There were two stark differences from October to January watching Dillon Gabriel in Oregon’s pocket against Ohio State’s defense.
The first is obvious. The Buckeyes recorded eight sacks against the Ducks’ quarterback in the teams’ second meeting of the season, which came in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals at the Rose Bowl. Their first time out vs. Oregon they recorded none. Defensive linemen were in Gabriel’s face, getting home to make plays in the postseason matchup.
But it’s the second difference watching Gabriel in the pocket that fueled that sack number just as much as the defensive line’s dominance. Gabriel’s average time from snap to throw was 2.6 seconds on Oct. 12, per Pro Football Focus. On Jan. 1, it was 3.4 seconds. Any pass rusher will tell you the difference almost a second can make.
Centered around nickel Jordan Hancock and safety Caleb Downs, disguises in the Ohio State secondary forced Gabriel to hold the ball longer during OSU's 41-21 victory, underscoring one of the key catalysts of the Buckeyes’ defensive dominance since their 32-31 loss in Autzen Stadium.
“I feel like we've done enough now with the coverage and structure of the way we look that, hopefully, it's forcing the quarterback to hold the ball a little bit longer,” Knowles said. “And that's when the rush delivers.”
Moving chess pieces in a secondary is king when it comes to getting quarterbacks to grasp the ball longer.
“You have to change the picture post-snap,” Knowles said. “You change the picture post-snap, then that forces him to hold the ball and try to figure it out.”
Ohio State’s first experimentation moving Hancock around its defense came out of necessity. Starting strong safety Lathan Ransom suffered an injury during the Buckeyes’ bye week following the first Oregon game, and Hancock, normally the team’s nickel corner, rolled deep to play safety against Nebraska.
Even as Ransom returned for the next game at Penn State, Hancock kept seeing some action at deep safety as Downs was deployed all about Ohio State’s defense. In the CFP, Hancock has actually played a majority of his snaps aligned as a free safety, per PFF, with a combined 79 snaps playing deep, 41 in the slot and seven in the box against Tennessee and Oregon.
The beauty is that it allows Downs, perhaps the nation’s most athletic, smart, instinctual and dynamic safety, to move about the defense even more. One of Ohio State’s hallmarks these playoffs has been a Tampa 2 look with Hancock and Ransom taking deep zones as Downs plays the middle of the field 12 yards from the line of scrimmage and attacks where he sees the ball going. Downs has played 56 snaps at deep safety, 37 in the box and 35 in the slot these playoffs.
“He's just really good. Makes me look good,” Knowles said of Downs. “I've done that throughout my career with different players, more with players from the front than the back end. At Oklahoma State, when you had to defend against the explosive play all the time, is really when I created that structure. It just makes sense when you have a guy like Caleb Downs to get him in the middle of the action.”
Hancock felt earlier in the season, as he was still learning the safety position, that disguising coverages and confusing quarterbacks was something he couldn’t really implement. But now that he feels “natural” lining up at safety, Ohio State’s secondary as a whole is more difficult to read in coverage.
"It's definitely helped (our defense) a lot just because me having more reps at safety and stuff like that, it makes it easier for the defense to make me disguise," Hancock said. "Maybe early in the season I couldn't really disguise because I really didn't know too much, but now it's easy because I feel like it's a natural position for me to disguise and change different looks for the quarterback."
Hancock’s also found a natural chemistry alongside Downs as they change spots on the field and maneuver in and out of coverage shells.
“It's easy,” Hancock said. “I kind of just play off him. Whatever he does, I just try to make him right for real, and vice versa.”
Forcing quarterbacks to hold the ball longer is something Ohio State’s secondary has taken pride in these playoffs as their defensive line has responded in kind. Now it’s a matter of carrying that success over to the CFP semifinal at the Cotton Bowl vs. Texas.
“We harp ourselves on the saying, ‘Coverage and rush working together,’” Hancock said. “It's kind of a sound bite we use, but we don't take that lightly. We feel like if we hold our own (in the) back end, that nobody can block our defensive ends and defensive tackles. And also vice versa, it makes it easy for us because we know the pressure is getting onto the quarterback.”
