Three years into the Jim Knowles experiment and there are some pretty obvious trends with his defenses:

• They beat up on teams that can’t out-athlete them. Iowa last week is a great example, they were getting open enough on 3rd downs to show some cracks to exploit, but they didn’t have the athletes to go over the top
• The DL has consistently shown they get absolutely zero pressure in big games against like for like teams. There have been talks of discord between LJ and Knowles in terms of how they want to get pressure from the DL, but I won’t get too far into that because that is another conversation in itself
• The secondary is exceedingly soft in their coverage, yet still get beat over the top. Burke does not have CB1 speed, so if you’re not going to have safety help over the top when a team goes 5 wide, Burke will get cooked against elite speed and athleticism, which Oregon has plenty of

I could get into a lot more with the scheme, but those are the biggest areas of concern that have shown to be a trend with Knowles. My question is very specific, is there ANYTHING that gives you confidence in this defense going forward against like for like talent on the perimeter? I am not talking about Penn State or Michigan, I am talking about Oregon, Alabama (I know they are bad right now), Texas, hell even Clemson or Indiana right now. 

This can sound like a spoiled question, but quite frankly OSU is not paying Knowles $2 million for him to just pound on lesser teams, only to get ran through by anyone with a pulse on the OL and a downfield passing threat. 

Are there certain tweaks this defense can have or this a philosophical argument that requires wholesale changes in scheme? 

For what it’s worth, I still think OSU is going 11-1 and will have a rematch with Oregon in the B1G title, I just have lost what little confidence I had in this defense going forward in games that prove their championship mettle.