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2018 tOSU Defense Discussion

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I don't understand why Harrison wasn't spying Trace on 75% of the plays in the 2nd half, when it became evident that was the only way they could consistently move the chains.

Borland made the biggest play of the 1st half (fumble) but poor guy was hobbling around and looked slow much of the night. He couldn't run withTrace.

The relentless pass rush from the front 4 was leaving huge running lanes for McSorely. It just made sense after repeatedly being gashed to leave somebody at home (Harrison) who could run him down in space when nothing else was working for them.
 
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More concerning to me was the lack of lane discipline and scrambling awareness on some of those zone blitzes. Credit McSorely but a couple of those calls should have worked a treat yet we failed to execute.

edit: In short, the Buckeye defense just got this kid drafted last night.
 
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Football: Ohio State defense uses momentum to survive in Penn State

IMG_0685-11thctv-530x353.jpg


In No. 4 Ohio State’s 27-26 victory over No. 9 Penn State, there were many moments throughout the game that pushed the defense to its limit.

The first three drives of the game all went into Ohio State territory. The fifth drive started at the Ohio State 28-yard line. Redshirt senior quarterback Trace McSorley found redshirt freshman wide receiver KJ Hamler for a 93-yard score, tied for the longest play against Ohio State in school history.

But the Buckeyes slowed McSorley and the Nittany Lions offense just enough to pull out the one-point victory in Happy Valley.

Junior defensive end Jonathon Cooper said it’s all part of the game.

“We’re tough, our mentality is tough,” Cooper said. “There’s going to be mistakes, you can’t play a perfect game, I mean there’s going to be big plays and everything, it’s just rallying together as a team, as a unit, and realizing that we have to get the job done and just do better.”

That is exactly what this Ohio State defense did late in the fourth quarter to slow down the Penn State offense enough to earn the victory.

After forcing a fourth down on Penn State’s final drive, sophomore defensive end Chase Young made the game-winning play, breaking through the offensive line and getting to junior running back Miles Sanders in the backfield to seal the game.

The Buckeyes defense did much of the same to start the game.

While Ohio State’s offense struggled to get anything going in the first half, the defense allowed only six points on Penn State’s first six drives, even with the Nittany Lions getting into Buckeye territory on four of them.

The defense also was the major cause of the Buckeyes’ first score, a 26-yard catch by redshirt sophomore running back J.K. Dobbins, made possible by a forced fumble from redshirt sophomore linebacker Tuf Borland recovered by redshirt junior defensive tackle Dre’Mont Jones.

Cooper said it was the defense’s job to step up early on.

“You know the saying, defense wins championships,” Cooper said. “Every time something would go wrong or anything would happen on offense or whatever it was, we knew the defense would have to step up.”

Entire article: https://www.thelantern.com/2018/09/...fense-uses-momentum-to-survive-in-penn-state/
 
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I am mid 2nd quarter in rewatching it and so far the defensive gameplan is great. It's simple for the players and (should be) very effective.

DE's take the dive on the RO, LB's have the QB on the run keep and spy him when he passes. LJSR has the talent at DE to do that and it should work beautifully because you've got your 5 star SPARQ guys on a QB.

The night McSorley had is a testament to just how poorly all of these highly rated LB's execute. I'll give Borland a pass because as we have seen for a month now, he isn't 100% but the rest of them are consistently out of position, taking bad angles and missing tackles.

It's fucking maddening.
 
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Jaxbuck said:
I am mid 2nd quarter in rewatching it and so far the defensive gameplan is great. It's simple for the players and (should be) very effective.

DE's take the dive on the RO, LB's have the QB on the run keep and spy him when he passes. LJSR has the talent at DE to do that and it should work beautifully because you've got your 5 star SPARQ guys on a QB.

The night McSorley had is a testament to just how poorly all of these highly rated LB's execute. I'll give Borland a pass because as we have seen for a month now, he isn't 100% but the rest of them are consistently out of position, taking bad angles and missing tackles.

It's fucking maddening.
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Malik is the one I notice most... in both positive and negative ways. Sometimes his freak athleticism makes a play, sometimes he misses the tackle anyway, sometimes he's not in the right spot but gets a shoestring tackle.
I don't know where to go with that... hopefully he gets more consistent with game time ? But judging how we've had other LBs flash that kind of skill and then get passed up... I'm not holding my breath. Bill Davis has some questions to answer.
Werner will flash sometimes too but then disappear for long stretches.
It's all very Jekyll-Hyde.
 
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Jaxbuck said:
I am mid 2nd quarter in rewatching it and so far the defensive gameplan is great. It's simple for the players and (should be) very effective.

DE's take the dive on the RO, LB's have the QB on the run keep and spy him when he passes. LJSR has the talent at DE to do that and it should work beautifully because you've got your 5 star SPARQ guys on a QB.

The night McSorley had is a testament to just how poorly all of these highly rated LB's execute. I'll give Borland a pass because as we have seen for a month now, he isn't 100% but the rest of them are consistently out of position, taking bad angles and missing tackles.

It's fucking maddening.
Click to expand...
And it's probably not gonna get fixed until a TE has 300 yards catching and we get beat by 3 TDs.
 
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Jaxbuck said:
One positive thing I will say about the defense:

Penn State had the ball with about 2 minutes left and all 3 time outs at the end of each half. They earned zero points.

That was HUGE
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They were also something like 21/22 touchdowns on red zone possessions before facing the Buckeyes, yet the Buckeyes clamped down hard after giving up a metric shit-ton of yards. And they held PSU’s 3rd down efficiency to between a horse abortion and a dumpster fire
 
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DaddyBigBucks said:
They were also something like 21/22 touchdowns on red zone possessions before facing the Buckeyes, yet the Buckeyes clamped down hard after giving up a metric shit-ton of yards. And they held PSU’s 3rd down efficiency to between a horse abortion and a dumpster fire
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yep

we said all week leading up to it, if the defense can keep them under 28 we should be ok.

Had no idea the offense would make that so dicey but we had the defense part nailed.
 
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Jaxbuck said:
One positive thing I will say about the defense:

Penn State had the ball with about 2 minutes left and all 3 time outs at the end of each half. They earned zero points.

That was HUGE
Click to expand...
Besides the 93 yard pass we gave up (tired of saying that) I will take that defensive effort. The objective was to take away Miles first and foremost which they did.

The biggest issue I had was Trace was tucking and running so much... Why we don't play more zone is beyond me. Theres a few holes scheme/personnel wise that we just refuse to fix.

1. Aggressive man coverage on 3rd down- give up 5 if its 3rd and 8.
2. Pryor at safety-the angles
3. LBs up at the LOS- hard to read/react


The aggressiveness is killing us and we just continue to plug along with it.. This defense is FAST and if we played more zone (especially on 3rd and long) it would help us identify the run better as well as prevent our DBs from being turned around.

Seriously how many times can teams just lob passes up and our DBs don't turn or get their hands up? That's what Lattimore did so well and we lack that.

Side note though every team avoids Sheffield. He's been outstanding this season.

Overall though I'm so proud of what our defense did yesterday.. the offense kept putting them in bad spots over and over yet they wouldn't crack. They gave up yards but they buckled down when they had to.

Offense left them out to dry for all but 8 minutes of that game.

Proud of the effort yesterday but still concerning considering what lies ahead
 
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Watching the game, and through the first quarter the defense isn't playing that poorly. I have to give a lot of credit to McSworly and the PSU offense, because they came out making some great plays, especially when the DBs were in great position.

I agree that the defense is often too aggressive for it's own good, especially with the weaknesses this team has. Exceedingly frustrating because the DL is so talented, 3 of the 4 DB spots are good or great, but with the current weaknesses causing so many big plays...I just don't see this team being able to stay with a Bama or Georgia for 4 quarters, and it leaves a lot of room for an upset to happen on an off week.

Really hoping there is big improvement, but through 5 weeks, it's hard to imagine it suddenly clicking.
 
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1926Buckeyes said:
Watching the game, and through the first quarter the defense isn't playing that poorly. I have to give a lot of credit to McSworly and the PSU offense, because they came out making some great plays, especially when the DBs were in great position.

I agree that the defense is often too aggressive for it's own good, especially with the weaknesses this team has. Exceedingly frustrating because the DL is so talented, 3 of the 4 DB spots are good or great, but with the current weaknesses causing so many big plays...I just don't see this team being able to stay with a Bama or Georgia for 4 quarters, and it leaves a lot of room for an upset to happen on an off week.

Really hoping there is big improvement, but through 5 weeks, it's hard to imagine it suddenly clicking.
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In 2014, the last game in September was a poorly played cluster fuck against Cincinnati that featured the defense giving up several very long plays. That year it got fixed. This year... well, the problem is as bad as I’ve ever seen it. We know from past experience that a fix is possible... we’ll see.

As for how bad the problem is: In the past 3 games, they’ve given up a run and a pass of 93 yards. In 128 years, the OSU offense has faced a butt load of poorly coached defenses with gap integrity issues, and in all that time, they have zero runs and zero passes of that length. Zero. And the defense has allowed one of each in the past 3 games. If the same coaching staff that allowed this level of cluster-fuquery to fester can somehow realize a fix, then maybe this team has a shot. It’s happened before, sort of, so... maybe?
 
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