Here is what I saw:
Coaching staff did not have the team ready to play. How could we be so well prepared for Michigan State, Valpo and Illinois State and be so unprepared for Indiana State?
I may be answering my own question, but the offense was still in the second half lull it was in at the end of the Illinois State Game at the beginning of this game.
Indiana State played faster or least it appeared that way to me.
I see that our inability to recognize problems in defensive alignment is becoming a common theme. Against Illinois State the receiver ran the same route on every single 3rd down and we were burned over the middle. In this game we had the same type of issue where they ran the ball to the outside. They also had the TE open over the middle.
Why don't we know how to run press coverage? With our speed we should be in man in the secondary running true bump and run. It's like we run the press half assed. We are not covering well enough and it does not appear that we are using our safety and LB's for run support. How many times did we have a LB in man coverage on a WR? We did not get off of our blocks yesterday, especially on the corners. Someone teach the corners how to get off their blocks please!
Finally, why do we show our defensive alignment all the time? We only stunt on a blitz (and we are not blitzing much). There is no shifting on the DL or by the LB's or the Safety. When we do blitz we always show where it is coming from before the play is run. Every time the tackle is gapped out that is the side the blitz is coming from. All the QB has to do is read it and throw a bubble screen to the half back or get his WR open behind him. I watched the RB release, block the corner down and get the WR open and I saw them get the ball to the RB while the WR blocked the corner out of bounds on the same defensive play. They had two answers for that alignment. We have to have the speed and physical play to get off of our blocks.
I know we are young and this is a project, but my goodness we make it look like a 7 on 7 the way we play defense. I think that Indiana State had a great game plan against our defense. They did a great job of identifying our weaknesses. One of them is that it takes us way, way way too long to identify a problem, coach the player up, and then get him to stop it. USE a time out if something is looking like that. Especially early in the game when you are getting taken to the woodshed. Try to find an answer.
Our offense looked mortal against the blitz this week. Why? Illinois State blitzed and we were able to deal with it. What happened this week? Were we outmatched or not playing hard or both?
Damnit, The Buckeyes are going to suck this year so I was at least hoping that I could look forward to a possible playoff run or at least get close. But you can't expect to be in the mix when you let someone score that many points on you, especially the way they did it. That little running back should have been planted early and often. Why do we have to load the box to stop a run play too? Where are our LB's? i never see them make plays unless they are in the secondary. Is that a problem?
Starting to rant so I'll stop.
