight end discussion and going
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Speaker 2: between 11 and 12 and 13. And, you know, I think,
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Speaker 2: but Davis posted, Ohio State stats for the year on X,
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Speaker 2: I highly always recommend going to that. Ohio State, as
5:21
Speaker 2: we discussed, I don't think they're going to go entirely
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Speaker 2: away from 12 personnel ever. They are more effective in
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Speaker 2: 11 on a play-by-play basis. Again, I think they're like
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Speaker 2: 33% for the year and multiple tight ends, something like that.
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Speaker 2: I'd like to see it more like 20% or 25%.
5:38
Speaker 2: But I think in that situation, probably I could just
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Speaker 2: get an 11 personnel and just kind of go. And
5:44
Speaker 2: cause once you sub obviously USC subs and they were
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Speaker 2: really pushing the limits of, I think the rules on
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Speaker 2: that one. And obviously Ohio State one time was, was
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Speaker 2: able to snap the ball with how they were lollygagging
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Speaker 2: off the field, but you know, that's just inviting that
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Speaker 2: issue into it. And so again, I think they'll get
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Speaker 2: more comfortable with Luke Fahey in terms of what they've,
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Speaker 2: they've both like on a play to play basis, the
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Speaker 2: type of play calls, but also just like this operation
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Speaker 2: of the game issues.
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Speaker 1: All right, so now we're going to move on to
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Speaker 1: the defense, and we are going to start at the
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Speaker 1: very beginning, and it is play number two of the game.
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Speaker 1: You know what happened, and you're probably wondering, okay, what
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Speaker 1: happened there? And it seems like a lot of bad
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Speaker 1: things happened, and there were bad things that happened after
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Speaker 1: the ball got snapped, but the bad things that happened
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Speaker 1: on this long touchdown that started the game for USC
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Speaker 1: may have started even before that ball got snapped.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I don't think Ohio State was great
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Speaker 2: on a play-by-play basis on defense, but I do think
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Speaker 2: it is at pretty true that if you take away
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Speaker 2: these two plays and the disaster of the punt, you
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Speaker 2: would have a different outcome. And, you know, I know
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Speaker 2: Mike Pettit discussed the, you know, 75 yard hurdle heard
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Speaker 2: around the world play. So I was looking at, you know,
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Speaker 2: the second play of the game and it's, this is,
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Speaker 2: I think also an alignment issue. And, you know, as I,
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Speaker 2: I point out here, you've got, you know, a blatant
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Speaker 2: like three over two, like you have to get receivers
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Speaker 2: covered up. You have to at least have numbers right
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Speaker 2: to that side. And then they get this, you know, also,
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Speaker 2: you know, it's obviously it was something that Lincoln Raleigh
7:22
Speaker 2: schemed up because they're pulling the guard to probably to
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Speaker 2: hold Peyton Pierce as the Mike linebacker and then releasing the, the,
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Speaker 2: you know, the center and tackle downfield. But like, I'm
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Speaker 2: going to show it later in the game. In my opinion,
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Speaker 2: like the way they're using Earl Little is, he's supposed
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Speaker 2: to account for the quarterback so that Kenyatta Jackson can
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Speaker 2: then take the running back if they're running a zone
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Speaker 2: or a replay to that side, right? Because the quarterback's
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Speaker 2: going to read the backside. And so that you're getting
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Speaker 2: a plus one, I think are a little lined up
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Speaker 2: on the wrong side because you got two guys over
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Speaker 2: the tight end to the nub side. And then as
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Speaker 2: I said, only three over two. And obviously like, you know,
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Speaker 2: in terms of execution, the play himself, like right away
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Speaker 2: going after Ohio State, missing Jay Timmons in this spot,
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Speaker 2: like we've seen him, in particular, be really effective against
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Speaker 2: bubble screens. Maybe he knifes under this and it's like
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Speaker 2: covers up the alignment issues, but obviously like Simeon Caldwell gets,
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Speaker 2: gets eaten up. You know, I don't think that Jalen
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Speaker 2: McClain took the best angle here. We're going to, I'm
8:24
Speaker 2: going to show some other Jalen McClain issues. I don't,
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Speaker 2: it was not his finest game. And so that's how
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Speaker 2: you get out the gate. But I do think it
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Speaker 2: started with, this is kind of a different look for
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Speaker 2: Ohio State. I think they messed up how they were setting,
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Speaker 2: lining it up.
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Speaker 1: So the next play, we're going to move way forward
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Speaker 1: in the action during the game, but this is the
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Speaker 1: next play where it seems like this is what maybe
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Speaker 1: they were trying to do or what Earl Little should
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Speaker 1: have been, where he should have been on that play.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I grabbed this one because I want to show, again,
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Speaker 2: what I think was supposed to happen in terms of
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Speaker 2: him accounting for the quarterback as the re-defender, right? Because
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Speaker 2: you're trying to re-equate numbers and that allows Kenyatta Jackson
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Speaker 2: to to cancel out a gap in the backfield and
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Speaker 2: basically not be read because obviously USC is going to
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Speaker 2: use a lot of replays. And so you're trying to
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Speaker 2: get a plus one number back. And so this works effectively, right?
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Speaker 2: Cause they, you know, USC is a gap heavy team
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Speaker 2: under Lincoln Riley to begin with. They love running counter.
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Speaker 2: And obviously that's a really bad matchup for the Ohio
9:26
Speaker 2: state defense, because as we've discussed in Mike Pettit's discussed,
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Speaker 2: like the penny odd front is, is just really not
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Speaker 2: a good against gap. Especially, you know, they have to
9:36
Speaker 2: box the ball like you'll see by box. I mean,
9:38
Speaker 2: the defensive end is taking on that block and trying
9:40
Speaker 2: to force the football up inside of him. And you
9:43
Speaker 2: only have one Mike linebacker there. You don't have enough
9:45
Speaker 2: guys to box to. And you have to get over
9:49
Speaker 2: the top to cancel out gaps. So I think this
9:52
Speaker 2: is one of their solutions that they came up with.
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Speaker 2: And as I said, I think on that second play,
9:58
Speaker 2: if Little's on the other side, crashing down on the quarterback,
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Speaker 2: it changes both the numbers that my office reading and
10:05
Speaker 2: also just like the whole dynamic of the play.
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Speaker 1: Next up, we're going to go to one of the
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Speaker 1: other plays that was kind of an unmitigated disaster and
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Speaker 1: another one where the trouble started before the ball got snapped.
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Speaker 1: And this is one that, you know, you could you
10:18
Speaker 1: could tell on the field. You could tell watching on
10:22
Speaker 1: TV that there were, there were like clear communication and
10:26
Speaker 1: confusion issues before the ball got stepped. This is on
10:29
Speaker 1: that third and 18, third and 19, whatever it was play.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. Ryan Day said on his, at his press conference
10:35
Speaker 2: on Tuesday that, you know, there was a procedural penalty
10:39
Speaker 2: on USC before this play, they changed the call. It
10:42
Speaker 2: didn't get communicated. You can obviously see that both upfront.
10:45
Speaker 2: Also like once the play develops, like, what the coverage
10:49
Speaker 2: doesn't make any sense in the backend either. So it
10:51
Speaker 2: was just kind of, it was going to be a
10:52
Speaker 2: mess no matter what. I remember, you know, yelling at
10:56
Speaker 2: my TV at the time, like take a timeout. I
10:59
Speaker 2: still think they, they needed a timeout. Like, obviously you
11:01
Speaker 2: can see like, you don't align, you know, your two linebackers,
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Speaker 2: Christian Lego, like right behind Riley Pettijohn. I think in
11:09
Speaker 2: an ideal world, like there's just, there's a lot of
11:12
Speaker 2: focus on the coaches. And, you know, I think that
11:15
Speaker 2: there's also though, like, Some responsibility, like I, you know,
11:19
Speaker 2: on that punt, I don't think anyone told Philip Bell
11:22
Speaker 2: to run like 12 yards past where the ball is going. Um,
11:25
Speaker 2: and 20 yards to the left of it. Similarly here,
11:28
Speaker 2: like Christian Allegro and Riley Pettijohn, you know, particularly Allegro
11:31
Speaker 2: who's played a lot of football should know that like,
11:34
Speaker 2: they should not be lining up right on top of
11:35
Speaker 2: each other. Right. It would have behooved them at least
11:38
Speaker 2: one of them to get over to that other side
11:40
Speaker 2: of the field. So I think the coaches like deserve
11:44
Speaker 2: responsibility for this, uh, the players. deserve some responsibility for this,
11:48
Speaker 2: but like, you know, they're running again, GT counter, right.
11:52
Speaker 2: They're pulling the guard and the tackle. And like, it's just,
11:54
Speaker 2: it's going to be a disaster with all those bodies
11:56
Speaker 2: on that side. So that another one that hurt just
11:58
Speaker 2: in terms of just not being in sync.
12:01
Speaker 1: All right. We're going to see another play where they
12:03
Speaker 1: are defending counter and did not do it. It was okay.
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Speaker 1: It was not nearly as bad as the last one,
12:08
Speaker 1: but it was, you know, probably one of these plays
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Speaker 1: where they'd like to do it a little bit better
12:12
Speaker 1: and But as you said, they, I mean, they, they
12:15
Speaker 1: got a lot of practice defending counter against a Lincoln
12:17
Speaker 1: Riley offense on Saturday.
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Speaker 2: They did. And this is something that I haven't seen
12:23
Speaker 2: discussed as much, but bothered me during the game. And
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Speaker 2: I still don't have a good explanation. So in this
12:28
Speaker 2: three high look throughout the season, Earl little has been
12:32
Speaker 2: this middle safety that, you know, where Caleb downs played
12:36
Speaker 2: this sort of like slightly lower than the two high
12:39
Speaker 2: split safeties. And, Against USC, for whatever reason, they flipped
12:43
Speaker 2: the roles and they put Jalen McClain in this role.
12:45
Speaker 2: And so like, again, against counter, again, we're boxing it, right?
12:49
Speaker 2: You only have one linebacker. He has to take on the,
12:53
Speaker 2: here where they're running GH counter, right? So they're pulling
12:55
Speaker 2: the guard in the backside tight end. Peyton Pierce has
12:58
Speaker 2: to take on the, the polar. And you're, so now you're,
13:03
Speaker 2: you're counting on that middle of the field safety to
13:05
Speaker 2: basically insert himself into the play. And like the, you know,
13:08
Speaker 2: the concept, right, is that, the offense isn't going to
13:11
Speaker 2: really account for that middle field safety as a blocker
13:14
Speaker 2: or in the blocking scheme. And so he can, he
13:16
Speaker 2: can fill and McLean just wasn't as effective doing it
13:20
Speaker 2: as Earl little has been like, and maybe not surprisingly,
13:24
Speaker 2: cause he hasn't played this role through seven games. I don't, again,
13:27
Speaker 2: I don't know if it was like Earl little was
13:29
Speaker 2: dinged up or it was because without Jay Timmons there,
13:32
Speaker 2: like they were, they flipped all the safety rules to
13:36
Speaker 2: like protect Simeon Caldwell in some way that I don't understand. But,
13:39
Speaker 2: you know, again, this is just like, he's just slower
13:41
Speaker 2: to the play. He's catching it. You know, I mean, they,
13:45
Speaker 2: the other issue that I point out, like Peyton Pierce
13:48
Speaker 2: is it's his just size remains an issue. Like if
13:51
Speaker 2: a blocker gets on him, he's, he's going to get
13:54
Speaker 2: swallowed up. And so, you know, I think that they,
13:57
Speaker 2: unfortunately for Ohio state, they have their two best linebackers.
14:01
Speaker 2: Neither of them are their Mike linebacker and they're both guys.
14:04
Speaker 2: They want to play on the edge in the penny
14:06
Speaker 2: look or in different roles. in Allegro and Petit John.
14:10
Speaker 2: And so that, that just, you know, the, again, the
14:13
Speaker 2: penny already puts pressure on like gap schemes already put pressure,
14:18
Speaker 2: excuse me, on the penny front. And so you'd love
14:21
Speaker 2: a Mike linebacker that can sort of overcome that just
14:24
Speaker 2: through sheer ability. And they don't have that. And so again,
14:28
Speaker 2: like I'm going to go into it. Like, I don't
14:30
Speaker 2: think it's, it's not like, it's not dire, right? Like they,
14:33
Speaker 2: on a play-to-play basis, again, they did a pretty good
14:35
Speaker 2: job facing like umpteen counters and, other kinds of dart,
14:39
Speaker 2: which is where you just pull the tackle, like Riley
14:41
Speaker 2: through every kind of gap scheme out there at them
14:44
Speaker 2: for obvious reasons. And like, it's not, nothing's horrific. It's just,
14:49
Speaker 2: they're just, it's going to continue to be hard for
14:52
Speaker 2: them to handle it for the reasons I'm providing. It's
14:56
Speaker 2: going to continue to be a challenge. And, but at
15:00
Speaker 2: a minimum, I would personally like to see her a
15:02
Speaker 2: little back in the role where he's been pretty effective
15:04
Speaker 2: this year. And, And with abstinent explanation, I guess we'll
15:08
Speaker 2: see what happens on Saturday against Oregon.
15:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they have put the availability report out, the
15:13
Speaker 1: first edition of that, and he was not on it.
15:15
Speaker 1: So you would assume he's not dinged up, but he
15:17
Speaker 1: wasn't on it last week. So you would assume he
15:19
Speaker 1: wasn't dinged up last week either. So we will see
15:23
Speaker 1: where that all goes. And as you said, we've had
15:25
Speaker 1: a lot of negative on this show so far, and
15:28
Speaker 1: it was not all negative for the Ohio State defense
15:30
Speaker 1: last week. They did a lot of stuff well. And,
15:33
Speaker 1: you know, how many times have we said you take
15:35
Speaker 1: out these three, you know, if these three plays and
15:37
Speaker 1: there's a whole story about your aunt being your uncle that,
15:41
Speaker 1: you know, that you could sub in there. But you
15:43
Speaker 1: have a couple, we have a couple that we're going
15:45
Speaker 1: to end on here that are Ohio State executing things
15:47
Speaker 1: a lot better. And one of them is defending the
15:49
Speaker 1: counter and having a bigger linebacker there to sort of
15:53
Speaker 1: set the edge and push the ball back inside.
15:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, and part of the issues like to
15:59
Speaker 2: the availability report was like not having Jay Timmons, which
16:02
Speaker 2: gets to like changing the safeties around. And like I
16:05
Speaker 2: tweeted during the game that I think they may have
16:07
Speaker 2: been missing him more than they were missing Julian San.
16:09
Speaker 2: And it's just, he makes such a huge difference in
16:11
Speaker 2: the drop-off is so steep. And so obviously good to
16:14
Speaker 2: not see him on the availability report. They would really
16:16
Speaker 2: miss Hedrick Houston if he could not play. So good
16:18
Speaker 2: to not see him on there. But this, yeah. So
16:22
Speaker 2: this is what I want to say. It's like not, yes,
16:26
Speaker 2: their defensive scheme is not designed to, all that great
16:29
Speaker 2: for counter for gap scheme plays where you're pulling guys
16:32
Speaker 2: and you'll see it here. Like this is a buck
16:34
Speaker 2: sweep play, but it's not like the end all be
16:37
Speaker 2: all right there. It's not fatal. And, you know, so
16:40
Speaker 2: here it, but it also depends on them having the
16:43
Speaker 2: right personnel in place. So Christian Allegro does a really
16:45
Speaker 2: good job. He boxes here again, but he takes it
16:48
Speaker 2: on such that he basically squeezes down the hole. And
16:51
Speaker 2: then Kenyatta Jackson does a great job here fighting over
16:54
Speaker 2: the top to get over to that other half gap
16:57
Speaker 2: to make the play, you know, and to the personnel point,
17:00
Speaker 2: like Kenyatta Jackson last year, this was the role he
17:03
Speaker 2: played all the time in this five, one look like
17:05
Speaker 2: they'd have Arville Reese and Caden Curry be the outside
17:08
Speaker 2: standup guys. And Kenyatta Jackson would be one of the
17:10
Speaker 2: four eyes this year. We've seen it both ways where
17:13
Speaker 2: you get like Jackson in this role, but more often
17:16
Speaker 2: he's like one of the edge, you know, outside standup guys.
17:19
Speaker 2: I know that Michael Pettit talked about the play. A
17:21
Speaker 2: lot of people have talked about it where he's like
17:23
Speaker 2: the point guy over that bunch set 20 yards away
17:26
Speaker 2: from the ball. Um, against USC. I think this is
17:31
Speaker 2: their best defense when they can play Jackson as a
17:34
Speaker 2: four eye and have Allegro and, uh, Rusal as the
17:39
Speaker 2: standup edge guys. Um, so I would like to see
17:43
Speaker 2: them do more of that. Like Kenyatta had some really
17:45
Speaker 2: effective plays, particularly against counter in this role. And so,
17:50
Speaker 2: you know, then you can get Edward Houston as he
17:52
Speaker 2: does like kind of fight, fight it over the top. Uh,
17:54
Speaker 2: and so I do think like they're, they're just, They're thin.
17:59
Speaker 2: I mean, I can't say they have like less depth
18:00
Speaker 2: than they had last year because they also like once
18:03
Speaker 2: you got through there, like top guys, there was quite
18:05
Speaker 2: a steep drop off. But I do think they just
18:07
Speaker 2: had some odd personnel issues, whether because of people being
18:11
Speaker 2: dinged up or like this continued like mixed use of
18:13
Speaker 2: Kenyatta Jackson that I think, you know, it's it's sort
18:16
Speaker 2: of like, you know, as as they themselves say, like,
18:20
Speaker 2: you know, it's sort of playoff time for them, I'm
18:23
Speaker 2: That's a whole nother discussion about whether they could lose
18:25
Speaker 2: another game and get in. I think there's going to
18:27
Speaker 2: be a lot of carnage in the SEC this next month,
18:29
Speaker 2: but be that as it may, if we're looking at
18:31
Speaker 2: it that way, like you got to put your players
18:33
Speaker 2: in their best positions to succeed. All right.
18:36
Speaker 1: And the last one, this is actually fun because we're
18:38
Speaker 1: talking about it from the Ohio State defense perspective, but
18:40
Speaker 1: this actually addresses something that we get in our comments
18:43
Speaker 1: a bunch. There are people who always ask, why aren't
18:45
Speaker 1: they running mesh as much? And the answer is because
18:48
Speaker 1: their mesh is a man beater and they're seeing more
18:51
Speaker 1: zone defense. And then people say, well, you could still
18:54
Speaker 1: run it against zone. It could still work against zone.
18:57
Speaker 1: This next clip, it's Ohio State on defense, but it's
19:00
Speaker 1: USC running mesh. And it's a great example, I think,
19:03
Speaker 1: of why it's a nice play by Jermaine Matthews, but
19:06
Speaker 1: it's a great example of why mesh does not work
19:08
Speaker 1: as well against a zone. Yes.
19:11
Speaker 2: And we talked about, let's talk about the Ohio State
19:13
Speaker 2: offense for a second, like talked about how they're getting
19:16
Speaker 2: more man coverage on the show earlier this week. And like, again,
19:19
Speaker 2: if you look at the Bud Davis stats, they haven't
19:21
Speaker 2: been for... haven't been particularly good against man coverage and
19:24
Speaker 2: they're getting more of it, which is why I said
19:26
Speaker 2: they need more of these crossing routes. But yes, this
19:30
Speaker 2: can mesh work against cover three. Sure. If you like
19:33
Speaker 2: sit down, it's not designed to. And so Ohio state,
19:36
Speaker 2: like this kind of goes to my point, like, you know,
19:38
Speaker 2: Matt Patricia made some odd decisions, I guess, strategically at
19:44
Speaker 2: times during USC, but that doesn't mean it's like all bad.
19:47
Speaker 2: It's like all, you know, throw the baby out with
19:49
Speaker 2: the bath. Uh, cause they did lots of good things
19:52
Speaker 2: too and have throughout the year and have been a
19:53
Speaker 2: pretty effective defense. Um, so here, like they trick Lincoln
19:57
Speaker 2: Riley and USC. Cause you'll see like USC is in
20:00
Speaker 2: this sort of nub formation where they got the two
20:02
Speaker 2: tight ends to the, to the boundary. They got the
20:05
Speaker 2: twins to, to the field. And Ohio State puts both
20:08
Speaker 2: their corners over the two receivers. So they do like
20:10
Speaker 2: a corner over. And when you see that, you generally
20:12
Speaker 2: think this is going to be man coverage because why
20:15
Speaker 2: else would you move your corner over? And instead, Ohio
20:18
Speaker 2: State runs cover three where Earl Little is one of
20:20
Speaker 2: the deep third defenders. You know, Jermaine Matthews drops a
20:25
Speaker 2: deep third and then Sanchez plays that hook curl. And so,
20:29
Speaker 2: I mean, this is, again, a pretty blatant offensive pass
20:33
Speaker 2: interference by USC. Like if you look at those two
20:36
Speaker 2: the non shallow crossers, they're not even trying to run routes.
20:39
Speaker 2: He's literally sock blocking Simeon Caldwell. You know, this again,
20:44
Speaker 2: one other conversation. I thought USC did some sort of
20:46
Speaker 2: questionable things that they got away with on Saturday. Be
20:50
Speaker 2: that as it may though, Ohio state did a great job,
20:52
Speaker 2: like with cutting the crosser from those, the curl flat
20:55
Speaker 2: defender there to the field. And Jada Mayov had nowhere
20:58
Speaker 2: to go with the football. And so, you know, again,
21:00
Speaker 2: I think not as good. They're not as good as
21:03
Speaker 2: last year on defense. They're, you know, advanced stats ratings
21:05
Speaker 2: are still really good. USC scored 30 points, 14 of
21:09
Speaker 2: them off the two big plays, another seven off the
21:13
Speaker 2: punt return. And then they had two short fields right
21:17
Speaker 2: off the fumble and the onside kick. And so, you know,
21:20
Speaker 2: I think on a down, down basis, which is reflected
21:23
Speaker 2: in the Parker Fleming numbers, it was, you know, pretty,
21:26
Speaker 2: pretty solid, if not great from Ohio state's defense against
21:30
Speaker 2: a good offense at home in USC.
21:32
Speaker 1: And, So now going into this weekend's game, you got
21:36
Speaker 1: Oregon coming into the horseshoe. Oregon's offense has obviously been
21:40
Speaker 1: a little bit more up and down with Dylan Rayola
21:43
Speaker 1: as its quarterback since the Dante Moore injury. What is
21:47
Speaker 1: your expectation this week? My sense is generally after a loss,
21:52
Speaker 1: Ohio State tends to play better. They tend to right
21:55
Speaker 1: the ship and certainly going from a road game to
21:58
Speaker 1: a home game, that certainly tends to help as well.
22:02
Speaker 1: What's your expectation from the Ohio State defense this week?
22:05
Speaker 1: Do they get some of this? Is this stuff that
22:07
Speaker 1: you can clean up in the span of seven days?
22:09
Speaker 2: I mean, I think the big explosives certainly are. I
22:15
Speaker 2: hate to say they're like freak occurrences, but it's not
22:18
Speaker 2: consistent with what Ohio State has done this year or
22:23
Speaker 2: last year either under Matt Patricia. And so, you know,
22:27
Speaker 2: getting Jay Timmons back, I can't underscore how helpful that
22:31
Speaker 2: would be. I agree with you. I don't think they're
22:33
Speaker 2: going to play the sloppy. I don't think the defense
22:35
Speaker 2: came out particularly with their hair on fire against USC
22:40
Speaker 2: for lack of a better term. I think they're going
22:42
Speaker 2: to bring more intensity from the jump. They got themselves there,
22:45
Speaker 2: but it sort of took getting punched in the mouth
22:48
Speaker 2: to do it. And so I do expect a better performance.
22:51
Speaker 2: I mean, I think you see throughout college football, USC
22:53
Speaker 2: being a prime example as well, like teams, you know, people,
22:59
Speaker 2: you know, in the media fan base is, overreact to
23:02
Speaker 2: a loss and they sort of think like that's that's
23:05
Speaker 2: the end and the teams themselves actually rebound and play
23:10
Speaker 2: better after a loss.
23:11
Speaker 1: All right well will ohio state do that we will
23:13
Speaker 1: be do we will be talking about that all week
23:16
Speaker 1: with you and then of course all weekend at buckeyeinsiders.com
23:20
Speaker 1: we'll have our score predictions boy last week 30 to
23:22
Speaker 1: 18 uh as a final score that was a real
23:25
Speaker 1: ross fulton score prediction uh score in that game last
23:29
Speaker 1: week we'll see what ross picks this week at Buckeye insiders.
23:32
Speaker 1: We'll have those scores up on Friday for you more, uh,
23:35
Speaker 1: on the, uh, on the site. And we'll have plenty
23:37
Speaker 1: to talk about all week long on the insiders board.
23:40
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