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Game Thread Ohio State v Washington 2018 Rose Bowl Pasadena, CA 1/1/19 5pm on ESPN

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The obligatory "all-time series" record post:

Ohio State leads the series, 8-3.
Ohio State is 4-1 in The Shoe.
Ohio State is 4-2 at UW.
Average score of all games (rounded): Ohio State 24, Washington 19.
Ohio State has won the last three meetings by an average score of 30-14.
Washington is the only member of the four PAC-12 teams located in the northwest to have a win against Ohio State:
  • Washington 3-8
  • Washington State 0-8
  • Oregon 0-9
  • Oregon State 0-3
 
Upvote 0
TS10HTW said:
The real question is will we actually get a decent Washington person with some insight on their team and what they expect as far as matchups and advantages?

Nah. I didn’t think so either.
Click to expand...

Since you asked, I'll oblige.

UW's strengths:

Secondary, Linebackers, Running Game, Run Blocking, Tight End Play

UW's weaknesses:

Pass Rush, Pass Protection, Wide Receiver Play, Special Teams, Quarterback

Strengths Breakdown:

Secondary: One of the best, if not the best secondary in the country. Features first round picks in Bryon Murphy and Taylor Rapp who were named PFF All Americans as the highest graded players at their positions in the country. You don't want to throw at Murphy and I expect you won't. Taylor Rapp is Earl Thomas like... covers well, diagnoses plays quickly and hits hard. If you're going to throw to the outside you'll want to attack Jordan Miller... he's given up a couple throws over the top... he's expected to be drafted anywhere from round 3-5. As a whole, the UW secondary keeps it in front of themselves and doesn't allow big plays to get past them. You'll have an advantage against our slot corners because they're small... Molden and Bryant are both around 5'9 and are light. We've struggled against teams who run slants with bigger tight ends or wide receivers against them. The Dawgs only allow 185 yards through the air per game... and this unit is as good as advertised.

Linebackers: Ben Burr-Kirven will probably get some All-American accolades of his own. He leads the nation with 165 tackles this season... 15 more than any player in the country. He's essentially gone from be undraftable to someone who could push for 1st or 2nd round consideration. He's truly the MVP of a very good Husky defense. I wouldn't recommend running much in the flat because you won't get by both him and Rapp given their speed and keen ability to diagnose a play. The Huskies then have a rotation of three guys in Tevis Bartlett, DJ Beavers and Brandon Wellington who are all upperclassman. They ruin plays in the flat and are extremely good run defenders. Where they might struggle is in pass coverage... teams who move the ball on us typical do so with a quick dump pass in front of our LB's on 1st or 2nd down leaving 2nd or 3rd and short. We play a zone and that is a significant weak spot. So I'd stick with intermediate throws over the middle if I were the Buckeyes.

Running Game: I've read a few posts in here talking about Myles Gaskin as a threat. And yes, if he gets going you're in for a long night. He's undersized but has some of the best vision and patience I've ever seen... if you don't respect your gaps and gang tackle the kid he's gonna kill you. He's the only Pac Conference running back to have rushed for 1,000 yards in 4 consecutive seasons. He has 55 rushing TD's in his career... just don't overlook him. His counterpart is Salvon Ahmed who is one of the fastest running backs in the country - he's extremely explosive and we'll get him the ball in space. He goes down easy, but if you don't hit him he'll run right by you. If the Huskies run the ball effectively the offense looks quite good... in games where we don't run the ball we look terrible (see Utah). It should also be noted that Husky running backs don't fumble the football... I think in the past 4 years Gaskin has fumbled once and it was recovered, but don't quote me.

Run Blocking: Get ready for a lot of pulls. The Dawgs running game is predicated on hitting blocks at the second level on runs to the exterior. We do a great job of it and it leads to a lot of long runs. Less disciplined teams struggle against our blocking scheme... Seeing as you guys allow 160+ a game on the ground, the Huskies might have a big advantage here.

Tight End Play: Our tight ends are great run blockers... but for the majority of the season they weren't much of a threat in the passing game. Why is that? We were without Hunter Bryant who was a freshman All-American at TE but had suffered a torn ACL and had another disclosed knee injury that caused him to miss the majority of the season. If you don't contain him he's a serious weapon on offense. He's also the main target in the majority of our trick plays because he'll sell that he's blocking and then streak open on a route. Against Utah, Browning (God we hate him) missed him twice when he was wide open 30 yards down the field with nobody in sight. If he were a competent QB that's 2 scores.

Run Defense: So here's the thing. If you want to beat the Huskies, run the football on them. We defend with 4 or 3 man fronts and drop into coverage like 75% of the time. It leaves running lanes open... the odd thing? We're a great team in run defense despite leaving our guys on an island. Greg Gaines, a projected 3rd to 4th round pick is a monster in the middle. He draws and beats double teams. Benning Potoae plays on the edge, but he's not an edge rusher, his job is to seal the edge and not allow running backs to get around him and he's excellent at that. We're just very disciplined on the DL and it's a testament to the players drafted over the years (Shelton, Qualls, Vea). As mentioned, our linebackers are also great in run defense and diagnose run or pass very quickly.

Weaknesses Breakdown:

Pass Rush: Our defense typically drops 7 or 8 in coverage... means we're typically rushing 4 or 3. In the past this wasn't too big of an issue as we typically had edge rushers or guys on the interior who got home more times than not. Since graduating Vea to the NFL we haven't gotten to QB's nearly as well. That said, the last couple weeks have been quite different. The Huskies defensive line had 2 sacks and an intentional grounding penalty against WSU who came into that game having only allowed 9 sacks the entire year. Against Utah it was a similar story... a much better pass rush. Joe Tryon is a redshirt Freshman who only began starting a few games ago and he has made this unit a lot better. Our primary blitzers are Taylor Rapp (5 sacks from the safety position) and Tevis Bartlett who sucks. I'm sure you guys have a big, physical O-line and good lines have typically given us fits... I'd be surprised if we get to Haskins all that much if I'm being honest and that's the scary part for Husky fans going into this game.

Pass Protection: Browning likes to hold onto the football... he's been gun shy this year and it's led to a lot of pressures. When he gets the ball out of his hand quickly we're a pretty solid passing team... when he doesn't and decides to run backwards it spells doom. Our O-line typically allows 2 or 3 free rushes a game and it kills us. We also really struggle with holds... Kaleb McGary and Luke Wattenburg are the typical culprits. If you wan't an idea of what our pass protection looks like when we struggle, watch the Auburn game. Derrick Brown destroyed us. We're also terrible at picking up blitzes on 3rd downs. Blitz every 3rd down... just do it.

Wide Reciever Play: We start 2 midgets and a giant. The midgets are Aaron Fuller and Andre Baccellia who are both around 5'10. Fuller was our most explosive wideout in the early part of the season... in his first 6 games he had four 100 yard games. Since then he's had 5 games with 2 receptions or less. He's struggled with drops and isn't fast enough to get separation. He's been a liability of late. On the flip side, Baccellia, who I hate, has been better of late with 13 receptions the last 2 games. I don't know what to think of him. He's not talented... but he's really been our only wideout capable of getting open. The giant is Ty Jones at 6'4... he's our jump ball and red zone threat who Browning doesn't throw to nearly enough. Our wideouts struggle to get separation and none of them have enough speed or explosion to run by those defending them. Bottom line is we've thrown one deep ball over the middle this season. One. It was against WSU and it was completed. It's shocking considering the years John Ross and Dante Pettis had in 2016 and 2017. We've been begging for Petersen and our O-coordinator to open up the damn field, but they refuse. That said, don't be surprised if we take a couple shots in the Rose Bowl though... you won't be expecting it and Petersen knows that.

Special Teams: Peyton Henry has got to be one of the worst place kickers in the country. His range extends to about 30 yards... if it's past 30 yards Petersen either goes for it or quick kicks it. He has absolutely killed us this year with key misses in key games. He also doesn't have a big enough leg to get consistent touchbacks on kickoffs and our kickoff coverage has left a lot to be desired. We've allowed big returns a lot this season. Our punt game is mediocre... doesn't hurt or help us and we typically kick away from returners. Sean McGrew returns kickoffs... he stinks. Aaron Fuller returns punts... he stinks. Again, we used to have John Ross returning kickoffs who was one of the best in UW history... Dante Pettis returned punts for us and he set the NCAA record for career punt returns... it's been a drastic drop off.

Quarterback Play: Jake Browning, despite throwing for the most yards and TD's in UW history, is not a fan favorite. In fact, most fans cannot wait for him to graduate so we can get Jacob Eason in their next year. He was 6th in the Heisman voting in 2016 and fans figured he'd takes us to the promise land... now he plays like the 6th worst QB in the FBS. He's indecisive, holds the ball for way too long, has a weak arm, refuses to air it out, no longer throws slants, is slow, runs backwards when pressured, fumbles when the pocket gets dirty and throws too many balls into contested, tight windows. He does 3 things well: he's mostly accurate when given time to throw, he scrambles oddly well and will pick up 1st downs with his feet and he's probably the best QB sneaker in the country, which makes no sense. Bottom line, get consistent pressure on him and it's game over.

How UW Wins:

On Offense: Gaskin averages 6+ yards a carry leading to long drives for the Huskies that burn through the clock. OSU fails to get good pressure on Browning and he hits a couple more explosive pass plays than you'd expect. The Huskies are successful moving the ball in short chunks and OSU bites too hard and gets burned by a couple trick plays.

On Defense: The Huskies drop 7 or 8 into coverage on a consistent basis and Haskins struggles to find open receivers and makes too many throws to the flat where UW tackles well in space (see WSU). OSU struggles to get a running game going forcing OSU into passing downs on 3rd and long. Washington is able to get some pressure on Haskins and in doing so forces some turnovers.

On Special Teams: Washington limits kick returns to the 25 yard line. Washington converts in the red-zone keeping their place kicker off the field.

How OSU Wins:

On Offense: OSU gets a run game going and forces the Huskies to play more defenders in the box than they'd like leaving the explosive OSU pass game open. The Huskies fail to get any pressure on Haskins with their 3 or 4 man rush and he has a field day completing passes to his athletic wideouts. OSU hits on their typical long passing game despite UW not allowing much over the top this year.

On Defense: OSU stacks the box and doesn't allow UW's running game to get going. OSU gets consistent pressure on Jake Browning who will make costly mistakes leading to easy points for the Buckeyes. OSU rattles Jake Browning who becomes gun shy and misses open routes down the field. OSU doesn't fall for trick plays.

On Special Teams: OSU takes advantage of Henry's poor leg and gets a couple lengthy returns in the game.
 
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Upvote 0
HuskiesvOhioStRoseBowl said:
Since you asked, I'll oblige.

UW's strengths:

Secondary, Linebackers, Running Game, Run Blocking, Tight End Play

UW's weaknesses:

Pass Rush, Pass Protection, Wide Receiver Play, Special Teams, Quarterback

Strengths Breakdown:

Secondary: One of the best, if not the best secondary in the country. Features first round picks in Bryon Murphy and Taylor Rapp who were named PFF All Americans as the highest graded players at their positions in the country. You don't want to throw at Murphy and I expect you won't. Taylor Rapp is Earl Thomas like... covers well, diagnoses plays quickly and hits hard. If you're going to throw to the outside you'll want to attack Jordan Miller... he's given up a couple throws over the top... he's expected to be drafted anywhere from round 3-5. As a whole, the UW secondary keeps it in front of themselves and doesn't allow big plays to get past them. You'll have an advantage against our slot corners because they're small... Molden and Bryant are both around 5'9 and are light. We've struggled against teams who run slants with bigger tight ends or wide receivers against them. The Dawgs only allow 185 yards through the air per game... and this unit is as good as advertised.

Linebackers: Ben Burr-Kirven will probably get some All-American accolades of his own. He leads the nation with 165 tackles this season... 15 more than any player in the country. He's essentially gone from be undraftable to someone who could push for 1st or 2nd round consideration. He's truly the MVP of a very good Husky defense. I wouldn't recommend running much in the flat because you won't get by both him and Rapp given their speed and keen ability to diagnose a play. The Huskies then have a rotation of three guys in Tevis Bartlett, DJ Beavers and Brandon Wellington who are all upperclassman. They ruin plays in the flat and are extremely good run defenders. Where they might struggle is in pass coverage... teams who move the ball on us typical do so with a quick dump pass in front of our LB's on 1st or 2nd down leaving 2nd or 3rd and short. We play a zone and that is a significant weak spot. So I'd stick with intermediate throws over the middle if I were the Buckeyes.

Running Game: I've read a few posts in here talking about Myles Gaskin as a threat. And yes, if he gets going you're in for a long night. He's undersized but has some of the best vision and patience I've ever seen... if you don't respect your gaps and gang tackle the kid he's gonna kill you. He's the only Pac Conference running back to have rushed for 1,000 yards in 4 consecutive seasons. He has 55 rushing TD's in his career... just don't overlook him. His counterpart is Salvon Ahmed who is one of the fastest running backs in the country - he's extremely explosive and we'll get him the ball in space. He goes down easy, but if you don't hit him he'll run right by you. If the Huskies run the ball effectively the offense looks quite good... in games where we don't run the ball we look terrible (see Utah). It should also be noted that Husky running backs don't fumble the football... I think in the past 4 years Gaskin has fumbled once and it was recovered, but don't quote me.

Run Blocking: Get ready for a lot of pulls. The Dawgs running game is predicated on hitting blocks at the second level on runs to the exterior. We do a great job of it and it leads to a lot of long runs. Less disciplined teams struggle against our blocking scheme... Seeing as you guys allow 160+ a game on the ground, the Huskies might have a big advantage here.

Tight End Play: Our tight ends are great run blockers... but for the majority of the season they weren't much of a threat in the passing game. Why is that? We were without Hunter Bryant who was a freshman All-American at TE but had suffered a torn ACL and had another disclosed knee injury that caused him to miss the majority of the season. If you don't contain him he's a serious weapon on offense. He's also the main target in the majority of our trick plays because he'll sell that he's blocking and then streak open on a route. Against Utah, Browning (God we hate him) missed him twice when he was wide open 30 yards down the field with nobody in sight. If he were a competent QB that's 2 scores.

Run Defense: So here's the thing. If you want to beat the Huskies, run the football on them. We defend with 4 or 3 man fronts and drop into coverage like 75% of the time. It leaves running lanes open... the odd thing? We're a great team in run defense despite leaving our guys on an island. Greg Gaines, a projected 3rd to 4th round pick is a monster in the middle. He draws and beats double teams. Benning Potoae plays on the edge, but he's not an edge rusher, his job is to seal the edge and not allow running backs to get around him and he's excellent at that. We're just very disciplined on the DL and it's a testament to the players drafted over the years (Shelton, Qualls, Vea). As mentioned, our linebackers are also great in run defense and diagnose run or pass very quickly.

Weaknesses Breakdown:

Pass Rush: Our defense typically drops 7 or 8 in coverage... means we're typically rushing 4 or 3. In the past this wasn't too big of an issue as we typically had edge rushers or guys on the interior who got home more times than not. Since graduating Vea to the NFL we haven't gotten to QB's nearly as well. That said, the last couple weeks have been quite different. The Huskies defensive line had 2 sacks and an intentional grounding penalty against WSU who came into that game having only allowed 9 sacks the entire year. Against Utah it was a similar story... a much better pass rush. Joe Tryon is a redshirt Freshman who only began starting a few games ago and he has made this unit a lot better. Our primary blitzers are Taylor Rapp (5 sacks from the safety position) and Tevis Bartlett who sucks. I'm sure you guys have a big, physical O-line and good lines have typically given us fits... I'd be surprised if we get to Haskins all that much if I'm being honest and that's the scary part for Husky fans going into this game.

Pass Protection: Browning likes to hold onto the football... he's been gun shy this year and it's led to a lot of pressures. When he gets the ball out of his hand quickly we're a pretty solid passing team... when he doesn't and decides to run backwards it spells doom. Our O-line typically allows 2 or 3 free rushes a game and it kills us. We also really struggle with holds... Kaleb McGary and Luke Wattenburg are the typical culprits. If you wan't an idea of what our pass protection looks like when we struggle, watch the Auburn game. Derrick Brown destroyed us. We're also terrible at picking up blitzes on 3rd downs. Blitz every 3rd down... just do it.

Wide Reciever Play: We start 2 midgets and a giant. The midgets are Aaron Fuller and Andre Baccellia who are both around 5'10. Fuller was our most explosive wideout in the early part of the season... in his first 6 games he had four 100 yard games. Since then he's had 5 games with 2 receptions or less. He's struggled with drops and isn't fast enough to get separation. He's been a liability of late. On the flip side, Baccellia, who I hate, has been better of late with 13 receptions the last 2 games. I don't know what to think of him. He's not talented... but he's really been our only wideout capable of getting open. The giant is Ty Jones at 6'4... he's our jump ball and red zone threat who Browning doesn't throw to nearly enough. Our wideouts struggle to get separation and none of them have enough speed or explosion to run by those defending them. Bottom line is we've thrown one deep ball over the middle this season. One. It was against WSU and it was completed. It's shocking considering the years John Ross and Dante Pettis had in 2016 and 2017. We've been begging for Petersen and our O-coordinator to open up the damn field, but they refuse. That said, don't be surprised if we take a couple shots in the Rose Bowl though... you won't be expecting it and Petersen knows that.

Special Teams: Peyton Henry has got to be one of the worst place kickers in the country. His range extends to about 30 yards... if it's past 30 yards Petersen either goes for it or quick kicks it. He has absolutely killed us this year with key misses in key games. He also doesn't have a big enough leg to get consistent touchbacks on kickoffs and our kickoff coverage has left a lot to be desired. We've allowed big returns a lot this season. Our punt game is mediocre... doesn't hurt or help us and we typically kick away from returners. Sean McGrew returns kickoffs... he stinks. Aaron Fuller returns punts... he stinks. Again, we used to have John Ross returning kickoffs who was one of the best in UW history... Dante Pettis returned punts for us and he set the NCAA record for career punt returns... it's been a drastic drop off.

Quarterback Play: Jake Browning, despite throwing for the most yards and TD's in UW history, is not a fan favorite. In fact, most fans cannot wait for him to graduate so we can get Jacob Eason in their next year. He was 6th in the Heisman voting in 2016 and fans figured he'd takes us to the promise land... now he plays like the 6th worst QB in the FBS. He's indecisive, holds the ball for way too long, has a weak arm, refuses to air it out, no longer throws slants, is slow, runs backwards when pressured, fumbles when the pocket gets dirty and throws too many balls into contested, tight windows. He does 3 things well: he's mostly accurate when given time to throw, he scrambles oddly well and will pick up 1st downs with his feet and he's probably the best QB sneaker in the country, which makes no sense. Bottom line, get consistent pressure on him and it's game over.

How UW Wins:

On Offense: Gaskin averages 6+ yards a carry leading to long drives for the Huskies that burn through the clock. OSU fails to get good pressure on Browning and he hits a couple more explosive pass plays than you'd expect. The Huskies are successful moving the ball in short chunks and OSU bites too hard and gets burned by a couple trick plays.

On Defense: The Huskies drop 7 or 8 into coverage on a consistent basis and Haskins struggles to find open receivers and makes too many throws to the flat where UW tackles well in space (see WSU). OSU struggles to get a running game going forcing OSU into passing downs on 3rd and long. Washington is able to get some pressure on Haskins and in doing so forces some turnovers.

On Special Teams: Washington limits kick returns to the 25 yard line. Washington converts in the red-zone keeping their place kicker off the field.

How OSU Wins:

On Offense: OSU gets a run game going and forces the Huskies to play more defenders in the box than they'd like leaving the explosive OSU pass game open. The Huskies fail to get any pressure on Haskins with their 3 or 4 man rush and he has a field day completing passes to his athletic wideouts. OSU hits on their typical long passing game despite UW not allowing much over the top this year.

On Defense: OSU stacks the box and doesn't allow UW's running game to get going. OSU gets consistent pressure on Jake Browning who will make costly mistakes leading to easy points for the Buckeyes. OSU rattles Jake Browning who becomes gun shy and misses open routes down the field. OSU doesn't fall for trick plays.

On Special Teams: OSU takes advantage of Henry's poor leg and gets a couple lengthy returns in the game.
Click to expand...

welcome. this is a fantastic breakdown and i agree everywhere. hope you stick around :)
 
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