The Ohio State defense got off to a slow start in their 52-17 win on Saturday. Nebraska and staff came into Columbus with a great game plan and executed early. The Cornhuskers first drive covered 75 yards in 4 plays in just under 2 minutes.
Many were searching for the panic button and looking for answers 2 minutes into the football game.
Was it a cause for concern? Ohio State’s defense was getting its first action in mid October vs. a new offensive coordinator (Matt Lubick) who they had no film on.
Ohio State also had to replace 7 new starters on defense, many of which are now playing on Sundays. Given these factors, only giving up 17 is a win for the defensive staff.
There were a lot of questions going into Saturday of what the defense would look like. Are we going to be a 1 or 2 high team? Will the 7 new starters have an impact on the scheme being called? Will we be playing more man or zone? Will Coombs bring pressure or play in base? To answer that, I tracked the coverages Coombs called on the back end to really dissect what the defense is going to be this year.
In Kerry Coombs; post game conference, he credited Nebraska and their offensive staff for the game plan they brought to Columbus.
Nebraska utilized condensed formations (tightening the WR’s splits closer to the football) and motions to gain leverage, numbers, and angles. Condensing the formation creates an extra “gap” outside of the furthest receiver.
With this, Nebraska used a crack block on many of their run schemes, which is good vs man. This forces the DB’s and LB’s to fit the run at a very high level, and Nebraska took advantage. Nebraska would also motion their WR and RB on a majority of their snaps, and this forced Ohio State’s LB’s to struggle with communication.
Coombs mentioned some of the early struggle was due to DB’s not “replacing” the crack block Nebraska threw at them on many occasions.
Nebraska comes out in a condensed heavy quads formation to the field with back-up QB Luke McCaffery as a slot receiver. Ohio State lines up in their base 1 high defense with Baron Browning at the WLB, Sam Werner at MLB, and Tuf Borland at SLB.
The funky formation caused the LB’s to get shuffled around from their normal alignment and that’s why Browning lines up as the WLB in this play. Nebraska motions McCaffery to the backfield in a RB alignment, forcing the LB unit to communicate and adjust. With the motion, the LB’s “push” to the boundary and changes up the run fit.
Browning is now responsible for the B gap backside, and Werner is the front side A gap player. The thing that makes this play hit is not only the funky formation and motion, but the crack block to the run side. Nebraska cracks the WLB (Browning) and Ohio State doesn’t “replace” the crack like Coombs mentioned in his presser.
The corner has to communicate with Browning that the crack block is coming, so he can get under it faster. The corner also has to be the “replace” and do it in a much quicker fashion. Sevyn Banks is too late to replace, and the TE has a great angle to kick him out.
Nebraska runs a zone counter leaving the DE unblocked as the TE comes across. Jonathon Cooper gets too far down the line, and essentially takes himself out of the play. Scott Frost took this out of Kyle Shanahan's play-book, where it became polarized in 2019.
Nebraska again uses a condensed formation, paired with a motion to leverage the Ohio State defense vs. man coverage. The TE for Nebraska motions from the boundary to the field, where Browning (SLB) has to trail from one end of the field to the other.
This alone gets Browning out of position as he is the "force" player in this particular play. His job is to force the ball back inside into the teeth of the defense, and track the outside hip of the ball barrier. Browning ends up on the inside hip of the ball carrier and the ball gets bounced to the extra "gap" created by the condensed formation.
This a prime example of gaining leverage with the use of condensed formations and motion.
On this play, Nebraska starts out in a empty set, and orbit motions Wan'Dale Robinson to create a "quads" set to the field. Ohio State again comes out in their 1 high base defense and play man behind it with their 6 man box.
Werner (SLB) is matched up in man with Robinson, who motions to the other side of the field. Because of this, Werner communicates with Borland to bump with motion and lock up the Robinson in man. This gives Nebraska a 5 on 5 box, where Ohio State always tries to be +1.
Nebraska runs Q dart to the 2i, where they have leverage and grass. These types of run schemes never hit Ohio State in 2019 with the likes of Chase Young. The PST does a great job against Javontae Jean-Baptiste.
This 3rd down play Nebraska runs mesh again from a condensed set. Mesh attacks the defense horizontally and vertically. Ohio State is in their base 1 high, and play cover 3 behind it.
The subtle move of flipping the RB from one side to the other messes with Tuf Borland (MLB). Because of pervious movement in the game, Borland moves inside out and follows the RB. Borland is the MLB and should be playing strong hook area in his cover 3 responsibility.
His aiming point would typically be the hash, but with the condensed set it has to tighten up. On this play, Borland gets too wide and the sit route replaces his void.
Breakdowns in coverage happen, and it stems from a lack of communication. On this 2nd and 7, the Buckeyes come out in man coverage from a 1 high set. Nebraska runs a inside zone RPO, where the pass option is the TE running a speed out.
Martinez reads the backside DE for the give/pull, and has the option to run or throw to the TE on a pull read. Browning (SLB) is in man with the TE that is in split flow across the formation.
With the TE crossing the formation, Browning (SLB) communicates to the LB's to "push" with split flow and have Werner (WLB) pick up the TE. Werner ends up playing the run, and nobody is left to pick up the TE on the RPO. The miss-communication cost the Buckeyes.
Crack "replace" issue again inside the red zone from a 2 high look with Marcus Williamson as the free safety. Nebraska again runs inside zone where they read the backside DE for a give/pull. The WR to the run side again cracks Werner (WLB), and Sevyn Banks follows inside. Williamson should be the "replace" on the crack and is too late. This gives Martinez enough space to gain 8 yards and get inside the 5.
Adjustments
A good sign of a well coached football team is the adjustments the coaching staff can make in game. With no film on Nebraska's new offensive coordinator, the defensive staff had to adjust series by series.
Coombs gave a ton of credit to Frost and their staff on the game plan, which gave Ohio State fits. After Nebraska put 14 on the board, adjustments were made fairly quickly and Nebraska's momentum was pretty much all but gone.
Late in the first half, Coombs subbed in a "nickel" personnel where they sub out Josh Proctor as a bullet for Borland, and Cameron Brown for Williamson as a third corner.
One of the bigger adjustments was being able to handle the crack block and replacing it with corner blitzes, the defensive line using their hands and dominating the line of scrimmage, and communicating on motions and handling it better than they did in the first half.
On the first drive of the game, Nebraska hit this same exact play for 55 yards. On the crack block in the boundary, both Banks (CB) and Marcus Williamson (Walk down $) replace it and force the ball back inside.
The secondary communicated the crack block to Browning as he gets under it. Another adjustment on this play was defensive end not getting so far down the line of scrimmage. It gave him enough space to track down McCaffery and help make the play.
On the obvious passing down, Ohio State subs in Proctor for Borland to get in a "nickel" defense. Werner gets moved to MLB, and Browning to WLB. This puts an emphasis on speed in the back end and being able to handle the athletic WR's.
The defensive line again makes use of their hands and controls the line of scrimmage, something of which they didn't do early in the first half. Nebraska tries to run Q dart again, and Ohio State sniffs it out.
Nebraska gets the box 5 on 5 with Werner playing the seam, but the defensive line controlling the line of scrimmage was the difference. Proctor has the back in cover 1, and is athletic enough to get to Martinez.
Creating turnovers. Defensive line does a great job of using their hands and giving Martinez no space to work with as Werner makes a great play on the ball.
Ohio State started blitzing their corner after getting hurt by the crack block. On pervious plays, the corner would follow the crack and take himself out of the play. The staff took it upon themselves to blitz Wade and get him in position to make a tackle.
This is a perfectly called scheme to what Nebraska wanted to do on offense. With the corner blitz, Williamson spins down from the FS position to replace Wade. Instead of this hitting for a big gain, Martinez gets 7
This is another great adjustment from the defense. This inside zone RPO hit for a huge gain early in the game to the TE. Ohio State is again in cover 1, where the SLB would be matched up with TE.
The TE is in split flow, so the LB's "push" and communicate to Craig Young to pick him up. Instead of this getting dumped off for a big gain and momentum shift, Martinez picks up 6 and Young is matched up with the TE.
Subtle changes made a dramatic impact on the defensive side of the ball. The identity of this defense will slowly come together as time moves along. Day has constantly reiterated that he wants to remain 1 high, and that seemed to be the identity Saturday.
The Buckeyes want to consistently have a 6 man box with Borland and Werner as the run support LB's, and Browning as the pass support LB matched up with the TE. Williamson (slot corner) will be matched up with the speedy slot similar to a walk down safety.
Again, this defense is all about taking advantage of match ups, and having the 4/5 star athletes play fast. 2nd half coverages were charted just to gain an understanding of what the Buckeyes defense wants to be and trying to figure out their identity.
