December 5, 2025 • 21 mins
In this episode of the Buckeye Weekly Podcast, hosts Tom Orr and Tony Gerdeman preview the matchup of the Ohio State defense against the Indiana offense in Saturday night's Big Ten Championship Game.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello, everybody, Welcome to the Buckeye Weekly Podcast. I am
Tony Gerdaman here as always with Tom or Tom.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
How's it going, Tony looking forward to a nice, quiet,
uninterrupted podcast episode the kind you come to know and
love and expect here on the Buckeye Weekly Podcast feed.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
I don't know why you would do something like that.
If you do that, like if you're somewhere in Columbus,
like if you're to record it, I'm recording here at
a Dollar General in Columbus. I'm sure nothing's gonna happen
in Bam. Somebody's going to drive into that store just
because people in Columbus just love driving into buildings. I
don't know how things are where you're at in terms
of that penchant for poor driving. But be careful what
(00:47):
you say when you're out and about in the city
of Columbus, which you are not. But we are here
to talk about the Indiana offense against the Ohio State defense,
and Tom, I want to talk about a thing that
is Indiana's run game, very very good. I think the
best run game in the Big Ten. Can I tell
(01:09):
you though? Against top twenty five rush defenses this year,
Indiana is rushing for and that's three games. They're rushing
for ninety nine point seven yards per game against everybody
else two hundred and seventy three point two yards per game,
So Ohio State, as we know, I think they are
the fourth rush defense and overall yards per game, and
(01:30):
they're somewhere in the top four and yards per carry
the two hundred and seventy three yards or the two
hundred and sixty whatever they're averaging in conference play or
over the season, Indiana means nothing to me. I look
at that the top twenty five performances against the top
twenty five defenses, and that's where I think this actually exists.
(01:51):
That's where this projection exists. And we've talked about the
running backs Roman Hemby and Caylon Black a week now
and how they're not necessarily big play guys. They'll run hard,
they they're just they keep you on schedule. And for Indiana,
that's great, but that schedule has not been as good
(02:14):
against the three best run defenses that they've faced this year,
and now they're going to be facing a fourth run
defense that is arguably the best one they've seen so far.
So I don't know what a winning number is for Indiana.
I just know that I'm not expecting I don't see
certainly two hundred and sixty yards, yes, but Indiana can't
(02:35):
expect that, and they need to be preparing for something
other than that, and they need to be preparing for
a difficult go of it with the running game, which
then we'll get into the RPO stuff after. But I
just don't see them running the ball very well in
this game.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, I think I would have some of the same concerns.
And you've heard us talk about scaling and how Indiana's
offense doesn't necessarily scale well against better defensives, and that's
something that if we haven't sufficiently explained that this week. Basically,
that means if they're playing a bad defense, they can
absolutely light them up, because they can. If things are
(03:14):
working and the opposing team can't match up with Indiana's
personnel and with Indiana's scheme, then if they can get rolling,
man oh man, do they get rolling?
Speaker 1 (03:23):
And no one.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Puts up sixty three points like Kurt Signetti because there
is it is all gas, no breaks if things are rolling,
But you go and you play Oregon and all of
a sudden you're in a four quarter dog fight and
you're at twenty points with you know whatever, it was
five minutes left in the game and you're tied, and
against Iowa it was probably it was what thirteen thirteen
(03:45):
with a couple minutes left in the game, and Iowa
had the ball in the Indiana end of the field
and Penn State they barely got into the you know,
I think they got they were maybe at about twenty
points about fifty five minutes into that game. So you
see Indiana's offense when as rolling and it looks absolutely unstoppable.
(04:06):
But then as soon as they run up against a
tougher defense, all of a sudden, if they can't run
the ball consistently, and they haven't been able to, as
you sort of laid out there, then that immediately everything
else kind of grinds to a halt, or not to
us a halt, but it certainly they go from fifth
year to second gear real quickly against a good defense.
(04:26):
And that's that's not unusual that happens to or that's
one of the sort of the uh, the issues at
Oregon has run into over the years as well, where
Dan Lanning, you know, boy oh boy, can they get
rolling against against a bad defense. But then when you
play a good defense, all of a sudden, it's you know,
a lot of the same RPO based issues where if
you can't run, then that really hampers your ability to
(04:47):
do anything. If you're you know, if your passing game
is based on your ability to run, and you can't run, well,
then you can't run and you can't pass, and then
then you're running out of stuff you can do on offense.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Yeah, I think the Cave mcguy a nose tackle also
is going to be a huge factor in this one.
Where Pat Coogan, the Indiana center very good played against
Ohio State and Cain McDonald last year at Notre Dame,
but he's going to have a large stay in this one,
(05:17):
and certainly the Ohio State linebackers will as well. But
just to see them struggle against other defens's top defenses
this season gives you a sense that that's going to continue.
And none of those other defenses have cade McDonald sunny styles,
r bel rees, you know those kinds of guys. So
(05:38):
to expect suddenly one hundred and eighty yards rushing, I'm
not there. It's not something they've done this season against
their top defenses. So to expect that here I wouldn't,
which then asks a lot more of Fernando Mendez at quarterback,
and he's going to be he's gonna have to be
at his best and it's hard to do that against
(06:00):
the best defenses that you're facing. So he's gonna have
to be accurate and quick with his decisions and right
with his decisions, and that's something that quarterbacks have not
often been against Ohio State. This year. We've seen missed opportunities,
miss reads, drop passes, but also just a lot of
pressure that causes the quarterback to rush his decisions, leave
(06:23):
the pocket, and then you start hearing things, seeing things
that aren't necessarily there. Now. I don't know if that's
gonna happen with a veteran like Fernando Mendoza, but if
you're seeing things that you're not sure of, then you're
gonna be questioning every everything that you're seeing basically, So
(06:43):
I think Matt Patrici's ability to slow him down just
the processing a little bit will be interesting. But if
with the RPOs it's basically you know, you one look
and I'm either throwing it or I'm handing it off,
So there's not a lot that you can do. You
can kind of yo yo back and forth, Oh I'm
coming in, No, I'm not, and maybe try to get
them there. What are you expecting from the RPO situation.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Well, I think Ohio State has done a very good
job this year under Matt Patricia of showing one threat
thing pre snap and then sometimes not having that be
you know a lot of times not having that be
what you actually are getting post snap. So you can
you know a lot of these reads are going to
be post snap reads for Mendoza. But even then, you know,
(07:27):
we've seen guys even after the snap bluff a blitz
and then back out or you know, have you know,
you know, come crashing in late after sort of showing
that they're not going to do that, and all of
that sort of complicates those reads. Something else that's going
to I think complicate things really for Indiana is they
were pretty zone based run game. And that's great, but
(07:51):
you know, against the four down front that Ohio State
has run for years and years and years, that's perfectly
fine Ohio State. Some of the stuff they're doing this
year that differ and stuff, some of the odd front
stuff they're doing with like the Penny front where you've
kind of got five guys up there, and you've got
RVL Reese and you know as one of your one
of your defensive ends that responds pretty well to zone
(08:13):
based run scheme. So then you know, does Indiana have
to get out of what they want to do, because
what Indiana wants to do on the ground sort of
feeds into what Ohio State has been sort of leaning
into a little bit this year on the ground and
what may give Ohio State some of its best personnel
matchups on the ground. So all of that sort of
points back again to me to the fact that Indiana
(08:34):
is not going to be able to run the ball
super super well. And then, boy, that really complicates things
in the passing game because if you don't have to
respect the run too much, you don't have to dedicate
extra resources to the run, then you can show all
sorts of stuff in the back end, and Matt Patricia
has been mixing all sorts of different coverages in the
back end. And you know, on the last show, we
talked about how Michigan, you know, Julian sand thought he
(08:56):
was getting Cover one, you got Cover two and boom
interception and they have been running all sorts of you know,
quarter quarter, half and Cover three, and I mean, but
mixing in all sorts of stuff. I think you so
a little Cover two against Michigan, You're just kind of
getting a bunch of different stuff. And you know, Mendoza
is a veteran quarterback, but he's also you know, you
can those RPO reads are quick and with as much
(09:19):
r PO as Indiana is, you know, as RPO heavy
as their offense is, if you can just disguise your
stuff a little bit longer, you can really set you know,
set him up. You know, even veteran quarterbacks can sort
of fall fall forward every once in a while. You know,
we saw that with not a veteran quarterback but Michigan's
(09:39):
Price Underwood against Northwestern, where it's like, okay, the safety
is crashing, I'm going to throw the ball over the top,
and then the safety takes three steps in and then
stops and then gets a football directly in the chest.
So you know, you can, you can. You can fool
guys with all sorts of pre snap disguis, post snap disguise.
You know, just you can. And Matt Patricia really has
not had to burned through a lot of his good
(10:02):
stuff this year because they've just sort of been able
to kind of man up and just go all right, well,
our guys are better than your guys, so good luck,
and you know now now that you need it. He's
got a bunch of stuff that he hasn't had to
use yet.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Ye, the RPO stuff is going to be an interesting
watch for the Ohio State Buckeyes. It's a very smart defense,
as we know, very capable of doing different things to
combat that. And then and then as we're talking about
this secondary that is going to be moving all over
the place, and we'll get to the linebackers on the
defensive line here in a bit, because there's some things
(10:37):
to talk about there the matchups outside. I asked Jalen McLain,
Ohio State starting strong safety, well, starting safety, starting non
Caleb Downs safety. I don't even know what to call
these guys anymore. There's no position for Caleb Downs. Is
this the best group of receivers that you guys have
seen this year? And he's like, yeah, yeah, And then
he would proke all four of them down because there's
(10:59):
four talented receivers that are going to be playing in
this one and I think that's something that the cornerbacks
are certainly looking forward to. They can't get into a
bunch of you can't give a bunch of fifteen yard penalties.
I think that's going to be key in keeping drives live.
Where like we've seen over the course of the seasons,
especially last week, it's like third and long, what do
(11:20):
we do, Well, probably not going to complete a pass,
but let's just try to get a free fifteen yards
on a pass interference and you just throw it up
and see what works. And it sometimes it does work,
and that might be a plan of attack where especially
with Indiana loves the back shoulder faate and the back
shoulder throw, so it just plays into some grabbing and
(11:40):
some interfering from the Ohio State corners. But they also
talked about this last year, but they knew Indiana loved
the back shoulder throws and how they they'll be ready
for it. Gotta be ready for it even more. But Tom,
don't be so ready for it that you stop with
the receivers, keep running and the back shoulder suddenly becomes
the front shoulder.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, that's you know, I know that this is what
you want to do. Is great, but there's always a
CounterPunch to that, and you know, the the back shoulder
throw that suddenly turns into a stutter and go turns
into six points in a direction that you are not hoping,
you're you are briefly thinking this might be six points
for my team, and then it might be six points
for the other team. So yeah, he can't be too
(12:22):
aggressive on that front. But you know, I think Indiana's
going to be able to throw the ball because this
is this is the best wide receiver group that we've
seen Ohio State have to play and all this year.
Elijah Surratt is kind of the guy who is the
headline maker. He's another one of those guys that came
over from James Madison, but Omar Cooper really really impressive
(12:45):
in the slot. And E. J. Williams is the you know,
the kind of fourth guy who was sort of banged up.
I think he might have missed the Purdue game. And
then Charlie Becker's the guy who sort of just came
in in the middle of the season and he had
seven catches going into the Penn State game and then
had seven catches inde Penn State game, and like one
hundred and fifty or sixty yards in that one. He's
(13:05):
kind of the deep threat, you know. Elijah Surat is
the move the chains kind of X receiver, and Cooper
sort of the slot guy. Becker is the stretch the
field forty five yards downfield kind of guy. And that
is as dynamic and balanced a passing attack and talented
a passing attack as Ohio State has had to face
(13:27):
this year. It's I mean, by far the best, and
this is going to be a great challenge. This is
going to be a Jerma Matthews, Davis Nigdos and let's
see what you got because this is this is not
a quarterback who is going to be throwing the ball
into the stands. This is not a quarterback who's going
to be missing a bunch of open guys. If the
guys are open, he is going to find them. So
this is going to be one where they are really
(13:49):
going to have to be on at every play. And
this is this is also you know, all the nice
stuff as they said about Indiana's wide receivers, this is
also the best secondary Indian has had to play this
year by a thousand miles.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
So this is good.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
I mean, this is why we're so excited about this
game because there's all these individual matchups are on the
field that it's like, oh, man, I can't wait to
see Jamae Matthews against Elijah Surat or Davis Nigunosa against
Becker or you know whoever. Like all of these matchups
are just super super intriguing.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
And these are all stout guys like Charlie Becker six
four two oh nine. He's he's the speed guy, but
he's six four to two nine, so he can he
can be a threat to, you know, with the fifty
to fifty balls, or just a tough, tougher guy for
five eleven Jermaine Matthews to handle. Even though Mark Cooper
is six foot he's he's like over two hundred pounds,
(14:43):
like Brandon Ennis, where he's not this six foot one
seventy five kind of you know Tedz Johnson where you
can bring him down as long as you can touch him,
you can bring him down. Cooper can run through you
a little bit as well. And then Elijah Surra six
two thirteen, he's tough, he's strongj six three two five.
These are all bigger receivers, bigger targets, and they can
(15:04):
make room against defensive backs, which then, as we know,
all past defense starts with a pass brush. I believe that.
I think Kurtz Signetty may have said it on one
of the teleconferences that Carter Smith, their left tackle, has
not given up a sack this year. I abstained from
making that one of my bold predictions this week. I
(15:25):
don't know if it would have a three pointer. Probably not,
but Carter Smith at left tackle, you know he expected
him to do well, but he's gonna have a challenge
on his hands. The guy that we keep talking about
tom all week long, from the first time that we
saw it was right tackle Khalil Benson. Now, I did
see some mention in the YouTube that he's been banged
(15:47):
up a little bit and maybe that's why he struggled
in the games that we've seen, but we've gone back
and watched from the middle of the season until now.
I don't know how long he's been banged up, but
it's always that's generally where the issue is coming from
is the right side of the offensive line. So that's
going to be an area. Just keep an eye on
(16:09):
that for Ohio State. Whoever's matched up there, whether it's
Kaden Curry, Kanyada Jackson, and frankly Kanyada Jackson. When sometimes
win these inside as well, that whole right set of
the offensive line can be an issue for the Hoosiers.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Yeah, that's that's an area where between right guard Bray
Lanch and right tackle Khalil Benson, those are the two
guys that I'm really kind of watching and thinking if
there's a problem. I'm not sure. I'm not certain there's
going to be a problem Brindiana. But if there's a problem,
that's probably where it starts. Because Ohio State's defensive line,
(16:44):
Ohio State doesn't have the one guy who is the
amazing guy. This is not a you know, twenty nineteen
defensive line where it's like Chase Young and a bunch
of other guys who are pretty good, but it's Chase Young.
Ohio State has, you know, has had the Caden Curry game.
They have had the Kenyata Jackson game, They've had the
RVL Rees game, They've kind of had the Caden McDonald game.
It's kind of come from a bunch of different places,
(17:06):
both inside and outside. And so that you know that
to me suggests it kind of doesn't matter who's lined up.
You know, I feel like, just sort of going back
through memory, it feels like Kayden Curry's over the right
tackle more often than not. But it almost doesn't matter
because Caden McDonald. If Caden McDonald is between Pat Coogan
(17:27):
and bray Lynch half the time, it's going to be
bray Lynch who's responsible for blocking him, and that's potentially
a big mismatch. So I you know, I think that
one of my biggest concerns for Indiana because I think,
you know, the running backs. I think the running backs
can run the ball against Ohio State. I think the
wide receivers can catch the ball against Ohio State. I
(17:48):
think Mendoza can throw the ball against Ohio State. But
if you've got Caden McDonald in the backfield, a bunch,
If you've got Kayden Curry in the backfield, a bunch,
got Kenyatta Jackson in the backfield a bunch. If your
runs are getting blown up before you're on, your running
backs are getting the line of scrimmage. It doesn't have
to be all the time, but one one of those
and then one pressure where you know Mendoza just has
(18:09):
to throw the ball away. That can be it that
that's a possession and you've you know, you've just broken
serve there, and a state doesn't have to do that
every time. They can do that twice a half, and
that's probably enough to win the game, just you know,
in and of itself right there, with everything else just
sort of playing out normally and no one else having
a superhuman performance. So you know that we always say
(18:32):
these things start up front, and that's I think really
for Indiana, it all starts upfront on the right side
of the line, because if they can just hold Ohio
State to a stalemate or just like occasionally lose that
battle but not lose it multiple times a half, that
might be enough to really make this a four quarter
sixty minute game and let Indian and have a real
(18:52):
chance to win it.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
It will be interesting to see how aggressive Ohio State
is with their blitz, as we've seen Mendoza have some
issues at times with the blitz. No shade, that's why
you blitzed to give quarterbacks problems. I do wonder if
maybe you just overload the right side a little bit
and send the blitz that way, and then you're asking
a lot from arguably the weakest portion of your offensive line,
(19:16):
and you're also asking the running backs to stay in
and protect. And I feel like this is the best,
as we know, by far, the best defense that Indiana
is going to face. And we've seen them held to
twenty points by Iowa and they needed late game to
get there. Oregon held them to held them to thirty,
(19:40):
Wisconsin held them to I think thirty one. So even
in these games where they're not running, they've been able
to get to thirty points I think all but the
one time against Iowa. But it's hard to ignore the
Iowa game because you're looking at it and you think, well,
I bet Ohio State can do a lot of those
same things and have a lot of those same successes.
So we have not yet done our game predictions. I
(20:04):
don't know, Tom, what are we going to throw those out?
We'll throw those out what Saturday? Maybe? Like, what's what's
the plan for that? As we talk about this live
on the show?
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Yeah, we love to have editorial meetings on the air,
don't we, folks.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Well, I mean we'll we'll do I know we have
at least one more show coming up this week, so
we can do it on that one, or we can
do a special extra bonus because I'm sure people are like,
what's what's with only forty seven podcast this week?
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Sorry?
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Sorry, we've been slacking this week everyone. Yeah, well, don't worry.
We'll get to the uh. We'll get to those predictions
at some point on one of the next show war shows,
and then of course we will have our live free
game show as well, and if we don't get to
it by then, we'll do it then and if not,
we'll definitely do a postgame and I bet Tony those
will be our most accurate score predictions of the season
if we do that.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
By far, by far, that's where I prefer to do it.
So there you go. That's our look at the Ohio
State defense against the Indian offense. And we've been looking
forward to this game for about a month now and
it's just about here. So that will do it from here.
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(21:11):
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and we'll talk to you all later
Hello, everybody, Welcome to the Buckeye Weekly Podcast. I am
Tony Gerdaman here as always with Tom or Tom.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
How's it going, Tony looking forward to a nice, quiet,
uninterrupted podcast episode the kind you come to know and
love and expect here on the Buckeye Weekly Podcast feed.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
I don't know why you would do something like that.
If you do that, like if you're somewhere in Columbus,
like if you're to record it, I'm recording here at
a Dollar General in Columbus. I'm sure nothing's gonna happen
in Bam. Somebody's going to drive into that store just
because people in Columbus just love driving into buildings. I
don't know how things are where you're at in terms
of that penchant for poor driving. But be careful what
(00:47):
you say when you're out and about in the city
of Columbus, which you are not. But we are here
to talk about the Indiana offense against the Ohio State defense,
and Tom, I want to talk about a thing that
is Indiana's run game, very very good. I think the
best run game in the Big Ten. Can I tell
(01:09):
you though? Against top twenty five rush defenses this year,
Indiana is rushing for and that's three games. They're rushing
for ninety nine point seven yards per game against everybody
else two hundred and seventy three point two yards per game,
So Ohio State, as we know, I think they are
the fourth rush defense and overall yards per game, and
(01:30):
they're somewhere in the top four and yards per carry
the two hundred and seventy three yards or the two
hundred and sixty whatever they're averaging in conference play or
over the season, Indiana means nothing to me. I look
at that the top twenty five performances against the top
twenty five defenses, and that's where I think this actually exists.
(01:51):
That's where this projection exists. And we've talked about the
running backs Roman Hemby and Caylon Black a week now
and how they're not necessarily big play guys. They'll run hard,
they they're just they keep you on schedule. And for Indiana,
that's great, but that schedule has not been as good
(02:14):
against the three best run defenses that they've faced this year,
and now they're going to be facing a fourth run
defense that is arguably the best one they've seen so far.
So I don't know what a winning number is for Indiana.
I just know that I'm not expecting I don't see
certainly two hundred and sixty yards, yes, but Indiana can't
(02:35):
expect that, and they need to be preparing for something
other than that, and they need to be preparing for
a difficult go of it with the running game, which
then we'll get into the RPO stuff after. But I
just don't see them running the ball very well in
this game.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, I think I would have some of the same concerns.
And you've heard us talk about scaling and how Indiana's
offense doesn't necessarily scale well against better defensives, and that's
something that if we haven't sufficiently explained that this week. Basically,
that means if they're playing a bad defense, they can
absolutely light them up, because they can. If things are
(03:14):
working and the opposing team can't match up with Indiana's
personnel and with Indiana's scheme, then if they can get rolling,
man oh man, do they get rolling?
Speaker 1 (03:23):
And no one.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Puts up sixty three points like Kurt Signetti because there
is it is all gas, no breaks if things are rolling,
But you go and you play Oregon and all of
a sudden you're in a four quarter dog fight and
you're at twenty points with you know whatever, it was
five minutes left in the game and you're tied, and
against Iowa it was probably it was what thirteen thirteen
(03:45):
with a couple minutes left in the game, and Iowa
had the ball in the Indiana end of the field
and Penn State they barely got into the you know,
I think they got they were maybe at about twenty
points about fifty five minutes into that game. So you
see Indiana's offense when as rolling and it looks absolutely unstoppable.
(04:06):
But then as soon as they run up against a
tougher defense, all of a sudden, if they can't run
the ball consistently, and they haven't been able to, as
you sort of laid out there, then that immediately everything
else kind of grinds to a halt, or not to
us a halt, but it certainly they go from fifth
year to second gear real quickly against a good defense.
(04:26):
And that's that's not unusual that happens to or that's
one of the sort of the uh, the issues at
Oregon has run into over the years as well, where
Dan Lanning, you know, boy oh boy, can they get
rolling against against a bad defense. But then when you
play a good defense, all of a sudden, it's you know,
a lot of the same RPO based issues where if
you can't run, then that really hampers your ability to
(04:47):
do anything. If you're you know, if your passing game
is based on your ability to run, and you can't run, well,
then you can't run and you can't pass, and then
then you're running out of stuff you can do on offense.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Yeah, I think the Cave mcguy a nose tackle also
is going to be a huge factor in this one.
Where Pat Coogan, the Indiana center very good played against
Ohio State and Cain McDonald last year at Notre Dame,
but he's going to have a large stay in this one,
(05:17):
and certainly the Ohio State linebackers will as well. But
just to see them struggle against other defens's top defenses
this season gives you a sense that that's going to continue.
And none of those other defenses have cade McDonald sunny styles,
r bel rees, you know those kinds of guys. So
(05:38):
to expect suddenly one hundred and eighty yards rushing, I'm
not there. It's not something they've done this season against
their top defenses. So to expect that here I wouldn't,
which then asks a lot more of Fernando Mendez at quarterback,
and he's going to be he's gonna have to be
at his best and it's hard to do that against
(06:00):
the best defenses that you're facing. So he's gonna have
to be accurate and quick with his decisions and right
with his decisions, and that's something that quarterbacks have not
often been against Ohio State. This year. We've seen missed opportunities,
miss reads, drop passes, but also just a lot of
pressure that causes the quarterback to rush his decisions, leave
(06:23):
the pocket, and then you start hearing things, seeing things
that aren't necessarily there. Now. I don't know if that's
gonna happen with a veteran like Fernando Mendoza, but if
you're seeing things that you're not sure of, then you're
gonna be questioning every everything that you're seeing basically, So
(06:43):
I think Matt Patrici's ability to slow him down just
the processing a little bit will be interesting. But if
with the RPOs it's basically you know, you one look
and I'm either throwing it or I'm handing it off,
So there's not a lot that you can do. You
can kind of yo yo back and forth, Oh I'm
coming in, No, I'm not, and maybe try to get
them there. What are you expecting from the RPO situation.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Well, I think Ohio State has done a very good
job this year under Matt Patricia of showing one threat
thing pre snap and then sometimes not having that be
you know a lot of times not having that be
what you actually are getting post snap. So you can
you know a lot of these reads are going to
be post snap reads for Mendoza. But even then, you know,
(07:27):
we've seen guys even after the snap bluff a blitz
and then back out or you know, have you know,
you know, come crashing in late after sort of showing
that they're not going to do that, and all of
that sort of complicates those reads. Something else that's going
to I think complicate things really for Indiana is they
were pretty zone based run game. And that's great, but
(07:51):
you know, against the four down front that Ohio State
has run for years and years and years, that's perfectly
fine Ohio State. Some of the stuff they're doing this
year that differ and stuff, some of the odd front
stuff they're doing with like the Penny front where you've
kind of got five guys up there, and you've got
RVL Reese and you know as one of your one
of your defensive ends that responds pretty well to zone
(08:13):
based run scheme. So then you know, does Indiana have
to get out of what they want to do, because
what Indiana wants to do on the ground sort of
feeds into what Ohio State has been sort of leaning
into a little bit this year on the ground and
what may give Ohio State some of its best personnel
matchups on the ground. So all of that sort of
points back again to me to the fact that Indiana
(08:34):
is not going to be able to run the ball
super super well. And then, boy, that really complicates things
in the passing game because if you don't have to
respect the run too much, you don't have to dedicate
extra resources to the run, then you can show all
sorts of stuff in the back end, and Matt Patricia
has been mixing all sorts of different coverages in the
back end. And you know, on the last show, we
talked about how Michigan, you know, Julian sand thought he
(08:56):
was getting Cover one, you got Cover two and boom
interception and they have been running all sorts of you know,
quarter quarter, half and Cover three, and I mean, but
mixing in all sorts of stuff. I think you so
a little Cover two against Michigan, You're just kind of
getting a bunch of different stuff. And you know, Mendoza
is a veteran quarterback, but he's also you know, you
can those RPO reads are quick and with as much
(09:19):
r PO as Indiana is, you know, as RPO heavy
as their offense is, if you can just disguise your
stuff a little bit longer, you can really set you know,
set him up. You know, even veteran quarterbacks can sort
of fall fall forward every once in a while. You know,
we saw that with not a veteran quarterback but Michigan's
(09:39):
Price Underwood against Northwestern, where it's like, okay, the safety
is crashing, I'm going to throw the ball over the top,
and then the safety takes three steps in and then
stops and then gets a football directly in the chest.
So you know, you can, you can. You can fool
guys with all sorts of pre snap disguis, post snap disguise.
You know, just you can. And Matt Patricia really has
not had to burned through a lot of his good
(10:02):
stuff this year because they've just sort of been able
to kind of man up and just go all right, well,
our guys are better than your guys, so good luck,
and you know now now that you need it. He's
got a bunch of stuff that he hasn't had to
use yet.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Ye, the RPO stuff is going to be an interesting
watch for the Ohio State Buckeyes. It's a very smart defense,
as we know, very capable of doing different things to
combat that. And then and then as we're talking about
this secondary that is going to be moving all over
the place, and we'll get to the linebackers on the
defensive line here in a bit, because there's some things
(10:37):
to talk about there the matchups outside. I asked Jalen McLain,
Ohio State starting strong safety, well, starting safety, starting non
Caleb Downs safety. I don't even know what to call
these guys anymore. There's no position for Caleb Downs. Is
this the best group of receivers that you guys have
seen this year? And he's like, yeah, yeah, And then
he would proke all four of them down because there's
(10:59):
four talented receivers that are going to be playing in
this one and I think that's something that the cornerbacks
are certainly looking forward to. They can't get into a
bunch of you can't give a bunch of fifteen yard penalties.
I think that's going to be key in keeping drives live.
Where like we've seen over the course of the seasons,
especially last week, it's like third and long, what do
(11:20):
we do, Well, probably not going to complete a pass,
but let's just try to get a free fifteen yards
on a pass interference and you just throw it up
and see what works. And it sometimes it does work,
and that might be a plan of attack where especially
with Indiana loves the back shoulder faate and the back
shoulder throw, so it just plays into some grabbing and
(11:40):
some interfering from the Ohio State corners. But they also
talked about this last year, but they knew Indiana loved
the back shoulder throws and how they they'll be ready
for it. Gotta be ready for it even more. But Tom,
don't be so ready for it that you stop with
the receivers, keep running and the back shoulder suddenly becomes
the front shoulder.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, that's you know, I know that this is what
you want to do. Is great, but there's always a
CounterPunch to that, and you know, the the back shoulder
throw that suddenly turns into a stutter and go turns
into six points in a direction that you are not hoping,
you're you are briefly thinking this might be six points
for my team, and then it might be six points
for the other team. So yeah, he can't be too
(12:22):
aggressive on that front. But you know, I think Indiana's
going to be able to throw the ball because this
is this is the best wide receiver group that we've
seen Ohio State have to play and all this year.
Elijah Surratt is kind of the guy who is the
headline maker. He's another one of those guys that came
over from James Madison, but Omar Cooper really really impressive
(12:45):
in the slot. And E. J. Williams is the you know,
the kind of fourth guy who was sort of banged up.
I think he might have missed the Purdue game. And
then Charlie Becker's the guy who sort of just came
in in the middle of the season and he had
seven catches going into the Penn State game and then
had seven catches inde Penn State game, and like one
hundred and fifty or sixty yards in that one. He's
(13:05):
kind of the deep threat, you know. Elijah Surat is
the move the chains kind of X receiver, and Cooper
sort of the slot guy. Becker is the stretch the
field forty five yards downfield kind of guy. And that
is as dynamic and balanced a passing attack and talented
a passing attack as Ohio State has had to face
(13:27):
this year. It's I mean, by far the best, and
this is going to be a great challenge. This is
going to be a Jerma Matthews, Davis Nigdos and let's
see what you got because this is this is not
a quarterback who is going to be throwing the ball
into the stands. This is not a quarterback who's going
to be missing a bunch of open guys. If the
guys are open, he is going to find them. So
this is going to be one where they are really
(13:49):
going to have to be on at every play. And
this is this is also you know, all the nice
stuff as they said about Indiana's wide receivers, this is
also the best secondary Indian has had to play this
year by a thousand miles.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
So this is good.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
I mean, this is why we're so excited about this
game because there's all these individual matchups are on the
field that it's like, oh, man, I can't wait to
see Jamae Matthews against Elijah Surat or Davis Nigunosa against
Becker or you know whoever. Like all of these matchups
are just super super intriguing.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
And these are all stout guys like Charlie Becker six
four two oh nine. He's he's the speed guy, but
he's six four to two nine, so he can he
can be a threat to, you know, with the fifty
to fifty balls, or just a tough, tougher guy for
five eleven Jermaine Matthews to handle. Even though Mark Cooper
is six foot he's he's like over two hundred pounds,
(14:43):
like Brandon Ennis, where he's not this six foot one
seventy five kind of you know Tedz Johnson where you
can bring him down as long as you can touch him,
you can bring him down. Cooper can run through you
a little bit as well. And then Elijah Surra six
two thirteen, he's tough, he's strongj six three two five.
These are all bigger receivers, bigger targets, and they can
(15:04):
make room against defensive backs, which then, as we know,
all past defense starts with a pass brush. I believe that.
I think Kurtz Signetty may have said it on one
of the teleconferences that Carter Smith, their left tackle, has
not given up a sack this year. I abstained from
making that one of my bold predictions this week. I
(15:25):
don't know if it would have a three pointer. Probably not,
but Carter Smith at left tackle, you know he expected
him to do well, but he's gonna have a challenge
on his hands. The guy that we keep talking about
tom all week long, from the first time that we
saw it was right tackle Khalil Benson. Now, I did
see some mention in the YouTube that he's been banged
(15:47):
up a little bit and maybe that's why he struggled
in the games that we've seen, but we've gone back
and watched from the middle of the season until now.
I don't know how long he's been banged up, but
it's always that's generally where the issue is coming from
is the right side of the offensive line. So that's
going to be an area. Just keep an eye on
(16:09):
that for Ohio State. Whoever's matched up there, whether it's
Kaden Curry, Kanyada Jackson, and frankly Kanyada Jackson. When sometimes
win these inside as well, that whole right set of
the offensive line can be an issue for the Hoosiers.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Yeah, that's that's an area where between right guard Bray
Lanch and right tackle Khalil Benson, those are the two
guys that I'm really kind of watching and thinking if
there's a problem. I'm not sure. I'm not certain there's
going to be a problem Brindiana. But if there's a problem,
that's probably where it starts. Because Ohio State's defensive line,
(16:44):
Ohio State doesn't have the one guy who is the
amazing guy. This is not a you know, twenty nineteen
defensive line where it's like Chase Young and a bunch
of other guys who are pretty good, but it's Chase Young.
Ohio State has, you know, has had the Caden Curry game.
They have had the Kenyata Jackson game, They've had the
RVL Rees game, They've kind of had the Caden McDonald game.
It's kind of come from a bunch of different places,
(17:06):
both inside and outside. And so that you know that
to me suggests it kind of doesn't matter who's lined up.
You know, I feel like, just sort of going back
through memory, it feels like Kayden Curry's over the right
tackle more often than not. But it almost doesn't matter
because Caden McDonald. If Caden McDonald is between Pat Coogan
(17:27):
and bray Lynch half the time, it's going to be
bray Lynch who's responsible for blocking him, and that's potentially
a big mismatch. So I you know, I think that
one of my biggest concerns for Indiana because I think,
you know, the running backs. I think the running backs
can run the ball against Ohio State. I think the
wide receivers can catch the ball against Ohio State. I
(17:48):
think Mendoza can throw the ball against Ohio State. But
if you've got Caden McDonald in the backfield, a bunch,
If you've got Kayden Curry in the backfield, a bunch,
got Kenyatta Jackson in the backfield a bunch. If your
runs are getting blown up before you're on, your running
backs are getting the line of scrimmage. It doesn't have
to be all the time, but one one of those
and then one pressure where you know Mendoza just has
(18:09):
to throw the ball away. That can be it that
that's a possession and you've you know, you've just broken
serve there, and a state doesn't have to do that
every time. They can do that twice a half, and
that's probably enough to win the game, just you know,
in and of itself right there, with everything else just
sort of playing out normally and no one else having
a superhuman performance. So you know that we always say
(18:32):
these things start up front, and that's I think really
for Indiana, it all starts upfront on the right side
of the line, because if they can just hold Ohio
State to a stalemate or just like occasionally lose that
battle but not lose it multiple times a half, that
might be enough to really make this a four quarter
sixty minute game and let Indian and have a real
(18:52):
chance to win it.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
It will be interesting to see how aggressive Ohio State
is with their blitz, as we've seen Mendoza have some
issues at times with the blitz. No shade, that's why
you blitzed to give quarterbacks problems. I do wonder if
maybe you just overload the right side a little bit
and send the blitz that way, and then you're asking
a lot from arguably the weakest portion of your offensive line,
(19:16):
and you're also asking the running backs to stay in
and protect. And I feel like this is the best,
as we know, by far, the best defense that Indiana
is going to face. And we've seen them held to
twenty points by Iowa and they needed late game to
get there. Oregon held them to held them to thirty,
(19:40):
Wisconsin held them to I think thirty one. So even
in these games where they're not running, they've been able
to get to thirty points I think all but the
one time against Iowa. But it's hard to ignore the
Iowa game because you're looking at it and you think, well,
I bet Ohio State can do a lot of those
same things and have a lot of those same successes.
So we have not yet done our game predictions. I
(20:04):
don't know, Tom, what are we going to throw those out?
We'll throw those out what Saturday? Maybe? Like, what's what's
the plan for that? As we talk about this live
on the show?
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Yeah, we love to have editorial meetings on the air,
don't we, folks.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Well, I mean we'll we'll do I know we have
at least one more show coming up this week, so
we can do it on that one, or we can
do a special extra bonus because I'm sure people are like,
what's what's with only forty seven podcast this week?
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Sorry?
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Sorry, we've been slacking this week everyone. Yeah, well, don't worry.
We'll get to the uh. We'll get to those predictions
at some point on one of the next show war shows,
and then of course we will have our live free
game show as well, and if we don't get to
it by then, we'll do it then and if not,
we'll definitely do a postgame and I bet Tony those
will be our most accurate score predictions of the season
if we do that.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
By far, by far, that's where I prefer to do it.
So there you go. That's our look at the Ohio
State defense against the Indian offense. And we've been looking
forward to this game for about a month now and
it's just about here. So that will do it from here.
If you're watching on YouTube, go ahead that thumbs up.
We'd appreciate that. Subscribe to the channel, hit the bell
to be notified. Of course, you continue to find us
(21:11):
at Buckeye Huddle dot com. In terms of the podcast platforms,
your audio platforms, search buckye Weekly subscribe to that if
you have not searched Buckeyes tomorrow morning for tom If
you have not yet done that as well, we would
appreciate that greatly. So thank you all for tuning in
and we'll talk to you all later
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