What Adjustments Did Ohio State Make Down the Stretch?

In a recent forum thread, several community members requested an analysis of how Ohio State transitioned from offensive ineptitude against the Hokies to dominate some of the best defensive coaches in the country along the way to a national championship. I spent a couple and watched the Buckeyes more closely against Nick Saban Alabama and Michigan State and former defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi. According to cfbstats.com, in 2014 opponents averaged 18.4 points against Alabama 21.5 against Michigan State. Ohio State scored and 42 and 49 points against the Tide and Spartans, respectively.

So, the million dollar question is what did Ohio State change that lead to this offensive success after Bud Foster's defense kept them in check? Did they make changes to personnel? Did Urban Meyer adjust his blocking schemes or passing game structure? After watching the Buckeyes dismantle the Spartans and the Crimson Tide, it became apparent that these powerful defenses often played to the Buckeyes' strength.

Defenses Allowed Ohio State to Play to Their Strengths

Most of the changes in the Buckeye offense were subtle. Urban Meyer continued to run his base plays like inside zone, power read, quarterback counter-trey, and power that I highlighted in last year's previews of the Buckeyes. I strongly recommend reading each prior to the game. However, Michigan State and Alabama didn't use Bud Foster's aggressive approach of loading the line of scrimmage to take away blocking angles. Alabama and Michigan State both featured eight men in the box, however both retained their basic defensive philosophy of using four down linemen against Ohio State's option-spread offense. The Hokies used five men on the line of scrimmage and worked aggressively to take away blocking angles and penetrate so the Buckeyes didn't have time to let plays develop. Often against Tech, the Ohio State backs and quarterback J.T. Barrett were dodging defenders before getting downhill. That disrupted the timing for blocks to develop and allowed other defenders to come up in support.

Michigan State and Alabama didn't copy the Hokies' model. Instead, the Tide and the Spartans defensive lines worked to eat blocks, while their linebackers and safeties read the play and flowed to the ball. This allowed Ohio State's runners to get downhill and wear down the defense. After only rushing for 108 yards against the Hokies, Ohio State rushed for 268 yards against the Spartans and 281 yards against a massive Alabama front. This play is a great example.

The Buckeyes have a second-and-goal from the five-yard-line. They call a quarterback sweep. Michigan State uses a four man front with man coverage. The edge defender for Michigan State is the left defensive end (Marcus Rush, No. 44 at the top of the screen). Unlike the Hokies Bear front, which featured an edge player well wide of the tackle, Rush is susceptible to a down block by the H-Back. The receiver slants hard to the inside, taking the corner with him. As result, the Spartans have no edge presence. The Buckeye tailback wipes out the safety with a great lead block and J.T. Barrett walks into the end zone.

Urban Meyer also made some subtle adjustments in his running game. The biggest change was obvious. Urban Meyer was impatient against the Hokies and never established Ezekiel Elliott as a running threat. Elliott only had 8 carries against the Hokies. Elliott had 23 against Alabama and 20 against Michigan State. Elliott's effectiveness inside opened up play-action for the athletic Buckeye receivers.

Meyer also started to zone some of the various option looks that the Buckeyes run, especially the inverted veer. Normally on an inverted veer, the offense pulls the offside guard to lead the quarterback while leaving a defensive end unblocked for an option read. The Hokies penetration completely wrecked the Buckeyes ability to pull a guard, so against Michigan State and Alabama Meyer abandoned pulling the guard on many of his inverted veer plays. Here is an example.

The Buckeyes run an inverted veer to the left side. Note, the Buckeye offensive line zone blocks to their left, with the left tackle abandoning the defensive end and moving up to the linebacker. The Tide defensive end takes the quarterback dive, allowing Elliott to get to the edge on the sweep. If you look closely, the Buckeyes have four blockers and the back against three defenders until late safety support arrives. Against Virginia Tech, the Hokies had so much penetration that often Elliott and J.T. Barrett were contending with defenders at the mesh point. Alabama and Michigan State rarely created much penetration.

Pulling linemen then became an effective change on counter plays. Counters were ineffective against the Hokies because the Buckeyes never established their base inside zone. The lack of penetration gave Meyer the time to pull guards and get extra bodies at the point of attack. Here is a subtle little counter that Elliott had a ton of success with down the stretch. The Buckeyes double team the one-technique to the bottom of the screen, and then pull the right tackle to trap the inside linebacker. Elliott bursts into the open.

The play works perfectly. However, I can't shake that this is more a result of Michigan State's defensive approach instead of an Ohio State adjustment. None of the three defensive linemen get any penetration. Kudos to the Buckeye offensive line for doing a good job up front, but the Spartan linebackers and safeties are not attacking the line of scrimmage. Once Elliott has the ball, the Spartans linebackers and safeties are three yards from the line of scrimmage.

More Precision in the Intermediate Passing Game

Against the Hokies, the Buckeyes passing game was essentially boom or bust. The Hokies used inside leverage to take away the quick slants and screens that the Buckeyes loved to use as intermediate routes, and quarterback pressure and some key drops stopped the Buckeyes from hurting the Hokies down field. Against Michigan State and Alabama, the Buckeyes didn't have impressive completion rates, however they were much more effective completing intermediate passes to keep drives alive than their deep ball or bust efforts against the Hokies.

A key element to that improvement was 6-3 WR Michael Thomas. I thought Thomas was the Buckeyes best receiver in the 2014 Spring Game, and I was surprised that Meyer didn't target him early against the Hokies. Thomas started receiving more targets after other Buckeye receivers dropped several catchable passes. Thomas rewarded Meyer with six catches, including a 53 yard catch and run on a slant against Brandon Facyson for a touchdown.

Thomas established himself as a dependable possession receiver for Barrett and third-string quarterback Cardale Jones throughout 2015. Thomas excels on quick slants. While he is big and strong, he uses his feet and quick shoulder movement to set up his route, as you will see below. The Alabama corner plays outside leverage. Thomas fakes a slant and up and then slants inside.

His movement freezes the Alabama corner without pushing off to get separation. This is a really nice football play. Cardale Jones is a thick quarterback who stands tall in the pocket and has a big arm. While Jones has some mechanical flaws that I will discuss down the road, his live arm is tailor-made for this type of throw. A shorter JT Barrett didn't always deliver these routes as accurately.

Thomas isn't just a possession guy. Against the Hokies, he beat outside leverage by Facyson on his touchdown. Against Michigan State, he took a slant route for a touchdown. The difference between this and the Facyson touchdown is that the Michigan State corner is playing inside leverage!

Thomas doesn't push off. Instead, he fakes outside and the Spartan corner bites. Thomas turns back to the inside. Because the Spartan corner is supposed to be playing inside leverage, he should force Thomas outside and up field where the sideline serves as an extra defender. This makes any throw a lower percentage throw. Instead, Thomas beats him inside, and the corner has no safety help. Thomas sets up the play beautifully. As I noted in my last column, against the passing game structure of Ohio State, it is absolutely critical that the Hokies field corners that play inside leverage and don't allow their technique to break down. Otherwise, Thomas and the Buckeyes could make some big plays early in the passing game, and that will force Foster to play more two deep safety coverage, which gives Ohio State more room to run the football.

The Buckeyes scored 59, 42 and 42 points as the Buckeyes demolished Wisconsin, Alabama, and Oregon on their way to win the initial Playoff National Championship. They return many stars, including Ezekiel Elliott, a three headed monster of talented quarterbacks and likely top-three NFL Draft pick DE Joey Bosa. At the same time, I come into this game very confident. Those opponents used a very passive strategy to stop the Buckeye running game, and the Hokies have a perfect formula of twitchy, explosive defensive linemen that can get in the gaps and disrupt the mesh point. The Buckeye passing game has receivers that can generate big plays, however the Hokie corners play techniques that disrupt most of the easy throws in the Ohio State offense. The Hokies have the defensive formula to give the Buckeyes problems. Early, look for Ohio State to feed Elliott and loosen up the Hokie defense. If he can get going, and Thomas can beat inside coverage technique, it will be a much tougher challenge for Bud Foster and his defense.