Ohio State offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson made an early impact against Indiana
Christopher Jason via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
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The new Buckeye offensive coordinator dialed up some quality plays in the passing attack.
It didn’t take long for new offensive coordinator
Kevin Wilson to
put his fingerprints on the Ohio State offense. In the Week 1 matchup against the Indiana Hoosiers, we saw tempo, wheel routes, crossing patterns, wide receiver screens and more high percentage throws for
J.T. Barrett. Although the first half looked more like the inconsistent 2016 offense, the receivers started to gain separation and Barrett started to hit his open receivers which resulted in some big plays.
Looking at the chart above, the offensive line did an excellent job keeping Barrett in a clean pocket and upright. On 37 dropbacks, I charted only four pressures, two hits and one sack on Barrett. The quarterback was under siege last year, and it looks like
Isaiah Prince held his own against the Indiana front. Left tackle
Jamarco Jones was credited with the only sack allowed on the night.
Wilson dialed up a shallow crosser for
Parris Campbell early and it was very successful. As you can see below, Wilson catches Indiana in man coverage. Campbell is lined up in the slot on the right of the line of scrimmage, while
Marcus Baugh (#85) is lined up in the left slot and
Johnnie Dixon (#1) is lined up outwide to the left.
Campbell runs a three-yard crossing pattern, while Baugh basically runs a pick on Campbell’s man and Dixon picks a linebacker sitting in the middle of the field. These two picks open up Campbell for an easy, high percentage throw from Barrett.
The one concerning thing about Barrett’s day was once again his accuracy. Sure, his receivers didn’t help him in the first half by not gaining great separation, but he also overthrew his target six times. With his offensive line giving him a clean pocket for the majority of his throws and Wilson giving him quality throwing windows, Barrett needs to complete the tougher throws downfield (below) to take this offense to the next level.
On the perimeter, Zone 6 had two key downfield blocks which sprung their teammates for long scores. On Campbell’s touchdown reception,
Terry McLaurin had a great block that was in the difference in a 30-yard gain and a 74-yard score.
On
Johnnie Dixon’s 59-yard score,
Binjimen Victor also threw a key block on a corner, allowing Dixon to scamper to the end zone for the first time as a Buckeye.
After struggling to block on the perimeter since the departure of
Evan Spencer, it looks like Zach Smith’s group is back in a big way — both as pass-catchers and as blockers.
Overall, the offense had little wrinkles from
Kevin Wilson that make the offense much tougher to defend in man-coverage and should return Barrett to his 2014 form. The offense is still a run-first, inside zone team, but the passing game will put Barrett in a better place to succeed, while they give their four- and five-star athletes space to make plays.
J.K. Dobbins was excellent (that jump-cut?) in his first collegiate game, and the return of
Mike Weber -- especially in short yardage — will make the running game even tougher to defend.
Look for the offense to continue where it left off next week against Oklahoma.
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