FILM STUDY: SETTING UP THE PLAYS THAT DEFINED OHIO STATE'S BIG WIN OVER TCU
"We get the turnover by Dre'Mont [Jones], get the ball back and it hit for K.J [Hill]. It went fast right there, and that's where the game, I think, turned." - Ryan Day
Last Saturday's tilt in North Texas between Ohio State and TCU more than lived up to the hype. Often, non-conference matchups like these fall flat as one program fails to maintain it's standards in the half-decade following the contest's announcement. But fans both in AT&T Stadium and the millions more watching at home were treated to a slugfest between two very talented and well-coached programs.
While Ohio State pulled away for a two-score victory, the game wasn't decided until late in the fourth quarter when Horned Frogs quarterback Shawn Robinson forced a pass into coverage, resulting in an interception for Buckeye linebacker Malik Harrison. But though the game seemed to be littered with big plays like that one, it was truly defined by the small adjustments made both before and during the game by each coaching staff.
As expected, neither team appeared to have overlooked the other, with TCU head coach Gary Patterson admitting at July's Big 12 media days that he'd already spent countless hours studying the Buckeyes' 2017 film. But it became clear soon after kickoff that his counterparts on the opposite sideline had done the same.
Fans that expected the only interesting matchup to be Ohio State's suddenly high-flying offense against Patterson's aggressive defense must've been pleasantly surprised to see a different chess match steal some attention. Having once been a record-setting QB in Mike Leach's Air Raid system at Texas Tech, TCU coordinator Sonny Cumbie put together a game plan that would've made any Big 12 offensive coordinator proud, spreading the field with receivers from sideline to sideline while adding an uptempo element that is hard to replicate in practice.
"They're a very fast team," OSU star defensive tackle Dre'Mont Jones said after the game. "Probably the fastest team I ever played since I've been in college."
Additionally, with the receivers split out so far, Greg Schiano's defense was effectively in man-to-man coverage situations all night, as rarely was there another defender nearby to help regardless of the defense called. The result was a number of big plays, both through the air and in the running game that caught the Buckeye defense out of position.
Though Cumbie has Air Raid roots, he seemed determined to win the game on the ground, looking to read Ohio State's talented defensive linemen in the option game rather than try to block them all at once.
By removing the receivers from the equation and forcing the Buckeye front six to defend all the space between the numbers opened up gaps in the running game. All it took was one false step from Harrison, who shifted over to the middle linebacker role thanks to motion, to allow the center to make enough contact to spring Darius Anderson for the longest play any Ohio State defense has ever allowed from scrimmage.
"Offensively, when we went in tempo, they really struggled with it," Patterson noted after the game. "So when we could go fast, we did a good job of doing that."
If anything, Patterson thought his offense didn't go
fast enough.
"I think they have a very good football team. And I think we had a speed advantage," he added later in the post-game press conference. "We needed to keep using it."
Eventually, Ohio State caught up to TCU's pace and implemented some tweaks of their own. As they saw on the same field from USC just nine months prior, the Buckeyes often placed a linebacker right up on the line of scrimmage, hovering over the A or B-gap to play games with the Horned Frogs' zone-blocking scheme.
Sometimes, the linebacker would blitz directly while at other times he'd drop slightly and wait for the end being optioned to break inside, exchanging gap responsibilities and throwing off Robinson's reads. The blitzes worked quite well, as Robinson was held to seven net yards rushing that night.
This constant threat of pressure inside along with the freakish talent of Jones, Nick Bosa, and the rest of Larry Johnson's defensive line proved too much to keep at bay, and eventually, the dam broke. After failing to connect on a shovel-option in the first half thanks to A-gap pressure from a Tuf Borland blitz, Cumbie went back to the well only to find it empty again later in the third.
Despite running a three-man
Bear front with Jones lined up directly over the center, Schiano brought additional pressure, this time from native Texan Baron Browning. When outside linebacker Pete Werner forced an early pitch as the option man, the result was an overwhelmed offensive line that allowed Jones to jump the shovel route.
Entire article:
https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio...ays-that-defined-ohio-states-big-win-over-tcu
