From time to time, you may notice Marshon Lattimore in the opponent's backfield on a corner blitz. The corner blitz is a potent weapon to wield against opposing offenses.
Most football fans think of the corner blitz as a passing down play where the defense wants to bring pressure and deliver a knock out blow to the QB. This happens sometimes, but the Buckeyes (and many other teams) generally only call for the play on early downs when the opposing offense is more likely to run the ball.
Here is a look at the alignment and assignments.
Notice the two defensive linemen will crash inside and have different gap responsibilities than usual. The NT (Robert Landers) will cross the face of the center all the way to the opposite A gap and the DE (Jayln Holmes) will cross the face of the guard and take the A gap normally occupied by the NT. Jerome Baker will have B gap responsibility from his linebacker spot and Marshon Lattimore will come from his CB spot on a blitz with C gap responsibility. Lattimore will have contain responsibility on the play. Hence, the Buckeyes remain gap sound from a run support standpoint.
In coverage, Malik Hooker will slide over and replace Marshon in coverage. He will play man to man on the wideout.
Here is a look at the video. Notice that it is 1st and 10.
This particular blitz is almost always run from the short side of the field. That is, the ball is usually on a hashmark (like above) and the blitzing corner has a shorter distance to run from his alignment. For the Buckeyes, Lattimore is usually the player you see in the backfield and not Gareon Conely. The Buckeyes align Conley to the wide side of the field and Lattimore to the short side. Not all teams align their corners in this manner but Ohio State has a boundary corner and a field corner.
So how do offenses counter this attack? Well, sometimes you get lucky and call the right play. Other times, the QB may recognize the blitz and change the play to something the offense believes will work against this play. For instance, in the play above, before the snap Lattimore will step towards the backfield. I have never seen him do this when he is in coverage. Had the QB seen this, he could have changed the play.
Here is an example of what happens when the right play is called. You may recall this play from the 2013 Big Ten Championship game. I was there and watched this play unfold. It was a bad day.
