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Ross Fulton Analysis: How Jim Knowles' Ohio State Defense Shut Down Penn State · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Speaker 1: Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Friday, November eight.
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Speaker 1: I'm your host, tom Or. The Perdue game is tomorrow,
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Speaker 1: the game against Michigan in twenty two days. Today we
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Speaker 1: are welcoming in Ross Fulton, one of the ex's and
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Speaker 1: no's gurus at bucke Huddle dot com. And when Ross
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Speaker 1: is on the show, we're sponsored by Jeff Rubies of Columbus,
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Speaker 1: slash Columbus Today. Before we dive into some specifics on
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Speaker 1: the show, I wanted to ask Ross about a quote
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Speaker 1: from Ryan Day earlier in the week. He said, quote,
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Speaker 1: we almost re engineered the defense, almost started from scratch
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Speaker 1: after the Oregon game. And then Bill Landis asked Jim
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Speaker 1: Knowles about something that it feels like you've talked about
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Speaker 1: a little bit before. It feels like Jim Noles is
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Speaker 1: maybe getting back a little bit more to what he
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Speaker 1: did at Oklahoma State. So did re engineering the defense
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Speaker 1: Ross kind of involve Jim Knowles sort of taking the
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Speaker 1: reins back and maybe just saying, hey, y'all watch this.
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Speaker 2: Yes, this is much more what I expected from his
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Speaker 2: time at Oklahoma State, and I'm going to get it
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Speaker 2: into specifics here. I also put a thread together in
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Speaker 2: response to seeing that Ryan Day quote on X that
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Speaker 2: covered a lot of the same things and some examples
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Speaker 2: of why I think this is different. You know, the
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Speaker 2: only exception would be I think he's he's obviously still
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Speaker 2: working within the four down framework, but he's making that
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Speaker 2: four down framework work within a lot of the concepts
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Speaker 2: that he used at Oklahoma State and just frankly like
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Speaker 2: modern football. You know, I think we've talked about like
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Speaker 2: the deficiencies in the scheme. You know, things aren't perfect.
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Speaker 2: I think some of it, as we'll talk about, like
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Speaker 2: some of the quarterback scrambling right now going on is
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Speaker 2: is sort of like an artifact of the machine of
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Speaker 2: the you know, some of the Oklahoma State stuff, for
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Speaker 2: lack of a better word, modern coverage concepts, and you know,
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Speaker 2: still the four down rush packages. But that said, like
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Speaker 2: at a minimum, they've gone from the scheme being a
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Speaker 2: giant millstone around their neck and just being like way
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Speaker 2: out antiquated really Nick Saban correctly called it to you know,
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Speaker 2: being able to keep up with modern football, and in
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Speaker 2: doing so, now they're starting to allow you know, their players,
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Speaker 2: who are a lot of NFL draft picks on that
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Speaker 2: group to excel.
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Speaker 1: All Right, we're going to run through We got eight
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Speaker 1: plays here. We're going to do a real deep dive
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Speaker 1: on this Penn State defense, and let's start opening drive.
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Speaker 1: This is the last play of the opening drive. Penn
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Speaker 1: State got themselves into a first and long, which turn
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Speaker 1: into a second and long, which turned into a third
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Speaker 1: and long. This is the open drive, the third down
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Speaker 1: pass that was incomplete in the back of the end zone.
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Speaker 3: Yep.
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Speaker 2: And so the again, one way we're seeing this Gym
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Speaker 2: Knowles change is a lot more cover four concepts and
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Speaker 2: in doing that they're matching route.
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Speaker 3: So let's start with the first. Like cover four we've
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Speaker 3: talked about.
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Speaker 2: They were running a Cover four earlier this year, but
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Speaker 2: it was that real kind of like four across keeping
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Speaker 2: up everything underneath. And we saw the problems against Marshall
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Speaker 2: and the way they were doing it because they were
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Speaker 2: they were getting linebackers put into obvious conflict having to
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Speaker 2: play out wide, which was leaving them down a gap
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Speaker 2: playing split safety with four down single gap scheme. So
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Speaker 2: fast forward to Saturday, we saw multiple cover four concepts
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Speaker 2: where they're matching routes and doing so because they're running
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Speaker 2: multiple they were able to adjust to what the Penn
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Speaker 2: State was doing and showing them, and that allowed them
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Speaker 2: to minimize the conflict on the linebackers. So this first
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Speaker 2: one in the end zone, this is third down. They
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Speaker 2: get a hold Penzi to a field road on the
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Speaker 2: opening drive. This is in Nick Saban terms, you know,
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Speaker 2: for Coach Saban calling out the antiquated defense. This is
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Speaker 2: stump to the field, to the trips and cone to
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Speaker 2: the backside right and now these are obviously all that
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Speaker 2: means is on the single receiver. They're playing basically a bracket.
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Speaker 2: You can watch Lathan Ransom. The first thing he does
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Speaker 2: is open his show orders to that single receiver side.
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Speaker 2: That is likely I'm sure based on their scouting they
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Speaker 2: thought that Penn State was apt to go to the
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Speaker 2: single receiver. Here, opposite that, this sort of trips look
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Speaker 2: to the field stump again, this is like a common
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Speaker 2: trip trips call.
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Speaker 3: When you're cover four.
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Speaker 2: So basically, like Denzel Burke is essentially like an offmand
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Speaker 2: to the field, the thought being that most college teams
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Speaker 2: are not going to throw to that outside receiver vertically from.
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Speaker 3: Trips, and then inside they're playing.
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Speaker 2: You know, there's a lot of fancy ways you can
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Speaker 2: say it, but they're essentially those three guys, Cody Simon,
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Speaker 2: Jordan Hancock and caleeb Downs are playing three over two right,
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Speaker 2: and so if someone breaks outside, Hancock's going to take them.
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Speaker 3: If someone breaks inside, Simon's going to take them.
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Speaker 2: And if they both go vertical like you have here,
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Speaker 2: Simon's going to carry the tight end or number three
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Speaker 2: until Downs can pick them up, and Hancock's going to
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Speaker 2: take number two.
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Speaker 3: Right.
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Speaker 2: So that's all really quarters at its base, as you're
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Speaker 2: trying to get an extra body over the number of receivers,
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Speaker 2: and you're trying to be able to trade off routes.
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Speaker 2: And again, so like unlike that earlier cover four when
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Speaker 2: I talked about like matching routes or carrying them where
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Speaker 2: they were kind of just like sitting statically in zones
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Speaker 2: and like opening these kind of routes up. Look, you
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Speaker 2: got Hancock, he's carrying that number two receiver in the
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Speaker 2: end zone. Simon is rerouting right like he's getting his
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Speaker 2: hands on that tight end, he is physically moving him
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Speaker 2: and then Doubt's picking downs is picking him up and
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Speaker 2: carrying him on that dig route.
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Speaker 3: So it's like it is night and day.
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Speaker 2: Like that makes a huge difference, Like you're not getting
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Speaker 2: those those problems earlier in the year where you're sitting
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Speaker 2: in zones and guys are eventually open because you're just
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Speaker 2: sitting there in your spot and stuck in lead feet
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Speaker 2: and so you know, it's it obviously raised the question
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Speaker 2: like why weren't they doing this earlier? How could you
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Speaker 2: make all these big change Like did they put all
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Speaker 2: this stuff into the bye week? I have to imagine
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Speaker 2: they had these concepts in in the off season and
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Speaker 2: for whatever reason, and you know, not being on the
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Speaker 2: same page between you know, Jim Owles, Larry Johnson between
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Speaker 2: like we could speculate till the cows come home. But
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Speaker 2: the reality is like they're making their lives much easier
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Speaker 2: by using these multitude of concepts and matching rounds.
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Speaker 1: One thing you mentioned earlier was that the quarterback run
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Speaker 1: has hurt them at times. This next play is an
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Speaker 1: example of that. The pass coverage is great and it
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Speaker 1: doesn't matter because Dreueller picks up a long first down
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Speaker 1: with his legs.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, and so like this this gives me a two
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Speaker 2: for one to discuss both issues, right, So I want
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Speaker 2: to talk about the good thing first, which is the
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Speaker 2: the the pass coverage concept. So again this is UH
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Speaker 2: cover four poach another cover four concept, and I actually
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Speaker 2: talked about this earlier this year against Marshaw and I
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Speaker 2: was like, please play some poach because what you're doing
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Speaker 2: is you're having that backside safety Lathan Ransom. See how
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Speaker 2: he turns and opens his shoulders, so again like he's
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Speaker 2: responsible to help. If number three, the inside receiver there,
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Speaker 2: which is obviously Warren, goes vertical, right, so he's there
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Speaker 2: to help. And so this is just another form of
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Speaker 2: cover four. Again you basically have literally a box four
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Speaker 2: over three over those three receivers, so you can handle
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Speaker 2: the different types of in outbreaking in vertical routes and
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Speaker 2: then Ransom helping out. But what that does again the
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Speaker 2: reason the poach, so by you're essentially pushing the coverage
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Speaker 2: to the field right, and that helps the linebackers get
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Speaker 2: back in the box. So we saw in the first
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Speaker 2: example that the linebackers were still in the structure here
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Speaker 2: against trips, you have, yes, you have Simon out of
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Speaker 2: the box, but he can be much closer to it.
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Speaker 2: He is, he's less in conflict. They're also just like
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Speaker 2: doing the little things we talked about, Like here they
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Speaker 2: have Ty Hamilton the one technique to the trip side.
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Speaker 2: What that does is make it so now Cody Simon,
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Speaker 2: he only on the run. He now has the B
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Speaker 2: gap right, so it's just like one less gap to
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Speaker 2: go to fold into. And again, like we pointed all
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Speaker 2: this stuff out, it's marshall as issues. So these things
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Speaker 2: they're just like helping keep the linebackers in structure. And
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Speaker 2: then you're just matching routes to the to the to
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Speaker 2: the boundary a lot of times. So like right, so
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Speaker 2: David senigbuinosen uh he follows here on this uh dig
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Speaker 2: or yeah, or you know, shallow crosser from the tight end.
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Speaker 2: And then Sunny Styles is the weak side linebacker has
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Speaker 2: this running back out on the flat. Obviously, what this
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Speaker 2: does is opens a big rush lane for Drew Allerd.
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Speaker 2: This has been problems to very extent the last two weeks.
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Speaker 2: I tend to think it's sort of a combination. It's
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Speaker 2: an as I said, I think it's an artifact in
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Speaker 2: part of trying to mix doing these various man.
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Speaker 3: Matching schemes in the back end.
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Speaker 2: And again you can see them carrying matching routes on
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Speaker 2: like before that is not cover one per se man,
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Speaker 2: but you're still turning and playing the receiver and not
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Speaker 2: focused eyes in the backfitt on the quarterback like you
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Speaker 2: would be in stock spot drop. And then you're mixing
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Speaker 2: that with a defensive line that's been allowed to really
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Speaker 2: rush up field, like you know, Jack Sawyer here goes
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Speaker 2: from the what the thirty eight yard line and by
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Speaker 2: the time Drew Allard takes off, he's at the forty two,
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Speaker 2: so he's gone ten yards downfield. That creates a big gap.
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Speaker 2: You know, nothing's perfect. My guess on the last two
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Speaker 2: weeks is that both against Dylan Riola and especially like
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Speaker 2: Drew Ayer coming off of a lower body injury, I'm
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Speaker 2: sure there was less concern about a rushing quarterback. I
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Speaker 2: think if you see them play Dylan Gabriel again, for instance,
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Speaker 2: they would probably have to rush the quarterback differently using
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Speaker 2: these concepts, knowing that he's more of a run threat.
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Speaker 2: But I guess that you know, they were willing to
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Speaker 2: live with this. This obviously was maybe the biggest hit,
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Speaker 2: like he got you know, he got some first downs
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Speaker 2: on the opening drive with four and five yard runs.
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Speaker 3: But I do think that again, like nothing's perfect.
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Speaker 2: If this is like the trade off of where they
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Speaker 2: have to settle on and you know, I will give
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Speaker 2: up some quarterback runs and these scrambles to get to
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Speaker 2: this level of coverage. As I'm going to show later,
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Speaker 2: like it also helped the pass rush as well.
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Speaker 3: So hopefully, as you know.
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Speaker 2: Success begets success, and as I said, when they get
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Speaker 2: in a situation where they're facing a more mobile quarterback,
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Speaker 2: maybe they can dial down some of this uh fling
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Speaker 2: in your themselves upfield on the pass rush.
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Speaker 1: All right, And the next two plays, I'm pretty sure
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Speaker 1: they were back to back because they were both plays
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Speaker 1: at Tony Gerdam and I talked about during our rewatch
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Speaker 1: show after we got home from the game and rewatched
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Speaker 1: the TV copy. It was stuff that jumped out to
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Speaker 1: both of us because, man, Caleb Downs, you want to
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Speaker 1: talk about the Caleb Downs impact. Here are two plays
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Speaker 1: at show the Caleb Downs impact. And I saw later
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Speaker 1: you talked about this first one being a great example
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Speaker 1: of Jim Knowles getting back to the Oklahoma State stuff.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, so they again these next two clips kill two
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Speaker 2: birds with one stone on Buckey Hudd On Saturday night,
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Speaker 2: I posted an ode to Caleb Downs, I think, and
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Speaker 2: you know, the level of football he's playing at, I
11:07
Speaker 2: don't know, you know, whether how splashy the plays are
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Speaker 2: enough to get most people's attention, but like the things
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Speaker 2: he can do on the football field at this level
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Speaker 2: about as good as I've seen. But that allows Jim
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Speaker 2: Noles to do a lot defensively, right, So again, yes,
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Speaker 2: as you said, like getting back to Oklahoma State, I
11:24
Speaker 2: think after the Oregon game. I think we talked about
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Speaker 2: this last week as well, Like I reposted a tweet
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Speaker 2: from Cody Alexander when Jim Knowles was hired from Oklahoma State,
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Speaker 2: and it was this exact concept, and you know, and
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Speaker 2: it was like where has this gone?
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Speaker 3: Right?
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Speaker 2: Like this is why they hired him theoretically, Like this
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Speaker 2: is what made him good on defense and it's not
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Speaker 2: happening now and now we're seeing it more and more,
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Speaker 2: not just in passing downs but rundown. So this is
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Speaker 2: three high Tampa cover three, right, So we got by
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Speaker 2: three high we got three safeties. Caleb Downs is the
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Speaker 2: middle pole runner, and then you've got the two linebackers
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Speaker 2: out wide. And so essentially what Caleb Downs is doing
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Speaker 2: is he's replacing the mike linebacker in a traditional four
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Speaker 2: to three Tampa. We talked about that against Nebraska they
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Speaker 2: ran some actual four to three Tampa. Here, Caleb Downs
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Speaker 2: is the mike linebacker. So and then the defensive ends,
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Speaker 2: as we talked about as opposed to the last snap,
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Speaker 2: for instance, like they are spilling. So you can see
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Speaker 2: j T two Molona and Jack Sawyer coming hard inside.
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Speaker 2: JT is taking on the pulling guards. This is a
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Speaker 2: it's a power read GT counter right, So we're gonna
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Speaker 2: Penn State ran this a lot, sometimes to better success
12:34
Speaker 2: than others.
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Speaker 3: Right where they're direct snapping it to Warren they are.
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Speaker 2: So he's reading this backside defensive end and Sawyer he's
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Speaker 2: designing whether to follow his blockers or hand the ball
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Speaker 2: off outside. Here he hands it because the defensive ends
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Speaker 2: are spilling right, so they're forcing the football outside. You
12:51
Speaker 2: then see Cody Simon do the same thing. He's forcing
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Speaker 2: them undergo north south. The benefit of this Tampa two
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Speaker 2: with Caleb Downs, like this is Penn State's not accounting
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Speaker 2: for him in the blocking scheme because he's a safety
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Speaker 2: and so he's able to fly up untouched. I mean,
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Speaker 2: this is an incredible tackle from behind. And so like
13:07
Speaker 2: his explicitness like allows you to do this stuff. There's
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Speaker 2: I can't imagine too many players in college football that
13:12
Speaker 2: can make a tackle like this from behind. But like
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Speaker 2: his ability to function, yes he's a safety, but can
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Speaker 2: essentially function as a mic linebacker as well and be
13:22
Speaker 2: all over the field really gives you the versatility.
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Speaker 3: And you know, again, like we talked about last week,
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Speaker 3: our High.
13:28
Speaker 2: State's corners are very physical, like they're good cover two corners.
13:31
Speaker 2: So the more you can do this set the front
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Speaker 2: handle these kind of like weird shifts, you know, the
13:36
Speaker 2: quarterback lining up Wad Tyler that you're tight end as
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Speaker 2: the quarterback. By just setting this and forgetting about it
13:42
Speaker 2: like that continues to be a benefit as well as
13:44
Speaker 2: Jim Miles gets back to what he was known for
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Speaker 2: Oklahoma State. Now I'm jumping to the next one since
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Speaker 2: you teeve me up on that for back to back
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Speaker 2: Caleb down. So yeah, this is the third down. So
13:55
Speaker 2: you know against Oregon, they've spammed Cover one right, Like,
13:58
Speaker 2: there's just so much Cover one it made it easy
14:02
Speaker 2: for will Stein in Oregon to pick them use motion
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Speaker 2: to get them out of position. So still quite a
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Speaker 2: bit of Cover one. Not all the time, it's not
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Speaker 2: as predictable. But this is actually like a too high
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Speaker 2: dime look. So they're not giving a they're not given
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Speaker 2: away right A that they're in cover one to begin with.
14:18
Speaker 2: They have their uh they've but they've also flipped Jordan
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Speaker 2: Hancock and Caleb Downs here, right, so they basically this
14:24
Speaker 2: is like essentially like a probably just a check in
14:27
Speaker 2: this game that we're gonna bring Caleb Devi Downs down
14:30
Speaker 2: to play Tyler Warren. And this is just a great
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Speaker 2: individual play like A it's well executed, being at different
14:36
Speaker 2: levels and Cover one like this is the kind of
14:37
Speaker 2: stuff that they've gotten burned on as well. Even against
14:40
Speaker 2: Nebraska we talked about how they you know, two players
14:42
Speaker 2: ran into each other with these.
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Speaker 3: This is definitely a pick play.
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Speaker 2: Caleb Downs fights over the top again, He's able to
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Speaker 2: make a tackle on an All American in space to
14:52
Speaker 2: get off the field.
14:54
Speaker 3: Uh, so much better execution.
14:56
Speaker 2: We saw it again at the goal line on the
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Speaker 2: fourth down goal line stand Latham Ranta did this way,
15:00
Speaker 2: I'll getting over the top to cover Tyler Warren. But
15:02
Speaker 2: also again, just like the amount of things that the
15:04
Speaker 2: Kale downs allows you to do on defense, obviously opens
15:07
Speaker 2: up the ability some options for Jim Doles.
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Speaker 1: All Right, so the next two are also back to
15:13
Speaker 1: back plays. And for weeks and months and maybe years,
15:17
Speaker 1: we've been hearing about the Ohio State defense not being
15:19
Speaker 1: able to get off the field in the second half
15:21
Speaker 1: of these big games in the Ohio State dat pass
15:23
Speaker 1: rush not being able to get home. Well, here's back
15:25
Speaker 1: to back plays where the Ohio State pass rush got home.
15:29
Speaker 1: First kind of a delayed blitz look with Cody Simon,
15:31
Speaker 1: and then again the very next play JT Twey Mullowow
15:34
Speaker 1: and Henyanta Jackson getting home as well.
15:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, and so again this is a concept.
15:39
Speaker 2: You know, every time I see it from Ohigh State,
15:41
Speaker 2: I like to point it out because I want to
15:42
Speaker 2: see them use more of these you know, four and
15:45
Speaker 2: five man zone pressures. Right, So this is trap two.
15:48
Speaker 2: We've talked about this before. You're basically trying to get
15:51
Speaker 2: you know, the old adage in football, as the quarterback
15:53
Speaker 2: is supposed to throw where the blitz came from, and
15:55
Speaker 2: this is trying to trap them into doing so because
15:57
Speaker 2: the corner is sitting in the flat Senny Styles is
16:00
Speaker 2: racing out to cover number two and you're getting Latham
16:03
Speaker 2: Ransom cut carrying across the field to that side. But
16:06
Speaker 2: then so you got a you've got that right that
16:09
Speaker 2: that slows down the quarterback. Right, You're We're going to
16:12
Speaker 2: get into this the next play too, like giving them
16:14
Speaker 2: different looks, different concepts. That helps the pass rush. It's
16:17
Speaker 2: not just about them beating someone up front. Then again,
16:20
Speaker 2: as we talked about last week as well, they're being
16:22
Speaker 2: more purposeful and they're blitzing particularly and trying to use
16:26
Speaker 2: one guy to basically sacrifice himself to get picked by
16:30
Speaker 2: an offensive lineman to let another guy come free. So,
16:32
Speaker 2: as you talked about, it's sort of a delay blitz here.
16:36
Speaker 2: This allows Jordan Hancock to come in first and he
16:40
Speaker 2: so he gets the right guard to commit excuse me
16:42
Speaker 2: to him, which allows Cody Simon to come free. Another
16:48
Speaker 2: one of my favorite Twitter follows, Space Cody talked about
16:51
Speaker 2: Ohio States used to delay blitzes in this game, potentially
16:54
Speaker 2: like picking on how Penn State likes to use a
16:56
Speaker 2: two way read by their guards. So you see you
17:00
Speaker 2: saw this in different context. But again good design. You know,
17:04
Speaker 2: picking the guy off and so you're using pressure. You're
17:08
Speaker 2: using pressure in an advantageous way, not just flinging bodies. Right, Okay,
17:11
Speaker 2: the next one again, like what helps pass rush is
17:15
Speaker 2: slowing a quarterback down and confusion. If he knows where
17:18
Speaker 2: to go with the football, no one's ever going to
17:20
Speaker 2: get home. So here they go third and long, which helps.
17:23
Speaker 2: But again, what does it look like pre snap? It
17:25
Speaker 2: looks like the too high Tampa. Right, Like you've got
17:27
Speaker 2: a three high Tampa. You got Caleb Downs with the
17:29
Speaker 2: pole runner, two deep safeties. But what they do is
17:32
Speaker 2: they actually roll out of this to cover one robber,
17:35
Speaker 2: and so Downs picks up the shallow crosser. Jordan Hancock
17:39
Speaker 2: from that deep safety picks up number two and you
17:41
Speaker 2: got one high week safety helping to the single side. Again,
17:45
Speaker 2: so like that gives the pass rush time. This is
17:48
Speaker 2: not like someone beats the Penn State offensive lineman off
17:52
Speaker 2: the snap, right, It's that Drew Auer has to hold
17:55
Speaker 2: the football because he likely expected that he was getting
17:57
Speaker 2: some kind of cover two look and instead of cover
18:00
Speaker 2: so he's patting the ball, he doesn't know where to go.
18:02
Speaker 3: That forces him to sort of move in the pocket.
18:04
Speaker 2: And so that's my That's again I go back to,
18:06
Speaker 2: like the pass rush, it all has to work together.
18:10
Speaker 2: This is this is a much better way to create
18:12
Speaker 2: pressure than just playing cover one and flinging four guys
18:15
Speaker 2: like it's the Senior Bowl, you know, uh Wednesday in
18:19
Speaker 2: shorts and seeing if you can beat someone in one
18:20
Speaker 2: on one Like this is how you make things work together.
18:24
Speaker 1: All right? And next up that final drive from Penn State.
18:27
Speaker 1: You talked earlier about the fact that sometimes they were
18:30
Speaker 1: very effective against you know, some of the stuff that
18:33
Speaker 1: Penn State was doing in the run game with Tyler
18:34
Speaker 1: Warren in there. This is an example of where they weren't.
18:37
Speaker 1: This is the long run that got Penn State down
18:39
Speaker 1: inside the five in that final drive for the Lions.
18:43
Speaker 2: Yep, sometimes you got to tip your hat to the
18:45
Speaker 2: other team too. I mean, this is a situation where
18:47
Speaker 2: what are really helped Ohigh State to get a time
18:49
Speaker 2: out in here quick? I know Penn State was going
18:51
Speaker 2: quick because this is third down. And so we talked
18:54
Speaker 2: about Ohio State playing cover one. I mean, they still
18:56
Speaker 2: play quite a bit particularly on passing downs, and so
18:59
Speaker 2: they're in cover one here. Penn State puts four guys
19:03
Speaker 2: into the boundary.
19:04
Speaker 3: Right.
19:04
Speaker 2: We talked about with Ohio State how they use the
19:06
Speaker 2: four by zero un balance around that speed option. This
19:09
Speaker 2: is kind of doing the same thing to Ohio State
19:12
Speaker 2: because you unfortunately have four defensive backs over the four guys,
19:16
Speaker 2: including Drew Allard, you know, faking like it's going to
19:18
Speaker 2: be a backward pass, and they just run a variation
19:21
Speaker 2: of what I showed earlier with GT counter and they
19:25
Speaker 2: give the the at least sense that an option here
19:29
Speaker 2: is to throw this sort of relief out to the
19:32
Speaker 2: wide receiver on a swing pass. That pulls Cody Simon,
19:35
Speaker 2: who has h Cover one responsibilities, right, it puts him
19:39
Speaker 2: into conflict. I tend to think that maybe Cody Simon
19:43
Speaker 2: like could have probably adjusted it easy to say in
19:46
Speaker 2: hindsight that that it's not realistic. Once Tyler Warren commits
19:49
Speaker 2: to running here that he's going to then pull up
19:51
Speaker 2: and throw this outside and if he does, he has
19:54
Speaker 2: a you know, deep safety there. But it's it's really
19:58
Speaker 2: just a Penn State got him out of position, you know, high.
20:00
Speaker 2: They had to rotate, they had Denzel Burke then the
20:02
Speaker 2: corner as the deep safety and know for supports of
20:06
Speaker 2: the alley. So sometimes you tip your cat to the
20:08
Speaker 2: other team. You'd like to be able to stop this
20:10
Speaker 2: short of of being a massive explosive, but obviously they
20:14
Speaker 2: were ape up to, as we'll discuss, stop them at
20:17
Speaker 2: the goal line and mitigate the damage from a Penn
20:20
Speaker 2: State schematic win.
20:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, so the last play we're going to be talking
20:24
Speaker 1: about one where Penn State really had to tip their
20:25
Speaker 1: hat to Ohio State. Ohio State needed to get a
20:28
Speaker 1: stop in that goal line and they got to stop
20:30
Speaker 1: in that goal line.
20:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's funny.
20:32
Speaker 2: After the Nebraska game there was I kind of wanted
20:35
Speaker 2: to show stuff from what they High State did there
20:37
Speaker 2: in the goal line and shortyarders because like, this is
20:39
Speaker 2: interesting because what they another change they've made is they're
20:43
Speaker 2: using this odd front in short yarders or run heavy
20:46
Speaker 2: situations with Kate McDonald as a zero technique nose guard,
20:50
Speaker 2: and it's basically like an old school like double eagle
20:53
Speaker 2: front where you're getting like five guys. I think there
20:56
Speaker 2: was a quote in the preseason from Jim Knowles at
20:58
Speaker 2: one point time about using a five defensive line front,
21:01
Speaker 2: and you know people are like, well, what would that
21:02
Speaker 2: be for? Well, here's here's a good example of it.
21:06
Speaker 2: So you know, second down, Penn State tried to run
21:10
Speaker 2: this sort of split zone with that offensive extra offensive
21:13
Speaker 2: lineman blocking back.
21:14
Speaker 3: Cody Simon made a great play stuffing in the hole. Here.
21:17
Speaker 2: They try to run wedge, which is everyone blocking you know,
21:20
Speaker 2: every offensive linement on both sides taking a step inside
21:24
Speaker 2: and you're you're just trying to literally create a wedge
21:26
Speaker 2: and get the offensive the running back behind it. The
21:30
Speaker 2: problem for Penn State is a it's hard to wedge
21:32
Speaker 2: against the zero technique, right, because you're like all trying
21:34
Speaker 2: to step in and and create an opening in the middle.
21:38
Speaker 2: But there's no there's no wedge on him, right, It's
21:41
Speaker 2: one on one, and he just flat out beats the
21:43
Speaker 2: center here.
21:44
Speaker 3: Right.
21:44
Speaker 2: He not only tries him in the backfield to knock
21:47
Speaker 2: seventy one off course, but he then is able to
21:49
Speaker 2: make the play with this fighter back across with his
21:51
Speaker 2: helmet and make the play in the hole. And you
21:54
Speaker 2: know this play is also not going anywhere, so great
21:57
Speaker 2: stand I know. I'm sure Penn State fans have plenty
22:00
Speaker 2: to discuss in terms of the play calling and in
22:02
Speaker 2: the goal line. I thought, o'hi State on fourth down
22:04
Speaker 2: handle that as I said earlier with Latham Ranton covering
22:08
Speaker 2: warrant to the flat, which is really where they wanted
22:10
Speaker 2: to go with that football. So from the High State perspective,
22:13
Speaker 2: you know they are They're very difficult to run on
22:16
Speaker 2: in short yardage when they know what is coming and
22:17
Speaker 2: they can load up and play on the defensive front.
22:21
Speaker 1: Well, there you go, two very upbeat shows from Ross
22:23
Speaker 1: this week. I guess that is what happens when you
22:25
Speaker 1: have a top five win on the road and the
22:27
Speaker 1: offense looks pretty good and the defense looks pretty good.
22:30
Speaker 1: Pretty happy week in Columbus, Ohio celebratory. Well, you know
22:36
Speaker 1: a great pitch to celebrate a good win for Ohio State,
22:38
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22:49
Speaker 1: make a reservation today. That'll do it for today. Thank
22:51
Speaker 1: you guys all for joining us. Have a great day.
22:53
Speaker 1: We'll talk to you tomorrow,