2020 tOSU Defense

I think the talent is there to be a top 15 defense on the back end. Wade/Banks/Proctor is a pretty good trio but no doubt the outflux of talent hurts.

Whatever the issue is whether its talent or scheme there's no reason we cant be on Wisconsins level who obviously is very good yet dont have the talent we do.

 

Okay... even 2018 didnt give up 500 yards throwing and that was to basically our only opponent who had that ability.

What will be hard to gauge is we dont play very many good teams. Corn/Ped/Rutgers/MSU/Illinois/ttun are not good teams. So these next 3 weeks if we come out and improve it will be impossible to know. Shoot even in the title game we wont know much considering NW isnt the most explosive.

So this is all moot really because we arent finding anything else out about this passing defense until the playoffs.

 

Yeah I have said it a number of times but what Grinch did that set us back the most wasnt the record setting 2018 defense of Ineptitude it was his absolute lack of effort recruiting.

You add that with Riep being a creep and White transfering and it's no wonder I guess. What I do know is we should've done more to get White involved last year. He would have been enormous for us this year.

 

Yeah cause they were too busy giving up damn near 400 yards rushing when they weren’t getting torched in the passing game.

 

Is it a matter of personnel? Is it a problem with the Buckeyes defensive coaching scheme? If it’s neither of those two things, then Day’s checklist next goes to figuring out if Ohio State is coaching and teaching the correct scheme to the capable personnel.

Got it?

The Buckeyes are four games into the weirdest season of all time and they’re not going to completely change defensive philosophy mid-stroke. The scheme isn’t changing, so Ohio State needs to make the best of what it is. If there’s a need to adjust things in a more comprehensive way for the future, that isn’t going to happen until the end of this season.

Kerry Coombs hasn’t forgotten how to teach. He’s one of the country’s premier developers of defensive back talent and helped change the culture of the Tennessee Titans defensive backs room in his two year NFL stint. He’s probably spending less time than usual on technique because he’s in a coordinator role for the first time in his life, but Coombs knows how to get the most of the guys he’s leading.

So maybe, just maybe, Ohio State is getting the most out of the currently utilized defensive backs. The challenge to replace Jeff Okudah, Damon Arnette and Jordan Fuller wasn’t going to be easy. The Buckeyes lost Jahsen Wint and Amir Riep in the offseason, and both played a lot of football. Early-enrolled freshman Kourt Williams — who may have started for Ohio State this fall — was lost for the season before it began. At Penn State, veteran cornerback Cameron Brown was lost as well.

It’s not entirely hard to understand the struggles, but at Ohio State the standard is excellence. There can’t be excuses, and so now it’s time for adjustments. The easiest spot to make those adjustments is the secondary, and the Buckeyes, simply put, have nothing to lose by trying to work in new, inexperienced players. That’s especially true at safety, because the play has been so poor it seems like it’d be impossible to go backward.

 

FILM STUDY: CAN OHIO STATE'S PASS DEFENSE REBOUND FROM A HISTORIC(ALLY BAD) SHOWING AGAINST INDIANA?



Kerry Coombs has coached a number of great secondaries during his 38 years in the business.


This year's vintage is not one of them.

Though it has played just four games in 2020, Ohio State sits 115th nationally in pass defense - exactly 114 places below where it finished the 2019 season. Indiana torched Coombs' defensive backfield to the tune of 491 yards through the air last Saturday, further exposing a unit that had already shown signs of weakness.

As my colleague Dan Hope detailed shortly afterward, the performance was the fourth-highest total ever surrendered by an Ohio State defense. But unlike their adventure in State College a few weeks ago, the Buckeyes weren't just the victim of a few circus catches. Rather, the Hoosiers found success thanks to a multitude of factors.

“Any time you have a problem like that, it’s one of three things,” Ryan Day said after the game. “You say to yourself, do you have the right personnel there? So you look at who’s doing it. Then the second thing is, what is the scheme? Does the scheme give our guys the right opportunity to be successful? And then if both of those boxes get checked, then it goes to coaching. Are we coaching it correctly? So I think that’s when you’re trying to fix something, you have to identify one of these three things that need to get addressed, or maybe a little bit of each."

Needless to say, the Buckeyes won't be bringing home any hardware in January unless the pass defense improves. But, as Day outlined, in order to address the problems at hand, they must first be identified.

Before going any further, though, credit where it's due. The Indiana game plan was well designed and incorporated many of the same tactics Ryan Day has used to exploit opponents in Ohio State's favor.

For instance, on the game's opening drive, the Hoosiers split the tight end, Peyton Hendershot (#86), all the way out to the numbers. When linebacker Baron Browning followed him out there - signaling the defense was in man-coverage - the entire IU offense looked to the sideline and received the call to run a smash-fade concept with Ty Fryfogle taking off from the slot.

Given that Michael Penix Jr. and the rest of the Indiana offense knew what coverage to expect, the quarterback could easily time up a back-shoulder throw for a big early gain.

Throughout the entire game, the Hoosiers would use their formations to manipulate the Buckeyes into revealing their hand. One tactic seen quite often was motioning David Ellis (#10), a speedy running back and kick returner, out from the backfield and sending him deep on vertical routes against those Buckeye linebackers.

While Browning and Pete Werner are great athletes, they had no chance of keeping up with Ellis in a foot race.

It wasn't until the fourth quarter that Ohio State consistently lined up in a true, 4-2-5 nickel package with safety Josh Proctor replacing the SAM linebacker that the threat of Ellis running unabated down the sideline was thwarted.

Entire article: https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-state-football/film-study/2020/11/118421/film-study-can-ohio-states-pass-defense-rebound-from-a-historically-bad-showing-against-indiana

 

SKULL SESSION: BUCKEYES HAVE BEEN GETTING TO THE QUARTERBACK, JONATHON COOPER IS AMONG THE BIG TEN'S BEST, AND BASKETBALL SEASON BEGINS

BRINGING THE HEAT. It's been extremely obvious that Ohio State hasn't had near the same sack numbers this year compared to last (missing you, Chase Young <3 ), but weirdly, it's also probably not fair to say that this year's pass rush is decidedly worse.

In fact, you could argue that it's been... significantly better?



So statistically, about twice as much pressure on quarterbacks through the first four Big Ten games, but somehow half the sacks. I'm not sure what to even make of that besides politely requesting that they try to finish the job from now on?

Entire article: https://www.elevenwarriors.com/skull-sessions/2020/11/118516/ohio-state-football-buckeyes-have-been-getting-to-the-quarterback-jonathon-cooper-is-among-the-big-tens-best-and

 

Kind of surprising to see Hooker jogging toward the ball on a downfield pass in his zone like this. That's late 4th quarter. I wonder if it was just a foolish mistake, or if conditioning is an issue for some of these new starters.

 

Definitely conditioning. He ran out of energy running a 100 yards every play biting on short routes and then needing to chase the guy burning him for a TD every play... But actually in all seriousness that just looks like pathetic effort and really has no justification. To make it worse he then takes a bad angle. Don't know how he can stay on the field with effort like that.