Fee Fi Foe Film: Ohio State Defense Comment Count

Seth

Happy Thanksgiving! It's Ohio State week so we're still putting out the content.

Previously: Offense.

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They're 8th to S&P+, 30th against the rush and 3rd against passing. It's a lot like Penn State's defense, if Penn State hadn't been missing Nassib, and everyone on that defense was one star more talented, and they played the system that Michigan State used to create the No Fly Zone, and instead of not-Nassib they had J.J. Watt starting at a rush end position. No not college J.J. Watt, I mean the same guy nobody in the NFL can block.

Joey Bosa is the best college player I have watched since Charles Woodson. And like Woodson, the things he does makes his unit greater than the sum of its…

Personnel. Just look at my diagram:

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click makes big.

You see everybody in proximity to Bosa has a star. Eli Apple plays half his downs on the other side (he's the field corner) and I was close to giving him a star too. Tyvis Powell and Josh Perry have put up stats (in Perry's case backed up by PFF) to warrant one as well. Joey Bosa's backup even has a star.

tressel_oprah

That's STAR, Monarch.

Are they really that good? See the stats, and more importantly, see…

[THE JUMP]

Base Set? They're a 4-3 over/even team much like Michigan State of a few years ago, where the middle linebackers squeeze in and the DL spread out to an even (guards are covered, center isn't) front rather often. The strongside linebacker, Darron Lee, is a hybrid spacebacker—they've gone away from the term "Star" but it's still a two-parts LB hybrid who doesn't get lifted when offenses go nickel. On pure passing downs they put Bosa on the weakside and bring in RS freshman Sam Hubbard, the next big thing.

Man or zone coverage? It's Quarters, mostly. That's the thing where the safety and cornerback read the inside receiver and play Cover 4 (if he goes vertical) or Cover 2 if he goes to the flat. It winds up looking like a lot more man. Against Illinois they started doing more man-free because the TE was staying in most plays to help his RT deal with Bosa.

Here they do get verts and you can see the reaction:

Don't just watch Eli Apple, who covered that as well as you could ask, but the safety Tyvis Powell took a side step to get on top of the releasing TE. The linebacker, Lee, is in a zone that accounts for the quick seam so he picks up that TE first while Powell brackets on top. Since that guy went vertical, Apple has no help inside and plays inside leverage all the way down the sideline.

Quarters cornerbacks playing press technique like that have to act like they're in man coverage all day. They can get away with that because their safeties communicate and they have a good feel for tendencies and what's going on around them. At the end of the play you can see the other side wound up with the same coverage, and likewise they had the inside receiver bracketed and a man covering the outside guy.

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They do tend to give up things in the flats. The diagram above is the same play but this time imagine the slot receiver goes into the flat on the left side. By Quarters rules Bell (11) would be getting on top of the X receiver, but Conley (8) is likely to still be with that guy and going full out to keep up with him. At the point of handoff, Conley could already be pretty far upfield. It's up to the LB then to try to get over on the slot receiver. Illinois got a lot of its yards this way, usually on Perry, even though by the 2nd half Perry was making it difficult.

There was another such play where Darron Lee seemed to be lazily trotting over to stop the slot when that receiver suddenly turned on the jets and tiptoed up the sideline for a big gain. Mailing it in a bit up three scores on Illinois is understandable; I doubt we'll see that for this game.

Pressure: GERG or Greg? They didn't need to but Ohio State brought a diet of zone and A-gap blitzes (again, it's like they stole this defense right out of Narduzzi's playbook), plus a ton of stunts on the DL. The Illinois offensive line was confounded by everything. In fact it was really hard to grade the front seven because offensive linemen were blocking nobody. Watch this guy:

I kept the few seconds before the snap so you could see how telegraphed that blitz was. Bosa dropped into a middle zone, everyone else had man, and that right guard watches Washington then Perry run right by him. Josh Ferguson versus a 5-star linebacker with momentum isn't going to work out even if the other rushers are picked up and Lunt runs backwards and throws it away.

The Illinois coaches did come up with a nifty response to those:

Play-action screens to Ferguson are the best Ferguson. Here they caught OSU in another Double-A gap blitz, and both LBs are totally bit even though Perry was twisting and saw two interior lineman casually throw McMillan down and walk by. I saw a few things from him in the first half that made me start to rethink how much I should be criticizing Bolden. #LinebackingIsHard

The other favorite blitz was to send a linebacker up the A gap, drop the SDE into coverage, and twist the line to get back to an even front. After the first quarter the Buckeyes canned the blitzing, considering there was no stopping the pass rush no matter how many blockers they used. There was a good reason for that.

Dangerman: Let me preface this by saying I think the right side of Illinois's line has two of the worst offensive linemen to play in the Big Ten in the last 20 years, and I'm including in that various inanimate objects deployed at times by the recycling bin who played at Michigan from 2012-'13 before transferring to Penn State. Joey Bosa still made fools of them.

Fool.

Fool!

FOOOOOOOOOOOOLS!

I feel like I have to keep showing you videos because there are no words to adequately describe how much Joey Bosa dominated this game. You can take one drive of his film, put it to your favorite Ann Arbor ska band's soundtrack, and it will look like a high school highlight reel.

Music: "So You're a Senior, So What" by After School Special

I think it's safe to say this is the best player Michigan is going to face all year.

The stars hardly end there. Adolphus Washington is a highly effective DT, and very difficult to block for most offensive linemen. He plays very low with excellent extension, and has a rush end's speed, so those times when he stunts around generate a lot of pressure.

The other DL aren't that scary. Schutt got replaced so often with Hill that I wouldn't be surprised if that becomes permanent. Schutt's a space-eater while Hill's got more upfield burst, but neither are a Glasgow or even a Hurst. Lewis was your standard responsible weakside end.

However the next wave is already on the bench and when it gets on the field it can be terrifying. Sam Hubbard is already up to 6'5/265 after arriving as a safety and playing LB last year. This season he's got an interception, seven TFL, 5.5 sacks, three more QB hurries, and a forced fumble, all in very limited snaps. Jalyn Holmes is a skinnier guy but very fast.

Of the linebackers, Raekwon McMillan stuck out to me above the OLBs, even though the running commentary seems to favor the two guys who wracked up big tackle numbers last year. McMillan has tremendous closing speed and recognizes plays well. He doesn't whack a linebacker like Morgan would, but he doesn't stay blocked at all. I left Darron Lee's star because I don't want the argument and I've seen him play well enough in the past, but I could be convinced to drop it from this game's performance. Josh Perry…even Spielman says he's great so I'm on thin ice with this argument, but I don't see it. Here's Illinois trotting out Power's cousin, the buck sweep:

Lee set the edge like he's supposed to, but he's a spacebacker, remember, not a Victor Hobson/Jake Ryan/James Ross throwback SAM, so the FB's block can push Lee out to the hash, creating that all-important spacing for the eventual running play. McMillan had the TE releasing down on him and played that block well, getting extension and driving his blocker back into the lane. Perry has to watch a cut inside but he's kind of holding back to accept the pulling guard's block. He takes the contact gingerly and keeps flowing down; Bell comes up to tackle.

Vonn Bell is a guy I'm really hoping will be on that same train to the NFL as the rest of the guys because he's a difference maker. Illinois was using bubble screens to Powell's side of the field to mess with the Quarters, since those flats are often the responsibility of the linebackers until such time as the CB can come off his receiver. It was a consistent yards gainer until they tried Bell's side.

He is an excellent, excellent quarters safety, responsible and athletic over the top, and when he decides to play against the run he's there faster than Wes Lunt can throw it.

Powell is just a guy. He's not good enough to be Wilson-boring; Illinois has a couple of good receivers and didn't mind throwing it at them behind the LBs when it was Powell over the top. The nature of the defense gets him in position for interceptions; he dropped two gimmes in this one. He's got good speed that's nerfed somewhat by reaction time. In this defense he's fine as the deep man for the same reason Michigan could stick Brandent Englemon back there in 2006.

Neither cornerback was as advertised. Well, check that, Eli Apple's coverage was perfect when they tried him (see video above in the coverage section). With his size and ability, he's easily going to the NFL as a cover corner. There someone will probably teach him to not be a disaster in run defense.

That's a running back who barely dives at Apple's feet, and he's dead. Powell compounds things by missing the tackle (that's not a huge neg considering it's Ferguson in space). On the screen that went a long way you can see Apple come up to set the outside even though the outside is pretty set. He did make a tackle to end another screen, but that was on a desperation dive at the ballcarrier's legs—the kind that 30% ends in a tackle, often just slows him down, and occasionally results in a highlight hurdle. Michigan State also gameplanned to get Apple's edge. Since I'm predicting he'll draw Chesson, this could be the best spot to attack this defense. Him and Perry, if I had to guess, are why the run defense is just outside the Top 25 while the pass defense is elite, because both of them (maybe add Lee to that) are on the field for their pass defense far more than their rush instincts.

Gareon Conley looked pretty good in this one; if you think back on when Michigan grabbed Stribling because we lost Conley, you can kinda see that, though the spread between them is miniscule. That is and isn't good news for Darboh, who gets to face a guy a lot like that in practice, but doesn't really have the agility to win that matchup handily. Conley's the right kind of guy you'd want for Darboh.

In the offensive preview I said Michigan's defense looks good enough to keep OSU's athletes in check. This matchup strongly favors Ohio State. Butt finally meets a SS who can keep up with him, likewise Chesson and a corners. The better games of Perry and Lee can even corral Peppers without getting out of their base defense. A few well-timed screens can move the ball some, especially if they catch OSU in a double-A gap blitz. Michigan State was able to shove the DTs off the ball but that was the work of Jack Allen, who when healthy is the best center in the conference if not FBS. I'd like to see Michigan probe that weak side and of course empty out the bag of tricks. Down to down it's gonna be tough sledding.

Comments

Chris S

November 26th, 2015 at 11:22 AM ^

It's crazy seeing that two total players on there defensive depth chart were not top 250 prospects. That is some insane recruiting. Can't wait till Saturday!

Jevablue

November 26th, 2015 at 11:26 AM ^

I saw earlier in the week some discussion as to how MSU defended OSU's spread.  Also MSU ran for 200+ yards, if I missed it let me know, but schematically was there anything special as to how MSU ran on them other than Jack Allen being healthy?

Seth

November 26th, 2015 at 11:36 AM ^

State overloaded the receivers to one side to make Eli Apple an edge defender. They did best going to the offense's left, since a) Bosa's side has all the stars, and b) Conklin, and c) easier to pass the othe other way, and d) Apple is soo soooooo bad at run D.

Late in the game OSU adjusted and State just went up the middle on the NTs because Allen could carve a huge hole.

MGoBeast

November 26th, 2015 at 12:08 PM ^

Does anyone else get it where the content doesn't load on the android app? the comments load, but the content never does. it happens occasionally, but today I can't see any blog posts or board posts.

dragonchild

November 26th, 2015 at 5:49 PM ^

We're left-handed anyway.  But we can't just ignore the other side of the field, so. . .

You know those screens to bunch formations we used earlier?  They were largely ineffective, but I think I now know why we ran them anyway.  If we can get a lead blocker out there for Bell -- and our receivers are good blockers -- then it's Chesson vs. Apple in a de facto run play in space.  If that consistently gets yards then OSU can't cheat to the other side.