Moment of clarity on this spread option stuff.
We've been facing teams that run it since JT took over. He immediately began recruiting multiple DB's every year because he knew the game was going to evolve to the point where you are in nickel and dime more than your "base" defense. He obviously knew that a team had better be able to put a good player out there for that 5th and 6th DB. We do this consistently, tsun honestly still does not get this and the results show.
Go watch any game from 2002 up to now and see what the common defensive gameplan is against spread teams. Rush 4, drop 7, blitz occasionaly and if they get inside our 20 blitz like crazy. The philosophy being keep it all in front of you, play well in space, make your tackles and the odds are the offense will make a mistake and can't sustain more than 1 or 2 long drives per game.
We give up yards but not many points. This statistically leads to us being ranked low vs the pass and high vs the run. 2002-2003 defensive ratings are a perfect example. At first blush someone looks at pass defense ratings and says man, they give up 250 yds per game and rank 80-something, they are weak vs the pass. Meanwhile we are top 10 in scoring D and thats all that matters.
More often than not this philosophy works. The key hidden ingrediant is something DBB touched on in his game preview...field position. UF had a short field all night and the QB played the game of his life. Those two things are the key's to defeating our defensive game plan vs the spread. If an offense consistently has to go 80 yards, 5 yards at a time dinking and dunking, odds are they are going to fuck something up along the way. Penalty, bad read, dropped ball, bad throw etc. If its just one of those days and the QB is playing out of his gord then your going to have a problem. You still have your Offense and ST's to hopefully win for you on a bad day for the defense.
It wasn't the spread option offense blowing our small midwestern pea brains, it wasn't the southern master race flexing their collective superhuman athletic ability on our big, slow, plodding defensive players. It was a case of the other team having players just as good as ours and executing their gameplan much better than we did ours.
Now as it applies to this game. I honestly hope they are dumb enough to draw hope from that UF film because they don't have the horses to do what UF did. It wasn't the scheme of the spread option that got us, it was UF's execution.
Locker may be able to kill people someday but it won't be Saturday. He's just too young and inexperienced. UW isn't a true spread option team and even if they were, the QB is just such a critical spot, you are going to struggle with any young player no matter how good he is. Take into account his supporting cast isn't all that and its even more problematic for UW.
Eliminate the offensive TO's, pass to set up the run, attack the edges and we should be fine.
23-10 OSU.
at ty being a better coach than JT
