• Follow us on Twitter @buckeyeplanet and @bp_recruiting, like us on Facebook! Enjoy a post or article, recommend it to others! BP is only as strong as its community, and we only promote by word of mouth, so share away!
  • Consider registering! Fewer and higher quality ads, no emails you don't want, access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Even if you just want to lurk, there are a lot of good reasons to register!

Game Thread San Diego State Aztecs at tOSU, Sep 7, 3:30 ET, ABC/ESPN2

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Sort by date Sort by votes
Buckeye86 said:
Last year the defensive coaching staff was definitely disjointed and not on the same page- especially early in the year, obviously.

Last week, the defense played well overall with two turnovers and scores changing the overall perception of a well played game.

While this is Ohio State and we do expect starters to be replaced with ease, for well over half the game Christian Bryant was the only player on the field with any starting experience at all.

I expect the defensive line to get significantly better as the year goes on, I was impressed with Curtis Grant and expect him to build on his solid performance, and I expect the return of Roby to have a significant impact on the overall performance of the unit.

Would I be comfortable if the defense we saw last week was taking the field in January? Not at all.

Fortunately, there are many weeks in between for improvement.

The complete 180 fan pessimism has taken from offense to defense is interesting, but I guess it's understandable.

I hate to sound like Taos with an open ended question, but is Fickell the new Bollman?
Click to expand...

Fickell was trained by Dantonio and Tressel . It's a different style than what Urban likes. But Fickell is still young and learning things. Remember when the defense got aggressive last year?
I don't know Withers influences.
Urban will "educate" the whole coaching staff. :lol:
 
Upvote 0
bukIpower said:
What troubles me most is meyer was quoted saying he wants to press and play man with blitzing and to take it to offenses even going as far as saying no more bend and don't break. Yet over the last year it seems our defensive staff is sort of fighting that mentality. Does anyone else sense a difference in style between what our head coach wants and what in reality our defensive staff does?
Click to expand...


Hard to pressure a 2 step drop. When they did try to go deep, he was pressured into throwing early or got hit while throwing.
 
Upvote 0
Coqui said:
Because your corner got beat a few times
Click to expand...

I personally feel anyways that when you are being hit for 8 yards every first down putting our already young defense behind the ball. One thing this team has on defense ths year is a veteran secondary and overall a lot more team speed on defense as well. So hopefully it's just a case of not having his normal personnel on defense and not a pattern that we saw last year.

I will say this though which I've said before. Urban should not have to go to his staff and tell them I need you to press the wide outs please (Im sure he doesn't ask so nice). I refuse to believe that although i have college ball experience and consider myself to have decent strategy sense that I wasn't the only one out of class of third graders let alone on this board that was screaming this past Saturday "press them" even moving the db's up 5 yards we still would've given them a 5 yard cushion.

What I will be watching this Saturday will be our ability as a staff to make quick changes and adjust. If we don't even even inspite of our veteran secondary it will be very frustrating to watch our defensive line get set up to fail due to no help to make the Qb hold onto the ball. It will also leave me convinced that our defensive staff isn't truly on board with what urban wants to see from our defense.

Right now my gut tells me it's a clash of beliefs in how a defense should opporate to be successful. It's so common to adjust and take away what a offense is doing mid game and that's honestly what I will be watching for as the year unfolds.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
Where I am confused is Urban seeking out Heacock if he (Urban) truly believes in a more attacking style of defense.

Right, wrong or indifferent Heacocks philosophy on how to beat a spread team is to play a "soft" match up zone and keep everything in front of you. The fundamental belief being the offense will get impatient and or make a mistake at some point and can't dink/dunk all the way down the field consistently. So forget about whether or not you agree with that philosophy, its his philosophy and its well known. If that is counter to your fundamental philosophy as a head coach then why have him around?

The answer that needs the fewest assumptions, in my mind at least, is that Urban isn't that philosophically opposed to what he sees from that style of defense.
 
Upvote 0
bukIpower said:
I personally feel anyways that when you are being hit for 8 yards every first down putting our already young defense behind the ball.
Click to expand...

Perception versus reality.

Buffalo drives:

7 plays, 19 yards, punt
5 plays, 12 yards, punt
8 plays, 33 yards, punt
3 plays, 9 yards, punt
3 plays, 10 yards, interception
3 plays, 44 yards, touchdown (short field, interception)
3 plays, 9 yards, punt
6 plays, 14 yards, punt
7 plays, 62 yards, touchdown
15 plays, 74 yards, downs
5 plays, 19 yards, punt

It looks to me like Buffalo had exactly two sustained drives the entire game, which just so happened to coincide with the period in the game when Bryant was the only returning starter on the field.
 
Upvote 0
Buckeye86 said:
Perception versus reality.

Buffalo drives:

7 plays, 19 yards, punt
5 plays, 12 yards, punt
8 plays, 33 yards, punt
3 plays, 9 yards, punt
3 plays, 10 yards, interception
3 plays, 44 yards, touchdown (short field, interception)
3 plays, 9 yards, punt
6 plays, 14 yards, punt
7 plays, 62 yards, touchdown
15 plays, 74 yards, downs
5 plays, 19 yards, punt

It looks to me like Buffalo had exactly two sustained drives the entire game, which just so happened to coincide with the period in the game when Bryant was the only returning starter on the field.
Click to expand...

Yep which is why I stated it most likely was due to just not having the personnel. I suppose we will find out soon enough on Saturday if personnel is the biggest reason.
 
Upvote 0
Taosman said:
Fickell was trained by Dantonio and Tressel . It's a different style than what Urban likes. But Fickell is still young and learning things. Remember when the defense got aggressive last year?
I don't know Withers influences.
Urban will "educate" the whole coaching staff. :lol:
Click to expand...
I have wondered, as well, if it is Fickell or Withers when it comes to the style we are playing. I think as a board we tend to talk more about Fick because of the familiarity and less about Withers because of the lack thereof.
 
Upvote 0
Here's also hoping that Spence and/or Washington goes hard against Decker this week. The 'ole' defense won't cut it for long. Was pretty surprised how easily he was beaten, both on bull rushes and swim moves. I KNOW he is better than that, and with the guys he's been going against (and holding his own against), just wonder if he was a bit bedazzled being on the big stage. SDSU will be flinging the ball, and tOSU will be in nickel or dime most of the day. Would love to see the big front put some pressure on the Q-back, and have 4-5 picks. SDSU is about same as Buffalo, except better at it. That will be a good thing for Ohio State, not having to change up the D much.
 
Upvote 0
Buckeye86 said:
Perception versus reality.

Buffalo drives:

7 plays, 19 yards, punt
5 plays, 12 yards, punt
8 plays, 33 yards, punt
3 plays, 9 yards, punt
3 plays, 10 yards, interception
3 plays, 44 yards, touchdown (short field, interception)
3 plays, 9 yards, punt
6 plays, 14 yards, punt
7 plays, 62 yards, touchdown
15 plays, 74 yards, downs
5 plays, 19 yards, punt

It looks to me like Buffalo had exactly two sustained drives the entire game, which just so happened to coincide with the period in the game when Bryant was the only returning starter on the field.
Click to expand...
Hard to argue with the facts as you present them. That said, even while re-watching the game last night, I never had the feeling that our defense was imposing its will on buffalo. So while these stats are indisputable one still can't help but feel uneasy about how we really performed on defense last week.
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top