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Losing: Not fun!
Despite racking up more than 600 yards of total offense – 80% of it through the air, no less – Ohio State took the big ol' L Saturday versus the now-No. 4 Oregon Ducks. The Silver Bullets looked more like they were firing blanks, and Joe Moorhead looked like a kid playing John Madden Football with a Game Genie engaged.
So what do you do when you're a defensive coordinator of a perennial playoff contender known for turning out first-round defenders and grinding conference opponents into the turf... but your squad has allowed your opponent to score more than 30 points in three consecutive games dating to last season's national championship loss?
To answer that question, this week the Dubcast turned to Film Study professor Kyle Jones, of Eleven Warriors' fame. Jones' Film Study this week explained in depth how and why Moorhead's offense was able to make Ohio State look like a high school JV squad with the Buckeyes' reliance on an unyielding faith in the most vanilla base defense in the business.
More concerningly, Jones makes the case that despite employing a battalion of assistants, quality control coaches and defensive analysts tasked specifically with learning every possible nuance and facet of the opponent's scheme, playcalling and tendencies, Ohio State's defense still managed to look like it had never seen Moorhead's offense before and was completely unprepared for the butt-whooping they received.
On the other hand, Jones was more than happy with what he saw from quarterback C.J. Stroud and the Ohio State offense, shutting down the chattering classes who think Ohio State's failure to score more points was the reason the home team lost Saturday.
Plus we'll finish up, as always, with Ask Us Anything, (which you can always do by emailing your questions to dubcast@elevenwarriors.com).
RUN OF SHOW
0:00 The Dubcast welcomes Xs and Os genius Kyle Jones to answer the big question: What the hell happened Saturday?
4:00 The bad news? Ohio State is the most static defense in the country. They do less schematically than any other team in the country. The worse news? Option football was designed to beat the defense Ohio State is married to at this point.
10:45 Any scheme has its deficiencies. The bigger problem beyond the scheme is that Ohio State's defense looked totally unprepared for Oregon's offense. Totally unprepared.
16:05 Philosophically, Ohio State's approach to defense appears to be the exact opposite of its approach to offense.
19:26 Ohio State has long hung its hat on having much better players than its opponents. But has defensive recruiting kept up with the exceptional recruiting on the offensive side of the ball?
22:38 With all the issues on the table – scheme, execution, technique and talent – how does Ohio State turn it around? Hypothetical Defensive Coordinator Kyle Jones outlines his plan.
35:35 Ohio State's defense was suspect last year... What should the staff focus on now, given that they didn't appear to do anything to fix the problems that plagued the defense in the offseason?
39:40 Ohio State beat Clemson by 21 points 9 months ago... is this team really that much worse now than it was in that Bowl Game?
43:28 The offense was prolific in each of its first two outings. Jones likes what he sees on film, but will it be good enough to cover for a mediocre Buckeye defense?
52:40 A review of other headlines: Josh Proctor is out, and C.J. Stroud picks up another Freshman of the Week award.
57:38 Ask Us Anything! Questions include our thoughts on superconferences and the new Big Ten/Pac-12/ACC alliance, and after the Oregon loss, which young stars have to step up to help right the ship.
64:10 Quick Cals: Akron kicks off at 7:30 p.m. for some reason, Ohio State drops in the polls after the loss, are we overreacting to the Oregon loss, and USC fires Clay Helton.
Thanks as always to Travis for the logo, thank you for listening and if you're thinking about what t-shirt you'd like tattooed on your carcass, check out the Dry Goods Store. We'll see you next week!
