Before the season, the defense was the single biggest question. Jim Knowles was coming in after a tremendous season with Oklahoma State. However, at both Oklahoma State and Duke, he took a step back the first year after taking over. Furthermore, it took him about 7 years at Duke and 4 years and Oklahoma State to really have an excellent defense. I had faith that he wouldn’t take a step back, but I honestly didn’t expect much of a step forward, at least for this year.

After two games, they look like an entirely different unit. All of these players do not resemble the same players as last year, and they never look confused. One good game on defense can be an outlier, two games in a row is genuinely encouraging.

At least when I watched the defense against Arkansas State live, they felt incredibly dominant, despite the 12 points given up. They were dominating the line of scrimmage and were destroying everything Arkansas State wanted to do. Still, they gave up 12 points on the back of a lot of missed tackles and mistakes from the younger guys.

This held up, though. Much like the offense, I was more encouraged the second time I watched it. As a note, when the Leo/Jack is moving around, I denoted it by the gap in which he is occupying at the snap(A, B, C, or D):

After that game, the causes of the 12 points despite the excellent, for the most part, defense. Denzel Burke had a rough game. There were lots of penalties. There haven’t been any turnovers. And, underneath the surface, the Notre Dame game looks less impressive now.

Still, I think most of the problems were minor and fixable. Here is the defensive chart:

The front-7 was just spectacular; they were in the backfield almost every snap. The action among the defensive line was spread out evenly among almost everyone who played, so it is hard to really point out anyone in particular. Sawyer and Harrison were getting consistent pressure. Mike Hall looked good again. Vincent almost always absorbs double-teams or clears the way for a stunt by blocking the offensive linemen from coming inside. They certainly didn’t use any linemen like that last year. Regardless of a lack of a single dominant rusher, I have never charted a pressure number like that, ever. Very encouraging for the future of the line.

The linebackers continued from their excellent performance against Notre Dame. Tommy Eichenberg was nearly unblockable. Another monster game for him as a blitzer and as a run defender. Steele Chambers had a couple of missed tackles, though was otherwise quite good. He has never had an issue with missed tackles, so I don’t think it is a significant issue going forward. Cody Simon had the best game I’ve seen him have. He was great in coverage, and he looked good tackling as well. I guessed last year that his issues tackling were almost entirely a result of his injury, which is why it looked like he was trying to tackle players with one arm last year. He looks much better this year, but I do want to see a couple more games of strong tackling before I am comfortable saying it is no longer a problem.

The defensive backs had some issues, though the issues were mostly in the tackling department. The only real coverage busts I saw were from Burke. There was one common thread among all these issues – the Oregon State transfer receiver Champ Flemings. At 5’5” 142 lbs, he is easily the smallest player I have seen at the P5 level, but his quickness speaks for itself. Ohio State is not going to play another player this year with that kind of quickness unless they play Deuce Vaughan and Kansas State in the postseason. Flemings was the cause of almost every missed tackle, and he is a legitimately good player. He was responsible for most of their passing yards, and every defensive back with a tackling minus was due to trying to tackle him. He happened to be lined up with Burke for most of the day.

Burke did struggle in this game, but he had a couple of nice plays that are good reminders of what he is capable of (1Q 9:59, 1Q 4:11, 4Q 13:45 in coverage, 3Q 13:04 on a blown-up screen). The negatives outweigh the positives, though. Burke is in pretty good shape on the first defensive pass interference penalty (1Q 7:52), but he interferes as the receiver is coming out of his route. He can get handsy, but this was unnecessary. He had a chance to break it up legitimately. Two plays later, he does a nice job of staying out in the flat and recognizing the wheel route. I think he is in really great position here and has a chance at an interception before turning around late and trying to faceguard the receiver. While I have no problem using this technique while trailing, Burke is in a good position to play the ball. Guarding the receiver isn’t helpful here. For these two plays, I think he just panics a bit, as it looks good until the ball gets in the air. His other minuses were just getting beat by Flemings.

For me, that is the big takeaway: his issues looked coachable, and I don’t expect him to have these issues by the end of the year. Still, considering he got beat in the Notre Dame game in ways that I thought looked worse, this is a genuine concern for now. I would wait another couple of weeks, but if this shows up as an issue against Toledo, then it will be time to panic.

What should we worry about?

Denzel Burke, just a little. It still isn’t time to full-on panic. It has only been a couple of games, and I think he had a bit of a unique challenge in this game. He was also in good position for some of these plays, he just didn’t finish. That is usually a sign of a guy who will get there sooner rather than later. Still, it is the thing on this defense to keep an eye on the most.

Passing defense in general, also just a little. I still think they are going to be better than they were last year, but I don’t think they will be an elite unit based on the first couple of games. The next couple of games will likely solidify where I think this pass defense can get to. The Notre Dame game left something to be desired, and this game didn’t make me feel a ton better about it. They will be an upgrade, just not as much of an upgrade as the run defense. Though, this could change as quickly as the next week or two. It is still early.

What should we not worry about?

Tackling. The tackling was excellent against Notre Dame, and there were only 6 missed tackles in this one, all while trying to tackle Champ Flemings. Sometimes you face a guy like that. I don’t think they are going to see a player quite like that the rest of the year, so I can’t worry about the tackling too much.

What should we be excited about?

The front 6. The run defense. It is early, but the run defense has been nothing short of elite, and the disruption this front is causing is going to be a nightmare for everyone on the schedule. I still don’t know if I expect a huge pass rush, but I don’t think they are going to get run on much. Considering where this team was a year ago, that is a minor miracle. This is still little more than a hope after two games, though. After the Wisconsin game I will likely have a more refined verdict on the rush defense.

This series was inspired by MGOBlog's Upon Further Review.