Poe McKnoe
Head Coach
It's not the players…
Well, at least not entirely. They are not up to the standards of the Tressel years, not even 2006, which was the weaker (and greener) years. Talent level may be at recent low, as evidenced by the lack of recent Buckeye defensive players getting drafted or sticking in the NFL. Recently there's been Jenkins, Heyward, Hankins, Simon? Distinct lack of Safeties, CBs, DE, and LBs. OK, so there's not NFL talent oozing out of Columbus that there has been in the past. So what? You don't need NFL talent to slow down the mediocre QBs and WRs (save for the Wisconsin guy and PSU guy) this team has faced this year. We can go back to last year. We can go back a couple years. Heck, we could even go back to Vandenberg for Iowa having the distinct pleasure of lighting up the secondary despite being a lackluster QB before and after. It's a level playing field out there, guys. The rest of the Big Ten is not rolling out unstoppable offenses (despite some of them improving in recent years) and they surely don't have more talent on the roster than that of the Buckeyes. Why do middle of the road QBs and middle of the road WRs put up outlier statistics against the Buckeyes defense? Ohio State has recruited better than 99% of the teams it plays. There are some misses, there are some deflections, there's a lot of shit that happens, but you know what…it happens everywhere. Literally everywhere. The players fielded by Ohio State's two deep dwarf the B1G. Maybe it doesn't match up with that of some other top programs (Alabama, Florida State this year), but it does against this schedule.
It used to be that a balanced team with a decent pass game and decent RB or 2 could create issues. Teams this year haven't even tried to run on the Buckeyes. There's a reason no one had a 20 yard run before Scheelhause and why there hasn't been 100 yard rusher. There's no need. Middle of the Big Ten quarterbacks have created havoc by completing passes to open receivers. There's an issue. Is it the scheme? There's nothing wrong with a Cover 4 defense. It works elsewhere. There's nothing wrong with giving receivers a cushion. It works elsewhere. Why is there such issues here? How do you get production out of it? Opposing coaches are currently exploiting, and have been exploiting it. My gripes are echoed by other people and other posters. Soft coverage too often, defensive line not being set prior to the snap, the whole defense showing one alignment and not getting back into their actual alignment in time to defend the pass.
Think back a couple seasons. There was some question as to what and how the Ohio State offense functioned, or in many cases didn't function. There was a lack of identity, a lack of cohesive action, a lack of production. The fans saw it. Opposing coaches obviously saw it. I think in many ways, the Ohio State defense is in the position that the offense (and offensive line) was in several years ago. Exact same position. It's not that the players weren't there. It's not that the coaching was all bad. It just didn't work. Plain and simple didn't work. It took a herculean effort by individual players, many players who ended up in the NFL, for it to work. So what happened? Urban Meyer gets hired and the offensive coaching staff got canned. Every single one of them minus the WR coach errr RB coach. New offensive coordinator and new offensive line coach steps in, blows it up, and look where we are now on that side of the ball. Miller is by far a better QB than he was prior (though it could be contributed to age), I think his mechanics and understanding of the offense is far above that of Pryor, I might even say Troy Smith (in terms of pure mechanics). It was changed because it wasn't working previously. They blew it up, and now Ohio State has one of the most dangerous rushing attacks in the nation and a passing game that has shown it's effective.
So that's where we are now. It needs to be blown up.
Well, at least not entirely. They are not up to the standards of the Tressel years, not even 2006, which was the weaker (and greener) years. Talent level may be at recent low, as evidenced by the lack of recent Buckeye defensive players getting drafted or sticking in the NFL. Recently there's been Jenkins, Heyward, Hankins, Simon? Distinct lack of Safeties, CBs, DE, and LBs. OK, so there's not NFL talent oozing out of Columbus that there has been in the past. So what? You don't need NFL talent to slow down the mediocre QBs and WRs (save for the Wisconsin guy and PSU guy) this team has faced this year. We can go back to last year. We can go back a couple years. Heck, we could even go back to Vandenberg for Iowa having the distinct pleasure of lighting up the secondary despite being a lackluster QB before and after. It's a level playing field out there, guys. The rest of the Big Ten is not rolling out unstoppable offenses (despite some of them improving in recent years) and they surely don't have more talent on the roster than that of the Buckeyes. Why do middle of the road QBs and middle of the road WRs put up outlier statistics against the Buckeyes defense? Ohio State has recruited better than 99% of the teams it plays. There are some misses, there are some deflections, there's a lot of shit that happens, but you know what…it happens everywhere. Literally everywhere. The players fielded by Ohio State's two deep dwarf the B1G. Maybe it doesn't match up with that of some other top programs (Alabama, Florida State this year), but it does against this schedule.
It used to be that a balanced team with a decent pass game and decent RB or 2 could create issues. Teams this year haven't even tried to run on the Buckeyes. There's a reason no one had a 20 yard run before Scheelhause and why there hasn't been 100 yard rusher. There's no need. Middle of the Big Ten quarterbacks have created havoc by completing passes to open receivers. There's an issue. Is it the scheme? There's nothing wrong with a Cover 4 defense. It works elsewhere. There's nothing wrong with giving receivers a cushion. It works elsewhere. Why is there such issues here? How do you get production out of it? Opposing coaches are currently exploiting, and have been exploiting it. My gripes are echoed by other people and other posters. Soft coverage too often, defensive line not being set prior to the snap, the whole defense showing one alignment and not getting back into their actual alignment in time to defend the pass.
Think back a couple seasons. There was some question as to what and how the Ohio State offense functioned, or in many cases didn't function. There was a lack of identity, a lack of cohesive action, a lack of production. The fans saw it. Opposing coaches obviously saw it. I think in many ways, the Ohio State defense is in the position that the offense (and offensive line) was in several years ago. Exact same position. It's not that the players weren't there. It's not that the coaching was all bad. It just didn't work. Plain and simple didn't work. It took a herculean effort by individual players, many players who ended up in the NFL, for it to work. So what happened? Urban Meyer gets hired and the offensive coaching staff got canned. Every single one of them minus the WR coach errr RB coach. New offensive coordinator and new offensive line coach steps in, blows it up, and look where we are now on that side of the ball. Miller is by far a better QB than he was prior (though it could be contributed to age), I think his mechanics and understanding of the offense is far above that of Pryor, I might even say Troy Smith (in terms of pure mechanics). It was changed because it wasn't working previously. They blew it up, and now Ohio State has one of the most dangerous rushing attacks in the nation and a passing game that has shown it's effective.
So that's where we are now. It needs to be blown up.
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