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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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Taosman said:
We really don't know that as fact because Fickel hasn't had the LBer depth or even talent in the secondary that was at Florida.
Look, everybody wants to see improvement but we are what we are right now. We lack play makers at LBer and talent in the secondary.
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How thin? When, in 2011, you play the last half of The Game, with a freshman LB with only one leg because you have no one else to put out there, when, in 2012, you pull your starting fullback and ask him to please get up to speed at LB 'cause you only have one real Big Ten LB and your defense suddenly becomes effective, when you spend the 2013 season with one LB and audition everyone else at the other two spots, you're thin.

Hard not to remember the days when a Wilhelm went down and a Hawk stepped up, when a Carpenter broke his leg and a Laranitus stepped up... there are no Hawks or Laranitus to step up, and aside from Shazier, there are no Wilhelms or Carpenters out there.

I guess my question would be, why have all the athletic talent of someone like Jalin Marshall (and others) sit on the bench or take a red shirt and not try and move him to the defensive side of the ball?
 
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cincibuck said:
How thin? When, in 2011, you play the last half of The Game, with a freshman LB with only one leg because you have no one else to put out there, when, in 2012, you pull your starting fullback and ask him to please get up to speed at LB 'cause you only have one real Big Ten LB and your defense suddenly becomes effective, when you spend the 2013 season with one LB and audition everyone else at the other two spots.

I guess my question would be, why have all the athletic talent of someone like Jalin Marshall (and others) sit on the bench or take a red shirt and not try and move him to the defensive side of the ball?
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Bottom line is always the bottom line. We went 24-1 with these guys. Pretty remarkable with our defensive "issues". Who knows how far we would have gone with a healthy Christian Bryant! Or by making two stinkin' yards in the Big Ten Championship game.
Jalin Marshall. Some times to have to keep a kid at his chosen position or risk him leaving. Marshall had a concussion, anyway. QB in high school to wr. Can't really move kids too much or risk wasting/confusing their development.
 
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cincibuck said:
I guess my question would be, why have all the athletic talent of someone like Jalin Marshall (and others) sit on the bench or take a red shirt and not try and move him to the defensive side of the ball?
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Has Marshall ever played DB or defense for that matter? I don't understand why he's the first one you would look to with all the talented DB's we already have
 
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UFM's view of what is wrong with the pass defense:

“It’s too many, (not just) one thing,” Meyer said of the problems that must be fixed. “It’s not man coverage, it’s not zone coverage – it’s all of the above. It’s the pass rush, the time to call the blitzes, making sure the blitzes match the coverage.

“It just you’ve got to play better.”

In the effort to fix it, “Tweaks might be the appropriate word,” Meyer said. “We’re still working through that, working at changes.”

When asked if scheme or personnel changes could be in the offing, he said “There might be,” but he didn’t get into specifics about either.

He did say, however, that freshman safety Vonn Bell, considered a major recruiting victory when he signed with the Buckeyes in February but who rarely saw quality time with the defense in the season, could see more playing time in the Orange Bowl. Keep in mind Ohio State’s two starting safeties C.J. Barnett and Corey “Pitt” Brown are seniors.
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http://buckeyextra.dispatch.com/con...eyes/2013/12/buckeyes-meyer-pass-defense.html
 
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OregonBuckeye said:
Has Marshall ever played DB or defense for that matter? I don't understand why he's the first one you would look to with all the talented DB's we already have
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Sorry I added that line. It's my reaction to a strange season in which the front line set a record for sacks, the running defense shut down Wisconsin, Penn State, Michigan and Michigan State's running games, and the back seven gave up half of Russia to passing.

After the Tressel years, when the talent seemed to be disproportionately on the defensive side of the ball, when running backs couldn't collectively put together an 800 yd season, the team seems to have taken a wild swing in the opposite direction.

Why? Damned if I know. But with the little I do know about the game, it is clear that we suddenly have gone from Carpenter, Hawk, Schlegel and Laurenitus, to Schazier and fill in the blanks.

Early in the year I was seeing a wide open receiver and twenty feet away were three buckeyes covering the same empty zone. OK, they were young. they'd get it figured out by October.

Then came the state fair ride that was the Michigan game, to the complete breakdowns (especially when Roby went down) that doomed the Bucks in the CCG.

The linebacker issue has been there since the departure Laurenitus and the only answer the recruiting system has delivered has been Shazier and converting a fullback to linebacker. I know recruiting can be a crap shoot, but how does that happen so suddenly and so completely?
 
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Barnett had the memorable line of the day, though. When asked if he and his teammates were aware of the criticism of the defense, he said “Yeah, there’s critics of everything. I think LeBron James was criticized a lot, too.”
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Ok CJ. You and the rest of the secondary start playing football the way that LeBitch (who everyone knows I wish hateful stuff on daily)plays basketball and there won't be a problem.

Pretty much the wrong thing to say. When the unit that you are a part of completely sucks sometimes you have to just accept the criticism. There really isn't any way for him to defend the defense as they have been bad for most of two seasons now.
 
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cincibuck said:
The linebacker issue has been there since the departure Laurenitus and the only answer the recruiting system has delivered has been Shazier and converting a fullback to linebacker. I know recruiting can be a crap shoot, but how does that happen so suddenly and so completely?
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Perhaps talent appraisal by the position coach as well as coaching up the players we have. If you look at it, I think the issue points back to the two DC's as well as perhaps Coombs as the CB position coach. Even though I am no expert, these two areas have been ill equipped and ill prepared most of the season. The only shining light was the D-line. But teams mitigated their pass rush by two or three step drop and pass offenses. Why? Because, they knew the DBs and LBs were
susceptible to short and midrange routes. Opponents knew their receivers would be open for the most part. Little to no rushing game was required to implement a formidable attack against the Buckeye's D. This all points to the defensive scheme, player preparation and lack of ability to adjust during the game. For the most part, the offense bailed the defense out all season, but against Sparty, they ran into a rock solid coach that prepares his team extremely well. They played error free ball and Ohio State tripped all over themselves, especially in the defensive back field. When they really needed to get a stop, the Buckeyes couldn't and the Spartan defense was good enough to ensure that the Buckeye offense was not going to get the job done alone. The only thing the offense could have done differently was give Sparty and extra dose of Hyde which for some reason was opted out on. Even so, 24 points against this Spartan offense should have been enough to win the game, but not this year, not with a Buckeye defensive backend so porous that any QB that played against them looked like a Heisman hopeful.

But to answer your question, I think Ohio State has talent in the lacking areas, but I don't feel they are being developed as well as they should be. I also don't think that the right players were necessarily on the field. Maybe they need to bring in Spielman as an adviser for the LB corp. I'm just not sure Fickle can handle the DC and be a solid position coach at the same time. As for Wither's, I haven't seen anything from his schemes and player development that says to me he is a top end Div1 DC. Coombs.. the verdict is still out.
Vrable... getting it done (the only one doing so) on the defensive end in my estimation.
 
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What was frustrating in both the ccg and THE Game were pass interference calls.
defensive backs weren't getting their heads turned around or continued to hand check with the pass arriving.
The penalties seemed to come at crucial times -- convert 3rd downs or extend drives.
Instead of 3 and outs, the bumps and hand checks got flagged.
It looks like we would benefit from some new, improved strategies to defend Clemson's passing attacks.
Don't have all the answers and this may seem simplistic,
but wondered if coordinators were still coaching d-backs to yell "ball" when the pass was in the air?
i.e. to alert man on man coverage defenders that contact would now get flagged.
 
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A starting d line in the orange bowl of: Bosa, Bennett, Hale, and Washington sounds fine to me. With constant pressure, and depth from Miller, Marcus and schutt. Should greatly help the secondary. If grant doesn't play, having Shazier and Perry would be fine. I'm not worrying too much yet. The key is to keep pressure on Boyd, he'll make mistakes if forced out of his comfort zone. But the back 7 must convert on those mistakes
 
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pnuts34 said:
A starting d line in the orange bowl of: Bosa, Bennett, Hale, and Washington sounds fine to me. With constant pressure, and depth from Miller, Marcus and schutt. Should greatly help the secondary. If grant doesn't play, having Shazier and Perry would be fine. I'm not worrying too much yet. The key is to keep pressure on Boyd, he'll make mistakes if forced out of his comfort zone. But the back 7 must convert on those mistakes
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What scares the ever-loving shit out of me is the CB Fickell specifically mentioned will play if/when Roby is out.
 
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Armani has been adequate...but only when he plays the defense that is called. The problem is that he seems to be in the wrong coverage more often than not. That can be corrected. He seems to be good for 3 blown coverages per game. He isn't getting beat per se, but he is playing man when the rest of his team is in zone leaving his 3rd if the field wide open. He hasn't been great but when he actually plays the correct coverage he is at least in position to make a tackle.
 
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