• New here? Register here now for access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Plus, stay connected and follow BP on Instagram @buckeyeplanet and Facebook.

Amazing stat about last year's defense...

Jump to latest Follow Reply
plum diamonds buckeye planet
Sort by date Sort by votes
tibor75

tibor75

Banned
I found this on CHN.com...kind of hard to believe...

The number one thing to work on is: Forcing turnovers. Considering all the NFL talent on the Ohio State defense last year, and considering the D finished number one in the nation in run defense, it’s amazing that it only took it away 12 times. That’s as many as Buffalo, and only Rice (11) and Illinois (8) forced fewer.
 
Probably at least in some part due to simplified game plans against the defense. Look at the Penn State game, for instance. They didn't turn the ball over (which is why they won), but they basically sat on the ball for most of 3 quarters too. I agree, it would have been better to get more TOs, but fumbles depend on the bounce, and our defense forced a whole mess of 3-and-outs, which are almost as good.
 
Upvote 0
It's been pretty well documented that we couldn't force turnovers. I did not realize we were at the absolute bottom, but I remember the announcers harping on our spot at the bottom of the big ten in this category.

This has been brought up often when discussing the green defense next year. They will not be able to shut people down like the 05 D, at least not at first, but if they can force turnovers their performance may be much better than expected.

lion, I would have to disagree with you. We just didn't force turnovers, which was astounding considering our coverage (should have had more INTs; especially from our LBs) and our size (Kudla, Carp, Hawk, Schlegel, Salley, Whitner should have resulted in more fumbles). Also, turnovers often lead to easy FGs.
 
Upvote 0
I'm not ripping at Tibor, he's just the messenger here. But, I guess my point is, what's the point here?

You can probably just take it for what it is, that a meaningful stat like takeaways is usually indicative of the quality of a defense 99.999% of the time. This .001 it was not. People that want to argue can say that our defense underachieved with these numbers. The flipside would be that maybe this was our greatest defense ever considering that it had only 12 takeaways.
 
Upvote 0
I wonder how much of it was due to lack of opportunity?

We got an awful lot of three and outs. We also put the offense in a lot of third and really longs, which against our defense, they tended to play more conservatively. So I would argue that the mid range plays, which are probably the ones that you try things that are the riskiest, are the ones we prevented.
 
Upvote 0
Could be the "D" coaches put such an emphasis on tackling that the boys think, "I'll make sure he goes no where,first."
Many college teams don't concentrate on tackling form. We do.
Can't argue with results.
 
Upvote 0
One question I had all year about that stat -- a turnover requires both a failure on the part of the opposing offense along with an opportunistic play on the part of the defense. So, is our defense not coached or designed in a way to cause/take advantage of offensive mistakes, or did our opponents just do a great job of taking care of the ball?

Is it common for defenses that give up low yardage totals to also get few turnovers?
 
Upvote 0
A lot of people like to say this was the greatest defense the ever saw and better than the 2002 defense. I completley disagree with that. Not forcing turnovers is the main reason why this defense can not be put up there with the 2002 unit. I couldn't believe how many interceptions this defense dropped during the season. This defense also didn't perform that well against Minnesota or Michigan State. I don't think the 2002 1st team defense had performances like that. You also have to consider that this defense had an average at best DE starting opposite Kudla and once Carpenter went down there was no pass rush from that position.
 
Upvote 0
there was no pass rush? I seem to remember Patterson in the backfield quite a bit against Michigan, and Kudla during both games.

I don't think the 05 defense is quite on par with the 02 one, however the 05 defense probably faced at least three better offenses (during the regular season) than anything that the 02 defense faced. Yes I remember the miami game, but the shutdown factor was similar during the 05 bowl game vs ND (walker is no mcgahee, but most other positions were pretty stellar at ND).
 
Upvote 0
Turnover statistics have deteriorated the quality of defensive play at all levels of football. Stats show that teams that win the turnover battle and teams that force turnovers win more games. Therefore, the solution of many coaches has been to coach their players to go for turnovers on every play, rather than making a sure tackle.

Look at USC's defense this year: How many big plays did they give up because they went for the pick instead of just defending the pass? How many extra yards did they give up because the reached for the ball instead of wrapping up the ballcarrier? Sure, they forced a ton of turnovers, and won a lot of games. Teams that play like that on defense get exposed by teams that have skill and experience on the other side of the ball though.

Of course, Ohio State wants to force turnovers on defense. It seems to me they try to do it within the context of a good, fundamentally sound defense though. Also, I know it didn't happen this year, but I'm glad the Buckeyes are coached by man who tries to win the turnover battle by taking care of the ball on offense rather than promoting reckless play on defense. I'm glad we have a team where players don't seem to stick the ball out and dive for the pylon from the seven yard line, practically tossing the ball toward the endzone. I'd rather have the hardest hitting, surest tackling defense than the defense than the one that forces the most turnovers. I'm not saying those are mutually exclusive, but it's obvious that different teams place a different priority level on each of those.
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top