🏈 Behind Enemy Lines: More from Kevin Noon of BuckeyeGrove.com

[Bamabww]

Q.)
How do you see OSU's run game being able to perform against our front 7? Without a legit running threat at QB (as from what I have seen of Cardale Jones he isn't a huge threat to run), what is OSU going to try to do to keep Bama from shutting down their run game as we have everyone else's?

A.)
Ohio State has gone against some great defensive lines in my opinion this year and has done quite well. Ohio State ran for 194 yards against Navy (game 1) and 108 yards against Virginia Tech (game 2) and since then have run for 219 yards or more in every game since... It may sound like a cliche but Ohio State really had "not put it together" in those first couple of games and I think that was a big part of what was going on. That is not some attempt and trying to re-write history but rather just an observation that the OL was a mess and players were not playing within the system and I would even go as far as saying that the coaches didn't call a good game as well.

Maybe I have been watching the B1G too long this year and not enough other leagues (I try to watch as much as I can but being on the "beat" does not afford me a lot of time to watch games in their entirety) but Ohio State is going to get yards on the ground, it is just who they are. We can go through all of Ohio State's struggles in bowl games against the SEC over the years but one constant is that Ohio State is able to run the ball, Ohio State ran the ball against a solid LSU front in the BCS title game several years ago with Beanie Wells. The issue that Ohio State had run into in games like that is they have to abandon the run because Ohio State's defense couldn't keep up and the team needed to pass.

Also respectfully, who are the best backs in the SEC that are either not a) on the Alabama roster or b) named Todd Gurley? The SEC is much more deep and athletic at many, many positions than the B1G but running back is not one of them. I do not feel that Alabama would have the same rushing defensive numbers if it had to go against Jeremy Langford (Michigan State), David Cobb (Minnesota), Ameer Abullah (Nebraska), Melvin Gordon (Wisconsin), Tevin Coleman (Indiana) and Ezekiel Elliott (Ohio State) during league play. That is not taking anything away from Alabama and I don't want it to appear that I am coming into your living room and talking smack, because that is not my intention. I am just saying that Nick Chubb ranks at No. 27 in the nation in yards and the kid from Mississippi State is barely inside the top-40 while the Big Ten has seven running backs (throw in Justin Jackson from Northwestern) within the top-40 running backs in yards this season.

I think that Ohio State will still need to try and attack the edge, run some jet sweeps and do some things to try and force the Tide to loosen up the middle a little bit but I really do think that Ohio State will be able to formulate a game plan where they will be able to run the ball some, probably not for huge runs at a time but enough to be able to move the chains some and keep the passing game open.

One final point on Cardale Jones running... he can run the ball but he is carrying a refrigerator on his back when it comes to speed. While he may have Jadeveon Clowney size, he is not fast like Clowney. Ohio State also won't look to run him a bunch just due to the fact that he has nobody really behind him in terms of a QB. Ohio State has a true freshman QB (Stephen Collier) that has a RS on still and Jalin Marshall at H-Back who was a QB in high school. Neither are viable options long-term (as in a whole game) if Jones gets injured so Jones is not going to be out calling his own number like Nick Marshall.

https://alabama.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=427&tid=207585714&mid=207585714&sid=885&style=2

 

[Bamabww]

Q.)
Kevin, I viewed the remainder of the game and as you know that was as thorough a beat-down as can be administered. Against OSU, Wisconsin looked like a division 3 team...a poor division 3 team. They didn't once threaten the goal line. Ohio State owned the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. Was Melvin Gordon even in the game?

My impressions were you have quality SEC type of talent, and not the stereotypical Big-10 type of players we tend to think of. Speed and quickness abounds, and again Bosa is a special talent and the defensive line as a whole looked great.

My question is what happened to this team? Looking at the OSU game scores year to date, I don't see the dominance in those scores that I witnessed in the championship game. Just what happened to cause such dominance?

A.)
Melvin Gordon did play, he just did not play well. Ohio State never allowed him a chance to make any cut-backs because they were in his grill immediately. Part of the biggest factor is that Wisconsin is one-dimensional at the end of the day. Joel Stave and Tanner McEvoy are not going to win any quarterbacking awards and while they may be "improving" against subpar teams, whatever your feelings are about Ohio State, the Buckeyes are not subpar. Wisconsin didn't make a lot of adjustments either and it really didn't matter by halftime down 38-0, we were just watching the Cubs play out the string in the second half in many regards. Ohio State let up to a certain point but also tried to put some points on the board but it was mostly (not entirely, they did throw into the 4th quarter, albeit not a lot) via the run which was working.

Ohio State definitely played to the level of its opponent in some regards in the 2nd half of the season. If you can get a copy of the Ohio State vs. Michigan State game (I am sure Big Ten Network will be airing it at some point as part of bowl preparation time for those with DIrecTV or a carrier that has BTN down that way) and you will see Ohio State going against a more multi type of offense with the Spartans and still deliver a pretty decisive win.

I am not going to try and explain away why Ohio State looked meh in a couple of the other games but I will just offer this, it was stupid cold and snowy in Minnesota and that made for some less than favorable conditions. The game against Michigan, no matter how poor the Wolverines are is always a highly-charged game and since UM was drawing dead more or less, they really put everything into that game and broke all tendencies (one tendency they broke was 'not playing bad'). The one game I really have no answer for is the Indiana game other than it was a trap game but I am not sure if I am buying that since Ohio State punched its ticket to the B1G title game with that win, regardless of what happened in the Michigan game.

I really just chalk it up to Ohio State playing to its competition in some regards and would even put some of that in how games were called. Ohio State fans have this weird relationship with the OC, they love him most of the time but call him MENSA (since he is in MENSA) in a derogatory way when they feel that he is either calling a vanilla game or getting too cute.

This is a team with a lot of underclassmen as you noted and they are playing well. I think that the secondary came along well as the season progressed with Eli Apple and Vonn Bell both taking huge steps forward. I think that Darron Lee has been a hell of a player this year as well on the line. And I cannot say enough about how the OL has grown up this year. I think success bred success and the team got on a roll but just as important, this team is not the team that laid an egg against a bad Virginia Tech team. We talk about if "two teams played 10 times" and what would happen. Well that was the 1 out of 10 IMHO.

 

[planomateo]

LOL, they are talking about Mensa again, in both a positive and negative way.

 

[bama alum]

One final point on Cardale Jones running... he can run the ball but he is carrying a refrigerator on his back when it comes to speed. While he may have Jadeveon Clowney size, he is not fast like Clowney. Ohio State also won't look to run him a bunch just due to the fact that he has nobody really behind him in terms of a QB. Ohio State has a true freshman QB (Stephen Collier) that has a RS on still and Jalin Marshall at H-Back who was a QB in high school. Neither are viable options long-term (as in a whole game) if Jones gets injured so Jones is not going to be out calling his own number like Nick Marshall.

I cannot wait to see the terror Smart is going to unleash on this kid. And once this kid thinks he's seen enough (lying on the ground and nearly crying like Kirk Cousins), then he'll get to see Tim Williams and Rashaan Evans. This just gets better by the minute.

 

[bamaledge]

I like what some analyst said, Cardale Jones only had a weeks worth of practice for wisconsin and really didn't have time to get nervous. He has better than 3 weeks to contemplate his demise here.

 

[We All Bleed Crimson]

I'm not surprised that OSU won the BIG over Wisconsin, but I didn't expect 59-0.
In retrospect, I wonder if the Wisconsin coaches' focus was a bit further west instead of dissecting and nailing down details for the game.....