OSU/Ohio Defensive Scouting Report
The D and special
teams come through for the Buckeyes.
By Bill Smith
When
your defense/special teams score more points than they give up, you will
win. That is what happened Saturday at
the Shoe. For the most part the D played
well but there are a couple of danger signs that showed up. While a team like OU is not able to take
advantage of these short comings, USC, Wisconsin
and Illinois
can.
Every right
thinking Buckeye fan hopes that we win next week if for no other reason than to
make Carson
(OUCH! MY NOSE HURTS) Palmer eat Crow Quiche.
The Good
The Buckeye
Defense gave up 1 TD. The turnovers
generated by the D and Special Teams set up 2 field goals (should have been 3)
and the 70 yard TD punt return by Ray Small.
That was a thing of beauty. What
makes Small so dangerous in returning kicks is the combination of his great
speed and total vision of the field. The
special teams can also be congratulated for some great blocking—even if there
might have been an alleged block in the back.
The D also
did well in forcing turnovers. The Bucks
got 5 in all but then had to watch the offense fail to take maximum advantage
of them. The ST recovered a muffed punt
deep in OU territory but the O could only get a FG. The D caused an interception by Lawrence
Wilson which he returned to the OU 24.
But we got only a FG again.
The special
teams also got excellent pressure on OU punt attempts several of which ended up
causing short punts.
The Bad
The entire
first half, the Bucks failed to match the intensity that OU had. We just didn't seem to have a sense of
urgency. We looked much better in the
second half. To the defense of the D,
it is hard to do your job just to see the O fail to take advantage of the field
position that was earned with such effort.
We do need
to remember that not only were we playing a team with much less talent than we
have, but they were forced to use their second QB for most of the game. Even so, Boo Jackson played very well. We will not win with even a half of lethargy
next week at USC.
The UGLY!
During the
first half, the Bucks failed to show any sign of urgency. Maybe we were looking ahead but I doubt
it. Far too many times we failed to
contain the QB and allowed him to escape to throw deep down field to a wide
open receiver. He missed many of those
throws but future opponents will not. We
did much better defensively in the third quarter but dozed off to sleep again
in the 4th. Really no one had
a great game. The D will have to do much
better next week or it will be a disaster.
Probably
the thing that bothered me the most was the Defense's inability to get off the
field on 3rd down. When the
Bucks failed to make a 1st down on 4th and a half yard we
turned the ball over to the Bobcats.
Then on 2 straight 3rd
down situations, we failed to get off the field. That lead to a TD drive for OU.
a) 3rd
and 14 the QB escapes the sack, rolls outside contain and completes a pass up
field for the first down.
b) On the
next 3rd down we rush past QB and let him run for 10 yards and a
first. We got an arm on him but because
we couldn't get off the blockers, we failed to sack him. We did that a lot.
c) OU scored on a 15 yd TD run
because we failed to contain the run wide.
The result was a drive of 11plays
for 72 yards consuming 5:21 off the clock just because we could not make a half
yard on 4th down.
The Bucks
have great difficulty containing a running QB.
When we blitz, we allow the OL to push us out of our lanes and loose
contain either in the middle or outside.
Our DE's tend to over run the QB on the rush and let the QB cut under
the rush then get to the outside to pass or run for a 1st down.
Bill Smith is a
former coach of several semi-pro teams and has scouted talent. He is a senior writer for http://BrutusReport.com. He has
also published several novels on http://ebooks-library.com/index.cfm and edits http://fryingpanpolitics.blog.com