Fulton Analysis: Stretching the field
Ohio State turned in one of its most impressive offensive performances of the Urban Meyer era behind 41 first downs and eight consecutive touchdown drives in its 56-14 win over Nebraska.
Nebraska provided Ohio State numerous looks. The Cornhuskers mixed a 4-3 over and odd 3-man fronts, while mixing soft zone coverages such as cover 2, 3 and 4, and even some man coverage on third down.
Nevertheless, offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson and quarterbacks coach Ryan Day had an answer to every Cornhusker scheme as Ohio State continues to expand its base offense – made possible by the stellar play of quarterback J.T. Barrett.
Against the odd front, the Buckeyes often checked to their offset (strong) tight end as fullback alignment to run lead zone, frequently motioning the tight end into the backfield from the slot to minimize the defense’s reaction time.
The Buckeyes also responded to the odd front with edge runs like toss read, taking advantage of the explosive element that J.K. Dobbins has brought to the run game.
In response, Nebraska increasingly had its field safety flow aggressively downhill – both to defend the run and limit the bubble screen (as they did against Parris Campbell). But Ohio State was again able to exploit the resulting structural weakness with the pass game.
This again began with mesh, as Barrett hit both the middle curl,
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