Ohio State’s Defense Finishes Strong in Spring Game After Building Momentum All Spring

Ohio State’s defense seemed to be a step ahead of the offense whenever the media had opportunities to watch practices this spring. That trend continued on Saturday.

After suffering a 34-26 loss in the modified scoring system in Ohio State’s 2022 spring game, the defense won the day on Saturday, finishing with a 40-31 advantage on the scoreboard.

On 21 total possessions for the scarlet-clad offense, the defense allowed just four touchdowns and one field goal – and one of those touchdowns came on a non-competitive play as the Buckeyes put Archie Griffin in the game to run for a 25-yard score. The offense was held to just 5.1 yards per play, fewer than the Buckeyes’ defense allowed in more than half of their games last season, as the Gray squad was credited with 10 pass breakups and five sacks.

The defense did give up a trio of long touchdowns – a 65-yard run by Chip Trayanum, a 37-yard pass from Kyle McCord to Carnell Tate and a 57-yard catch-and-run by Noah Rogers off a pass from Tristan Gebbia – but two of those came in the fourth quarter, when mostly backups remained in the game. The defense was dominant for most of the first half, allowing only the Trayanum touchdown and two field goal attempts (one missed by Jayden Fielding and one made by Parker Lewis) on 12 series.

Day said what the defense showed in front of more than 75,000 fans inside Ohio Stadium on Saturday was a continuation of what it showed all spring, giving him reason to believe the defense has legitimately improved after 15 practices.

“You try to look at it through the whole 15 practices of what you see. If you're starting to see the secondary getting their hands on some balls, then all of a sudden, it doesn't happen for a few days, it's probably not real. We've seen that for almost 15 practices, what you saw today. So that was really good,” Day said. “I think the challenge will be increased in the preseason, when we're at full strength (on offense). But you can just see the discernment. Everything's faster. They’re moving faster, they're seeing it. I think being year two in the system, adding (transfer cornerback Davison Igbinosun) there, you're starting to see the secondary move faster, make more plays and be more decisive.”

Of course, a good day for the defense means it wasn’t a great day for the offense, and one factor in the defense’s success this spring was that it wasn’t going against the likes of C.J. Stroud, Paris Johnson Jr., Dawand Jones, Luke Wypler and many of the Buckeyes’ top skill-position players from last season.

McCord had an up-and-down performance in Saturday’s spring game, while his competitor for the starting quarterback job, Devin Brown, was sidelined by a finger injury. The offensive line has had its share of issues all spring as it replaces its two starting tackles and starting center from last season, and the play up front continued to be shaky Saturday. TreVeyon Henderson, Emeka Egbuka, Julian Fleming and Xavier Johnson were all held out of the spring game as they work their way back from injuries while Miyan Williams and Marvin Harrison Jr. each played for only two possessions before watching from the sideline for the rest of the day.

But there are reasons to believe the defense’s good performance this spring isn’t simply a result of taking advantage of an offense that remains a work in progress. For one, the Buckeyes are now entering their second year under defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, which has them feeling more confident about their ability to play fast in the defensive scheme than they did a year ago.

“Last year was our first year with Coach Knowles and we were learning the defense a little bit, so now we're kind of refining and learning the nuances and how to play certain plays,” linebacker Cody Simon said after the game. “So we're definitely making a lot of strides. And I think we did accomplish our goals for this spring.

“I mean, we were really just dipping our toe in the water with our defense at this time last year … every time you do something again and again, you build confidence, I think especially like from front to back, D-line to DBs, confidence is one of our strong suits right now.”

Day says he thinks there’s “reason for optimism for sure” about the defense at the end of spring.

“When you leave the spring, you get a feel for where things are,” Day said. “When you start the spring, it's hard, and I think you hear me say or us say that we'll get through the spring and we’ll have a better feeling. So coming out of the spring, I do (feel better about the defense).

“I think the first thing was the back-end explosives. You saw today, we didn't really give up a lot of explosives, maybe just a couple in the second half. And that's important for us. We expect to score a lot of points on offense, and if we can avoid explosive plays, then that's a recipe for winning. That was the idea in 2019, and we need to continue to do that.”

The real tests for the defense won’t come until September. Really, they might not come until November, as it wasn’t until the final two games of last season against Georgia and Michigan that Ohio State’s defense got exposed. Knowing all of that, cornerback Denzel Burke says the Buckeyes can’t be satisfied with what they accomplished this spring.

“I feel like we’re the same, for real,” Burke said when asked how much further ahead he thought the defense was from this time a year ago. “I just feel like we just gotta still clean up some of the little details out there, but we just gotta keep flying to the ball, playing hard, play for each other.”

Burke did say, though, that he thinks the Buckeyes have a better feel for Knowles’ defense and how to play fast within it than they did a year ago. And he and his teammates are highly motivated to make that translate to better play on the field this fall with the way last season ended.

“I feel like we got a chip on our shoulder,” Burke said. “We have a lot to prove to the world and really excited what we have in store for this season. Just got to stay in the moment, keep going, getting 1% better every day.”