Nine games into the 2022 season, Ohio State’s defense is the best Jim Knowles has ever had in his first year as a team’s defensive coordinator.
The Buckeyes currently rank sixth in the nation in total defense and eighth in scoring defense, allowing only 271.8 yards per game (over 100 yards fewer than the Buckeyes allowed per game in 2021) and 15.8 points per game (seven points fewer than 2021). By comparison, Knowles’ first defense as Oklahoma State’s defensive coordinator ranked 112th in yards allowed per game (452.5) and 97th in points allowed per game (32.5); Knowles’ first defense as Duke’s defensive coordinator ranked 92nd in yards allowed per game (425.4) and 90th in scoring defense (31.2).
By those standards, Ohio State’s defensive turnaround in Knowles’ first season on staff has been a smashing success. As high as the standards are at Ohio State, though, Knowles recognizes he was always expected to deliver such results immediately. So while Knowles said throughout the spring and summer that he thought the Buckeyes’ defense was ahead of schedule, he’s not going quite that far when evaluating their results through the first three-fourths of the regular season.
“It’s so hard to say because at the Ohio State, the expectations are so high, right? So I mean, what really is ahead of schedule? I would say for anywhere else in the first-year defense, you'd say you're way ahead of schedule. For Ohio State, you just say we're doing our job,” Knowles said Tuesday. “We're on schedule because we're doing what we're supposed to do. This is what we're supposed to do as a defense at Ohio State, so we're on schedule.”
While the Buckeyes have introduced new wrinkles and personnel groupings into their defense throughout the season, Knowles says they still have more in their arsenal that they haven’t shown yet, giving them more change-ups to throw at teams as needed in the homestretch of the season.
“We've practiced a lot of things that we haven't used,” Knowles said.
What the Buckeyes haven’t held back, however, is effort. When asked Tuesday if Ohio State would be building up to the Michigan game over the course of the month, Knowles made it clear the Buckeyes are looking to dominate their competition every week.
“We want to stop every team on every possession of every game,” Knowles said. “I do not believe that you can somehow call it out of existence if you haven't done it over and over again when the time comes. … The way we play has got to be an every day, every game thing where you expect to stop them, you compete to stop them on that series because when the time comes that you need it, that's all you'll know.”
With the exception of Penn State, who scored 31 points on 452 yards of offense, Ohio State has held its opponents to no more than 21 points or 307 yards in each of its other eight games. The Buckeyes rank seventh nationally in passing defense (165.9 yards allowed per game), 13th in rushing defense (105.6 yards allowed per game), fourth in first downs allowed per game (13.8), 10th in opposing third down conversion percentage (29.2%) and 12th in opposing fourth down conversion percentage (31.6%).
“This is what we're supposed to do as a defense at Ohio State, so we're on schedule.”– Jim Knowles on Ohio State’s defensive performance
In terms of points allowed, Ohio State is coming off of its best game of the season, as the Buckeyes gave up only seven points in their win over Northwestern. Knowles still wasn’t thrilled with the defense’s performance in Evanston, however, as the Buckeyes allowed the Wildcats to convert nine of 20 third-down attempts and to run for 206 yards, albeit on 59 carries.
Six of the nine third downs Ohio State allowed came on the ground, including four on runs by Northwestern quarterback Brendan Sullivan, who ran for a season-high 55 yards against the Buckeyes. Knowles wasn’t pleased with how the Buckeyes defended the quarterback run last weekend. At the same time, he attributed Northwestern’s third-down pass conversions to the Buckeyes’ defensive backs being conditioned to play the run due to the style of game it became because of high winds.
“I think our third downs have been good throughout the year. Not pleased last game,” Knowles said. “The quarterback run is always a difficult component in that short-yardage life. And I thought we had been doing well with it, but we didn't have a good game with the quarterback run. And then we did not have a good game on third down with the transition into the downfield passing.
“It was like option football. So when your DBs spend 80 percent of the game where you're telling them, ‘Don't worry about covering the receiver. Get off and have your vision back to what's going inside because they're not throwing the ball.’ And then all of a sudden, ‘Okay, now, this is third-and-eight. They gotta throw the ball, and you need to tighten up.' That transition is a difficult one that I did not do a good enough job preparing them for.”
Knowles was pleased, though, that Ohio State stopped Northwestern on four of all its fourth-down conversion attempts, which played a key role in the Buckeyes holding an opponent to single digits for the first time all year.
“The best thing about it is we were 4-on-4 on fourth down, which is like four turnovers, and in that kind of game, that's what wins you the game,” Knowles said. “I didn't like the amount of rushing yards we gave up or the third downs that kind of extended some drives. But what we did on fourth down and seven points is pretty damn good. So you give the guys credit for that.”
