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What's Wrong With the 2013 Defense?

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What's Wrong With the 2013 Defense?

  • Talent / Players

    Votes: 29 11.8%

  • Scheme / Coaching

    Votes: 127 51.8%

  • Both are substandard

    Votes: 71 29.0%

  • Neither - B1G offenses are unstoppable

    Votes: 10 4.1%

  • I don't care - just fire Fickell!

    Votes: 8 3.3%
  • Total voters
    245
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I was reading on another site about Coach Johnson and his approach to DL rotation. He says he will be putting 8-9 guys in during a game depending on field position, number of plays, and some other factors.

The interesting thing was that Bosa, Bennett, etc. said they welcomed that change - that they often played TIRED last year - and that they would rather play 45 snaps fresh than 70 tired. That might be a partial explanation of why the strongest part of the defense last year wasn't always consistent in applying pressure with just the 4 guys and no blitz.
 
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The OSU-Clemson game is on the best games of 2013, so I mustered up the patience to watch...damn near unwatchable after I forgot how low my expectations were by the Orange Bowl. I saw a fairly talented defense with zero identity and zero cohesion watch the player next to them, expecting the other guy to make a play. Really sad to say but this is the worst I've seen our defense and by a VERY wide margin. Utter confusion, finger pointing, and not a single player in the back 7 ready to play. Anyways, only reason I am looking back is to see how we can look forward.

Will it get better? Well, the DL was fantastic but the ability to sling it willy-nilly the second the QB got the ball negated them. I've said plenty about our DL but good-God is Joey Bosa just incredible. The only thing I will say about the DL is that we may not miss Marcus this year, but we very well may down the road...kid was a player. I saw some steps from Perry and I think he will be good this year...maybe very good, we'll see. Curtis Grant...almost no faith, but either he will be good or get passed by McMillan. Shazier is tough to replace. Reaves...I hate to say it but he looked absolutely awful and that is about in line with the rest of his season. He will either improve by leaps and bounds (by that, I mean be a completely different player), or get replaced by Conley, Apple, Webb, or Lattimore, flat out. Doran Grant was solid and I think he will be great this year. Bell showed glimpses of greatness on his own imo, the scheme was just a nightmare and he will benefit by Ash's scheme in letting aggressiveness and talent take over. Powell was non-existent but he is young, I still have plenty of hope for him....he's shown some flashes. Burrows had the talent coming in and just needed time to grasp the scheme...his game is suited for the safety spot, he will be an improvement over Barnett I think.

Overall? I don't think it could be worse...statistically, it could not have been much worse, so this is just not my feelings taking over. So...will it be better? Way too many question marks for me to say yes definitively. I am inclined to say yes because we had so much confusion on defense and guys were afraid to get beat deep, but they were also afraid to even come up and make a play. With a more aggressive scheme, I just think we see improvement with the talent and depth improvement (on paper anyways). The front 4 is so good that we only need the back 7 to be above average. With so much influx of young talent, it will force the upper classmen to get significantly better or get passed. It won't be overnight but I think we will see gradual improvement to an eventually very good unit, with some new faces shuffled in until we find the right mix. I just hope we don't drop one in the process.
 
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I'll slightly disagree with the statement "the defense for the last three games was as good as it's ever been at Ohio State". The 2002 defense played better than that the entire 2002 season and 2003 Fiesta Bowl. Keep in mind the current defense gave up 35 offensive points and 407 yards to Alabama in the Sugar Bowl while the 2002 defense gave up no more than 21 points in regulation in any of their 14 games (and those 21 points were against Texas Tech, who scored 14 points late in the game in garbage time). We all know what the 2002 defense did to Cryami who had a far better offense than did 2014 Alabama.
 
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I agree with the above but in the modern era of offensive dominance, what our team did the last three games was unreal...there is a bit of relativity there. At the end of the day, the '02 defense takes it though...aside from what they did to Miami, just look at the draft...the NFL took due notice of their talent. In any event, I think you can put this defense in that echelon for their last few games.
 
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As it turned out, what was wrong with the OSU D was that they needed a little more time and some circumstances. I watched the Indiana and scUM games the other day. They were leaky - and that's being kind. They did some good things, but they were not really consistent enough, even in late November, to make me feel great about them. At that point, I was just hoping they could play well enough to let us outscore Wisconsin by 1.

What changed? There were two events that happened scUM week. KK's tragic death and JT's injury. I think those two things brought the entire team together, and everyone elevated their play. The next week I saw a bunch of Silver Bullets beat the brown out of Wisky, and the rest is history.

There was some growing that needed to take place, and it took some time for experience to be acquired and to kick in, but I think that team just got really, really close. I'm sure a lot of coaches try to create that situation, and I'm sure Urban was trying, but I think it just happens - usually through adverse events that you would not ever want to happen.

Recruiting, physical development, skill development, motivation, scheme, etc. takes you a long way, but maybe the thing that makes good players into great players, and good teams into great teams, is something a coach has no control over.
 
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Although the defense at the end of the season wasn't quite the "best ever", as a team the three-game stretch in the post-season was the most impressive three-game stretch in program history. The only other multiple-game stretch that was nearly as impressive was the 50-14 curb stomping of Michigan in 1968 and then dominating OJ Simpson-led #2 USC in the subsequent 1969 Rose Bowl 27-16 (was 27-10 until USC scored in the last minute).
 
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MililaniBuckeye said:
Although the defense at the end of the season wasn't quite the "best ever", as a team the three-game stretch in the post-season was the most impressive three-game stretch in program history. The only other multiple-game stretch that was nearly as impressive was the 50-14 curb stomping of Michigan in 1968 and then dominating OJ Simpson-led #2 USC in the subsequent 1969 Rose Bowl 27-16 (was 27-10 until USC scored in the last minute).
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What he said. The Silver Bullets returned.
 
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