I think there is a misconception about Ohio State’s offense against Indiana - mainly that the OL/Tshabola sucked hard until he got pulled and then they started putting some things together.
First drive:
*12 personnel, easy first down completion to Smith on the sideline
*12 personnel, throw away on a play that I’d chalk up as 75% coverage, 25% pressure
*12 personnel, four yard counter run to the left
*11 personnel with Klare flexed wide, interception that was entirely on Sayin, Indiana’s safety jumped a route - I’ll chalk it up to a new coverage wrinkle we weren’t expecting to see
Second drive:
*12 personnel, seven yard quick completion to Smith (basically the same first play from the first drive)
*12 personnel, Tshabola gets toasted 1 v 1 but Sayin rolls out to the left for an easy first down completion to Tate on the sideline
*11 personnel, some blitz pressure from the left side but Sayin gets rid of it quick to Smith for first down
*12 personnel, 7 yard stretch run to the right
*12 personnel, Montgomery whiffs on back side DT block and blitz on front side combine to stuff a run for loss, Tshabola didn’t block well but the play was blown up but at least two other guys he wasn’t specifically supposed to block (even though he’s standing there and it looks like his fault)
*11 personnel with Klare flexed wide, Sayin has plenty of time to throw, misses wide open Inniss, 100% coverage sack/Sayin being off
*punt
Third drive (short field off interception):
*13 personnel run on first down from 25 yard line, Jackson works some magic for a decent gain, personal foul on defense makes it first and goal from the 9
*13 personnel run (with Roberts at FB) stuff for loss, offsides on the defense resets first and goal from the 4
*13 personnel (with Roberts at FB) one man route to Smith that was thrown away, Ponds grabs Smith by the shoulder pads off the line and doesn’t let go, possible interference if the throw is catchable
*12 personnel (with Roberts kinda at fullback) run, false start makes it 2nd and goal from the 9
*12 personnel, no pressure with plenty of time, but Sayin holds it beyond initial reads and needs to roll out right, finds Tate in the back of the end zone for a touchdown
Fourth drive:
*12 personnel (with Roberts at FB) 4 yard run
*12 personnel play action 51 yard bomb to Smith (illegal hands to the face moves the ball to the 11)
*13 personnel (with Roberts at FB) 2 yard run up the middle
*12 personnel 1 yard run to right (Tshabola blocks fine)
*11 personnel, blitz brings instant pressure from the left and middle, sayin rolls to the right and is sacked (Tshabola/Hinzman don’t handle the middle blitz very well, but the nickel blitz off the edge is the more immediate problem, maybe Donaldson could have gotten over if Tshabola/Hinzman played it better… either way, solid defensive play call)
*FG
Fifth drive (2 minute drill drive before the half up 10-6):
*11 personnel, quick out throw to Tate, 11 yard gain
*11 personnel, 4 yard run to the left, Tshabola and Daniels both look real bad on the backside
*12 personnel, Peoples gets smoked 1v1 against blitzing linebacker and gives up easy sack
*11 personnel, Tshobola and Daniels both do a bad job, give up quick pressure, Sayin throws it away in the general vicinity of Smith on the sideline
*punt
Sixth drive (first drive of second half):
*12 personnel, play action quick roll out to the right, hit TE in flats for 9 yard gain
*12 personnel, 20 yard counter run, blocked well (including pulling Tshabola)
*12 personnel, play action roll out to the left, Tshabola gives up easy sack blowing the protection by not sliding to his right properly
*11 personnel, Daniels gets burnt to the inside, possibly due to a miscommunication/blown assignment from Tshabola, sack
*11 personnel, screen to the left blown dead due to Indiana timeout
*11 personnel, man beater zero yard crossing route to Smith doesn’t work because Indiana was in zone
*punt
Seventh drive (Tshabola out):
*11 personnel, pulling counter to the left gain of 7
*12 personnel, basically the same pulling counter to the left play stopped for loss BAD CALL
*11 personnel (with Klare flexed wide), LB blitz up the middle picked up by Hinzman provides some pressure in Sayin’s face, but he gets rid of it quickly to Inniss for a first down
*12 personnel, play action to the left, roll out to the right, quick pass to Klare in the flats for 20 yards GOOD CALL
*13 personnel, run to the right, Hinzman misses a twisting DT on the backside who blows up the play BAD CALL (13 personnel run on first and 10? complete waste of a down)
*11 personnel, quick back shoulder throw to Smith down the sideline, first down, looks really easy
*13 personnel (Bennett motions wide pre snap), throw to Klare in the flats for 8 yards
*12 personnel, pulling counter run to the right, first down but a broken tackle away from a big gain
*13 personnel, play action roll to the right, flips it to the TE on a curl for a 7 yard gain
*13 personnel (Roberts at FB), run up the middle for 2 yard gain, third and short from the 5 yard line
*13 personnel, one man sideline route to Smith, double covered and Sayin, rolling to his left, throws it away
*12 personnel, failed QB sneak, turnover on downs
Eighth drive:
*12 personnel, 5 yard run up the middle
*12 personnel, backside pulling guard (Dave??) 10 yard run to the right
*12 personnel with Klare flexed wide, no pass rush, Sayin dumps to TE on crossing route for 4 yards
*13 personnel (with Roberts at FB), another Dave to the right stuffed for no gain BAD CALL
*12 personnel, good protection, Sayin dumps to RB in middle of field for first down
*11 personnel, play action creates instant pressure, hurried throw to Smith in the flats for 5 yard loss, pre snap motion from Smith triggered the defense to crash to the side he was motioning to BAD CALL (just throw the ball to Smith quickly on the sideline, it’s looked easy all game)
*12 personnel, decent protection, Sayin hurried a little from a looping rusher in the middle, dumps to RB over the middle for 7 yard gain
*3rd and 8, 11 personnel with Klare in the backfield (who just pass blocks), decent protection, Sayin flushed right after holding through his first reads, throws on the run to Tate for first down on the sideline
*11 personnel, run up the middle (with TE kinda in the backfield leading) for 2 yards
*12 personnel, TE whiffs on blocking the DE from the left, Sayin forced to step up right away, throws it away when he probably didn’t need to
*3rd and 8, 12 personnel with both TEs flexed wide, double pass (Inniss in the flat behind the flexed TEs) short of first down but illegal cut on defense gives Ohio State the first down BAD/STUPID CALL
*13 personnel (with Roberts at FB and Sayin under center), Dave to the left that Jackson magics from 2 into 8 yards
*13 personnel, counter to the right for 1 yard gain
*13 personnel (with Roberts at FB), play action roll to the right, Sayin skips over RB in the flats to throw to a covered TE in the end zone, incomplete
*missed FG
Ninth drive:
*11 personnel with Klare flexed wide, Sayin dumps it in the flats for 1 yard gain
*11 personnel with Klare flexed wide, deep pass falls incomplete
*11 personnel with Klare flexed wide, deep pass caught by Smith as time expires
Drive takeaways:
The first and second drive stalled more from Sayin being off than from the OL not blocking well. Credit to Indiana for presumably throwing a bunch of stuff out there that Sayin wasn’t expecting to see.
Hard to take much away from the third “penalties helped a lot” short field touchdown drive other than they should run routes with multiple players in the red zone (instead of one man routes out of 13 personnel to Smith).
The takeaway (for me) on the FG fourth drive is don’t “run run pass” in the red zone because good defenses can dial up some really creative stuff on obvious passing downs on the goal line - Indiana with a great defensive call here to force the FG.
There was an inexplicable lack of urgency on the two minute drill fifth drive before the half. Really hard to understand what was going on here; this is where Tshabola appears to start falling apart (injured?), but the narrative was that it was blocking the entire first half, and I don’t think that’s the case as it didn’t really show up until now.
The sixth drive (first of the second half) is where Tshabola really fell apart and got benched.
The seventh drive was mostly successful but bogged down on the goal line. Don’t use Roberts at FB. Don’t run one man routes out of 13 personnel.
The eighth drive was mostly successful but bogged down in the red zone. No glaring reason, but I’ll just go with 13 personnel generally sucking all season long. This is where the “grind the clock while down in the fourth quarter” debate comes in.
The ninth drive with 18 seconds left doesn’t really count; my takeaway is that Hartline really, really doesn’t like/trust the backup WRs.
General takeaways:
*please no more Roberts at fullback, ever
*please no more 1 man routes (not even to Smith) out of 13 personnel, but yes to passing to the TEs if you really must do more 13 personnel
*Sayin being off killed two drives, Tshabola falling apart killed two drives, uninspired play calls hurt, especially in the red zone
I guess I’m confident more time to prepare for Sayin and the coaches can get the offense going again. The gameplan against Indiana was completely uninspired against a really good defense that had a great gameplan, and the offense still made it look easy at times in between making it look really hard (mostly out of 13 personnel).
