In the second part of our four part series, we will take a look into how Ohio State played cover 3 on defense. Ohio State had one of the best secondaries in college football in 2019, and a big part of that was giving the defensive backs the ability to play off the quarterback. To gain a better understanding of how Ohio State played cover 3, we need to look into what the belief around pass coverage was and what the staff believed in. Ohio State emphasized on playing every pass play deep to short, having 99.9-percent vision on the quarterback, ball out break, and to disrupt the ball.

In this clip you’ll see every trait the Ohio State secondary believes in. Nebraska is in a 3 X 1 (trips) set on 2nd and 10. Ohio State lines up in their base 1 high defense with the slot corner (Shaun Wade) lined up to the passing strength. The passing strength will be where the offense lines up the most receivers, and in this example it’s to the 3 receiver side.

The first thing that jumps off the screen is that both corners and the deep safety are playing the ball deep to short in their cover 3 responsibility. In the cover 3 pass coverage, the deep third players are taught that nobody gets behind you. When receivers start to get behind the the deep third coverage, issues will start to arise. All secondary players and linebackers have 99-percent of their vision on the quarterback and break when the ball is thrown. At the bottom of the screen, No, 3 (Damon Arnette) is a deep third player. As he drops to the deep third he breaks on the ball as soon as the ball is thrown. This is another trait the defense believes in, and shows up on film every Saturday.