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Ross Fulton Analysis: How Arthur Smith Is Improving Ohio State's Offense · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Tuesday, September 29th. I'm
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  Speaker 1: your host, Tom, or the Iowa game in four days,
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  Speaker 1: the game against Michigan in 60 days. Today's episode presented
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  Speaker 1: by Jeff Ruby's Columbus, proudly offering nationally acclaimed USDA prime steaks,
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  Speaker 1: seafood and sushi, impeccable service, live entertainment, and an attention
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  Speaker 1: to detail that is simply unmatched. Just go to jeffruby.com
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  Speaker 1: slash Columbus to check out the menu and make a
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  Speaker 1: reservation today. All right, we're going to welcome in Ross Fulton.
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  Speaker 1: He is one of our scheme insiders at buckeyeinsiders.com. watching
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  Speaker 1: this on YouTube, take a second, hit the thumbs up,
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  Speaker 1: leave us a comment, leave us a question in there,
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  Speaker 1: whatever you want to do. And if you're watching on mobile,
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  Speaker 1: take a second to hype this video. That's a little
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  Speaker 1: thing you can do that will help this video reach
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  Speaker 1: a bigger audience, which we always appreciate. And we're welcoming
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  Speaker 1: Ross in to talk about the Ohio State offense. And man,
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  Speaker 1: I think this is a video that is probably going
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  Speaker 1: to get a lot of Ohio State fans hyped because
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  Speaker 1: we're going to be talking a lot about Jeremiah Smith
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  Speaker 1: and Ross. You know, we have to lean on our
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  Speaker 1: experts to really diagnose things. My sense is that Jeremiah
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  Speaker 1: Smith is pretty good, but I'd like you to sort
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  Speaker 1: of break that down for us and let people know,
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  Speaker 1: am I correct in my guess there?
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  Speaker 2: He is not bad at football. Yes, that is true.
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  Speaker 3: But I think like from a bigger picture perspective beyond
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  Speaker 3: just like his ability and, you know, I thought day
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  Speaker 3: had some great post-game comments about like, just like, he's
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  Speaker 3: always obviously been really good, but like his improvements are,
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  Speaker 3: as a, as a technical route runner and after the catch.
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  Speaker 3: But like, I think that Arthur Smith has done a
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  Speaker 3: very good job as we discussed of like putting Smith
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  Speaker 3: in positions where like he is constantly a threat and
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  Speaker 3: teams are not able to take, do things to try
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  Speaker 3: to bracket him or, you know, to at least limit
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  Speaker 3: that or to take advantage of it when teams do.
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  Speaker 3: And a lot of that is through, you know, both
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  Speaker 3: Smith and Julian saying, uh, to be fair, like pre-snap
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  Speaker 3: diagnosis and use some motions, trades, um, you know, formation
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  Speaker 3: and scheme to get looks that they want that are advantageous.
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  Speaker 3: And so, you know, this, this, um, play, which was
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  Speaker 3: Jeremiah Smith's second touchdown, um, the, the, obviously like the
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  Speaker 3: 72 yarder, um, was a good example of that because
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  Speaker 3: you know, I think day and even, I think Brett
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  Speaker 3: Bielema sort of discussed this after the game in terms
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  Speaker 3: of Ohio state, like having some of their checks in mind.
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  Speaker 3: And obviously I, you know, I sort of joked, this
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  Speaker 3: is the play that led to Illinois defensive coordinator being
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  Speaker 3: shown the door because like, you know, Justin Whitlatch, our
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  Speaker 3: fellow scheme insider sort of pointed out to me that,
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  Speaker 3: you know, a lot of these Ohio state knew a
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  Speaker 3: lot of, it seemed like what, how Illinois would check
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  Speaker 3: to things. And so they use this motion from Devin
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  Speaker 3: McEwen to put, you know, Jeremiah Smith and McEwen to
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  Speaker 3: the same side.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 3: And it seemed like Illinois adjusted to that motion with
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  Speaker 3: going to like a cover four quarters concept. Even like,
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  Speaker 3: I think this is to read. And so they're sort of,
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  Speaker 3: they're reading that the number two receiver McEwen and determining
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  Speaker 3: what to do based on him when he comes in
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  Speaker 3: the slot, the upshot is that by doing so you
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  Speaker 3: can see like how the corner opens his hips to read.
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  Speaker 3: But the upshot is he then has to break out
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  Speaker 3: with McEwen on this wheel route. And that just leaves
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  Speaker 3: Illinois' cover four safety one-on-one with Smith with a full
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  Speaker 3: head of steam, you know, no bump, no nothing impeding
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  Speaker 3: him running a post route. And so obviously this was
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  Speaker 3: like an easy throw and catch. You know, I thought
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  Speaker 3: Ohio State, Smith, Arthur Smith, I should say, really likes
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  Speaker 3: using this sort of, whether from under center or in
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  Speaker 3: the pistol, this sort of like see gap play action pass, right.
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  Speaker 3: Where you're, you're turning and then, you know, bringing, they
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  Speaker 3: have like a full seven man protection. So they're making
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  Speaker 3: sure that they can, you know, have the time to
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  Speaker 3: throw this vertically. And so this is, you know, not
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  Speaker 3: just a great run after the catch and great, you know,
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  Speaker 3: played by Jeremiah Smith and Julian sand, but like also
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  Speaker 3: a good use of scheme and design to get into
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  Speaker 3: this situation.
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  Speaker 1: So, Next one, we're going to talk about the fade.
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  Speaker 1: And I know throwing the fade in the red zone
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  Speaker 1: and in the end zone has been sort of a
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  Speaker 1: bugaboo for a lot of people. It's a relatively low
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  Speaker 1: percentage throw, and I understand why it's something that people hate.
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  Speaker 1: But also, when you have Jeremiah Smith, it feels like
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  Speaker 1: that might be the exception to the rule. And when
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  Speaker 1: he can do the little toe tap thing he does here, like, yeah, man,
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  Speaker 1: good coverage doesn't matter. This is one where I feel
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  Speaker 1: like the really, really low information fans... might be asking,
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  Speaker 1: why don't you just throw it to your best player
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  Speaker 1: in the red zone? And the really, really high information
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  Speaker 1: fans and apparently Arthur Smith are saying kind of the
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  Speaker 1: same thing. And it's like, it feels like everyone has
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  Speaker 1: sort of landed on the correct, the correct answer here.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: So I thought between this one, the, you know, the
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  Speaker 3: first touchdown to Jeremiah Smith was a relief or Julian
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  Speaker 3: saying is just pulling it based on the pre-snap look, right?
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  Speaker 3: He sees single coverage down to the low red zone.
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  Speaker 3: And he threw that back shoulder more of like a
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  Speaker 3: flat route to Jeremiah Smith. This one obviously is the fade.
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  Speaker 3: We talked about, you know, following the Texas game, how
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  Speaker 3: like we focus on some of the problems like misses
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  Speaker 3: in the second half, but really like saying had a
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  Speaker 3: couple of these to Jeremiah Smith in the first half
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  Speaker 3: off of turnovers, where if you were, you know, Ohio State,
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  Speaker 3: if would have hit either of those, it would have built,
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  Speaker 3: you know, a more insurmountable lead. And I just thought
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  Speaker 3: like Julian saying really kind of needed to improve on
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  Speaker 3: this sort of throw. And I think we already saw that. Like,
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  Speaker 3: I think this was a game for Julian saying, we'll
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  Speaker 3: talk about in a couple of ways where like he
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  Speaker 3: like showed definitive improvements over some of the things that
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  Speaker 3: he needed to work upon.
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  Speaker 2: But this is it.
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  Speaker 3: And like, you know, we've talked about Ohio state in
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  Speaker 3: the low red zone and potential struggles and, you know,
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  Speaker 3: not having a running quarterback.
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  Speaker 2: And so like, if you're not running quarterback, like, you
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  Speaker 2: need to.
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  Speaker 3: Hit these throws like they do because like, you know,
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  Speaker 3: if teams want to play cover zero a lot in
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  Speaker 3: the low red zone or cover one. And so if
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  Speaker 3: you can consistently make these throws, they're going to be
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  Speaker 3: difficult to stop just because Jeremiah Smith's difficult to stop.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. And you mentioned earlier the improvement in the route running.
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  Speaker 1: That was something they talked about on the broadcast as well.
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  Speaker 1: That last type, that last touchdown, that's the next play
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  Speaker 1: we're going to look at. This is one where he
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  Speaker 1: runs a great route. The defensive back very clearly is
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  Speaker 1: just all turned around and that makes this a very
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  Speaker 1: easy throw and catch.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: So, you know, I showed the earlier example of like
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  Speaker 3: cover four where Illinois got burnt. And, you know, I
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  Speaker 3: think Ryan Day's always throughout his career at Ohio State,
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  Speaker 3: like he's had a lot of success isolating cover four
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  Speaker 3: safeties for explosives. And, you know, it seemed like Illinois'
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  Speaker 3: sort of response as the game went on and they're
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  Speaker 3: giving up more and more yards is to try to
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  Speaker 3: become more aggressive. I think they were trying to take
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  Speaker 3: a page from what Texas did in the second half,
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  Speaker 3: like we talked about, and try to increase the five-
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  Speaker 3: and six-man pressures from a variety of different angles. Because
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  Speaker 3: they knew they weren't going to stop Jeremiah Smith. So
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  Speaker 3: if they could speed Julian Sane up like Texas was
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  Speaker 3: able to, I think they thought maybe that would give
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  Speaker 3: them a chance. But I think Sane, to his credit,
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  Speaker 3: just improving on his back shoulder throws, I thought he
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  Speaker 3: handled that a lot better. and did not allow himself
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  Speaker 3: to get sped up. And like, just frankly, like knew
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  Speaker 3: that he was going to get hit in several instances
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  Speaker 3: and like stay in the pocket and deliver like really
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  Speaker 3: tough throws. He did it like on a dig route
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  Speaker 3: to Devin McEwen and he does it here, right? Like he,
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  Speaker 3: he knows he's going to take a shot and he
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  Speaker 3: takes a shot. He doesn't let himself get sped up.
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  Speaker 3: Cause obviously like this is a fantastic, as you said,
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  Speaker 3: double move by Jeremiah Smith. And they know they have
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  Speaker 3: single coverage, but he like saying knows he needs to
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  Speaker 3: stay in there and deliver an accurate football. And so,
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  Speaker 3: you know, again, like I think Ohio state did a
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  Speaker 3: good job in this game too. We talked about in
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  Speaker 3: the past, like in terms of pass pro, like using
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  Speaker 3: more six and seven man protections as well in response
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  Speaker 3: to this, like increased pressure.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 3: Cause like the more pressure you're going to bring the
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  Speaker 3: more like, yes, you can use like zone, you know,
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  Speaker 3: zone pressure, sim pressures, like we've talked about, like, but
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  Speaker 3: you do have less defenders in coverage. And so like,
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  Speaker 3: there's more space for Jeremiah Smith. So the key really
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  Speaker 3: is to like, give the time for that to happen
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  Speaker 3: like you see here. And so you see this like
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  Speaker 3: full side protection, right? So everyone on the offensive line
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  Speaker 3: is blocking one gap to their left. Jacoby Jackson is
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  Speaker 3: responsible for anyone off the right. You know, Nate Roberts, again,
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  Speaker 3: loses the splits, which leads to Sane getting hit, but
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  Speaker 3: it gives enough time for this double move. And so,
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  Speaker 3: you know, I just think, again, it's like, yes, Jeremiah
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  Speaker 3: Smith was amazing in this game as.
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  Speaker 2: He always generally is.
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  Speaker 3: But like, I really do think like this was also
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  Speaker 3: probably the best game I've seen Julian saying play.
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  Speaker 2: Just in terms.
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  Speaker 3: I know people want to focus on like the scrambles
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  Speaker 3: and the run for a touchdown.
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  Speaker 2: And I agree.
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  Speaker 3: Those were nice plays, but I think for me, the
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  Speaker 3: biggest things were like the last two things I've shown,
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  Speaker 3: which is one hitting those low red zone throws into
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  Speaker 3: like staying in the pocket and not allowing yourself to
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  Speaker 3: get sped up by the pressure and threat of pressure.
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  Speaker 1: One thing that we have talked about a bunch over
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  Speaker 1: the years is Ohio State's willingness or sometimes not willingness, unwillingness.
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  Speaker 1: I forget what the version of that word is, but
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  Speaker 1: lack of willingness to take the easy answers. And sometimes
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  Speaker 1: there are easy answers there. And, you know, push the
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  Speaker 1: Jeremiah button is obviously generally an easy answer. But this
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  Speaker 1: is this next one's, I think, a really good example
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  Speaker 1: of that, where you've got Illinois playing coverage kind of
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  Speaker 1: off of Jeremiah, where you can't necessarily bump him at
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  Speaker 1: the line if you're worried about him running past you.
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  Speaker 1: But then if you play off, you can just sort
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  Speaker 1: of take the easy throw here and pick up. I
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  Speaker 1: think this was good for a first down.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: So these are like, again, I'm not going to be
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  Speaker 3: probably on the Jeremiah Smith highlight reel per se, but like,
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  Speaker 3: I think Arthur Smith, again, to your point is doing
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  Speaker 3: a better job of just like taking advantage of these
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  Speaker 3: that are in like second and third on passing downs
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  Speaker 3: where it's like, again, if you're going to get single high,
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  Speaker 3: because you're going to teams.
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  Speaker 2: Are increasing the pressure they're bringing.
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  Speaker 3: They have to provide Jeremiah Smith this off coverage. And
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  Speaker 3: so these are kind of like free, easy money to
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  Speaker 3: hit these boundary or cross the field, come back routes,
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  Speaker 3: out routes, what have you, where you just have this
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  Speaker 3: much space. And so I think this sort of, it
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  Speaker 3: again shows what Smith provides. It's not just the downfield threat.
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  Speaker 3: It opens up these free access throws. But again, you know,
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  Speaker 3: like you can see from this one, right? Again, like
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  Speaker 3: Illinois bringing a variety of pressure schemes, bringing six guys.
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  Speaker 3: This one, I think, you know, Justin Whitlatch is, I know,
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  Speaker 3: this week going to talk about pass protection and like
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  Speaker 3: Ohio State's offensive lines, continued inconsistencies, especially handling like stunts
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  Speaker 3: and movement up front.
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  Speaker 2: On the offensive line.
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  Speaker 3: I do think this one, like you can see from
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  Speaker 3: the end zone angle, is one of the better reps overall.
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  Speaker 3: I saw it handling these sort of games. So like,
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  Speaker 3: I think Kirsten Hinsman here, like he's patient. He keeps
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  Speaker 3: his head up. He doesn't like overcommit himself to picking up,
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  Speaker 3: you know, defensive line movement until like waiting for it
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  Speaker 3: to show. Cause you know, if the defensive line is
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  Speaker 3: going away, someone's probably showing. And so he does a
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  Speaker 3: good job picking this up, allowing for the throw. You know,
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  Speaker 3: I think Gabe Van Sickle, you know, as a younger player,
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  Speaker 3: he probably had a few instances in this game where
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  Speaker 3: he did get like over committed to the, to the
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  Speaker 3: stunt or initial movement. And so didn't pick up the
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  Speaker 3: guy coming to replace it. But so this, you know, I,
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  Speaker 3: I agree, you know, to, to pre-respond to Justin that
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  Speaker 3: I think that's an area that Ohio State needs to improve.
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  Speaker 3: And obviously he's more minimized when like saying, as I've said,
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  Speaker 3: is willing and able to sit in there and, you know,
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  Speaker 3: take the punishment for lack of a better word to
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  Speaker 3: like deliver, throws on time and like step into it.
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  Speaker 3: But I do think that there are, it's not all bad. Like,
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  Speaker 3: right there, there are, I think they are improving on it.
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  Speaker 3: It's just like an iterative process.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and there were several plays where saying really stood
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  Speaker 1: in and in some cases took some shots. This next one,
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  Speaker 1: he does not take a shot, but there's a lot
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  Speaker 1: of pressure coming in on him on, on this one.
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  Speaker 1: And this is another one where he stands in. Lyon
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  Speaker 1: seems like it gives him enough time and keeps him
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  Speaker 1: upright and lets him find Nate Roberts. I think this
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  Speaker 1: was a fourth down play to pick up a first down.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, one of the interesting things was sort of,
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  Speaker 3: I think, Nate Roberts increasing emergence as.
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  Speaker 2: A receiving threat.
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  Speaker 3: We've talked lots about the tight ends and blocking and
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  Speaker 3: the issues there. And that's not to minimize that. But
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  Speaker 3: I do think this sort of opens some things up
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  Speaker 3: in the passing game. And like, you know, what's interesting again,
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  Speaker 3: like we're seeing another six man here or five man,
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  Speaker 3: I should say cover one pressure from Illinois and on
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  Speaker 3: fourth and seven. So like a lot, especially like in
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  Speaker 3: critical downs, they were trying to do this. And this
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  Speaker 3: is why stick, which I'm not sure I can really
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  Speaker 3: remember a Ryan day team running. So I, you know,
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  Speaker 3: I do think that this is sort of an example
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  Speaker 3: of Arthur Smith bringing his own additions to the Ohio
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  Speaker 3: state playbook. And you know, why stick is just like
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  Speaker 3: sort of what it looks like you're, the tight ends
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  Speaker 3: running down, turning out right. First read, but it's, it's
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  Speaker 3: kind of a nice response because again, like, you know, yes,
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  Speaker 3: there is going to be a lot of focus on
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  Speaker 3: Jeremiah Smith and yes, they're doing a good job moving around,
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  Speaker 3: but here you can see like the, they're Illinois and
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  Speaker 3: cover one, but the safety is shaded over to the
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  Speaker 3: single receiver side. And so this is getting Nate Roberts
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  Speaker 3: on a safety and coverage. And so it's, it's looking
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  Speaker 3: for matchups in this situation. And as you said, you know,
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  Speaker 3: nice job by saying, sticking in there, you know, again,
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  Speaker 3: I think the offensive line does a pretty good job here. Uh,
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  Speaker 3: Carson has been again of sort of keeping his eyes
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  Speaker 3: up and looking for who's coming. But, um, I do
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  Speaker 3: think we're seeing again, like, you know, growth in the
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  Speaker 3: past game. Um, not just like, you know, in terms
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  Speaker 3: of both concepts, like, you know, we still see like
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  Speaker 3: a lot of the day staples, like why cross like
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  Speaker 3: the sale and smash concepts that we've seen for years
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  Speaker 3: and still see a lot of, but I do think
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  Speaker 3: there's like, some iterations off that, that Arthur Smith's bringing.
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  Speaker 1: Next up, something we've seen quite a bit over the
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  Speaker 1: last few years, RPO. And this is a nice, just,
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  Speaker 1: this is probably file this under easy answers. Like we
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  Speaker 1: talked about earlier where Julian saying pulls it and just
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  Speaker 1: hit Jeremiah Smith on the nice slant there.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I think the irony is Arthur Smith is an NFL
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  Speaker 3: guy has probably increased Ohio state's use of RPO as
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  Speaker 3: well above any point. that I can remember during the
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  Speaker 3: Ryan Day tenure, particularly like whenever Ohio State's in 11 personnel,
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  Speaker 3: we've talked a lot about 11 versus 12, you know,
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  Speaker 3: usually in 11, they're running some type of zone concept
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  Speaker 3: paired with an RPO. And, you know, these again are
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  Speaker 3: just like, especially if teams are in single high, like
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  Speaker 3: playing cover three, playing this off coverage, it's just a
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  Speaker 3: lot of easy yards. You know, and Sandbase is really
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  Speaker 3: good at this stuff, right? Like these glance routes, like,
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  Speaker 3: he's basically just looking, I circled, you know, the safety,
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  Speaker 3: like which side is the safety pre-snap leverage coming down?
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  Speaker 3: You know, if they stay in too high, he would
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  Speaker 3: hand it. If the safety's down, he's going to throw
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  Speaker 3: it to the opposite side. So earlier in the game,
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  Speaker 3: the safety was to the Jeremiah Smith side. He threw
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  Speaker 3: it to Chris Henry. And so here, you know, you
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  Speaker 3: see again, Henry and Smith paired together here, the safety's
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  Speaker 3: to the, to the weak side. And so, you know,
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  Speaker 3: he had Smith on this like dragging concept, which is
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  Speaker 3: just a slant flat two man route. So, You know, again,
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: it's pretty heartening for Ohio State fans that the offense
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: has really adapted quite a bit in four weeks from
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: what we saw the first week. From, you know, Smith
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: obviously bringing in his, what he's done in the NFL,
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: and now we're like, you know, there's been times where
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: people have wanted to see adaptation quicker, and it's happened
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: pretty quick to a, they become much more RPO heavy. Like,
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: so when they're in 11, it's almost all like, inside
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: zone rpos and then like we'll get to like 12
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: but it's much more like gap you know a little
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: bit of outside zone sprinkled in but it's gone you
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: know outside zone's gone from being like the focus against
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: ball state to like being a very small fraction of
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: what they're doing and so again when we talk about
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: the run game and like the explicitness of the run
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: game or lack thereof again like all these reliefs and
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: rpos need to be factored in like you know and
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: it's not just like from the gun right like we
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: uh on arthur smith we talked about preseason like when
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: he was in Pittsburgh last year with like use under
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: center reliefs, like, you know, Aaron Rogers would see like
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: off coverage and pull it and throw it outside. And
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: we saw that from saying on Saturday, like one of
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: his completions to Jeremiah Smith was he just aborted the
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: run play right away. Like took one step back, threw
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: it out to Smith and it turned into a 12
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: year gain. And so I think you're just seeing a
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: lot of pairing of these types of concepts. And again,
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: I think that plays to say in strengths.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Well, and again, mentioned things that Arthur Smith brought to
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: the Ohio state offense that we talked about. And we
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: were talking preseason about a look for more under center stuff. Well,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: this next one, they are under center and we're going
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: to switch, switch gears now from the past game to
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: the RPO, which is a little bit of both to
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: just the straight up run game. This is a nice
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: play to Bo Jackson, nice toss play to Bo Jackson.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: This feels like kind of a microcosm of Ohio state's
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: run game. You know, the good version of the run
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: game this season where it's a nice gain and They're solid.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: They kind of are consistent. It's good, but they're not explosive.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: And Justin Whitlatch, who is getting name-checked on this show
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: more often than Arthur Smith, he pointed out on, I
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: think on our board, if you watch Ryan Day's reaction
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: on the sideline, on the wide angle of this shot,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: you can tell Ryan Day thinks this should be a
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: bigger play than it is. It's a nice play, but
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: it's probably not as nice as Ryan Day was hoping
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: it was going to be. Yeah.
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: And so, you know, again, talking about this is outside zone.
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: but it's running it as a toss. And again, to
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: the design part of like trying to make sure it succeeds,
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: they use this fast motion from the tight end, which
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: you'll see like Illinois, how they adjust with their safeties
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: and they rock and roll them. So the guy that
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: was up goes back.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: That means long.
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: Story short, they don't have forced support to the boundary
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: right away. So I'm sure that was something, again, they
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: like picked up on film, which creates this opening. But again, yeah,
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: this is one that's well and I blocked up. You
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: can see Ryan Day's reaction. This is one that it
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: could have definitely been a much bigger gain from Bo Jackson,
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: except he gets tripped up, which continues to be an issue.
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: You know, the run game continues to not be particularly explosive. So,
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: you know, I think at this point, like we'll talk
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: a little bit more about Bo Jackson. I think Jacoby
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: Jackson's running really well. And, you know, it's providing like,
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: you know, I mean, you'd have to put him up
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: there as like one of the most, pleasant surprises in
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: terms of like probably what most people were expecting in
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: terms of portal additions or, or just in anyone from
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: the team, uh, what he's bringing.
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: And, and, you know, but I, you know, I think they're,
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: they are what they are, right?
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: Like the explosiveness is like, we've talked about post Texas,
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: like it's got to come from principally from Jeremiah Smith
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: and like things off of that. And the passing game,
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: like if you look at the advanced stats, it's certainly explosive. Um,
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: I think it's probably, you know, They're obviously going to
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: keep pushing for the run game to be explosive. It
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: may be too much to ask from these running backs,
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: but you can see from Ryan Day's reaction that he's
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: going to keep trying.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Dare to dream. We'll see if they can pull that off.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: But they did have success on the ground, and they
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: got outrushed by Illinois, and I think everyone looked at
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: that and thought they had a terrible game on the ground.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: And I don't know that they had a terrible game
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: on the ground, because they are finding success. Illinois is
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: obviously not a great defense, and as you mentioned earlier,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: they literally fired their defensive coordinator after this game. So
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: that's generally not a great sign for how you performed.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: But next up, we're going to see Bowe, and this
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: is just their running counter. Now, if I'm, I'm going
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: to put myself out here and you tell me if
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: I'm wrong, would this be a GH counter or G
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Y counter? What, what is that? Cause the guard goes first.
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: And so then, and then the other guy pulling is
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: a tight end. So what is, what is the proper
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: terminology here?
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah. GH counter. Uh, you know, you could also, there
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: you go. Exactly. You call it OH. Sometimes people like
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: to call it that, but yes. So yeah.
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: Guard pulling, uh, tight end following. I, I, you know,
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: I don't sure Arthur Smith yet this year has really
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: run much GT counter, which is the garden tackle. And
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: I think pretty much you continue to see them run
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: counter principally from 12 personnel. Notably, this is the bison
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: package with Jake cook, which they again used with some.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: Success on Saturday.
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: But again, like, as I was saying, like, I think
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: they have been just leaning increasingly into counter and power,
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: which are, you know, the two principal gap plays and, and,
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: continue to be more successful doing so.
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: And so, you know, this is it again.
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: And one nice thing about gap runs is like, we
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: talked about defensive line movement and stunting and that helps
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: with that. So you can see Illinois runs a stunt
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: here where their backside three technique basically follows Luke Montgomery pulling.
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: So the front side all slants down and he loops around,
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: but like with gap, you can just wash all those
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: guys down. You know, you get a nice kick out
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: and block and, You know, Bo, I will say, like,
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: you know, I've had my critiques of Bo Jackson. Others
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: have now as well. I do think, you know, he's
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: obviously not the most explosive, but, like, he does do
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: a good job, like, finding the hole and, like, turning
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: things into positive yards.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: Like, he gets you extra. And, in fact, Ryan Day
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: called this play out in his post-game press conference.
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: It's like, you know, the little things that's, like, not
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: just about explosive is it's like he doesn't let that, like,
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: the safety take him down. He, like, uses his hand
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: to stay up and turns. you know, a five yard
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: game into a nine yard game. So like that, that
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: stuff matters too. But as I said, this sort of just, again,
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: goes part and parcel with like the kind of evolution,
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: if you will, of the Ohio state run game, or
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: just like in, you know, 12 personnel, you're in a
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: lot of counter and then like play action. And then like,
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: as I said, an 11, a lot of RPO inside
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: zone combos.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah. you mentioned earlier how you are pretty high on
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: Jacoby Jackson and some of the stuff that he can
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: bring to this year's Ohio state team in the run game.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: This was kind of a fun twist on what Jacoby
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: Jackson can bring, where they line him up as sort
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: of like the fullback and they put Mason Williams in
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: at the tailback spot and then just run just this
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: little quick hitter. It feels like this feels like a play.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: I've watched Michigan run like 50 times over the last
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: 10 years or so. And, uh, you don't see it
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: from Ohio state all that often, but kind of a
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: fun little, uh, a fun little twist for Arthur Smith here. Yeah.
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: I think again, like, you know, we've, there's been a
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: lot of focus on short yardage and goal line situations,
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: not to give him a big head, but to name
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: check him again.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: When Justin and I are on a round.
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: Table last week, we, we discussed short yardage. And again,
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: I thought like credit where it's due, they continue to
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: like iterate, right. And try different things in short yardage.
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: So like they didn't put it on the tight ends,
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: blocking the C and D gap, like we talked about
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: in this game. So, you know, you saw like early on,
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: they use like, Jay Cook, they ran insert with him
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: as like the jumbo, like basically pushing forward. Obviously like
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: quite a few Julian Sands sneaks. What I liked about
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: what they did with that was it would just go
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: like up-tempo. And so like they didn't allow the defense
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: to like set and pinch in against the sneak. And
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: then this play, right, where you got, they kind of
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: hide Jacoby Jackson as the fullback and they run a
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: counter dive.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: I agree.
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: This is something you see like a lot from like
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: the Jim Harbaugh Michigan or like other NFL teams too.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: Like you're kind of just wedging everything.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: So like the offensive line is just kind of stepping
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: in and you're just trying to create a little crease.
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: And so, yeah, I mean, I think, you know, Jacoby Jackson,
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: this came off like a nice 15 yard run where
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: he carried, you know, several guys down to the one
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: and then got the touchdown. So, you know, I think
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: people again, like Ohio state fans should like feel pretty
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: good that like Arthur Smith is obviously identifying the issues
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: and like working to correct them on a week to
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: week basis. Obviously, they're going to get a bigger test
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: this week. Illinois was much more of an offensive first team,
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: as we talked about going into it. Pretty poor defense. Obviously,
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: their defensive coordinator just got fired. Iowa, obviously, has always
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: been known for their defense. You're going to get their
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: traditional run lots of split safety, cover six. I'm sure
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: they'll try their best to keep a safety over the
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: top of Jeremiah Smith at all times and count on
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: their defensive line to stop the run.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: It'll be an interesting... matchup for Ohio state.
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: And, you know, but I do think that the, you
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: have to feel like the Ohio state offense is in
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: a much better place now than it was after the
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: first couple of weeks, just based on like playing to
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: the strengths of their team. And obviously like riding Jeremiah
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: Smith is, you know, one of the greatest wide receivers
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: in college football history.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: All right, there you go. Nine plays from the Ohio
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: state offense, breaking down what they did that worked in
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: the air and on the ground. against the Illinois Fighting Illini.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: And good news, this is just the start of what
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: is going to be another banner week of scheme coverage
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: from your friends at BuckeyeInsiders.com. You may have heard his
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: name once or twice on this show. Justin Whitlatch, as
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: Ross said, will.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: Be back here.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: He will be here either tomorrow or Wednesday for a
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: show about pass protection, what the Buckeyes did with dealing
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: with stunts up front. We've got Michael Pettit. He is
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: our defensive scheme insider. He will have, I'm sure, plenty
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: to say probably will not be quite as upbeat as
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: this show, but we're going to be plenty to break
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: down on that show on what worked, what didn't for
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: Matt Patricia and the Ohio state defense.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: We'll probably have.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Ross on again later this week to talk about the defense.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: And then we will try and get another round table show.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: That was very popular last week, Ross and Justin answering
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: questions about the Ohio state offense. We'll try and get
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: at least some to most of that for you. And
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: if that isn't enough scheme coverage for you, well, the
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: best place to talk about it, watch it, learn more,
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: is at BuckeyeInsiders.com. You heard it earlier in the show.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Even I have learned from Ross and the rest of
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: our scheme insiders. If I can do it, everyone can
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: do it. You can become a smarter football fan too
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: at BuckeyeInsiders.com. Get access to our whole team of insiders
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: covering the Buckeyes, covering recruiting, covering X's and O's, covering basketball.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: We're going to be in Iowa City this weekend for
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: what should be a fascinating and probably not particularly high
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: scoring game between the Buckeyes and Hawkeyes. top 15 matchup.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: We will be there.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: I run that all for you at Buckeye insiders.com. And
• 27:16
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• 27:18
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• 27:21
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• 27:27
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• 27:30
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• 27:31
  Speaker 1: joining us.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.