You'll notice that after getting carved up in press man in the first half, the Buckeyes gave their CB's safety help in the 2nd half and have shut down the Hoosiers so far. Some food for thought.
OSU VS INDIANA
- Thread starter bwh05
- Start date
with his team giving up 300 per game in the air last year it could not hurt....
I understand the point of your post, but have a few questions/points:
- The PITT corners were listed at a generous 5'9" (Maddox) and 6'0" (Lewis). While Maddox is incredibly quick, he had the monumental task of going up against receivers who were much taller and stronger than he was, resulting in him being unable to disrupt the WR's route. Lewis, while larger than Maddox, lacked the speed needed to play in man coverage. I think many of the issues with the passing defense were a result of Webb, who looked like he was more interested in looking for daisies on the field than trying to cover any space left by the CBs. There were far too many times where Webb simply watched his man blow right past him, or literally ran into the other safety (watch the first play for OK State on offense).
- There were many times where it appeared the CB was in position to make a play on the ball, however, they simply never turned their head to locate the ball. A major responsibility of the safeties is to yell at the CB when the ball is in the air, letting them know when to expect the ball to come into their area. Maybe I missed this aspect during the games, but I don't remember seeing Webb or Whitehead yell at their CBs when the ball was in the air.
We'll see how things go this season. Many warned that the coach is committed to his system, maybe to a fault. But Duz himself seemed flat out disgusted with the D after the Syracuse game. By then, it was too late to do much with last year's team, so the bowl sucked too. But maybe he resigned himself to flex a bit for the coming season. If not ... well it likely proves it's like it was with Chryst... these guys really don't need to win here to be attractive to other jobs, because other schools know we're really not serious. He's shown his system can win in a program that is serious, and that's what they'll remember.
Hopefully that makes a difference. It's also the reason why I beleive someone like Ford could make an immediate impact. He will likely have some breakdowns in coverage, but I highly doubt he picks his own CBs and S in coverage, allowing the receiver to run free.
ya, plus Urban has confidence his front 7 can control the run.
Not sure Narduzzi does, did or will, so....
Not sure Narduzzi does, did or will, so....
They were playing straight quarters coverage like we do in the first half. Not exactly press man but looks a lot like it on the outside. OSU also dialed up the heat from the front 7 big time. Lagos was under relentless pressure from the first snap of the 2nd half to the end. That helped the back end a lot. If we can't put more pressure on the QB this season it will be another long year for the secondary.
This is my point tho, OSU basically runs our defense, and ran press quarters the entire first half and got killed by big WR & back shoulder throws. In the 2nd half they played all 2 deep with some zone pressures mixed in and Indiana got shut down. It was a nice adjustment that turned the game into a blowout. To me, that was a strong coaching effort by the OSU defensive staff.
To your point, I do agree the Indiana getting whipped up front helped a great deal.
PITT did allow less rushing yards/game than OSU last year; but that could have been a byproduct of just how bad the pass defense was. Based on pure numbers though, PITT was solid against the run last year.
Yeah if not for missing camp no doubt he would be getting a lot of playing time this season. The point has been brought up though that he likely is not a 4 let alone 5 year college player so why waste a year redshirting him. I get why, but while learning the defense and whitehead out I wouldn't mind seeing some of him tomorrow and also letting him fill the whitehead role on offense (occasional carry). Once he hits the field I really believe he's gonna be a huge difference maker.
This was exactly what I was thinking throughout the game. OSU made great adjustments at halftime. Sometimes just showing a 21 year old kid some different looks and making him uncomfortable can mean all the difference. Obviously OSU has great front 7 talent and depth, but the halftime adjustments are why they blew that game wide open.
Right, as a coach you love it when you have a good idea what the defense is going to be. It makes it so much easier to gameplan and call plays. It takes a lot of talent to be able to say, "this is the front and coverage we're going to be in all game, go ahead and see if you can beat it." We're clearly not at that point yet.
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