The defense, which entered the season as a huge question mark following a disappointing 2020, struggled mightily for the first couple weeks of the season against Minnesota and Oregon. Then, the change in the coaching staff occurred, and the defense’s fortunes changed with it. Since then, the Buckeye defense has kept on improving, and had been crucial in the wins against Penn State and Nebraska while the offense struggled. Then this game happened.

Was the defense’s collapse inevitable? Why did Purdue have so much success?

Here is the play-by-play analysis:

Even before the game, I thought that this was a particularly bad matchup for Ohio State’s defense. Ohio State excels with stopping the run but is merely average against the pass. Purdue doesn’t run at all due to their ineptitude in that area, but they can competently pass often. This neutralizes Ohio State’s strength, while attacking their weakness. Purdue had their average day passing the football, which was enough to move the ball well on Ohio State.

Here’s the defensive chart:

I graded Zach Harrison, Haskell Garrett, Taron Vincent, Javonte Jean-Baptiste, and Jerron Cage as champions. Ohio State also gave champion grades to Lathan Ransom, Tommy Eichenberg, Steele Chambers, and Cameron Brown, while emitting Garrett, Vincent, Jean-Baptiste, and Cage. The only player we agreed on was Zach Harrison, though I don’t fully disagree with any of the choices.

If I were to try to push hard for a guy to get in, it would probably be Jerron Cage, as I thought he was disruptive again on the inside. He jumped the snap beautifully on a long passing play, nearly getting the sack (2Q 10:32). While he didn’t finish, it was one of the best timed jumps I have seen all year. The other linemen that graded as champions for me were mostly just there by default, as I didn’t see any negatives from them, but Cage actually had some nice positives in there as well. Nobody had many graded plays because Purdue didn’t run much, and their entire offense was based off of short, quick passes. Defensive linemen are neutralized in those conditions.

Chambers and Eichenberg were the only two linebackers that graded positively for me, though they were just short of a champion grade on my charting. Like the coaches though, I thought they played well. They were very easily the two best linebackers on the field; I just felt that they made a few too many mistakes to be considered champions. When they were on the field together, they didn’t give up a whole lot: one touchdown on three drives together, which is the lowest of any pairing in the game. They were aggressive against screens, which none of the other linebackers were. They consistently put Purdue in bad situations when they tried too many screens.

Simon was a little slow to react to any of these types of plays, especially when the running back went in motion. I know it was to defend the middle of the field, but Purdue got a ton of yards on these plays. Mitchell is a run stopper, so this was not the game for him. Purdue made life difficult on the linebackers, and most of them struggled in this one outside of Chambers and Eichenberg. I don’t have any issue with their inclusion as champions.

While I personally didn’t grade Lathan Ransom a champion, I thought that he had his best game as a Buckeye, so it made sense for the coaches to grade him as such. He was good in coverage (1Q 6:08, 4Q 7:52) all day, and he didn’t make a whole lot of mistakes. This was a good bounce back for him after last week. I said last week that he has the ability, but that he hadn’t put it together this year. This was a huge step in the right direction for him. While I still don’t know if the cover safety spot is where he would be best moving forward, it’s exciting to see him excel.

Cameron Brown played well the whole game, with the exception of the last play on defense (4Q 7:47). This play looks like he is bailing at the start of the play, which makes me assume that he has a deep zone. In this case, it looks to be Cover 4. He bites hard on what is probably a double move from David Bell, which leaves Bell open in the end zone, but he drops it. Until that play, he would have been graded a champion. That single play tarnished it for me. Still, I understand why he was graded a champion. He didn’t have enough positives to offset that big negative for me.

Denzel Burke had a very impressive game as well, though I think he too was beat one or two too many times for me to grade him a champion. Still, he was matched up with All-American candidate David Bell and performed admirably on an island. He still was beat a couple of times, especially on the shorter routes, but he never allowed Bell to dominate, which is a huge victory. While I have assumed Burke would hold up to better competition, I was never entirely sure if he would be able to given his inexperience. Now, I have no more questions. He is undoubtedly the best true freshman defensive back I have ever seen at Ohio State.

Bryson Shaw had a rough game. Still, after watching it again, the only big mistake I saw from him was the first touchdown in the third quarter (3Q 8:01), where he bit on the run fake before getting beat over the top. While that would have been a big play regardless, as the blitz didn’t hit, he needed to stay deep. Besides that play though, the other deep balls were on other players or the play-calling/scheme. He will always be the resident punching bag because of the Oregon game, but I largely think he doesn’t deserve it. He didn’t play well in this game, but he’s been solid for most of the year. Certainly, he’s better than Marcus Hooker and Proctor were last year (though Proctor improved toward the end of the season), and a huge step up from any of the safeties who played in 2018 not named Jordan Fuller. He’s a slightly better-than-average safety, which is perfect for a backup to Josh Proctor. Since he’s done for the rest of the year, Shaw will have to do. Ransom was put there just to be outperformed by Shaw. Hooker doesn’t look like he will get another chance. Shaw is the best they have right now. 

Shaw also impressed me after the game when he took ownership for his poor play against Purdue. After hearing that, and after hearing Matt Barnes consistently take responsibility for calls that he thought were questionable for a few weeks now, it seems like the culture on the defense is really strong. Barnes has done an incredible job in the short amount of time that he has been in charge, and sometimes it’s easy to forget how much better they’ve been since he’s gotten there. For that reason, I think most pundits tend to underrate Ohio State’s defense, as they assume it’s the same group that struggled against Minnesota and got pushed around by Oregon.

Having said all of that, the single biggest reason for Purdue’s success was the play-calling. I don’t disagree with anyone who thinks that Purdue moved the ball with ease. I do not think that Ohio State did their best to out-scheme them, particularly when they got up big.

Some of this was the big lead. Ohio State came into the game focused on stopping whatever run game there was, and forcing Purdue to complete short passes over and over again. After they got up 35-7, though, they (understandably) switched to passing concepts for most downs, and coached the linebackers to stay back even on run action to force a pass. Besides the issue with the defense rarely doing this, Purdue was able to start to run the ball effectively, even if it was only for a couple of times a drive to keep the chains moving. Still, this helped give them more manageable downs to work with.

Also, while Ohio State will use pattern-matching zones for Cover 4 at times, most of the defense spot drops in zone coverage. Spot drop zones are what most people think of when they think of zones, and what the play art looks like in video games for zones. Basically, the players will get to a spot, and try to cover anything that comes into their zones. They have certain routes that they are most likely to cover, but their job is to generally get to a spot in order to read the QBs eyes. In this way, they hope to be able to cover receivers who come near, and potentially intercept passes by reacting to where the QB is looking. The advantages to this are that it is really easy to learn and to teach, which is probably how Ohio State has added a ton of different coverages from the first couple of weeks of the season. The negative is that there are a lot of holes in these zones, as there are only so many players and so many zones. Purdue exploited these holes ruthlessly. This is why Purdue will get a huge play and I wouldn’t knock individual players that badly. They ran a zone correctly, and Purdue ran a play to beat it. That can happen.

A counter to this is pattern-matching zones, which are similar. The big difference is that the defenders in zone coverage try to recognize route concepts and combinations, and basically run the routes for the receivers. If a defense knows the offense really well, the result is beautiful: the defense essentially runs a man coverage that can adjust to man-beaters on the fly. This is Nick Saban’s trademark going back to his days with Bill Belichick. The difficult part of the scheme is that it is complicated, and it takes a lot of time to get right. Ohio State did not have time in the middle of the season, so spot drop zones were the only choice. These can still work, but they can be beat by more route concepts, which Purdue consistently did.

Regardless, I don’t expect that play-calling to be an issue any more. I think there was a lot to improve on for the players and the coaches on defense, but none of it is impossible to fix. Some of it was just the circumstances. Still, the effectiveness with which Purdue passed is potentially worrying for some of the future opponents, especially since all of them (except for potentially Wisconsin) have better passing attacks than Purdue on a per-play basis.

What should we be worried about? The pass defense against great passing attacks or air raid teams. I think air raid teams are terrible matchups for Ohio State, as Ohio State is built to stop run-first squads. Purdue was an example. A more competent air raid team could do more damage.

Great passing defenses will also rack up yards, especially in between the 20’s. Michigan State is the best passing team they will play until the playoffs (if they get there). They will have perhaps the best chance of anyone to score against Ohio State. Michigan will have a good chance too. Even though McNamara hasn’t played as well as Thorne this year, both of these teams have great run offenses that will help them open up the passing. If Ohio State loses again in the regular season, it will be because their pass defense is merely average, and their offense is inefficient in the red zone. This is a big reason why MSU beat Michigan.

What should we not be worried about? The rushing defense. They have been nearly Georgia-level good since the defensive staff changes, and a game where they were dropping 8 and not attacking run gaps won’t change that. This makes sense in a game where the opponent is essentially running the air raid out there.

I also don’t think the overall play-calling needs to be a concern. Most of the games have been pretty close in this department. One-off games happen sometimes. He has done well so far and I imagine he will continue to do well. Some of it may have been the decision to stick with only focusing on defending the pass except for the first quarter when they had relative success against Purdue. This was a conscious decision, and it didn’t work. Not much needed to change because the offense was playing so well. I don’t see much reason for concern.

In general, I don’t think we have to be worried about the defense in close games. The rotation gets tighter when the game gets tighter. The defense improves as a result. The last couple of games have showed that they can show up when necessary. As long as the starters stay healthy, this defense is fully capable of being as good as they must be. I expect their continued improvement. If this team ends up making it to the playoffs, they will have a month to continue to get better in practice. I could see them being very dangerous if that happens.

What should we get excited about? Denzel Burke. He played genuinely well against Bell. The game felt like a battle between two NFL players rather than just a couple of college guys. It was his biggest test yet, and he passed with flying colors. Jayden Reed will be another challenge, but that might be the best receiver Ohio State plays for the rest of the year, depending what happens for the postseason.

What does this mean for Michigan State? Michigan State has the best chance of any team on Ohio State’s schedule, with the possible exception of Nebraska, to move the ball. They will be the biggest running and passing test Ohio State has faced this year. The Spartans are similar to Ohio State in philosophy. They are bend-but-don’t-break on defense, and an explosive-play-dependent offense. If Ohio State can prevent explosives, which they have mostly managed to do in every game, they should beat Michigan State. I am not overly worried about Ohio State losing this game, but it’s possible if they can’t stop Michigan State from capitalizing in the red zone.

Please feel free to ask me any questions about any of this, or corrections for my work. Thank you for reading!

Archive

Offense vs. Oregon / Defense vs. Oregon

Offense vs. Tulsa / Defense vs. Tulsa

Offense vs. Akron / Defense vs. Akron

Offense vs. Rutgers / Defense vs. Rutgers

Offense vs. Maryland / Defense vs. Maryland

Mid-Season Review

Offense vs. Indiana / Defense vs. Indiana

Offense vs. Penn State / Defense vs. Penn State

Offense vs. Nebraska / Defense vs. Nebraska

Offense vs. Purdue

This series is inspired by Upon Further Review from MgoBlog. If you want to read their latest entry against Penn State, it is located here.