I just rank them 6th because the defense is Bad with a capital B. They seem to have gotten worse each week. They are 118th(!) in the country in total defense. That's not bad for Ohio State, that's bad for a MAC team. I'm not even sure if they have played a very good offense yet. Minny looks the part but was missing their top receiver and Ibrahim was injured halfway through. Oregon has been inconsistent on offense going back to last season. Tulsa is Tulsa.
OSU has a puncher's chance in any game because of their offense. But compare to 2018 - a similar team in terms of janky defense. That defense was much better than this one, and the offense was probably better, too. That team won the B1G and a Rose Bowl, but also won close games that I'm not sure this team will.
I rank them down there as well, but for a completely different reasoning.
I always view ranking as simple as this: if they played tomorrow on a neutral field and someone put a gun to my head to bet my life savings or even $10, who would I pick. Right now I would pick four or five teams to win if the game were tomorrow.
having said that- there is context to what you are saying here. For example, ranking them in statistics after three games is really kind of silly. How do you compare a team that open the season with a brand new quarterback and a road game environment in the conference, with a team like Michigan just as an example who has not even played away from home let alone a conference opponent? The stats aren’t worth much until you get at least a few games into the conference schedule.
And Ibrahim played through most of the third Quarter.
As for their defense -you have to be more specific if you want to understand what’s going on there. There’s about 100 film studies available out there that explain that they have been running their single hi Safety look, with press man coverage and running at about 90% of the time with no effort’s to disguise it.
Joe Moorhead exposed it, mostly in the running game. Ohio State simply could not defend the boundary side of the field with the simple concept of “crack Replace”. ( something I learned in HS Football as a CB). Oregon very rarely dropped back to pass, choosing instead to get the ball out very quickly to the perimeter on the boundary side, which led to almost no pressure on the quarterback.
The coaching staff worked on many changes for this last weekend, primarily focusing on stuffing the opponents running game. They did a fantastic job of that holding them to 59 yards and 2 yards a carry. They played a soft zone, keeping everything in front of them for about 80% of the game. Tulsa picked them apart and the underneath zones with the dink and dunk game.
It did not lead to much in the way of points but it did the trick as far as possessing the ball, moving the chains, and keeping the ball out of Ohio states offense hands. Zack Harrison and Teradja Mitchell did not play. Tulsa had a few drop back passing plays, but mostly quick, short throws. When they did drop back The buckeyes got very little pressure which is very concerning. But it is also somewhat understandable since both Oregon and Tulsa have RPO’d them to death. When it’s potentially a running play the defensive lineman can’t simply pin their ears back and the teams have been using that to hold Ohio State in place.
The one area of strength has actually been the CBs in pass coverage. I know that sounds weird when they just gave up 480 yards passing but again almost all of that was soft zone stuff where the plan is to give them the throw and rally to the tackle.
Some new stars have been “ born” as well
Denzel Burke- true freshman CB has been solid as a rock. Cam Martinez, RSF, got his first substantial playing time yesterday in the defensive backfield and looked fantastic. Tyleik Williams, Freshman DT got his first limited playing time this weekend and looked like Johnathan Hankins the second.
where they have been hurt the most is at linebacker and they have some very good talent there but zero experience especially when you consider that last year‘s three starting linebackers were starters for three years. I would assume they will improve with experience as well the entire defense but it’s just a question of how long does it take.
On offensive superstar was born this weekend with Trayveon Henderson. He is a home run hitter and a threat every time he touches the ball but still can run in between the tackles.
The issue they have an office is the quarterback has been very inconsistent. At times against both Minnesota and Oregon he looked like an assassin. But against Tulsa he never looked good or comfortable. He is nursing some kind of a right shoulder injury and it makes you wonder if the staff will give someone else a try this coming weekend if for nothing else, to let his arm heal.
another shout against him is that he doesn’t run very often when he easily could and certainly has the skill to do it. Not sure if the injury is related to that or not.
All of that adds up to a team that’s not extremely impressive and certainly not dominant in anyway shape or form, but also has tremendous potential. Only time will tell if any of that potential gets fulfilled.
It is very challenging to change your primary scheme on defense this early in the season. But they don’t need to. They simply need to blend in cover two and some disguising of what they’re running as well as some creative blitz packages and that something they certainly could do and look like they’re trying to do.
As 1 million film breakdown experts have said in the last two weeks, it’s too easy for a good office of coordinator to game plan both beforehand and endgame when all they run is there a single hi Safety look. Do you need a crazy good defense of line and a crazy good deep safety to run that scheme and with Josh Proctor now out for the year Ohio State has neither of those two so hopefully they adapt to the really strong personnel that they do have, but time will tell
