Tony Gerdman interview with College Football Nerds (excellent unbiased analytics) re: Ohio State (offense and defense). Seriously, give it a listen. Well worth your time.
Highlights: offense needs to run better and a lot of Stroud’s yards were due to Oregon’s bend but don’t break plan…which kept us from scoring in the res zone. They think Stroud will get comfortable and improve (he’s definitely good) as the year goes on but our inability to dictate through the run game is a little problematic.
Defense: they’ve long been critical of our Cover-1 man scheme. Basically, you need elite dudes (in ability & execution) to pull this off. We don’t have either right now and haven’t since 2019. Main problem is that this lets every offense dictate what they want to do to us, it’s too predictable and this easy to defeat.
Quick in season fix? Go to more two-high safeties and keep the game on front of you, playing bend but don’t break defense. In the red zone, tighten up. Basically, the Jim Heacock philosophy. Also, that’s exactly what Oregon did to us. Basically, this is a way of putting guys in position and even trusting them to make some plays even when the matchup isn’t ideal.
