https://buckeyescoop.com/fulton-analysis-death-by-a-thousand-rpo-cuts/
Must read article explaining what went wrong and what the Bucks need to do about it moving forward. He hits on personnel issues and identity issues they need to address.
I'll sum it here, but highly recommend reading it yourself
-Buckeye's needed to play more Cover 1 to stop the RPO's
-Corners just not aggressive/good enough to play more Cover 1
-Cover 3 is not a good coverage against RPO's. Given this was OSU's mainstay, it was predicted to be a bad matchup unless they shifted their tendencies.
-OSU did mix in other coverages occasionally like Cover 2, but ultimately they were not experienced enough and were quickly taken advantage of.
-When Bama went 12 personnel (One RB, Two TE's, Two WR's), OSU went into their 4-4 and revealed their hand in always playing cover 1 out of this. Bama took advantage since they knew exactly what OSU would play in this look and targeted Wade in man coverage on Smith.
-OSU's refused to check the coverage when faced with formations that could hurt them - AKA the Tuf Borland play.
-Moving forward, he suggest OSU needs to stop being so focused on stopping the run. The are committing too much in terms of personnel and leaving the pass defense out to dry.
-The Sam LB must be more of a pass coverage specialist LB. Suggests moving Werner to Will hurt them against the pass because it limited the coverages they could play. If not willing to do this, they need to get in Nickel more and take the Sam off the field.
-They need a slot defender that can play more man coverage at a higher level
-They need to add in split-safety coverages such as quarter-quarter-half more often and be better when they do.
