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Ross Fulton Analysis: Was Ohio State Defense As Concerning As It Looked vs. Iowa? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Friday, October 9th. I'm
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  Speaker 1: your host, Tom, or the Maryland game in one day,
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  Speaker 1: the game against Michigan in 50 days. Today's episode presented
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  Speaker 1: by our friends at Jeff Ruby's Columbus, proudly offering nationally
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  Speaker 1: acclaimed USDA prime steaks, seafood and sushi, impeccable service, live entertainment,
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  Speaker 1: and an attention to detail that is simply unmatched. Just
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  Speaker 1: go to jeffruby.com slash Columbus to check out the menu
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  Speaker 1: and make a reservation today. All right, on today's show,
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  Speaker 1: we're going to be taking a look back at Ohio
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  Speaker 1: State's defense and against Iowa, some of the things that worked,
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  Speaker 1: some of the things that didn't. We talked to Michael
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  Speaker 1: Pettit earlier in the week, one of our scheme insiders. Today,
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  Speaker 1: we're bringing in Ross Fulton to talk about his views
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  Speaker 1: on some things, and then we're going to hit on
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  Speaker 1: some of the same things we talked about with Michael,
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  Speaker 1: probably get a little bit of a different view on things,
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  Speaker 1: and then we can talk about some new stuff as well. Ross,
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  Speaker 1: we're going to start against the run. The first concept
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  Speaker 1: we're going to be talking about is cover four, which
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  Speaker 1: obviously you think of cover four, and you think, okay,
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  Speaker 1: this is a passing defense concept. This is a run play, though.
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  Speaker 1: And this is a, the Ohio state sort of strings
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  Speaker 1: it out nicely and makes a nice play. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I think we've, we've talked quite a bit
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  Speaker 2: about like what hasn't worked, I think with the run
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  Speaker 2: defense and like, just to like, sort of set like
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  Speaker 2: first principles, right? Like a lot of this, obviously penny
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  Speaker 2: or odd front. And this is this like, even, even penny,
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  Speaker 2: if you will, they're in the penny five up, but
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  Speaker 2: they're like gapped over is, but the design is to, to,
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  Speaker 2: limit zone runs like this, right? Like I was very
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  Speaker 2: much like an outside zone, inside zone team. And, and
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  Speaker 2: you can see their effectiveness in doing that. Um, you know, they,
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  Speaker 2: you can basically get one-on-one blocks. You keep the second
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  Speaker 2: level guys free, you know, and the other thing I
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  Speaker 2: want to point out, like Mike talked about this, but again,
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  Speaker 2: it like, you know, in theory, if you look at this,
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  Speaker 2: it's like, it looks like it's like Ohio state's not
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  Speaker 2: gapped out, right? Like they have that backside, a gap
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  Speaker 2: not covered. Um, You know, again, I think, you know,
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  Speaker 2: Mike and I have talked about this, others. Like, I
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  Speaker 2: think they're using this sort of, like, lag technique where
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  Speaker 2: Mike diagram where, like, you know, when the offensive line
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  Speaker 2: is here, all zone stepping left, the defensive line is,
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  Speaker 2: as the term implies, lagging behind, right, to sort of
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  Speaker 2: control that backside gap. And they're basically trying to, like,
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  Speaker 2: string the football out. And then Earl Little from that
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  Speaker 2: cover four spot can come downhill. But, like, you know,
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  Speaker 2: whether it's cover four or the three high, like, You know,
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  Speaker 2: it's kind of these like light box theories and there's
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  Speaker 2: different ways to do it to sort of like get
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  Speaker 2: a gap and a half. And so you can play
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  Speaker 2: without having to have like everyone's single gapped out. And
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  Speaker 2: that's the concept, right? And so like, it's very good.
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  Speaker 2: The pennies or like odd fronts are very good against
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  Speaker 2: zone plays. And, you know, we'll turn here to like
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  Speaker 2: where they have issues, which we've seen this year is against,
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  Speaker 2: And Ryan Day talked about that on Tuesday. They're aware
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  Speaker 2: that the C-gap is where they're going to target the penny.
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  Speaker 2: And so I do think, and we can get into it,
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  Speaker 2: that's where we saw some improvements against Iowa.
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  Speaker 1: All right, this next one, I got to tell you,
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  Speaker 1: I saw the, you just sent the video over a
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  Speaker 1: little bit ago, and I looked at it, and I
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  Speaker 1: just saw the word Jack there. And I thought, all right,
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  Speaker 1: what year is it? Who is Ohio State's defensive coordinator?
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  Speaker 1: I feel like we've done this show before. Ross, am
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  Speaker 1: I having flashbacks? What's going on here?
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  Speaker 2: Just, you know, trying to be a little provocative there.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 2: And so, I mean, part, as I said, like part
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  Speaker 2: of why they did better, I think, you know, I
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  Speaker 2: wouldn't say it was like on, you know, they're more successful,
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  Speaker 2: still some issues against counter was because of like the
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  Speaker 2: play up front.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 2: Like, you know, whether it's in the play before this,
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  Speaker 2: like we saw Christian Allegro setting the edge, And Jason Moore,
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  Speaker 2: I thought Quay Russo did a much better job setting
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  Speaker 2: the edge, which we see here. And then like Edric Houston,
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  Speaker 2: you know, had his best game. I know Mike said
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  Speaker 2: the same. Certainly like controlling the B gap. But after
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  Speaker 2: a few counterplays, we saw this one be pulled out,
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  Speaker 2: which is the first time I've seen this from a
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  Speaker 2: Matt Patricia defense. This is literally... you know, the Jim
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  Speaker 2: Knowles Jack concept, which, you know, not the Knowles had
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  Speaker 2: invented it. I saw, you know, coach Vass on X
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  Speaker 2: in response to this play point out that, you know, he's,
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  Speaker 2: he's been around his coaches that have done this for
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  Speaker 2: a long time. Cause again, like, you know, they recognize
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  Speaker 2: that people want to attack them in the C gap.
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  Speaker 2: And so Iowa, who's not a gap team still ran
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  Speaker 2: quite a bit of counter against that because that's what
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  Speaker 2: you run against odd front teams. Like we see Ohio
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  Speaker 2: state do that when they're on offense, right. We've talked about.
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  Speaker 2: So you put Christian Allegro up over the center and
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  Speaker 2: he's basically just reading the block. So he's going to
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  Speaker 2: go opposite the center and basically loop around and follow
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  Speaker 2: the pullers. And so, you know, uh, Riley Pettijohn can
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  Speaker 2: play downhill here and take out like, right. So counter
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  Speaker 2: that they're going to try to kick out Quay Russo
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  Speaker 2: and then pull around and, uh, take out the play
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  Speaker 2: side linebacker who is Pettijohn. So Pettijohn can pick that
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  Speaker 2: guy off and then Allegro can come untouched. You're just
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  Speaker 2: getting a free hitter in the hole. And so, um,
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  Speaker 2: in some ways it's another way to like, we've talked
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  Speaker 2: about like build a bear concept. Like you're getting that
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  Speaker 2: bear look without, you know, having a three down lineman
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  Speaker 2: in those three gaps. Um, but it'll be interesting to
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  Speaker 2: see if they keep doing this. Like this seems like
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  Speaker 2: a targeted answer. Like, Hey, if teams, if you want
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  Speaker 2: to run gap plays, we're going to put Allegro there. Um,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I'd still would kind of like to see
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  Speaker 2: Allegro is that like penny middle linebacker, um, just in
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  Speaker 2: terms of the way he's able to scrape over the
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  Speaker 2: top here. And, you know, I continue to think he's
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  Speaker 2: been their most effective linebacker, but obviously they're going to
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  Speaker 2: move him around. And again, like, you know, a big
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  Speaker 2: difference was just up front with just the play, particularly
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  Speaker 2: of Rousaw and Edward Houston, like both having their best games. And,
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  Speaker 2: you know, here you can see like Rousaw taking on
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  Speaker 2: that lead block and denting it and, you know, forcing
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  Speaker 2: the football to move laterally enough. to give Allegro time
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  Speaker 2: to come over the top. So some of it just,
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  Speaker 2: you know, better run play out of the execution. But
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  Speaker 2: you can also see them doing things within the scheme
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  Speaker 2: to try to create favorable responses to, as I said,
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  Speaker 2: what they know teams are looking to attack against them.
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  Speaker 1: Well, one thing that team that I was looking to
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  Speaker 1: attack Ohio State with was picking guys off when they
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  Speaker 1: were in man coverage and Ohio State wasn't switching. That
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  Speaker 1: was something we talked to Mike Pettit about earlier in
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  Speaker 1: the week. You've got a whole different example here. Same
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  Speaker 1: basic concept that looked like same basic issue. I guess
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  Speaker 1: the good news is if you're having the same issue
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  Speaker 1: over and over again, you just have to fix the
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  Speaker 1: one thing and then it's easier. And then they did,
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  Speaker 1: it seems like, solve the issue later.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, there's, you know, I think it was
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  Speaker 2: like Iowa got like almost or around 40% of their
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  Speaker 2: pass yards off the three plays. So Mike showed two
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  Speaker 2: of them and here's the third one. You know, again,
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  Speaker 2: as Mike talked about, I would like to see them
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  Speaker 2: trade off or be able to trade off when I
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  Speaker 2: was like, when a team gets in these bunch sets.
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  Speaker 2: I will say even, you know, part of the response
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  Speaker 2: as Mike talked about, and we'll show here was just
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  Speaker 2: using more zone, particularly cover two. Part of it, they
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  Speaker 2: did try within cover one to do what's like cover
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  Speaker 2: one lurk. And so you can see here, like they're
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  Speaker 2: too high and the one safety rolls down.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 2: And so, The problem is I will actually kind of
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  Speaker 2: beat some here with, they have bunches to both sides.
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  Speaker 2: So they motion and they actually like have a stack
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  Speaker 2: in the sense of they've got the tight end and
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  Speaker 2: wing to the boundary and they have the twins to
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  Speaker 2: the field. And so Ohio state's kind of is using
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  Speaker 2: Earl little to cut the, or actually Jalen McLean to
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  Speaker 2: cut the cross here coming from the twin side. The
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  Speaker 2: problem is they get picked on the, on the tight
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  Speaker 2: ends to tight end side. And so, Again, I just
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  Speaker 2: think they need to like banjo this is kind of
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  Speaker 2: the term where you play, like take what the first
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  Speaker 2: guy inside takes the first inside route. The second guy
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  Speaker 2: outside takes a second route, but like shorter doing that,
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  Speaker 2: they're just going to have to keep mixing up coverages
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  Speaker 2: such that it's not as predictable because obviously Iowa seen
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  Speaker 2: the success Illinois had took a page from that. And
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  Speaker 2: like their game plan was obviously to use these bunch
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  Speaker 2: formations and set picks.
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  Speaker 1: So one of the solutions they switched to, you mentioned
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  Speaker 1: the zone and you mentioned cover two. That was something
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  Speaker 1: that seemed like that sort of addressed the direct issues.
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  Speaker 1: And obviously this is not something that solves every issue forever,
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  Speaker 1: but it seems like it really solved most of the
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  Speaker 1: issues they were having against Iowa last weekend. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And it's again, it's like Iowa again, sort of got
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  Speaker 2: in this trips bunch look and obviously we're expecting cover one.
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  Speaker 2: This was third down and you know, it's just like,
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  Speaker 2: you either have to mix up how you're playing cover
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  Speaker 2: one or mix up your zone and man coverages. I,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I think they can be effective using cover one,
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  Speaker 2: I think, but I just, like anything else, you can't
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  Speaker 2: do it so much that, that it becomes predictable and, uh,
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  Speaker 2: particularly in how you're running it. And so, you know,
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  Speaker 2: here they, they obviously made, uh, Iowa, uh, hesitate because,
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  Speaker 2: you know, they had this man beater concept and their
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  Speaker 2: cover two, and they trade these routes off. And that's,
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  Speaker 2: that allows Quay Rousseau, um, you know, to get home
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  Speaker 2: and for a critical sack here that sort of stopped
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  Speaker 2: the momentum Iowa was having at that time on offense.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you just talked about mixing up your coverages. You,
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  Speaker 1: of course, have to mix up your pressures as well.
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  Speaker 1: One of the things that they used to do that
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  Speaker 1: on Saturday was the fire zone look. That's another thing
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  Speaker 1: that I know we've talked about at some point in
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  Speaker 1: the past, but probably been a little while. So refresh
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  Speaker 1: everyone's memory on a fire zone. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: So, you know, Mike talks about like creepers or sim pressures, right,
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  Speaker 2: where you're bringing your you're showing pressure, but you're bringing four.
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  Speaker 2: And so you're dropping a defensive end. So fire zones
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  Speaker 2: when you're bringing five. We talked about how Iowa ran
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  Speaker 2: a lot of fire zone against Ohio State. And so
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  Speaker 2: you're playing a three deep three under is like your
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  Speaker 2: traditional fire zone. And there's obviously you can bring guys
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  Speaker 2: from different different. places. And so you're bringing two from
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  Speaker 2: the back end. And so here you're there, bring Allegro
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  Speaker 2: and Earl little through the same gap. And, you know, I,
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  Speaker 2: this would have probably been a sack had Earl little
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  Speaker 2: not gotten tripped up on the left tackles foot. But so,
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  Speaker 2: you know, forced Iowa into an incompletion. And so I
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  Speaker 2: do think they are, you know, compared to where they
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  Speaker 2: were against Texas, like certainly trying to increase the different
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  Speaker 2: types of pressure looks. And, you know, I've said, I,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I've been sort of a broken record. I
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  Speaker 2: think probably Mike has too, that like we'd like to
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  Speaker 2: see them use more of these zone pressure looks and
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  Speaker 2: not just use man. And so I think this is
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  Speaker 2: a positive sign on both the four and five man
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  Speaker 2: zone pressure schemes against Iowa.
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  Speaker 1: And it feels like on the offense show, it felt
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  Speaker 1: like you were sort of feeling relatively optimistic about some
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  Speaker 1: of the new stuff that they were working in, that
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  Speaker 1: they were sort of finding a direction and sort of
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  Speaker 1: figuring out what they were good at. And, and it, it,
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  Speaker 1: I mean, my sense here is, and you can, you
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  Speaker 1: can let me know if I'm wrong, but my sense
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  Speaker 1: here is it feels like Matt Patricia is sort of,
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  Speaker 1: he's obviously not running the same stuff he's doing. He
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  Speaker 1: did last year. Cause he's got a very different defense
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  Speaker 1: that he had last year. but it feels like he's
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  Speaker 1: maybe sort of starting to get stuff dialed in that's
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  Speaker 1: going to work this year as well.
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  Speaker 2: I think so. I mean, you know, it's, it's hard
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  Speaker 2: to see them searching, right. And like trying to figure
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  Speaker 2: it out and not just kind of sticking with what
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  Speaker 2: they were doing. Obviously Iowa is not going to be
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  Speaker 2: one of the better offenses they face. And so, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I think the, the, you know, it's pretty complex what
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  Speaker 2: they're trying to do up front and it puts a
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  Speaker 2: lot on those defensive linemen and to like execute that responsibility.
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  Speaker 2: And we, you know, I, you and I talked about
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  Speaker 2: like Kenyatta Jackson after Illinois basically said like people have
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  Speaker 2: to do their job. And at the time I was like,
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  Speaker 2: I don't know if that was the issue, but I
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  Speaker 2: think I kind of now understand it in context. Like
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  Speaker 2: if you're at defensive line, if you're not like holding
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  Speaker 2: that gap and a half and like freelancing, like that's
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  Speaker 2: going to create a big holes. And so I thought
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  Speaker 2: they certainly got better defensive line play. Like I was
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  Speaker 2: not a good running team, but they do have some
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  Speaker 2: good offensive linemen. Um, and so, you know, I think
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  Speaker 2: if they can continue to get that level of play
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  Speaker 2: from Houston and Rusal and others, and then, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I think sort of Allegra's they're, they're using him in
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  Speaker 2: different ways. I think that that puts them in a
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  Speaker 2: better position.
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