Ohio State opened up the play-book on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball vs. Penn State. Little by little, we will start to see just what the 2020 team is, and how they want to attack teams with the unbelievable talent they have.
12 personnel
Ohio State's offense got off to a fast and dominating start to the game. Ohio State totaled 526 yards with 318 through the air and 208 on the ground. To start the game, Ryan Day sent out their 12 personnel package (one back, two tight ends).
In the off-season, Day hinted at the fact that he wanted to be in 12 more than he was in 2019. Ohio State has the depth in the TE room to use multiple TE sets.
With a deep TE unit, it also puts Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson at the X and Z. This gives their best receivers 1 on 1 opportunities with defenses having to account for the 2 TE’s in the box. It puts a premium on making corners defend 1 on 1, which Ohio State took advantage of.
Day did an unbelievable job piecing the game plan together off the first explosive play of the game. When it comes to defending Ohio State's offense, defenses will just have to pick their poison.
To start the game, Day trades both TE’s from the boundary to the field. This creates a 4 man surface (4 blockers past the center), where Penn State has to push the LB’s to the TE’s to even numbers.
Penn State defends this formation with an under front (shade/5/9), where the SLB is playing in a 9 technique from space and is the D gap player. Ohio State runs the jet sweep to the TE’s side with Wilson.
The two TE’s and tackle block jet and reach, while the rest of the offensive line run inside zone away from jet. This causes conflict with LB’s and DL trying to fit the run. The LB’s and DL into the boundary are defending inside zone and fitting their gap while the play is being run away from them.
