Latest / Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning / Ross Fulton Analysis: Will The Ohio State Offense Struggle In The Red Zone At Michigan?

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Ross Fulton Analysis: Will The Ohio State Offense Struggle In The Red Zone At Michigan? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes Tomorrow morning for Thursday, November twenty third. I'm your host,
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  Tom Moore. The game against Michigan is in two days. Today we
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  got our buddy Ross Fulton, Buckeye Huddles X's and Ose Guru on the show,
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  which mean we today we are sponsored by Jeff Ruby's Columbus probably offering nationally
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  acclaimed USDA Prime Stakes, seafood and sushi, and Peckaple service, live entertainment,
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  and an attention to detail that is simply unmatched. Go to jeffruby dot
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  com slash Columbus to check out the menu and make a reservation today. Okay,
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  so normally when we have Ross on, we're going into the nitty gritty
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  in the previous game. And okay, let's look at a couple different plays
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  and all that kind of stuff. We know what week it is, we
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  know Itice Thursday. We know we could do an hour and a half of
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  like, okay, here's the seventeen different things against Minnesota, and all anyone
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  in the comments is going to ask is what's gonna happen against Michigan and todays
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  Ross please tell us tell us So that's the show. The show is going
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  to be forward looking. We're not talking really about Minnesota. We're looking at
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  Michigan. What is going to happen on Saturday, Ross, We're going to
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  start with the Ohio State offense. We're going to start with the Ohios ted
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  ground game. It feels like there has been tangible progress with the offensive line
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  throughout the course of the season. It feels like getting Trivia on Henderson back
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  and healthy has made a significant different difference there as well. How effectively is
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  Ohiostak gonna be able to run the ball against Michigan on Saturday, Well,
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  I think they have to be effective. I think that you can expect Michigan
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  and Jesse Mintor to play quite a bit of split safety coverage schemes that they
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  have all year. So it wouldn't it wouldn't surprise it to be any different
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  in this game, and you know when they've done so. Michigan's had some
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  trouble with that seven man spacing fitting the run, particularly with everyone's favor play
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  stretch. Minnesota had success running stretch paired with the jet sweep opposite against Michigan.
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  Maryland did the same. Penn State had success running counter tray to the
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  same side as the halfback. So you know the pieces are there for Ohio
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  State obviously on film. The key, just like as at an execution level,
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  is Michigan's probably strongest at defensive tackle. Of everything on their defense,
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  you know, Ohio States center, our guards have been pretty good. Carson
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  Hinzman has had his struggles, and so in terms of just a matchup that's
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  probably like the the one in terms of personnel that needs to be watched.
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  But like from the Ohio State perspective, they have to keep doing what they're
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  what they've been doing, which is like if teams want to play them with
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  split safeties, you know, run the football, play action off of it,
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  keep mixing in you know, weak zone with countertrait and power, keep
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  running the gap schemes, and you know, I think a key and we'll
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  talk about this is like they have to stay ahead of schedule. The you
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  know, you want to force Michigan then on early downs to go single hide
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  or to fire zone and you know, bring cover three deep, three under
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  pressures, and then you know, when you're mixing the run game in like
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  take advantage of the fact that Michigan wants to play particularly to the field.
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  They'll play pretty soft corner coverage. We can talk about this more, but
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  like Michigan's biggest weakness on defense is there that other corner, Like whether you
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  want to consider that Wallace or you know, if they bump standards still outside
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  from nickel to corner and then put mcburrows in the slot, like that's then
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  the weakness. Like they basically are down a cover body and so you know,
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  I'm now bleeding into the next segment. But there's you know, discussion
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  like will they have Will Johnson follow Harrison? Like I don't think that's that
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  gains them a lot because a you're telegraphing your coverage, and like, I
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  think what's made Michigan's defense really good the last few years is like how the
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  diversity of what they do in terms of like their zone pressures. And so
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  unless Will Johnson's wrapped a bunch in the slot and you can run everything from
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  that, uh, you've you're not limiting yourself. But be like if they
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  do that, then they're just leaving themselves vulnerable outside. I mean, I
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  would take certainly abuca and and Julian Flemings plus matchups, but like, so
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  you know, I think on early downs the key as I said, is
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  like mixing, particularly when like Michigan is in split safeties, be patient,
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  like you know, it comes harkens back to what Ryan Day talks about after
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  the Rutgers game, like you're just gonna have to like you know, they
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  I think they're gonna want to prove make Ryan Day prove that he'll be patient
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  and that Ohio State can execute down the field, you know, rely on
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  Trevion Henderson. Mix that with hitting those easy comeback routes on the outside,
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  stay ahead of schedule, and then you can mix in the heavier play action.
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  It's funny you're talking about this, and it's normally you think about,
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  you know, the young quarterback who's getting impatient, but it can be the
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  head coach or the play caller as well. And Ryan Day has talked about
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  being a little two pass happy in the past and maybe getting away from the
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  run too much. He has said it often enough that you would assume he
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  is sort of cognizant of it and will be will try and be cognizant of
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  it during the game as well. The idea of Will Johnson following Marvin Harrison
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  around the field. Harrison was asked about Will Johnson specifically on Tuesday and when
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  we talked to him and he talked about the fact that they have really most
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  teams have not done that. They've not had I think Penn States, he
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  said, was the only team that really just kind of took one guy and
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  put him on Marvin Harrison. Otherwise, if you move Marvin Harrison around,
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  you're getting different matchups. Is that the biggest I mean, you said that's
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  the biggest advantage of Ohio State hasard the biggest weakness on the Michigan defense.
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  Where would Cad Stover fall into that? Because it feels like if Michigan is
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  sort of scrambling, you've got, you know, split safeties, you got
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  two corners to cover three receivers really, and then you throw them gates still
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  over into this, how does you know? How does Michigan defend him?
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  Are they just throwing one of the linebackers on him and just kind of crossing
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  their fingers again, I mean, I expect Michigan to be principally playing zone
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  defense, and I think where stover comes in handy is particularly like Michigan likes
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  to spot drop and so we've we've talked about that with Ohio State. Uh,
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  obviously they don't do it as much this year, but covering grass like
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  you saw Maryland take a lot of advantage of that. That came up in
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  basically two ways. So Maryland ran a bunch of RPOs with the backside slant
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  and the nickel was not locked on the slant. So again, like we've
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  talked all year about, Ohio State has been pretty successful with RPOs. I
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  think Kyle McCord runs them well. Ohio State I would consider as a team
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  that dobbles and RPOs, they don't major in them. Maryland certainly runs more
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  RPOs in Ohio State, but I would certainly expect Ohio State to rpo them
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  early, particularly if they're going to play you know, quarter quarter half on
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  early downs and then the other thing as I set off of play action like
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  stover, particularly when you're like finding those holes in the zone. You know,
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  Maryland had a lot of success was sort of underneath crossers drags, you
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  know, they had that. Ironically, Maryland had their tight end wide open
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  off of sort of a delayed release route the same very similar to what Ohio
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  State ran last year on fourth and two against Michigan. That Michigan at that
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  point seemed to know exactly what Ohio State was doing on that play, but
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  against Maryland they did not, And so you know, again, so I
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  think you're going to look for ways to exploit pieces in the zone and try
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  to get stover again, because yeah, I just think there's some plus matchups.
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  You know, like Michael Barrett for Michigan is is he's kind of undersize,
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  he's but he's a very good blitzer. Junior Colson is up and down,
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  he can sort of lose his responsibilities. So again, I just think
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  that those are the areas that you're looking to exploit. And again, to
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  me, it's a matter of I think personnel wise, Ohio State has advantages
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  particulate at the skill positions versus the Michigan back seven. I think the concern
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  to me comes into when Ohio State gets behind schedule and Michigan's scheme and the
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  pass protection against it. And even when Ohio State can stay on schedule and
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  kind of methodically move down the field, move the chains, take what's being
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  given to them, eventually you get down to the red zone and then the
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  field compresses and Ohio State has not always been great in the red zone.
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  This year or in short yardage. Michigan has been very effective in the red
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  zone this year in the limited exposures their defense has had to the red zone.
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  How big of a concern is that going into this game for you?
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  For the Buckeyes, And how would you try to attack Michigan when you're in
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  first and goal from the five, third and goal from the two, you
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  know, whatever it is when you're in that sort of compressed field. How
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  does the game plan change for Ohigoest State down there. It's certainly a concern,
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  and I can't imagine it's going to suddenly be perfect when it hasn't been
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  so High State may have to settle for a field well at some point,
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  frustratingly so. But you know, I think the first question is can Devin
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  Brown play I If he can, I would go back to that package.
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  Certainly, like in the low red zone situation you're talking about, I think
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  it was pretty effective. It's now been a while since I actually did that
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  because of his lack of availability, So that's it probably is not going to
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  be on the top of Michigan's mind. I'm sure they've prepared for it,
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  but that would be my first response. Secondly, I mean I think you
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  got to go with you got to go with your best players, and what's
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  worked best in those situations. So I would look for when Harrison singled up
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  going to Harrison, I mean, like, what's worked really well, even
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  more so than like sort of the fade and comeback fade routes, is Harrison
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  on slants inside the five yard line. I mean, we saw that against
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  Minnesota, We saw that against Michigan State, Like when you get that Abuka
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  to basically run off the coverage to the to the corner and then Harrison comes
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  underneath it. I would continue to look for Abuca and maybe Xavier Johnson on
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  like jet sweeps, orbit motion things of that nature. Obviously that did not
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  work against Notre Dame the one time they tried it. It was much more
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  effective last week in short yardage. O High State has been better in short
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  yardage and the low red zone. They're problems against Minnesota were not even so
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  much at the goal line. It was more just like inside the red zone.
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  And they had a driver too that sputtered out from lack of precision in
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  the passing game. And so again, like in those situations, I go
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  back to my biggest concern with Michigan, which is you know, Jesse Minner
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  has a lot of fire zones and creeper pressures. You know, fire zones
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  you're bringing five people, creepers you're bringing four, but they're not your four
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  defensive linemen and playing you know, two deep or three deep coverages behind it.
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  And we've seen Wisconsin had some success against I State, Rutgers had some
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  success using those kind of pressures that overload one side, and Ohio State doesn't
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  read it well. And or you know, Kyle McCord hasn't been the greatest
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  under pressure. He can get sped up. And so that's why, you
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  know, it's not even so much like a matchup of being concerned about someone
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  getting beat one on one up front against the pressure. It's like the collective
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  offensive line plus tight ends plus Trayvon Henderson diagnosing the pressure, picking it up,
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  and then McCord staying in it, keeping his feet underneath him and not
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  getting sped up. So this all sounds great. It sounds like there is
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  a path for Ohio State to be successful on offense, move the ball maybe
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  somewhat consistently on offense, if they kind of stay stay with the program,
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  they got to score with to get down to the red zone. What are
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  you expecting from the Ohio State offense in terms of a point output? Are
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  you expecting this to Are you expecting them to stick with what's working and not
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  make the big mistake? What is your sort of I guess I'm sort of
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  asking you for half of a score prediction right now in some sort of way,
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  and I will throw my hands up and say, my score prediction talks
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  about the possibility Ohio State wins by a bunch, the possibility of Michigan wins
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  by a bunch, and the possibility that's a close score. So I'm kind
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  of throwing my hands up at this point and going, yeah, I don't
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  know, man, We'll see how it goes. So Ross be our expert
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  and tell me what is actually going to happen, because I'm kind of super
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  interested but not confident in my prediction. I think I think either team,
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  if you could get to twenty six points, you'd feel pretty good about your
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  chances. I just I have trouble seeing it just depends if Ohio State can
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  create explosives. You know, easy to say, like be patient, move
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  the ball down the field, like there's a reason explosive plays matter because it
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  makes it easier to score points, right, and Michigan, like Ohio State,
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  does a pretty good job of limiting those. Now, I will say
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  Maryland had multiple chances on Saturday against both Wallace and will Johnson down the field.
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  They only hit one of them. They missed probably four or five.
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  So those will be there, and so it's again a matter of like ken
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  Ohio State hit those. If they can hit some of those, then that
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  makes things makes life easier, right, And so those high leverage plays you
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  got to complete them. You got to give Harrison and a book It and
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  Sober a chance down the seam. But I do think obviously then like relying
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  on Trevon Henderson's the key. But I just don't see a super high scoring
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  output from either team because I just think both defenses are good, and I
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  just would prepare yourselves for situations where Ohio State moved the ball and gets several
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  first downs and then Michigan blows up a drive because they bring a creeper pressure
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  that doesn't get picked up and it puts a highest state behind the chains.
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  I mean, especially being on the road, it's gonna be hard on the
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  snap count it's gonna be hard, you know, diagnosing things. So I
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  just I you know, it's hard. After eleven games, you kind of
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  are what you are to some extent. So we've seen that, and so
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  I just don't think. I don't see it all of a sudden becoming magically
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  better. But at the flip side, we've seen a high of State move
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  the football against every team they played against, and they've played some very good
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  defenses, and they've played some of those defenses without Henderson or Abuca and so
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  getting having everyone back, and I still think McCord has continued to improve as
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  the season goes on. So I don't don't see this either as a situation
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  where it's a total rock fight. My score prediction is twenty to seventeen someone,
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  and I'm kind of just gonna flip a coin in terms of which team
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  I actually give the twenty points two in our official score predictions at bucket huddle
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  dot com. But yeah, it's gonna be It should be a pretty entertaining
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  game, and don't worry if it's low scoring, don't worry. The winner
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  gets Iowa next week, so it'll get much more exciting a week from now.
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  I mean, I still just think if you're lining up just like from
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  a talent perspective, right, like Michigan's defense, they're very experienced. They
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  again, they have a lot of volume of things they do. I do
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  not think you're looking at a lot of high round NFL draft picks. Maybe
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  Will Johnson, maybe the defensive tackles, which defensive tackles can cause a lot
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  of like they can blow everything up if they're really good. But you know
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  they're just they're experience and they execute the scheme well, so it's for hostate.
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  It's just you gotta find the matchups when you got them and take advantage
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  of them. Well, that sounds like it would be great preparation for Iowa
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  if that is who Ohio State is playing a week from now. It sounds
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  a lot like the Iowa defense in a lot of ways. So we'll worry
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  about Iowa next week if and when Ohio State is playing them this week though
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  everyone is in Ohio is worried about Michigan and nothing but Michigan. Ross will
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  be back tomorrow to talk about the Ohio State defense and how they might fare
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  against Michigan. But if you are and while you're waiting the long twenty four
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  hours before that show. Rest assured. There's plenty more content on our YouTube
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  channel at YouTube dot com slash Bucket Huddle, Tony Gerderman and I are doing
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  would truly appreciate that. We'll do it for today. Thank you guys all
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