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Ross Fulton Analysis: Why Did The Buckeye Offense Struggle Against Nebraska? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Thursday, October thirty first
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Speaker 1: time your host Tom or the Penn State game in
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Speaker 1: two days, the game against Michigan in thirty days. Today
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Speaker 1: we're going to be breaking down what went right and
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Speaker 1: what went wrong for the Ohio State offense against Nebraska.
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Speaker 1: This is one where typically these shows get more views.
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Speaker 1: I think the offense is more fun for people, but
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Speaker 1: also the offense has been more good news than bad
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Speaker 1: this season, so I think people probably enjoy those shows
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Speaker 1: for that reason. Today some good, some bad. It is Halloween,
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Speaker 1: so it is appropriate that things got a little spooky
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Speaker 1: for the Ohio State offense against Nebraska. We're bringing it
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Speaker 1: down with our buddy Ross Fulton, the ex's and OS
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Speaker 1: guru at bucke huddle dot com. And when Ross is
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Speaker 1: on the show, we're sponsored by Jeff Rubies of Columbus,
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Speaker 1: probably offering nationally acclaimed USDA Prime stakes see food and
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Speaker 1: But it's simply unmatched. Just go to Jeff ruby dot
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Speaker 1: com slash Columbus, check out the menu and make a
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Speaker 1: reservation today. All right, Ross, We're gonna start. We're going
0:58
Speaker 1: to start with a treat here. We'll get to some
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Speaker 1: of the tricks later. Let's start with the first one,
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Speaker 1: the long touchdown to Jeremiah Smith. I always have kind
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Speaker 1: of like a running thing where I just, you know,
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Speaker 1: just run the Jeremiah Smith do something cool play. They
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Speaker 1: did that here and it worked out great.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think from a general perspective, the sky is
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Speaker 2: falling is probably too strong of a thought here. Obviously,
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Speaker 2: I you know, the central Halsky struggled right and certainly
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Speaker 2: in the first half. I do think he'd approve a
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Speaker 2: little bit. I didn't clip those plays necessarily because I
1:35
Speaker 2: think Joel Klatt pointing them out of the broadcast he
1:38
Speaker 2: was getting beat inside. He kept oversetting outside to worry about,
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Speaker 2: you know, speed rusher beating him, and that set them
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Speaker 2: up to get beat inside. That said, you know, there
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Speaker 2: are other offensive line issues. It was certainly not a
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Speaker 2: High State's best game the but you know, if you
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Speaker 2: look at like Partner Fleming what he does on X
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Speaker 2: in terms of access rate, Ohio state success rate was
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Speaker 2: pretty over Nebraska was pretty comparable to Organs over Illinois.
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Speaker 2: So you have then bigger issues where you have two
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Speaker 2: drives getting to scoreing territory was zero points. You always
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Speaker 2: have an interception, and as Ryan Day and Chip Kelly
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Speaker 2: just continued to harpot over and over again, you had
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Speaker 2: third down conversion and fourth down early issues and not
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Speaker 2: even so much like third and long. We're talking like
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Speaker 2: third and one, third and two, third and three in
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Speaker 2: both the run and pass game. And it just it
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Speaker 2: really prevented them from getting in a rhythm. And so,
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Speaker 2: you know, as I said, but they early right, so
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Speaker 2: they get stopped on fourth down. They they you know,
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Speaker 2: second drive again, it's as I said, it was not
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Speaker 2: just zen like second drive. You know, Tiger Shaboula misidentified
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Speaker 2: the linebacker who run right past him unblocked on outside zone.
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Speaker 2: But they did come back. And you know, again like
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Speaker 2: credits to Nebraska, they have a really complex scheme. They
3:01
Speaker 2: it's it's kind of a three three five. They'll play
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Speaker 2: some off front, but they'll mix in some even front.
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Speaker 2: They ton of stuff in the back end, so three
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Speaker 2: high safety lucks and so but that said, like you know,
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Speaker 2: Chip Kelly and Ride Day, you some really good uh
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Speaker 2: coverage beaters, which is just a fancy term for concepts
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Speaker 2: that work really well. Against certain types of zone coverages,
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Speaker 2: and so this one was one. And this is kind
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Speaker 2: of becoming a trendy play you're seeing because Tampa two,
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Speaker 2: which is just cover two with a deep you know,
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Speaker 2: pole runner. We've talked about Io State doing it with
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Speaker 2: three high safeties here, Nebraska is has become much more
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Speaker 2: back into vogue, and so you're seeing this more and more.
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Speaker 2: And it's basically just a three verticals concept. Right, So
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Speaker 2: we talked about like, you know, zone beaters. It's like, well,
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Speaker 2: what does that mean. It's like, well, you have two
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Speaker 2: deep safeties, so you're going to run three guys verticals.
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Speaker 2: So now you have three on two, right, and so
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Speaker 2: they can't cover those three. Obviously, the the middle pole
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Speaker 2: runner is supposed to help with that, uh, but also
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Speaker 2: has some run responsibilities and so you know here you
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Speaker 2: get all have to say it under center, so you
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Speaker 2: fake the you know, heavy play action under center still
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Speaker 2: provides a better play action fake given the quarterback turns
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Speaker 2: his back. Then you get from shotgun that holds the
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Speaker 2: linebacker in it, so he can't get a you know,
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Speaker 2: he does not reroute the wide receivers or carry them
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Speaker 2: vertically at all. And it also holds that middle safety
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Speaker 2: and so now you basically have a two for one
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Speaker 2: on the safety on the right hash and as I said,
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Speaker 2: they're releasing the safety runs with the Mega Buca on
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Speaker 2: sort of the wheel and go, and that leaves Jeremiah Smith.
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Speaker 2: You know, as I said, for all the pass protection
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Speaker 2: issues here, right, you get if this is a five
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Speaker 2: an protection that they hold up well, you know, I
4:51
Speaker 2: will say that I think one of the issues in
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Speaker 2: this game is they until probably towards the end, relied
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Speaker 2: very heavily on five a half slide protections, which leaves
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Speaker 2: you know, people can uh Nebraska, you know, set it
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Speaker 2: up so that they would get it so that ously
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Speaker 2: had to often set their protection away from zen Lahawsky,
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Speaker 2: which gave their then speed rusher a two way go
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Speaker 2: against him on an inside or outside move. That was
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Speaker 2: noticeably different than Oregon when when he had to come
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Speaker 2: into the game they used a lot of six and
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Speaker 2: seven man full slide protections to help him out. So anyways,
5:29
Speaker 2: you know, for whether that was a strategic choice or
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Speaker 2: seeing how far they could you know, push it with
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Speaker 2: the new offensivelignment in the game they held up here.
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Speaker 2: They gave Will Howard time this is probably his best
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Speaker 2: deep all through of the year. And so they hit
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Speaker 2: this early. They hit the Mills concept early to Carnel Tate,
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Speaker 2: which is like a cover four concept where you you know,
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Speaker 2: run a deep in and a post behind it. Again,
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Speaker 2: you're short of stretching that cover four safety. And so
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Speaker 2: you know, with eight minutes ago in the second quarter,
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Speaker 2: for all the problems, they were up fourteen to three
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Speaker 2: off of two big pass play and you know, move
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Speaker 2: the ball again before the second half kicked a field. Well,
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Speaker 2: they just didn't have a lot of opportunities. So it's
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Speaker 2: really the third quarter where the problems sort of exacerbated.
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Speaker 1: All right, well let's move straight ahead, let's move ahead
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Speaker 1: in the action, as they say on those condensed broadcasts,
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Speaker 1: straight through the third quarter. And there were a bunch
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Speaker 1: of drives that didn't work at all for Ohio State
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Speaker 1: in the third quarter. This was one of them. This
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Speaker 1: is the interception thrown by Will Howard.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, and so you know again that when we were
6:28
Speaker 2: talking about, well, how does your success rate look so
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Speaker 2: much better? But you the score is, you know, you're
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Speaker 2: down to having to score with six minutes left to
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Speaker 2: take the lead. Obviously, turnovers have a big effect. Nebraska
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Speaker 2: had a turnover, but it was at the end of
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Speaker 2: the game. It was not quite as a high leverage situation. Again,
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Speaker 2: like you know, credit to Nebraska. I know people don't
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Speaker 2: like to hear that, and it's hard. And this is
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Speaker 2: where I do think advanced hat's come in help handy
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Speaker 2: because you know, we're traditionally used to like there's a
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Speaker 2: top twenty five and there's everyone else. But it's it's
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Speaker 2: a lot more you know, nuanced than that, right. And
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Speaker 2: so Nebraska, like if you look at spplus like they are,
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Speaker 2: they're not good on offense, but they've had a very
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Speaker 2: good defense. And as I said, I think this their
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Speaker 2: defensive coordinator does a lot of stuff that maybe we
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Speaker 2: expected Jim Knowles to do when he came to AIA state.
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Speaker 2: So you get like a lot of this like three
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Speaker 2: high safety coverage variation. And so he had Will Howard
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Speaker 2: fool a few times, right, And so they you know,
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Speaker 2: run this, uh basically like they like, you know, as
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Speaker 2: least so showed many times. Chip Kelly likes using this
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Speaker 2: most this short motion where he sends he kind of
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Speaker 2: gets a stack or changes the leverage, right, and it's
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Speaker 2: basically just like a double steam route with hitches, and
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Speaker 2: so we talked about zone beaters. The problem is like
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Speaker 2: that this is this is not the right riad here
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Speaker 2: because like pre snap right, Nebraska looks like they basically
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Speaker 2: are in a split safety concept, but then at the
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Speaker 2: snap they drop into what's a three buzz or three
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Speaker 2: buzz week, which just means like it's cover three, but
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Speaker 2: one of the safeties is dropping down to that hook zone.
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Speaker 2: And you know, so Howard tries, I think thinks he
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Speaker 2: probably has a different coverage than he's getting and Siermails did. Obviously,
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Speaker 2: Ohio State was able to have a goal line stand here,
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Speaker 2: but you know it did beyond just the interception itself,
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Speaker 2: taking away another drive right away. You know, I say,
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Speaker 2: starve with the ball in the one yard line. Like
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Speaker 2: the field position was awful in that third quarter, which
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Speaker 2: certainly contributed to both their play calling and just try
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Speaker 2: to you know, not be able to get out of
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Speaker 2: a hole as much.
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Speaker 1: We talked about a bunch of different stuff on the
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Speaker 1: postgame show that I thought, oh man, I can't wait
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Speaker 1: to talk to Ross about this to find out if
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Speaker 1: we're right. And one of the things was there were
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Speaker 1: a bunch of plays where it looked like Will Howard
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Speaker 1: either missed a read or just did not have the
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Speaker 1: option of a read on a number of run plays
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Speaker 1: where it felt like they were running and it was
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Speaker 1: just it was like, you're not you know, this is
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Speaker 1: not how this is probably designed to go. Or maybe
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Speaker 1: it is. I'm not sure what that would say if
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Speaker 1: it is, this is one of those plays we're actually
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Speaker 1: gonna be doing two plays back to back where it's
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Speaker 1: relatively short yardage and it does not work at all
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Speaker 1: for Ohio State on the ground.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, and as I said, I mean Day and Kelly
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Speaker 2: both like harped on this, you know, third down issue.
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Speaker 2: But I can understand why how frustrated I would, because again,
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Speaker 2: it wasn't like, you know, for all to talk about
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Speaker 2: the run game in the locky yardage. It's not like
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Speaker 2: they were getting like one yard or two yards running
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Speaker 2: it and they're in third and eight like they were
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Speaker 2: getting four or five yard games. It'd be interesting to
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Speaker 2: break down their success rate running it on first and
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Speaker 2: second down versus third down, because it was just like
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Speaker 2: they got a bunch of these like third and one,
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Speaker 2: thirty twos, third and threes that they converted all year
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Speaker 2: and they weren't able to. And so likewise, like when
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Speaker 2: I was watching this game on Saturday, I just kept thinking,
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Speaker 2: like they just turned off the reliefs and the RPOs,
9:55
Speaker 2: and it's a little bit more complicated than that, ironically,
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Speaker 2: Like the first play of the game was a wide
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Speaker 2: receiver screen to Cornel Tate, and we didn't see another
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Speaker 2: relief thrown like that of wide receivers being the rest
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Speaker 2: of the game. What they were doing a lot of
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Speaker 2: instead though upon rewatch was more second or third level RPOs.
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Speaker 2: So like you have those wide receiver screens where it's
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Speaker 2: just like a numbers read right, like you have three
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Speaker 2: over two, you're gonna throw it right away. This is
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Speaker 2: more like Will Howard's reading a defender and deciding what
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Speaker 2: to do. So again, like you know, successful first out play,
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Speaker 2: they're into second and three here or so, and I
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Speaker 2: just I think this is a misread, Like I thought
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Speaker 2: that in doing these second and third level reads. Again,
10:36
Speaker 2: like given the amount of coverage variation Nebraski uses, I
10:40
Speaker 2: just think they fooled Howard a few times, to be frank,
10:43
Speaker 2: where like the pole read was there and he didn't
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Speaker 2: take it, and so like this one was more obvious
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Speaker 2: in some like they have they have even pre staff, right,
10:55
Speaker 2: you have three over two. Yes there's a deep safety
10:57
Speaker 2: to that side of the field, but he's not in
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Speaker 2: the in the play. And then at the snap, Howard's
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Speaker 2: reading that that backside linebacker who comes like he does
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Speaker 2: sit a little bit, but he comes down and and
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Speaker 2: a Mecca a book is just sitting there wide open
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Speaker 2: on a hitch. And in fact, like you can kind
11:15
Speaker 2: of see at the very end, Howard sort of like
11:18
Speaker 2: puts his hands out or he points to a Buca
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Speaker 2: and says like, like, my bad. Basically there was another
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Speaker 2: one earlier in the game where they were in an
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Speaker 2: RPO that a Buco was running a seam route and
11:28
Speaker 2: was wide open for an eightyr touchdown, and like after
11:30
Speaker 2: the play that was where Howard put his hands on
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Speaker 2: his head like, oh man, I like I really missed
11:34
Speaker 2: that one. But then you can see so like from
11:37
Speaker 2: the backside or the behind the line of scrimmage angle
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Speaker 2: that I included. Like also some of the reasons beyond
11:43
Speaker 2: just like the loss of numbers, that Ohio State was
11:46
Speaker 2: having issues in the run game for whatever reason, a
11:50
Speaker 2: lot of like the run game diversity that we were
11:52
Speaker 2: talking about the first month five four or five weeks
11:55
Speaker 2: of the season where like every week I come up
11:57
Speaker 2: and be like, oh, look they ran this new they
11:59
Speaker 2: ran a speed off in this week, they were in
12:00
Speaker 2: a trap play, they ran this like that's gone, it's
12:03
Speaker 2: been gone. I bet they probably ran variations of inside
12:08
Speaker 2: zone over a dozen times in this game, at least
12:12
Speaker 2: a lot of inside zone, a little bit of outside zone.
12:14
Speaker 2: You know, I don't know if that was again, Like
12:17
Speaker 2: I know, Chip Kelly on Tuesdays, like it's all it's
12:19
Speaker 2: all game, you know, opponents specific what's going to work,
12:23
Speaker 2: you know, whether it's the heck, whether it's like keeping
12:26
Speaker 2: things basic because of the because it's Nebraska, like trying
12:29
Speaker 2: to you know, keep break tendencies for Penn State. Whether
12:34
Speaker 2: it's uh, you know, a new offense, new left tackle.
12:38
Speaker 2: You know, they did to there, you know, to be fair,
12:41
Speaker 2: like the last years of the game, they tried to
12:42
Speaker 2: run that super counter that you and I have talked
12:44
Speaker 2: about and Teger Shabola went the wrong way, Like I
12:47
Speaker 2: posted on X you know, I mean that's just like
12:50
Speaker 2: kind of like pee wee League, Like you you think
12:53
Speaker 2: the counterplays going to the left and it's going to
12:55
Speaker 2: the right set and you pull in knock heads with
12:57
Speaker 2: your guard pulling the other way. So you know, whether
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Speaker 2: I don't know what the combination was, but like they
13:04
Speaker 2: just got really static and running inside zone to the
13:07
Speaker 2: boundary with like the relief or rpo to the field.
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Speaker 2: And so Nebraska played off of that right and so
13:12
Speaker 2: what they would do is they really like the defense
13:16
Speaker 2: like to their credit, their defensive tackles controlled the action
13:19
Speaker 2: against the High State offensive guards a lot like again
13:22
Speaker 2: beyond the zen who does get beat here? But they
13:26
Speaker 2: kept slanting or stunting like we talked about that they
13:30
Speaker 2: are say defense right like to the boundary with their
13:33
Speaker 2: defensive tackles, and what they wanted to do was cut
13:36
Speaker 2: off any like front side part of the inside zone
13:39
Speaker 2: rin and so then that the Ohio State running backs,
13:42
Speaker 2: like just like Headerson here has to cut back and
13:45
Speaker 2: then they bring extra pressure off the backside edge you know,
13:49
Speaker 2: whether it's a linebacker, whether it's a safety, and so
13:52
Speaker 2: you basically running into that unblocked defender and there was
13:56
Speaker 2: just nothing threading the front side. And so they could
13:58
Speaker 2: get away sort of with playing out with numbers because
14:01
Speaker 2: they just didn't need to worry as much about you know,
14:03
Speaker 2: the front side linebacker and so he could kind of
14:06
Speaker 2: check the run because they could just funnel everything. And
14:09
Speaker 2: so again they were just missing, you know, they were
14:12
Speaker 2: just missing that run game diversity that could either like
14:15
Speaker 2: push the ball, uh you know, get it to the perimeter.
14:18
Speaker 2: They ran crackt they ran there like the same side
14:21
Speaker 2: toss twice. The one Travon Henderson got tripped up. Otherwise
14:26
Speaker 2: it was going to be probably a touchdown run and
14:28
Speaker 2: you know, he he again. You know, you could see
14:30
Speaker 2: the frustration for him after that play. But both were
14:33
Speaker 2: successfully But other than that, it just they were missing
14:35
Speaker 2: a lot of that sees a variety and so Nebraska
14:39
Speaker 2: was able to just sort of control the stroll, the
14:41
Speaker 2: lot of scrimmage in the run game with their defensive
14:43
Speaker 2: tackles force the football back into their unblocked pursuit. And again,
14:48
Speaker 2: ohiose was just missing that sort of those reliefs that
14:53
Speaker 2: could help. I mean, the one the one other thing
14:55
Speaker 2: I would say about it to like Will Howard not
14:56
Speaker 2: pulling those and like the not the use or reliefs
14:59
Speaker 2: is like there's there's numbers and then there's like your players, right,
15:03
Speaker 2: and so like Ohio State again I I I tend
15:07
Speaker 2: to think like, regardless of what Chip Kelly says, there's
15:10
Speaker 2: a little bit of ropidope going on here, you know,
15:14
Speaker 2: they I don't know how much really one week makes
15:16
Speaker 2: a difference. I don't think Penn State's going to like
15:18
Speaker 2: be oblivious to how successful I State's been with those plays.
15:21
Speaker 2: Like clearly there's an effort to minimize those and get
15:24
Speaker 2: the ball to Carnell Taits so that teams aren't really
15:26
Speaker 2: coverage as much. But like your best players are out wide,
15:31
Speaker 2: you're really good at those perimeter plays. I think you then,
15:34
Speaker 2: like especially with like the offensive line troubles you're having,
15:37
Speaker 2: like you got to force the ball to the perimeter.
15:39
Speaker 2: Like even regardless necessarily of what the read shows, like
15:42
Speaker 2: Will Howard was aggressive and throwing those reliefs. I thought
15:45
Speaker 2: he was a little bit more gun shy with the
15:46
Speaker 2: second level stuff. Maybe he wasn't quite seenid as well
15:49
Speaker 2: and that quick of time with all the different things
15:51
Speaker 2: Nebraska was doing. But I think they need to get
15:53
Speaker 2: back as I'll show here again to those you know,
15:56
Speaker 2: quick quick game wide receiver screens as well.
16:00
Speaker 1: All right, so we are going to hit that next one,
16:02
Speaker 1: which is illustrating the point Ross just just brought up
16:05
Speaker 1: and it is literally the next play this they went
16:07
Speaker 1: from a second, second and three to a third and
16:11
Speaker 1: medium or so and then did not convert it here
16:14
Speaker 1: on this third down.
16:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so again like this one does have wide
16:19
Speaker 2: receiver screens attached. But again there's like there's a couple issues.
16:24
Speaker 2: So again I don't know, Prestap Maybe it's just the
16:29
Speaker 2: late movement. You know, I just didn't think Howard was
16:33
Speaker 2: quite seeing them as well. Here you have the front
16:37
Speaker 2: side again, is Nebraska not covering up those numbers, So
16:40
Speaker 2: you know, if it's a pre snap relief, like he
16:42
Speaker 2: should be able to turn and pull and throw this
16:44
Speaker 2: right away to a mecha bukat to the boundary. Again,
16:47
Speaker 2: like you're you're falling into this sort of run to
16:49
Speaker 2: the boundary, throw the release to the field dichotomy all
16:52
Speaker 2: the time that you need to change it up, Like,
16:54
Speaker 2: you know, tendencies that we've talked about in a variety
16:56
Speaker 2: of contexts are bad. But you know, the Nebraska again
17:01
Speaker 2: like the same they're playing the same games, right, so,
17:04
Speaker 2: like they basically take the front side linebacker out on
17:06
Speaker 2: this play to account to help with that wide receiver
17:09
Speaker 2: of screen and not worry about it because they know
17:12
Speaker 2: their defensive tackles can force the football back inside. And
17:16
Speaker 2: then they're bringing two off the edge, and so they're
17:19
Speaker 2: showing there. They don't show cover one until late, but
17:22
Speaker 2: they bring like the defensive end to account for Henderson
17:25
Speaker 2: on the run and let him crash. But then they
17:27
Speaker 2: also have a plus one and the safety there to help,
17:30
Speaker 2: and so you know, I think this situation might not
17:34
Speaker 2: be the best one to illustrate my this other point
17:38
Speaker 2: that I would make, but Nebraska was really guessing, and
17:43
Speaker 2: often they guessed well that like when they thought obviously
17:45
Speaker 2: was gonna run, they played like a pretty aggressive cover one,
17:48
Speaker 2: And I just like, I don't think Ohio State's wide
17:50
Speaker 2: receivers are too good to let teams get away with that.
17:53
Speaker 2: Like we saw on the other side with Nebraska, like
17:57
Speaker 2: when they saw like pretty obvious cover one, they pull
18:00
Speaker 2: it on the RPO and would just throw like a
18:03
Speaker 2: backshorulder hitch or a backshoulder go route outside. And like
18:08
Speaker 2: Jeremiah Smith when he singled up like that, like it
18:11
Speaker 2: should be an option in their RPO game to basically
18:14
Speaker 2: pull it and throw a vertical route to him. Like,
18:16
Speaker 2: I just don't think they're just letting teams get away
18:19
Speaker 2: with too much playing games when like they not thrending
18:22
Speaker 2: them enough outside when there's no reason for them. Yeah.
18:27
Speaker 1: And one of the things that I really did wonder
18:29
Speaker 1: about in the moments after the game and during our
18:31
Speaker 1: postgame show was the moment that I pulled up the
18:34
Speaker 1: final box score and they had targeted Jeremiah Smith four
18:38
Speaker 1: times throughout the course of the game and had not
18:39
Speaker 1: handed the ball to him at any point, And it
18:41
Speaker 1: was like, that feels like a real missed opportunity. I
18:44
Speaker 1: don't I know, you can't just go in and say
18:47
Speaker 1: we're going to put the ball in his hand ten times,
18:49
Speaker 1: especially when you don't get very many snaps. But for
18:52
Speaker 1: for felt like probably not enough targets. The next play
18:56
Speaker 1: is actually one of those four targets. This was actually
18:58
Speaker 1: the only incompletion to Jeremiah Smith. So what do you think.
19:03
Speaker 1: Can they go in and say, hey, we have to
19:06
Speaker 1: you know, we have to get the ball to him
19:08
Speaker 1: at least try to get the ball to him X
19:10
Speaker 1: number of times? Or is that just given what defenses
19:13
Speaker 1: can try to do, you got to sort of adjust
19:16
Speaker 1: to that, and you can't just go in with a
19:17
Speaker 1: hard and fast you know, we have to do X
19:19
Speaker 1: amount of times getting involved Jeremiah Smith.
19:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's somewhere in between. Again, this game, Yeah,
19:25
Speaker 2: it's super skewed by the numbers, and I think this
19:28
Speaker 2: was the game where they didn't want to purposely do
19:30
Speaker 2: that because they didn't want to put those things on film.
19:32
Speaker 2: But like using the Iowa game as a comparison, where
19:35
Speaker 2: Smith didn't get the ball early. You know, they threw
19:37
Speaker 2: him the tunnel screen, they threw they gave him the reverse.
19:42
Speaker 2: Those are the kind of things that I do think
19:43
Speaker 2: there's a way that's getting the ball. As I said,
19:45
Speaker 2: I would firstly like force the now screens and stuff,
19:48
Speaker 2: even if it's like three over three, Like see what happens.
19:51
Speaker 2: Those wide receivers break tackles all the time, and the
19:53
Speaker 2: perimeter blocking is good, especially when the run game is struggling.
19:58
Speaker 2: You know. Again, though, I think the problem is and
20:02
Speaker 2: I think this is maybe a case of it, like
20:04
Speaker 2: in the passing game, Howard doesn't want to lock on
20:07
Speaker 2: at times to Smith and Abuca, and it's sort of
20:11
Speaker 2: being you know, exacerbated. I wanted to I grab this
20:15
Speaker 2: play because the problem I say, was having in these
20:17
Speaker 2: like third and short situations. Was it wasn't just the
20:20
Speaker 2: run game that was failing. I know that's been a
20:22
Speaker 2: lot of the focus. But they misfired on several passing plays.
20:27
Speaker 2: You know this one they again, I think Nebraska fooled them,
20:31
Speaker 2: and like I you know again, I want to get
20:32
Speaker 2: in Nebraska credit again. I don't think Howard sees what
20:37
Speaker 2: looks like it could be like a three high and
20:39
Speaker 2: you tend to think again, Tampa two, right, And so
20:42
Speaker 2: there is a again a concept. Chip Kelly keeps using it.
20:44
Speaker 2: We showed it against Oregon multiple times. Like you run
20:47
Speaker 2: the smash to the boundary, which is like the corner
20:49
Speaker 2: route with like a hitch or a short out, and
20:51
Speaker 2: then these like double in breakers from the field right.
20:55
Speaker 2: And so against cover two, like we talked about against Oregon,
20:57
Speaker 2: you want to throw the smash route. But the problem
21:00
Speaker 2: is is or Eric Nebraski is not in cover two.
21:03
Speaker 2: They're in a another three high concept which is like
21:06
Speaker 2: cover three, but with both quarter cornerbacks clad it up
21:09
Speaker 2: like they're so they're they're playing the flat like it's
21:11
Speaker 2: covered two, but it's actually cover three. And so now
21:14
Speaker 2: that smash concept isn't great against that because you have
21:16
Speaker 2: that deep outside defender, and so this is one where
21:19
Speaker 2: he just he needs to work off that, come off
21:22
Speaker 2: Smith and come back to the middle of the field.
21:25
Speaker 2: Like you can see g Scott coming open over the middle,
21:28
Speaker 2: Quinn Shawn Junkins is actually sitting wide open in the flat.
21:31
Speaker 2: All this to say is like it's not perfect. Actually
21:34
Speaker 2: you see like zen Malawski do a much better job
21:37
Speaker 2: here handling the inside move in pass protection. So like
21:41
Speaker 2: it did, you know, I don't think again. I think
21:44
Speaker 2: there's plenty of examples that we've all can point too
21:47
Speaker 2: of his struggles of other offensive line struggles. But I
21:51
Speaker 2: do think there's like more layers on Saturday to the
21:54
Speaker 2: issues than just to be like, you know, it was
21:56
Speaker 2: just because of the new left tackle. I I think
22:00
Speaker 2: that he was in some ways a very complex game
22:06
Speaker 2: plan from Nebraska against Ohio State trying to be very base,
22:11
Speaker 2: and that that certainly contributed to issues as well. But
22:15
Speaker 2: you know, these are just the situations where it's it's
22:19
Speaker 2: hard to say, like it's just chance, but like you know,
22:21
Speaker 2: they convert one of these first third dawns to get going,
22:23
Speaker 2: and who knows what happens like I see that all
22:25
Speaker 2: the time, right when I'm rewatching games. It's like, oh, oh,
22:28
Speaker 2: you know, they're lucky. They got this third out and
22:30
Speaker 2: that kept an eight play drive going, and so you
22:34
Speaker 2: know you had this drive, then the next one a
22:35
Speaker 2: buko is actually open and Howard kind of a airmailed it.
22:38
Speaker 2: He got a little bit of pressure, and so you know,
22:41
Speaker 2: sometimes you just have these bad run of luck as well,
22:45
Speaker 2: or you know what would have been if you convert
22:47
Speaker 2: one or two of these.
22:49
Speaker 1: Well, there was a drive in the second half where
22:51
Speaker 1: they did convert one or two of these, and that
22:53
Speaker 1: was the drive where Nebraska had just scored to take
22:56
Speaker 1: the lead, and it felt like, boy, this could be
22:59
Speaker 1: a season defining drive for Ohio State. And they went
23:02
Speaker 1: right down the field and put a touchdown on the board.
23:05
Speaker 1: But it all started with converting that first first down
23:08
Speaker 1: and that was on a long pass to Carnel Tait
23:11
Speaker 1: on a wheel route. So let's let's run through that one.
23:15
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think in hindsight, as I said, like they
23:17
Speaker 2: hit those big ones early, I think Nebraska in some
23:20
Speaker 2: ways was trying to take away the run and was
23:23
Speaker 2: giving them these opportunities. But again, like you know, for
23:26
Speaker 2: all the coverage diversity Nebraska was using, this is they
23:31
Speaker 2: were able to when they were able to find the
23:32
Speaker 2: right zone beaters against what they were doing, you know,
23:36
Speaker 2: they hit some big opportunities. So you know, the first
23:39
Speaker 2: thing to notice about this play is Ohio State. You
23:43
Speaker 2: can see, like, you know, things on this drive they
23:47
Speaker 2: learned from earlier in the game. So it's not like they,
23:49
Speaker 2: you know, forgot how to coach football, right, So they
23:52
Speaker 2: use a seven man protection hereje Scott actually bumps inside
23:57
Speaker 2: of Zendel Mohawski so that he doesn't have to worry
24:00
Speaker 2: about a two way move, so he can just worry
24:02
Speaker 2: about setting outside and gee, Scott's going to check that
24:06
Speaker 2: sea gap before he releases, and then Quinn Shawn Jenkins
24:09
Speaker 2: is helping on the other side. But then again, so
24:11
Speaker 2: like they got cover three earlier, like a few times
24:13
Speaker 2: right where they didn't quite expect it. So now they
24:16
Speaker 2: expect the cover three, they get it, and they run
24:20
Speaker 2: this wheel route and so the cover three corner is
24:22
Speaker 2: going to carry Smith down the field and you know
24:26
Speaker 2: the guy goes, the safety goes, that plays the fly.
24:28
Speaker 2: There's just no one on Carnell tape and so again,
24:31
Speaker 2: like you know, coulda, would have should. As I said,
24:34
Speaker 2: there are probably opportunities throughout the game that they could
24:36
Speaker 2: have pushed the ball down field more so than they did.
24:40
Speaker 2: But obviously when they needed to do it, they were
24:42
Speaker 2: able to go back to the well and one other place.
24:46
Speaker 1: Then when they really needed to do it, they did
24:48
Speaker 1: do it. Is this play then, our final play for today.
24:52
Speaker 1: This is one where it felt like a lot of
24:53
Speaker 1: the day Will Howard was giving. This is one where
24:56
Speaker 1: Will Howard kept it a nice pickup on what ended
24:59
Speaker 1: up being the game winning touchdown drive.
25:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, and this should look very similar to that third
25:04
Speaker 2: is short that they got stopped that I showed you earlier,
25:07
Speaker 2: and because it is, and again Ohio State learned from
25:10
Speaker 2: that situation. Right. So again they're in the pistol, and
25:13
Speaker 2: so they expect Nebraska to do the same thing, right,
25:16
Speaker 2: which is like they're going to bring their defensive tackles,
25:20
Speaker 2: are going to move towards the boundary to try to
25:22
Speaker 2: cut off the front side run. They're gonna slant down
25:27
Speaker 2: the backside defensive end to account for the running back
25:29
Speaker 2: and then bring the safety off the edge. Plus one
25:32
Speaker 2: for Howard, right, and so here though unlike before, we're
25:36
Speaker 2: high State ran it from two by two open and
25:39
Speaker 2: had the two reliefs here, They're going to run split
25:41
Speaker 2: zone and have g Scott blocked back on that defensive end.
25:46
Speaker 2: And so what happens now Now that guy's no longer
25:48
Speaker 2: accounting for the running back, and so now the safety
25:51
Speaker 2: has to account for the running back because you have
25:53
Speaker 2: an extra gap, and that allows Howard to keep and
25:56
Speaker 2: turn up field, and so you get a big game.
25:58
Speaker 2: And so it was a game where because they weren't
26:03
Speaker 2: able to get some of those conversions, they could not
26:06
Speaker 2: get to doing these like sort of countermoves. So what
26:09
Speaker 2: Nebraska was doing until you know it was they had
26:12
Speaker 2: to I guess, but you know they fortunately had the
26:15
Speaker 2: drive here where they could before their backs were too
26:18
Speaker 2: far up against the wall.
26:20
Speaker 1: All right, So there you have it. A super sized
26:23
Speaker 1: Ross Fulton analysis show on the Ohio State Offense, one
26:26
Speaker 1: of the mini shows you're getting this week at buck
26:29
Speaker 1: from our friends at bucke huddle dot com. Also want
26:32
Speaker 1: to thank our friends at Jeff Ruby Steakhouse, the award
26:34
Speaker 1: winning upscale steakhouse at downtown Columbus name one of the
26:36
Speaker 1: top fifty steakhouses in America by Food Network. Just go
26:39
Speaker 1: to Jeffruby dot com slash Columbus today. We will have
26:43
Speaker 1: another Ross Fulton show later on in the week. We're
26:45
Speaker 1: gonna do the Defensive Breakdown. We got to figure out
26:47
Speaker 1: the schedule. It is a crazy week. We're traveling a bit.
26:50
Speaker 1: It's a mess. We'll figure it out. We'll get you
26:52
Speaker 1: another Ross Fulton show a little later on in the week.
26:54
Speaker 1: We're rid of playing more coverage for you all week
26:56
Speaker 1: long at Buckeye Huddle dot com, dropping a bunch of
26:59
Speaker 1: bone the shows. We'll have our usual Bold Predictions a
27:03
Speaker 1: Buckeye Weekly show. We're gonna be in State College on
27:06
Speaker 1: Friday for the Buckeye's team arrival. Lots of coverage coming
27:09
Speaker 1: up for you all week long at Buckehuddle dot com
27:11
Speaker 1: and YouTube dot com slash Buckeye Huddle. We hope to
27:15
Speaker 1: see you in both of those places. That will do
27:17
Speaker 1: it for today. Thank you guys all for joining us.
27:19
Speaker 1: Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.