2026 tOSU Defense Discussion

[pnuts34]

I don't understand for the life of me why LJsr and MP keep trotting out the corpses of Atkinson and (sorry to say) Kenyatta Jackson. At this point id be playing Zion, Epi and Khary and see what I have with young pups. Watching the 2 old guys waddle towards a QB is one of the most frustrating parts of the season

 

[Best Buckeye]

WE had a Defense ?????? i musta been watching something else?

 

[scarletngray]

With our game this week, Oregon has been even more inconsistent than we have. And has lost to much worse teams. Are we going to see the best from both teams? If so, it could be a heck of a game. Or is one of the teams going to have another brain fart performance?
We will have the comfort of home. Oregon doesn't travel well. Correct the stupid penalties that hamstring us and play solid defense and we should get the win.

 

[Jaxbuck]

With our game this week, Oregon has been even more inconsistent than we have. And has lost to much worse teams. Are we going to see the best from both teams? If so, it could be a heck of a game. Or is one of the teams going to have another brain fart performance?
We will have the comfort of home. Oregon doesn't travel well. Correct the stupid penalties that hamstring us and play solid defense and we should get the win.

Which handicapped offense can do more against a good but inconsistent defense?

We have the extra advantage of being at home and in our own time zone.

I also believe teams tend to perform much better after an embarrassing prime time loss.

 

[restless]

No doubt

The issue you're talking about is, in a way, the opposite of the improvement that I was talking about; but it is just as legit.

In the first place, those issues are down to the pass defense. In the second, those issues are, as you say, NOT showing improvement.

The issue with them from my perspective is that I try to use stats to show trends, and in this case the stats are a result of different things, but one of them is definitely late-game collapses.

Here are the numbers:

View attachment 97072
Where DPE=Defensive Pass Efficiency

As you can see, the numbers show a defense that is among the best in the nation for the first 3 quarters in DPE.
Then they play the 4th quarter.

As I mentioned, there are two reasons for this.
One big contributor is opponents slinging the ball all over the yard against backups while they try to cut into a huge lead. That is absolutely part of this. But the other part of this is the same thing your eyes are telling you: Late game collapses.

Without taking the time to break things down play-by-play (in past years, I might have actually done that), all I can tell you is that this is the same team that blew a 20 point lead in Austin and almost blew a 12 point lead in Bloomington. There is no sign that whatever is causing the late game collapses is changing.

I bet this is one of the biggest reasons why Day keeps talking about winning in the 4th qtr.

 

[Onebuckfan]

OurOL needs to step it up against a smaller but athletic front. We actually weren’t terrible against SC.

 

[Captain Buckeye]

OurOL needs to step it up against a smaller but athletic front. We actually weren’t terrible against SC.

Ran for 200+ and passed for 260.

I also thought the OL performance was fine.

It’s the stupid penalties the OL needs to stop (tight ends included). The false starts, the holdings etc just killed us.

If we can just play disciplined, have no turnovers, and stop the explosive plays we’ll be fine.

 

[Jaxbuck]

The USC defense is awful.

We learned nothing more about the OL and TE play in that game except for the mental mistakes never taking a week off.

 

[DaddyBigBucks]

I agree that we learned nothing about the OL etc

But the usc defense is not uniformly awful

Their rushing D is above average and the Buckeyes ran for more yards on them than anyone else by a decent amount

Their passing D is straight, unwiped ass and the Buckeyes managed the worst passing efficiency of any P4 team against it

 

[scarletngray]

Ran for 200+ and passed for 260.

I also thought the OL performance was fine.

It’s the stupid penalties the OL needs to stop (tight ends included). The false starts, the holdings etc just killed us.

If we can just play disciplined, have no turnovers, and stop the explosive plays we’ll be fine.

Yup, we can't beat ourselves. Especially in the red zone.

 

[Jaxbuck]

I agree that we learned nothing about the OL etc

But the usc defense is not uniformly awful

Their rushing D is above average and the Buckeyes ran for more yards on them than anyone else by a decent amount

Their passing D is straight, unwiped ass and the Buckeyes managed the worst passing efficiency of any P4 team against it

What stats are using for that?

I have USC run defense EPA/rush at .10 good for 119th in the country. Game on paper .com.

Pass and overall are similar levels of ass.

I know that’s not the end all be all but I haven’t seen anything showing the USC run defense as good???

 

[DaddyBigBucks]

What stats are using for that?

I have USC run defense EPA/rush at .10 good for 119th in the country. Game on paper .com.

Pass and overall are similar levels of ass.

I know that’s not the end all be all but I haven’t seen anything showing the USC run defense as good???

Not gonna lie, I'm a big fan of efficiency stats. I even made up a few of my own and posted them on Bucknuts during the 2002 season; I think they did a better job of explaining Ohio State's success that year than anything else.

But to answer your question:

Before the Ohio State game, USC had given up 919 yards in 8 games for 114.88 yards per game.
USC's opponents had gained 7395 yards against opponents not-named USC in 50 games against non-USC teams for 147.9 yards per game.
So USC's Differential Rushing Defense was 114.88/147.9 which is 0.777. That is well above average. After Ohio State had a good day against them, their DRD is down to 0.846, which is still better than average.

Of course their is context to this, like USC deciding that Ohio State was not the kind of team that could beat them with the running game and playing to stop Jeremiah; so Ohio State's good rushing day against them means exactly dick. But here we are. Those are my numbers that say USC is better than average on defense. The yards per rush numbers tell the same story, but there was no reason to include them.

 

[dragurd]

Maybe unpopular opinion but Walt can't coach zone and neither could coombs. We're constantly standing guarding space not men with 2 or 3 people standing flat footed around the ball.

 

[DaddyBigBucks]

Maybe unpopular opinion but Walt can't coach zone and neither could coombs. We're constantly standing guarding space not men with 2 or 3 people standing flat footed around the ball.

In his defense he does write folksy poems and read them to his players. So there’s that

 

[dragurd]

In his defense he does write folksy poems and read them to his players. So there’s that

He recruits like hell too.