It may have taken 21 quarters to get there, but the 2019 Ohio State Buckeyes were finally on their heels.
As the second period began Saturday night in the 'Shoe, the home team had only mustered 16 total yards and had watched their kicker miss a 37-yard field goal. Luckily, the visiting Spartans gifted them with fumbles on their first two possessions, allowing the Buckeyes to somehow lead 3-0 despite a dreadful offensive performance.
Penalties and sacks killed the momentum provided those recovered fumbles, leaving Ryan Day looking for answers.
"Well, we got off schedule a little bit," he said following the contest. "We knew it was going to be hard to run against these guys. It always is. But on third down, we didn't do a great job for a couple different reasons. And then we hit a third down in the second quarter, big third-down conversion, I think it was to K.J., and we got into a rhythm and we kind of go. And I think we wore them down maybe a little more in the second quarter."
Instead of their typical, Cover-4 match-quarters coverage seen for years on early downs, the Spartans mixed in quite a bit of Cover-1 man coverage, leaving K.J. Hill isolated on a dig route against a safety in space on this 3rd-and-7.
Two plays later, Justin Fields would find a wide-open Binjimen Victor along the sideline, who would race 60 yards for the game's first touchdown and open the floodgates for an eventual 34-10 OSU victory. Throughout the evening, these third-down conversions would prove to be the difference on both sides of the ball, as the Buckeyes' out-executed the Spartans for three quarters and came away with an impressive win.
Ohio State would convert 8-of-15 tries while holding their opponents to just 4-of-13. Every Buckeye scoring drive except one during the final three quarters featured a conversion on third down. But the manner in which they were converted came in a variety of flavors.
The Spartans would answer Victor's touchdown with a scoring drive of their own, leaving the Buckeyes protecting a 10-7 lead as they face 3rd-and-5 from their own 30.
Despite a 7-man protection scheme, the Spartans were able to pressure Fields as he dropped back, only to watch the sophomore escape down the sideline, past all-conference linebacker Joe Bachie, and set up an eventual touchdown pass to tight end Luke Farrell just a few plays later.
Success on third down regularly came on the ground that night, as J.K. Dobbins turned 3rd-and-2 into six points as he took a mid-zone run 67 yards on the next possession. On the ensuing possession, he'd pick up 9 yards on a 3rd-and-1 deep in Ohio State's own territory, giving the offense a clear confidence that they could move the ball against the Spartans' highly-touted run defense.
But just a few plays later, facing 3rd-and-7 at midfield, Fields would have to throw, and despite some early hiccups, he showed no hesitation as he looked for Austin Mack on a back-shoulder fade. Recognizing he'd drawn the defense offside, Fields made the most of the free play, allowing the senior receiver to go up and make a play against an overmatched defender.
The drive would culminate with a field goal, giving the home team a 27-10 lead at the break. Turnovers and conservative play-calling would haunt the Buckeyes in the second half, but the Heisman candidate under center would light up the scoreboard one final time in the fourth quarter, following the lead of Dobbins and three tight ends as he plowed his way into the end zone on 3rd-and-goal outside zone run from the 1.
On the opposite side of the ball, the OSU defense was a force to be reckoned with, especially on these crucial third downs.
Just as they had throughout the season thus far, the Buckeyes employed their single-high safety look with three cornerbacks in an otherwise typical "4-3" formation. From the same pre-snap setup they'd run a mix of Cover 1 man and Cover 3 zone coverages on first and second downs.
"There is more stuff that we have practiced that we just haven't had to show yet," co-coordinator and secondary coach Jeff Hafley said of his team's coverages earlier in the week. But he neglected to add that this would be the week in which he'd unleash a full variety of looks and coverages on third down.
In a "3-3-5" nickel look with Josh Procter in the game in place of a fourth defensive lineman, the Buckeyes rotated post-snap to two-deep coverages, utilizing pattern-match techniques in the hopes of confusing veteran MSU quarterback Brian Lewerke.
This personnel package would show up frequently throughout the evening, allowing the defense to drop eight in coverage while still getting pressure from Chase Young and others up front. With two safeties in the game, they could drop back and show a Cover 5 look rarely seen at the college level, in which the safeties split the field into two deep zones while the underneath defenders man-up in coverage.
"Cover 5" in Greg Mattison's 2013 Michigan playbook
More often than not, however, Hafley and Greg Mattison brought pressure in these situations. Using the same techniques they'd used on early downs, the Buckeye secondary just continued to play Cover 1 while the Buckeyes blitzed both outside linebackers, creating a five-man front as the Spartan OL keyed on Young.
Even when they didn't execute properly, things still worked for the Buckeye D. Backed up near their own end zone in the third quarter, Mattison and Hafley brought six pass rushers on 3rd-and-5, meaning every man in coverage was doing so without any help behind them.
Thanks to the pressure, Lewerke didn't have time to recognize the coverage and that his tight end would be completely uncovered in the back of the end zone on a snag concept. Instead, his throw was forced into traffic and fell incomplete.
Thanks to the schematic diversity and overall effort, the Buckeyes continued their trend of dominating the game's most important down. As they head into their first bye week, they sit third nationally in third downs converted (55.88%) and eighth in conversions surrendered (25.56%). Only undefeated Oklahoma and Wake Forest can make a similar claim of featuring in the top-10 of both categories.
But while the final outcome looked like other blowouts administered by his team so far this season, Day was more interested in how his team eventually overcame some early struggles.
"We have to take ownership of this too and figure the problems out. But that's what playing against a team like Michigan State in a Big Ten Conference game like this is. It's hard. It's a grind and it's gritty. And it was great to see the guys respond especially in the second quarter."
