In a recent forum thread, several community members requested an analysis of how Ohio State transitioned from offensive ineptitude against the Hokies to dominate some of the best defensive coaches in the country along the way to a national championship. I spent a couple and watched the Buckeyes more closely against Nick Saban Alabama and Michigan State and former defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi. According to cfbstats.com, in 2014 opponents averaged 18.4 points against Alabama 21.5 against Michigan State. Ohio State scored and 42 and 49 points against the Tide and Spartans, respectively.
So, the million dollar question is what did Ohio State change that lead to this offensive success after Bud Foster's defense kept them in check? Did they make changes to personnel? Did Urban Meyer adjust his blocking schemes or passing game structure? After watching the Buckeyes dismantle the Spartans and the Crimson Tide, it became apparent that these powerful defenses often played to the Buckeyes' strength.
Defenses Allowed Ohio State to Play to Their Strengths
Most of the changes in the Buckeye offense were subtle. Urban Meyer continued to run his base plays like inside zone, power read, quarterback counter-trey, and power that I highlighted in last year's previews of the Buckeyes. I strongly recommend reading each prior to the game. However, Michigan State and Alabama didn't use Bud Foster's aggressive approach of loading the line of scrimmage to take away blocking angles. Alabama and Michigan State both featured eight men in the box, however both retained their basic defensive philosophy of using four down linemen against Ohio State's option-spread offense. The Hokies used five men on the line of scrimmage and worked aggressively to take away blocking angles and penetrate so the Buckeyes didn't have time to let plays develop. Often against Tech, the Ohio State backs and quarterback J.T. Barrett were dodging defenders before getting downhill. That disrupted the timing for blocks to develop and allowed other defenders to come up in support.
Michigan State and Alabama didn't copy the Hokies' model. Instead, the Tide and the Spartans defensive lines worked to eat blocks, while their linebackers and safeties read the play and flowed to the ball. This allowed Ohio State's runners to get downhill and wear down the defense. After only rushing for 108 yards against the Hokies, Ohio State rushed for 268 yards against the Spartans and 281 yards against a massive Alabama front. This play is a great example.
The Buckeyes have a second-and-goal from the five-yard-line. They call a quarterback sweep. Michigan State uses a four man front with man coverage. The edge defender for Michigan State is the left defensive end (Marcus Rush, No. 44 at the top of the screen). Unlike the Hokies Bear front, which featured an edge player well wide of the tackle, Rush is susceptible to a down block by the H-Back. The receiver slants hard to the inside, taking the corner with him. As result, the Spartans have no edge presence. The Buckeye tailback wipes out the safety with a great lead block and J.T. Barrett walks into the end zone.
Urban Meyer also made some subtle adjustments in his running game. The biggest change was obvious. Urban Meyer was impatient against the Hokies and never established Ezekiel Elliott as a running threat. Elliott only had 8 carries against the Hokies. Elliott had 23 against Alabama and 20 against Michigan State. Elliott's effectiveness inside opened up play-action for the athletic Buckeye receivers.
Meyer also started to zone some of the various option looks that the Buckeyes run, especially the inverted veer. Normally on an inverted veer, the offense pulls the offside guard to lead the quarterback while leaving a defensive end unblocked for an option read. The Hokies penetration completely wrecked the Buckeyes ability to pull a guard, so against Michigan State and Alabama Meyer abandoned pulling the guard on many of his inverted veer plays. Here is an example.
The Buckeyes run an inverted veer to the left side. Note, the Buckeye offensive line zone blocks to their left, with the left tackle abandoning the defensive end and moving up to the linebacker. The Tide defensive end takes the quarterback dive, allowing Elliott to get to the edge on the sweep. If you look closely, the Buckeyes have four blockers and the back against three defenders until late safety support arrives. Against Virginia Tech, the Hokies had so much penetration that often Elliott and J.T. Barrett were contending with defenders at the mesh point. Alabama and Michigan State rarely created much penetration.
Pulling linemen then became an effective change on counter plays. Counters were ineffective against the Hokies because the Buckeyes never established their base inside zone. The lack of penetration gave Meyer the time to pull guards and get extra bodies at the point of attack. Here is a subtle little counter that Elliott had a ton of success with down the stretch. The Buckeyes double team the one-technique to the bottom of the screen, and then pull the right tackle to trap the inside linebacker. Elliott bursts into the open.
The play works perfectly. However, I can't shake that this is more a result of Michigan State's defensive approach instead of an Ohio State adjustment. None of the three defensive linemen get any penetration. Kudos to the Buckeye offensive line for doing a good job up front, but the Spartan linebackers and safeties are not attacking the line of scrimmage. Once Elliott has the ball, the Spartans linebackers and safeties are three yards from the line of scrimmage.
More Precision in the Intermediate Passing Game
Against the Hokies, the Buckeyes passing game was essentially boom or bust. The Hokies used inside leverage to take away the quick slants and screens that the Buckeyes loved to use as intermediate routes, and quarterback pressure and some key drops stopped the Buckeyes from hurting the Hokies down field. Against Michigan State and Alabama, the Buckeyes didn't have impressive completion rates, however they were much more effective completing intermediate passes to keep drives alive than their deep ball or bust efforts against the Hokies.
A key element to that improvement was 6-3 WR Michael Thomas. I thought Thomas was the Buckeyes best receiver in the 2014 Spring Game, and I was surprised that Meyer didn't target him early against the Hokies. Thomas started receiving more targets after other Buckeye receivers dropped several catchable passes. Thomas rewarded Meyer with six catches, including a 53 yard catch and run on a slant against Brandon Facyson for a touchdown.
Thomas established himself as a dependable possession receiver for Barrett and third-string quarterback Cardale Jones throughout 2015. Thomas excels on quick slants. While he is big and strong, he uses his feet and quick shoulder movement to set up his route, as you will see below. The Alabama corner plays outside leverage. Thomas fakes a slant and up and then slants inside.
His movement freezes the Alabama corner without pushing off to get separation. This is a really nice football play. Cardale Jones is a thick quarterback who stands tall in the pocket and has a big arm. While Jones has some mechanical flaws that I will discuss down the road, his live arm is tailor-made for this type of throw. A shorter JT Barrett didn't always deliver these routes as accurately.
Thomas isn't just a possession guy. Against the Hokies, he beat outside leverage by Facyson on his touchdown. Against Michigan State, he took a slant route for a touchdown. The difference between this and the Facyson touchdown is that the Michigan State corner is playing inside leverage!
Thomas doesn't push off. Instead, he fakes outside and the Spartan corner bites. Thomas turns back to the inside. Because the Spartan corner is supposed to be playing inside leverage, he should force Thomas outside and up field where the sideline serves as an extra defender. This makes any throw a lower percentage throw. Instead, Thomas beats him inside, and the corner has no safety help. Thomas sets up the play beautifully. As I noted in my last column, against the passing game structure of Ohio State, it is absolutely critical that the Hokies field corners that play inside leverage and don't allow their technique to break down. Otherwise, Thomas and the Buckeyes could make some big plays early in the passing game, and that will force Foster to play more two deep safety coverage, which gives Ohio State more room to run the football.
The Buckeyes scored 59, 42 and 42 points as the Buckeyes demolished Wisconsin, Alabama, and Oregon on their way to win the initial Playoff National Championship. They return many stars, including Ezekiel Elliott, a three headed monster of talented quarterbacks and likely top-three NFL Draft pick DE Joey Bosa. At the same time, I come into this game very confident. Those opponents used a very passive strategy to stop the Buckeye running game, and the Hokies have a perfect formula of twitchy, explosive defensive linemen that can get in the gaps and disrupt the mesh point. The Buckeye passing game has receivers that can generate big plays, however the Hokie corners play techniques that disrupt most of the easy throws in the Ohio State offense. The Hokies have the defensive formula to give the Buckeyes problems. Early, look for Ohio State to feed Elliott and loosen up the Hokie defense. If he can get going, and Thomas can beat inside coverage technique, it will be a much tougher challenge for Bud Foster and his defense.
Comments
Great write up. I appreciate the time and effort to dissect these other games, and I enjoyed reading the summary of how we stack up. Hopefully Bud can throw a few wrinkles in his scheme, our men in the trenches come hungry, and the studs on the outside keep leverage. It's going to be a great game, a great chess match.
So you're telling me there's a chance?
As crazy as it sounds, I feel better about VT vs TOSU than I do about the Pitt game. TOSU is still a favorite, however I think the Hokies matchup really well, especially if Motuapuaka and Reavis play well.
Offense is the crap shoot. VT's passing game is well situated to take advantage of the style of coverage Ohio State plays. However, they will need to generate much more in the running game. Normally, you don't win when you don't run the ball a lick.
As always, you deliver. Thank you French!
Feeling even better about this match-up now.
Merci, French. These posts really help my football IQ
Nice write-up. I agree that VT needs to establish early disruption to what OSU wants to do. If Lane can get into a frenzy early, advantage VT. Nebraska and LSU said Lane was loudest they'd ever played in. Hoping to show OSU the same!
I think Urban may have changed quarterbacks...
When he sees Bud and Dadi, he'll be changing his shorts.
to his brown shorts....
without having to actually change shorts....
.
Looks like a big difference in those early clips was the fact that those defenses had safety support coming in late. VT had safeties lined up in the gaps at the line of scrimmage.
And, VT's linebackers were fitting immediately/ shooting gaps at the snap rather than flowing. Michigan State was less aggressive than the 2013 Big Ten championship game and they paid for it. Oregon was the worst offender, often only playing 5 defenders in the box. Elliott, not surprisingly, went crazy.
I feel like this is a dumb question, but why would MSU be so passive after giving a good blueprint on how to stop OSU from 2013? Bama I assume just thought they could do it their way and didn't adjust to what Foster did, but MSU is kind of a mystery to me.
THIS. Who knows why MSU didn't follow THEIR OWN BLUEPRINT
"Urban Meyer was impatient against the Hokies and never established Ezekiel Elliott as a running threat." That is the damn truth. I hate to sound like I'm calling the loss sour grapes but I think if we hadn't lost to the Hokies we wouldn't have made those necessary improvements and would have lost later in the season to Penn State, Michigan State, or Minnesota. But on the other hand when I think about the VT game, Elliott's lack of touches is what I regret most about the loss. If VT wins again this year you can bet it won't be for that reason.
Yeah, it will be for other reasons.
It will be because we score more points.
I'm very interested in seeing how our offense matches up with their defense. Any insights?
I will be talking about that closer to game time. The rest of my pre-camp articles are going to be about VT, not their opponents.
I never did have one of those damn golden spoons...
My Dude! Thanks for responding and doing this!
French, how do you feel about the threat of QB runs? With our DBs running downfield with backs to the LOS, along with OSU's proven, excellent QB depth (and no fear of injury concerns), if I were UM I would have QBs taking off left and right.
Is a spy in the mix for us?
That's essentially what we did with Williams last year. Rush the ends hard, with Williams coming up to make sure there aren't any interior gaps for the QB to slip through. I'd expect to see something similar this time.
I think Bud lives and dies with the same concepts. The only time I can ever recall Bud using a true spy all game long was Exum vs Dwayne Allen in the ACC title game. I think he wants to get in all the gaps and give the QB nowhere to go. Sometimes they will break a big run, but (as happened last year) the TFLs and turnovers will outweigh the occasional big QB run.
So in a little less than 1600 words, you basically just said that Bud Foster is a better DC than Kirby 'Smart' or Pat Narduzzi. Tell me something I don't know.
EDIT: forgot the sarcastica tag
So, I will bite and defend Smart and Narduzzi. Personnel impacts gameplans, and as Nicholas Jervey from 11W noted on twitter this morning, both Michigan State and Alabama had issues in the secondary all season.
Also, Foster didn't change his scheme as much as he changed alignment to mess up blocking angles. The Hokies are accustomed to playing cover 4 and cover 0. Up front, the "stand up ends" (one DE and the backer) were designated "edge players" and they still executed force and spill calls with the alley players. The interior linemen still had gap fit responsibilities, with the mike attacking any bubbles. Little changed except for the alignment.
Narduzzi and Smart ran their defense instead of re-inventing their wheel. Narduzzi's scheme is more similar to VT, however they do not play their strong safety as close to the line of scrimmage like VT does on most snaps. Bama uses Saban's scheme, for better or worse, and it is a scheme that has produced Super Bowls under Bill Parcells and Bill Bellichek. They run 3-4 in base, and then move their weak-side OLB up as a defensive end in nickel against spreads. Their DL occupy two gaps and let linebackers flow to the football. They don't change- they adjust, and they didn't adjust quick enough to stop the Buckeyes.
Oregon gift wrapped the game for the Buckeyes. They played 5 man fronts (3 DL, 2 LBs) often in the National Title Game. The Buckeyes kept giving it to Elliott and the Ducks didn't adjust.
Also, the Bama D beat this same offense when they faced Florida in the SEC championship game a few years ago, so it's not like the scheme is broken against this type of O - it, for whatever reason, came apart.
Bama had an extremely good secondary in 2009. Both corners (Kareem Jackson, Javier Arenas) ended up playing in the NFL. Last year's crew was substantially worse.
amazing analysis--this is the reason why i joined TKP and keep coming back. thankyouthankyouthankyou!
FTFY
There is also a good read from AL.com. Kirby Smart says Alabama 'did not respect' Ohio State quarterbacks
Great transparency there by Smart. Not many coordinators or coaches provide that much honesty.
Urban gave us much credit after their loss to us.
Great write up as always, French.
A couple of things. I really felt like Bama was forced into a more passive approach by their personnel in the back 7. Their safeties and Eddie Jackson (who has since been moved to safety) really struggled in man coverage against better receivers on the year and therefore they were forced to take their safeties out of the box and help cover. Also, Bama's linebackers were simply not fast enough to track Elliot down- even on the play you show #33 Trey Depriest is (intentionally, I believe) left unblocked and he doesn't even come close to making the play. #30 Duvall gives himself a chance to recover but can't. For all of the talk about how well Alabama recruits, it seemed like a bad matchup for them given their defense's limitations.
Also, it felt to me like MSU's linebackers did not play very well. They seemed lost and to be guessing where the play was going rather than reading the play and filling the gap. It looked like MSU had a ton of mental errors to go with their passive scheme- simple technique things like #44 Marcus Rush taking on blocks with his outside shoulder and allowing the QB to get outside of him. #2 Darian Hicks played so poorly that he ended up getting demoted for the last 3 games of the year. They were very good for most of the year, so this was surprising to me. Thoughts on what happened?
Edit: I see you already addressed most of this by the time I got this posted. Good stuff.
One comment/observation/question....with VT D applying pressure it should make the dbs job a little easier. Knowing that the pass rush should get there quickly it almost eliminates the threat of double move routes and routes that take longer to develop. Don't let the slant beat you!
If OSU has a qb that can consistently throw that 7-10 yd out route then let em do it....I don't think they have that kind of qb accuracy.
I hope we stay healthy in camp and go into this game 100%.
Really great write up.
In all honesty I look at last year as a blowout for my beloved Buckeyes. You guys dominated both sides of the ball. That being said I am really looking forward to the rematch, most of our guys (O-Line, QB, and key defensive personnel) were starting just their second game. It was fun to watch them grow as the year went on and I believe that by the end of the year it was a completely different team than the one that played in Week 2.
Although, I know you guys were hit with the injury bug pretty hard as well and that played into a huge account for the remainder of your season.
This will be one helluva game and I won't breathe easy until it's over.
Welcome to the site! Hope you stick around for a bit. It's always interesting to get the other side's take on things.
Thank you! I absolutely will hang around, a few of the guys from here made a entrance to my favorite OSU website (Elevenwarriors.com) and left a great impression about The Key Play. So far so good!
Welcome from me as well. I think one thing we can count on, all of us, is that both teams will probably be better than the teams that met last year. Beyond that, man, it's the intangibles that I think will be the difference. Do not discount the advantage that Lane can be. It doesn't always translate, but it can really be an asset. If you attend the game, you'll see what I mean. Our fans really think they're playing the game, and when the voltage amps up, it is a palpable advantage. I expect a slugfest, a dogfight, a donneybrook! I figure anyone who isn't sore the next day, fan or player, didn't watch/attend the game. Can't wait.
I may attend, I live in NOVA so it's not much of a drive but the prices are way too up in the clouds right now. As it gets close I definitely plan on keeping an eye out for a ticket steal. I have no doubt Lane will be rocking that night, especially if you guys come out strong. The best thing we can do is come out score and get a stop to hopefully quiet down the crowd a bit. Definitely don't want to see another OSU vs PSU type game, my blood pressure won't be able to handle it :)
I hope you are able to attend. Don't want too many of you there, mind you. I will brag on the Hokie fans of my experience. Falling behind doesn't dim the ardor. It ramps it up. We don't quit at the half, and it would be a rare game indeed to see significant bailage even if we're losing in the 4th, so I wouldn't count on quieting the faithful. I think if you have blood pressure issues, maybe you'd best stay home. But then again, if you live in NOVA and have to drive a car, maybe you're in pretty good training for the game.
"But then again, if you live in NOVA and have to drive a car, maybe you're in pretty good training for the game."
You're not joking. Should be awesome to attend then, I always love visiting new stadiums, especially the loud ones. There is nothing better than passionate College football fans, saying that there is also nothing worse! Lol
A trip for a night game in Lane Stadium is definitely worth the experience even if you're not a fan of the teams. Speaking from my experience in the Shoe last year, the overall volume of the crowd in Lane Stadium was higher for longer periods of time (could be in part to the stunning direction of the game) but IMO, buckeye fans are more "cheer when something happens" than loud all the time. I'm no sound-engineer but some of this could be due to stadium design or even my perspective seat position. I will say though that the Shoe was a colossal structure and I was impressed and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, as well as the outcome.
The Shoe's problem is how the seats are sold to the highest bidder. Varsity O club members that have been there for 20 years take place of the young wild fans that will make some noise. That is my biggest problem with the Shoe, it's as if I'm watching a tennis match. I feel like I can't stand or act crazy because of the 90 year olds sitting behind me. It is what it is though
As was our case the whole night. Everytime a big play happened, I'd stand up and scream for 5 seconds, then promptly return to my somber nervous fetal position for fear of angering those around me.
Same here, until Riley's Pick 6... I lost all control of my arms. I was waiting for the ice to rain down, but then remembered that OSU fans have 30x the class of WVU.
this isn't fair to OSU fans at all...30X a negative number is just a really really negative number. OSU fans have the absolute value of 30X the class of WVU fans...that's much better.
Well, I understand your problem. When I first got in with a group that bought season tickets, we were the rowdiest bunch in our area. There were, indeed, some complaints, and several defections as folks who were there to knit or read a book moved away. Eventually, it seemed that folks like us, totally invested and yelling the whole game long, except, of course, when we were lined up offensively, well, we seemed to be in the norm. I think the thing is, it is a live sporting event, and when we learned to quit the occasional expletives and tone down the absurdly loud whistles (I still apologize to those in front of me for hurting their eardrums, I have a world class two finger whistle), Lane as a whole settled in to a knowledgeable uproar when there was a good game afoot. Yeah, when we were way ahead of a "lesser opponent", we would lapse, but standing up and acting crazy is damn near required when the game heats up. I'm not saying folks don't wish people in front of them would sit down sometimes, or even that someone may still ask folks to be seated, but it's been a long time since that was the prevailing sentiment. C'mon down, scalp a ducat and stand up and act crazy. It'll make the sad drive home almost worth it.
Only way I'm going home sad is if the traffic is turrble (my best Charles Barkley voice) Bucks are taking this one :)
Well, I-81 can be a nightmare after a game, but I'm hoping the traffic will be the least of your disappointments that evening.
Then do what I do and be the low bidder. If you sit in the last row (5Q is way up there), there's nobody behind you to complain about you being on your feet. Plus, having the wall to lean on is helpful if you had too good a tailgate.
5Q has two very strong memories for me from college. First, no matter where our seats were, all my friends would make their way up to 5Qx50 yard line. No one cared because everyone who was supposed to sit up there was trying to do the same, only for better seats. Second was running stadiums section by section in Lane. You after a couple sections you want to die and you just stare straight down at the numbers for fear that if you look up to see how much you have left, you'll a) be incredibly depressed and b) you might lean too far back and fall down the stairs. Once you got to 5Q, you were rewarded with a horizontal between sections and a great view of the mountains at sunrise (pre-west stands expansion)
I really really wouldn't say we dominated on offense. We came up big on some 3rd downs. Domination means you don't need a third down.
I completely agree. We came out strong, but managed only 1 drive of 20 yards or more the entire 2nd and 3rd quarters combined. Brewer had 3 turnovers, and the OL was average at best
Yep. We were not an explosive offense at all, and if you go back and watch, the running game was really held in check. We essentially played keep-away on offense, and Brewer was absolute MONEY on 3rd downs. A lot of short out routes working to the sidelines, and a lot of misdirection as well. We did a great job of playing ball control and finishing drives in the clutch, but I wouldn't characterize it as offensive dominance at all. Lefty had a great game plan for that game, and it worked well in conjunction with our defense's stellar performance. I expect to see a much better offensive product from us on September 7th.
So what you're saying is "we played the field position game, sustained drives to control the clock and played stout defense....that strategy will really git after ya".
...which translates to "We played Virginia Tech football."
Was going to add a quote name for Beamer but figured that would be redundant.
Should've added a *SNIFF* for good measure.
Except the noticeable lack of our classic strong running game. Our o-line was our biggest weakness last year, and Lefty compensated for that with a lot of west coast-style passing and 4-5 WR formations. I give Brewer a ton of credit in that game, as well as great performances from the TEs and Rogers. I don't think we would've seen that approach pre-Lefty.
French, I think you are missing the most important piece of their success in those 3 games down the stretch and what worries me the most about playing tOSU and that's Cardale Jones rocket arm.
In your game write up on how to Beat tOSU last season, you said JT Barrett struggled throwing the deep ball and inorder to beat tOSU we needed to take away the middle routes and force them to go deep, which is exactly what we did.
Cardale has a cannon arm and can throw an accurate deep ball. Non of us know which QB is going to start for tOSU, but if it's Cardale, I think we are going to struggle more with the deep ball.
Hokie DBs were tested quite a bit with deep balls against OSU last year, and the only time they really struggled was when they got called for PI when the ball was underthrown. Since that likely won't be an issue with Jones, I feel pretty good about that, so long as everyone on the back end stays healthy and no one slips/blows a coverage.
I know nothing for sure, but I seriously doubt that Cardale Jones will trot out onto the field to start the game. I do believe he will play - at least a series/qtr. But I think JT Barrett will be the starting/main QB and you will see Braxton Miller in a slot/H-Back/RB/WR/situational-Wildcat QB role. The reason I say that is, setting the VT game aside, the Urban Meyer offense has never been run better from an efficiency standpoint than JT ran it last year. Consider this: JT broke the all-time B1G TD record held by a guy named Drew Brees. OSU punted less and scored more than they ever had. JT has the ability to use the entire playbook, and therefore get the ball to all of the weapons they have at the skill positions - which I believe will include Braxton Miller. It's just common sense - choosing to have JT on the sidelines wearing a baseball cap and holding a clipboard is equivalent to wanting to be less efficient, punt more, kick more FG's, and score less. Which is probably exactly what will happen. :)
Great perspective. Really enjoyed that.
I will only add one thing that's missing that probably explains the 8 carries by Ezekiel Elliott: he broke his wrist a couple of weeks prior. I read an article the other day where his dad said that he couldn't stiffarm with his left hand, couldn't carry the ball with his left arm, was limited in his blocking, and every time he fell on it, the pain was so bad he wasn't sure he could play. By the time the post-season came around, he was as healthy as he had been all year. Certainly, they were babying him in Sept, but rode him in Dec and Jan.
I think Alabama's depth issues at LB really hurt them. You wouldn't think Bama would have depth problems anywhere with the way they recruit, but LB is a position where experience and smarts really help, and because of attrition, they had some really young players in there against Ohio State. Plus S Landon Collins was out there playing with only one good shoulder.
Sparty was going to do what they do: press coverage and using 4 down lineman and safeties to clog - and they beat OSU the year before with that strategy. I think if that defense (or the Bear 0 that Foster ran) has success, you are putting the opponent behind the sticks, and then teeing off on them, and that success feeds confidence to keep turning up the pressure. However, if you are getting burned by WR's and Elliot is gashing you, doubt creeps in, you become more hesitant, and that defense unravels. VT was able to execute defensively while MSU, Alabama, and Oregon were not. I don't think it is any more complicated than that. Every defense gives you something to exploit, and if you can't exploit it, it's going to be a long night. Ohio State obviously wasn't able to deal with that particular defense in game 2 last year. They were able to exploit other quality defenses later. What does that say about their ability to exploit whatever Foster throws out there this year? Probably nothing, but given where they ended, from this end, you hope the OSU offense has a better handle on what they need to do.
Didn't know Elliott was playing hurt last year - good bit of info. He was an animal by the end of the season.
Sounds like OSU faithful are actually voicing their apprehension a little more now. They still believe they will win but it will be closer than expected, which is about on par with the typical hokie fan. Also, a couple cracks at KeyPlay blaming our entire season derailment on injuries. It sounds like more 11warriors' bloggers read our site than I originally imagined.
http://www.elevenwarriors.com/skull-sessions/2015/07/55605/tuesday-skull-session
Read that this morning. Can't see any upside to not respecting a quality opponent. I'm more from the Lou Holtz camp: "That's one of the best teams I've ever seen. We really have no business being on the same field with them. I just hope we don't get killed." :)
Or as Frank Beamer would say: "They're a quality opponent. They'll get after ya."
FTFY
11Warriors is my go to site and trust me when I say that most of the people there are not homers and believe this will be a good game. It's just the assholes that always standout.
I fully agree based on my small sample size of perusing. And I have to say, I've never seen another two fan bases so involved in each others' fan websites as us and you guys. Its exciting to say the least, especially given the friendly nature of the exchanges all around.
It's easy when both websites produce such great information about the game rather than just trash talking the opposing team.
Posted this to one of your other Buckeye brethren, but applicable here, too:
Welcome! Glad to have you.
Thank you!
I'm still a little confused as to how the whole "We were preparing for Navy" thing became a talking point. Like I've said before, we have a good track record after GT games, we don't have a particularly unique offense, and several defenses shut us down without the benefit of an entire offseason to prepare, so...
It's an easy excuse for anOSU fans who don't think they really got beat, they just lost.
And we had 324 yards of offense. Its not like our offense did much in that game. About 3 good drives and a shit show the rest of the day.
I would never use that as an excuse, as I stated above you guys blew us out on both sides of the ball. I do see how it came to fruition though, only from a defensive side of the ball aspect. We prepared for Navy's Wing-T blah blah blah you know the spiel. That still doesn't explain our repulsive Offensive performance. There were multiple games this year where 24 points or more were scored on our defense and we still won. In this day and age you won't win too many football games if you don't score over 21 points. That is the way I look at last years game.
Herman had an injured RB and he didn't trust Curtis Samuel, Brionte Dunn, Rod Smith, Warren Ball, etc. He also didn't trust his QB. JT wasn't exactly lights out against Navy. He also didn't trust his OL. He also didn't trust his WR corps. As it turns out, his distrust was well-placed. On the defensive side, we all were neurotic about the pass defense, felt good about the DL, but the LB corps was a concern - especially Curtis Grant - and all those concerns were justified by VT's performance.
2014 Ohio State should remind CFB fans that teams have a potential, and many of them, especially young teams, have to grow into that potential. Taking VT out of it, the team that played Navy resembles the team that played Wisconsin, Bama, and Oregon only in the sense that they wore a scarlet and gray color scheme.
Admittedly I thought Curtis Samuel was the better back and wanted him in to be the starter all the way until Wisconsin.
Illuminating as always, French! I always feel smarter after your articles.
They stopped ordering Papa Johns for Urban Meyer's post game meal
French missed his calling, at least so far. He really should be a coach. He's still young though.
Said it before, saying it again. There is no statistical evidence to suggest OSU suddenly got way better down the stretch than they were when they faced us. And now the Anointed One has shown that they really did very little different the rest of the season than the game they tried to play against us.
We're a matchup problem for the Buckeyes.
Don't let Buckeye fans hear you say that. I do get a kick out of watching Bama and Oregon play such passive fronts and get decimated while Bucks fans insist that the same will happen to an entirely different VT defense. But hey, we'll see what happens in 2 months.
Yea they were talking about this review over on 11W and some were upset because they didn't think it gave them enough credit. I kept my mouth shut, but that's basically French's point. OSU made some adjustments but really they just executed better. Bama and Oregon playing passive only helped that.
Two whole months.....(sigh)
Not arguing with you, but let me throw this in just to see if it gives a little more context.
Bud Foster watched the Ohio State offense operate against Navy - a team that was out-sized and talented almost everywhere. This is the only tape he would have had to see how JT Barrett would run that offense. There was nothing on that tape that would have scared him. It would be logical for him to say, we can stop that run game and make this kid beat us - and he won't be able to. Check and check. He was able to do what the film said he would be able to do.
Everyone respects Pat Narduzzi's defense at Sparty. Kirby Smart no doubt looked at that film, and had some concerns. Similar to Foster though, he couldn't be too sure how the offense would change with Jones, but he had that rout of Wisconsin to look at. Fear of an offense's capability makes DC's a little less aggressive. The bottom line is you want to stop the opponent from scoring, so you might play to potentially give up 10 yards so that you mitigate the risk of an explosive play. Ohio State lived on explosive plays the last 10 games, so it was logical for Smart to want to limit those. Many of those explosive plays came against aggressive defensive schemes. Smart had a different set of data to look at than Foster. Both took what they had in front of them and developed a defensive game plan around what they knew and saw.
By the time they played Oregon, that DC had plenty of concerns/fears. He didn't have the front 7 to be constantly aggressive, and the data told him to not do it except in certain situations. You saw them crowd the box and do run blitzes on 3rd and short, but they were afraid to bring their safeties up and blitz on passing downs.
This year Foster has a lot more data to work with, and he can work on schemes specifically for Barrett and Jones. If Miller is the QB, there is only one strategy: contain him running/scrambling and pressure him passing. But he also has reason to play to limit explosive plays, and so he will mix it more, and disguise more whether he is being aggressive or protective.
My overall point is that how a team looks on offense on film, and how threatening they are, determines how DC's game plan. This year BF has a different set of data, and so his plan will be different, but could be just as successful. The Ohio State offense will have something to say about it depending on how well they execute.
I just don't see that saying that Ohio State got better from that VT game on is mitigating the value of the VT win. The Hokies won that by being the better team, by beating up the Ohio State offense, and by getting some timely plays from their offense. Ohio State was clearly a way, way better team in Dec and Jan than they were in Sept. It wasn't a scheme change as much as it was better execution.
But I believe the biggest change had nothing to do with things going on in the coaching offices or the lockerroom. Their last 2 reg season games showed a team that wasn't very good on defense, and could improve on offense and special teams. Tevin Coleman of Indiana ran all over them and OSU found themselves in a dogfight with the lowly Hoosiers. Then, a struggling scUM team gave them a game for 3 qtrs. But the week of the scUM game one of their teammates crawled into a dumpster and shot himself in the head. They had a funeral to attend the Wed of that week. Then during the game their QB broke his ankle. I think those adversities combined made that team draw closer, and I think that unity was the force that allowed them to take it to a higher level. It sounds hokey, but teams that are genuinely close are better for it, and I think that is why they got on a roll at just the right time.
But again, that has no negative implications on VT's win last year, and since this is a brand new team, no one knows how much it will carry over this year.
Fair points but with all due respect I don't think most of it applies to Bud. The extra film will certainly provide new areas of concern as well as new things they have to spend time coaching the kids about, but for better or worse he only knows one speed. His defenses very rarely sit back, regardless of the talent they're facing. At times that burns us against the superior talent, and at times that has kept us in games we probably had no business being in. He's got a unique mix of talent this year to be very dangerous with the disruptive d-line and DB's who should be able to hold their own on an island.
I don't think anyone here is delusional enough to think that on raw talent we're equal to or superior to Ohio State's roster (in my opinion it's not even close). But as French has pointed out a few times, stylistically we match-up very well on the defensive side of the ball. It should be a helluva game.
Edit: Also, I am of the opinion that Ohio State got drastically better through the year for a lot of the reasons you mentioned.
I agree with your overall point that DCs were scared of OSU's big-play capabilities late in the year, but not because they had more film. Oregon and Bama had major concerns at corner (Oregon because of injured DBS, Bama I believe because of injury/suspension/mediocre corners) meaning they had to give them safety help. Had Foster knownJones was going to start against him and had a bunch of film on OSU's offense, I don't think it would have changed much. The QB wasn't the issue on deep balls against VT. The ball got there just fine and in fact Barrett had some pretty excellent throws. However, Foster trusted his DBs to beat OSU's receivers and for nearly the entire night they did.
Yes, OSU got better as the season went along. What French has pointed out is that it wasn't because they made drastic changes, they simply executed better. That, coupled with the fact that they never again saw corners as good as VT's, made their offense run at a 40+ point clip down the stretch.
*Edited because typing on an iPad = lots of typos
KB and Tech,
Yeah, I really have no problem with any of that. I agree with it.
It's about match ups and I think VT matches up well with their defense vs. Ohio State's offense. It all starts with stopping QB and RB rush. If you can limit that part of what OSU does, you can deal with their passing game much easier. If it's 3rd and 5, the pass coverage has to hold up. You do those things, and you go a long way toward beating the Bucks. I've seen it done 3 times that way in the past 3 years.
Everyone has talent. The difference between a 3 and a 5 star guy is often an inch of ht. and 15 lbs, plus a bunch a people's opinions about how they project from HS to college. I think the advantage the schools who are always in the top 10 in recruiting have is quality depth - which comes into play later in the season. On Sep 7 both teams should have most of their 1's healthy, so even if Ohio State has a talent advantage, I don't think the margin will be wide enough to be a decisive factor. It'll come down to players making plays - and the VT players sure made enough last year - and theoretically, there was a talent advantage for OSU then too. That's the beautiful thing about football - that the quality of individual and unit play is usually the deciding factor (taking away turnovers and freakish events).
I agree with what you said, especially the execution part. I'd add as the season progressed and players began executing the coaches had more confidence in giving them the ball so it becomes a cycle of improving performance. The good news for us is that we have a lot of players whom the coaches are much more confident in their ability to make plays than they were this time last year. As a result, I think you'll see us test you a lot more with more variety of plays than last year. The bad news is you have a real good secondary which will make things tough for us. Given we are a power run team first and foremost that is not as much of a limitation as we can use the run to force Foster to make adjustments that give us passing opportunities. With Elliot at RB and Samuel as an H Back and someone at QB we have a pretty good mix of running threats to guard against. If our ground game is successful you'll probably see a 70/30 split of plays with just enough passing to keep your D honest.
That's why I am curious to see how your run D stacks up. I'm not convinced your Bear look will be as successful as last year; not because we played variants of it but because we have more weapons to throw against it and a much more experienced O line and QB.
Foster tends to try to aggressively stop the run at the expense of allowing low percentage throws down field and adjusting to more conservative coverage than man without a lot of safety help only if he has to. He starts the game using coverages that most Offensive Coordinators are trying to force a team into because he trusts his corners to hold up on an island.
The key to beating a Foster Defense is almost always having an elite QB and/or WR that can connect on long passes or short passes into tight windows.
There's no guarantee that we'll use the same Bear look as last year. While it did help as far as getting players into better positioning before the snap, my understanding is that we basically played the same responsibilities as our Base D.
Edit: fixed typos
You are right. The bear formation didn't have as much to do with the success of the defense as the elite level coming from the players.
When Foster said OSU is Georgia Tech, he was talking about the philosophy of defending the Meyer spread. Foster will have two or three things he'll do to try to disrupt the mesh point, the first decision the QB has to make (just like GT).
The key to the OSU run game is to keep VT's tackles out of the backfield using only 2 blockers.
Me after reading another one of French's reviews:
(somewhat NSFW)
http://memecrunch.com/meme/QB7P/ectoplasm/image.jpg
You saw a spooky ghost, too? There's ectoplasm everywhere.
Gonna go with borderline NSFW. Please link instead of embedding.
Brainfart. Could we maybe implement some sort of NSFW tagging that works like the spoiler tags on IMDb? You have to hover and click to show the photo? Might not be that hard of a coding addition since so many sites use that functionality.
I mean, I can blur this right now, so that's not really an issue. I did that over the weekend with a picture that was 100% NSFW. I'm giving this one the benefit of the doubt as it is borderline...though the implication is clear. Might go ahead an obscure it until TH13 comes back...will happily remove my DV here as it is not punitive, just upholding guidelines.
I mean, it's not explicitly explicit, just a bit off-color. If you want it blurred or removed just say the word, but given the fact that there's plenty of borderline stuff that is allowed to slide, I didn't see a problem with it.
I would prefer it linked rather than embedded, per the standards in the Community Guidelines. I'm not trying to be hyper-vigilant about stuff like this (and I actually chuckled when I saw it), but it's not something I want my boss seeing if he were to pass by. Apply the same standard, in general. I agree that it's not the worst thing to have posted, but its intent is clear (and I do recall Bender posting the same image and igniting a flame war about it, so let's just side-step that issue altogether).
See, I removed that guy from my memory long ago, so I don't recall that. At any rate, it's fixed now. Enjoy, or not, if your boss is near.
I appreciate it.
Yeah, I mean beyond this specific occurrence, I think a NSFW tag coding would be a nice addition to the site.
Dude!!
As usual great write up French!
I have been waffling as to whether I thought we have a chance against OSU, but this gives me some real evidence to support why I think we will play them tough.
I look forward to reading what you think about our offense and especially the OL
I will tease my pre-camp stories. First will deal with offensive pass protection. It won't focus on actual blocking ability or technique. Instead, it will focus on the proper identification of potential blitz threats and adjusting properly. The second will deal with mike linebacker play. Those two things, coupled with the always critical need for precise tackling of alley players, will be the key drivers for success this season.
Me: (Crap, am I gonna have to read more about last year's Wake Forest debacle?)
/s
I might be able to stomach it as long as it's not published the same day as the No. 1 Devastating/Dominating play article.
if so, there'll be a lot of this going on
