This is the defensive play-by-play analysis series that has been going on the whole season, with the last defensive one located here. This format I have been using is basically the same as used for the Upon Further Review series over at MgoBlog. The most recent one for them is located here.

Last week, Ohio State stuffed an improved Rutgers team, but that didn’t tell us much. Minnesota and Oregon were struggles, which resulted in the changing of the defensive staff. The Tulsa game, while an improvement, still showed some real holes in the defense. Then Ohio State played Akron and Rutgers, and while they did look better, they played some really atrocious offenses. There was a real questions as to how they would perform against a nominally good offense in Maryland.

They answered those questions emphatically. Here is the play-by-play analysis:

The defense largely held up against Maryland, though it wasn’t always perfect. There was the huge bust in the first quarter with 12:28 to go, and a receiver was left wide open in the end zone, but Tagovailoa overthrew him. Besides that though, they played well. The run game was completely shut down, and they were forced to pass all game.

The Buckeyes performed better than the aggregate stats suggest. The starters were only giving up 3.7 Yards Per Play (YPP), while the backups gave up 6.1 YPP. This is the difference between struggling to get first downs and moving the ball at will. Maryland’s averages were way down from how they usually play, especially against the run. There is a concern about depth here, as the backups played poorly, particularly with regard to tackling. The starters get most of the reps in practice though, and I imagine that’s doubly true for a unit that had to make a complete turnaround, so perhaps it is unreasonable to expect great play from the second team. Also, Maryland left their starters in the whole game, while Ohio State pulled them out early. I don’t know why more teams don’t do this, as it makes sense to let your starters play against a unit that is closer to their skill level. Regardless, here is the defensive chart:

The defensive line was dominant, as usual. This was especially noteworthy as Maryland’s tackles have been pretty good all season. Maryland was much more likely to run deeper passing routes than Rutgers, Oregon, or Minnesota, so it makes sense that Ohio State had more success rushing the passer.

There really isn’t a ton to say about the defensive line, other than Tyleik Williams looked merely human for once. Also, Haskell Garrett’s injury is a big deal, though Williams and Taron Vincent have played well enough where I wouldn’t be too worried about that spot, even without their best player. J.T. Tuimoloau got his first sack this year on a crucial fourth down in the red zone with 1:59 to play in the first half. Jack Sawyer played very well, and he is really starting to pick it up. He was getting blown off the ball in the first two weeks, and I didn’t expect him to play much. Since then, he’s been getting a little better every week and wins a lot of one-on-one matchups with the tackles. He won’t start this year, but he is playing more than I expected.

The linebackers are far more interesting, particularly with how the rotation should be in the future. Teradja Mitchell had his most active game to date, but it was inconsistent. It is good to see him get more big plays though, as I think he has been one of the weaker pieces of the linebacker corps so far.

Nearly everyone thinks Cody Simon should start, but as I have graded him, he hasn’t graded out all that well this year. He hasn’t been bad, he just hasn’t been as good as I would think for the praise he gets. I marked a play as “lethargic” with 13:26 in the first quarter. That’s a bad sign. If any of the other three linebackers were there, I think they make the tackle. It may be injury related, as I know he’s been banged up, but he doesn’t have the same motor that the other three guys have shown, at least in my opinion. Maybe he’s trying to improve his tackling, as that has been a particularly weak spot for him. I should mention that I usually grade pretty harshly for missed tackles, and Simon has not tackled well compared to Eichenberg and Chambers. I have no idea; all I know is that I am not nearly as high on him as others are at this point, though I know I might be wrong on this one. I am not an expert on linebacker play. For a sneak peak of the cumulative chart, though, I have him rated as about the same level as Tommy Eichenberg for the season.

Speaking of Eichenberg, I put him down as the worst graded defender against Oregon. Since then, he’s been steadily improving, with a below average game against Tulsa, good performances against Akron and Rutgers, and now, a great performance against the best offense the Buckeyes have played this year. He looks to be the biggest beneficiary of the coaching changes so far, and I think he might deserve to start over Cody Simon, which I would have never considered just two weeks ago. Against Oregon, Simon was slightly positive, while Eichenberg was overwhelmingly negative. Now, Eichenberg is overwhelmingly positive, while Simon is slightly positive. I don’t know if his recent performance is sustainable, so I don’t know if it will continue, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him start some games in the future, even if it is just to give Simon some needed time to heal from his injuries. With 14:33 in the second quarter, Eichenberg had excellent pursuit on a swing pass, getting the tackle for loss. With 7:46 in the fourth quarter, he makes another tackle right at the line of scrimmage on a bubble screen. He moves a lot better than I thought, and he takes good angles. He did make a huge mistake early in the game. On Maryland’s first touchdown, Eichenberg vacates his zone to chase Tagovailoa, but there was no one else defending the receiver, resulting in an easy touchdown. His upward trajectory is one of the biggest surprises in re-watches of these games.

After five weeks of doing this, I think I can definitively say that Steele Chambers is the best linebacker on the team right now, and there isn’t a close second. Even when he screws up, he can make up for it with his athleticism and his high effort play. There were two straight plays that demonstrated this. First, on the last play of the first quarter, a slip screen to the running back gets completed, and his lead blockers are all out ahead of him. He has three blockers and a bunch of green space. Chambers shoots over, sheds two blockers, and makes the tackle for a small four yard gain. The next play, they run to the left. Chambers gets caught up inside instead of staying outside, where he would have been able to fill a gap. Sevyn Banks makes a great play (though, I imagine it was a case of “nice play Sevyn, don’t ever do it again”). Even though he is supposed to keep contain, he dives in to slow down the running back. This could have been a huge play after an overly aggressive missed tackle, but because of Chambers’ relentless effort, he is able to make the tackle after a modest six yard gain. It was so fun to watch him in this game, and I hope he plays more and more. The defensive player of the game honors shows me that the coaches have noticed.

Speaking of Sevyn Banks, he had an excellent game against Maryland. He made a couple of really nice plays against the run, and even got a sack of Tagovailoa with 6:29 in the third. Just four plays before that, he broke up a pass to force an incompletion. He looked good in coverage and against the run. He missed a tackle or too, but I don’t expect corners to be unbelievable run stoppers. His play is going to be so important if Brown is out for an exteneded period of time.

The cover safety (nickleback) position was usually just a cornerback, and had been manned by Marcus Williamson and Cam Martinez up to this point, and Lathan Ransom early in the year. In this game, they started to use the nickleback as a third linebacker, sometimes lining up in the 4-3. This is why I think Williamson got the start, and why Craig Young moved over to the spot. Williamson had showed to be one of the best tacklers all season. Seeing him used in this role makes a lot of sense. Martinez is great in coverage, but his struggles tackling means that Williamson was a better fit for this game. He and Young played very well in this role, and I am curious to see exactly how they will implement this going forward. Is this just going to be for certain teams/packages, or are they hoping to make this their base defense?

Overall, the defense held up just fine, especially the starters. Last week, I mentioned the statistic that the College Football Nerds channel on YouTube likes to use. They recently put up a video where they showed Ohio State’s averages after six games, which a fellow 11W user posted here. They showed Ohio State at 92% of opponent’s average YPC allowed, and 92% of opponents YPA allowed.  This is slightly above average, which is around 95% for both. However, this also includes the Oregon and Minnesota games. For the Maryland game, they allowed 39% of Maryland’s average YPC, and 88% of Maryland’s average YPA. That’s not bad at all, especially considering the performance of the backups. The backups are still an issue though, because it implies that Ohio State is thin on defense. In particular, the backups really struggled tackling. The starters tackled fine. The backups were shockingly bad at tackling. Again, this is a practice/experience thing, so it can be remedied, but it needs to be fixed in case of injury. Ohio State can’t afford injuries right now.

Depending on Sean Clifford’s status, the next real test for this defense will either be Penn State or Michigan State. They shouldn’t have too much trouble with Indiana or Nebraska, but stranger things have happened.

Next week, I will go over the cumulative scores for the entire season, as well as a mid-season review. Thank you for reading.