December 5, 2025 • 23 mins
Big Ten Championship Preview: Ohio State Offense vs. Indiana Defense | Buckeye Weekly Podcast
In this episode of the Buckeye Weekly Podcast, hosts Tony Gerdeman and Tom Orr dive deep into the Big Ten Championship game between Ohio State and Indiana. They analyze the matchup between the Ohio State offense and the Indiana defense, discussing key players, strategies, and potential outcomes. Key points include the effectiveness of Ohio State's offensive line, the impact of Indiana's defensive ends, the performance of the Indiana linebackers, and the critical role of quarterback Julian Sayin. Don't miss their in-depth insights and predictions for this high-stakes game!
00:00 Introduction and Big 10 Championship Preview
00:36 Ohio State Offense vs. Indiana Defense: Line of Scrimmage
01:22 Key Defensive Players to Watch
04:37 Linebackers and Their Impact
08:44 Ohio State's Passing Game Advantage
13:16 Ohio State Offensive Line Performance
22:21 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
In this episode of the Buckeye Weekly Podcast, hosts Tony Gerdeman and Tom Orr dive deep into the Big Ten Championship game between Ohio State and Indiana. They analyze the matchup between the Ohio State offense and the Indiana defense, discussing key players, strategies, and potential outcomes. Key points include the effectiveness of Ohio State's offensive line, the impact of Indiana's defensive ends, the performance of the Indiana linebackers, and the critical role of quarterback Julian Sayin. Don't miss their in-depth insights and predictions for this high-stakes game!
00:00 Introduction and Big 10 Championship Preview
00:36 Ohio State Offense vs. Indiana Defense: Line of Scrimmage
01:22 Key Defensive Players to Watch
04:37 Linebackers and Their Impact
08:44 Ohio State's Passing Game Advantage
13:16 Ohio State Offensive Line Performance
22:21 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Mark as Played
Transcript
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'm Tony
Gerdaman here as always with Tom or Tom.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
How's it going, Tony. We are somehow just one day
away from a number one versus Number two game in
the Big Ten Championship game. So this is the second
week in a row that we're kind of treating like
the Ohio State Michigan week, and I'm a little bit
glad that there's not another big high stakes game next week.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
We'll get a little bit of a time off one
way another and be able to come up for air,
as Ryan Day and Urban Meyer would like to say,
and take a look around. But that is not now. Now.
We are neck deep in this and we are today.
We're going to take a look at the Ohio State
offense versus the Indiana defense, and I guess we could
just start from the ball on back and start with
(00:50):
the matchup on the line of scrimmage because time, as
you know, games are one up front, and Ohio State's
offensive line kept Julian saying sparkling last week in a
snow game. I don't even know if they had to
take his jersey to the laundry room. Probably not, Probably
still not that they'll be wearing it this week. I
believe they're wearing their home reds.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
But.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
That has to be different this week. And in terms
of who's going to be doing that this week, I
guess we could start with Stephen Day, the Indiana defensive
end who has been kind of all over the backfield
over the last month and I think ten tackles for
lost in his last three games and has really turned
(01:34):
it on. I guess if Ohio State, we already did.
If Ohio State's gonna win, but they need to be
aware of him, they will be aware of him. And
if the Ohio State tackles can keep him as far
away from Julian sand as they did Derek Moore and
Jayshon Barham, then Ohio State's going to be doing pretty
(01:54):
well here. But you've got to get him under control
and make sure he's not an impact player in this game.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Absolutely he is. He's a guy who it just it
feels like you see him three times a game, and
when you see him, it is very often directly before
a punt and you know he will make that play
where it goes from second and seven to third and twelve,
or third and third and three to fourth and seven,
whatever it is, it generally is not a good thing
(02:21):
when you see him and the announcers just talking about
him on the broadcast. So, yeah, if you can win
that matchup, that's a big individual one and we're going
to do a show probably on that at some point
later this week as well. But if they can win
at the line of scrimmage, that feels like that's one
of the spots that Indiana absolutely has to win. Just
(02:43):
across the front in general, the defensive front is very
good for Indiana, The linebackers are very good for Indiana.
The secondary is pretty good for Indiana. And the way
you sort of cover up for the fact that your
secondary is just pretty good is by winning at the
line of scrimmage, by getting Ohio State so they can't
run the ball and getting Ohio State into obvious passing
(03:04):
situations where they're then you can be a little more
predictable with you know, be a little more aggressive because
the opponent is in a little bit more of a
predictable spot, and you also keep the secondary from having
to cover for quite as long, and you potentially, if
you can flush Julian Sand out of the pocket, can
take away half the field and all this stuff, but
it all starts right up front. And you know, Daily,
(03:27):
I think is a really really important matchup Kamara on
the other side of the you know, kind of their
other edge number six, he's another one to kind of
keep an eye on. He doesn't have the stats that
that Daily does, but he's he's another guy that if
he if you can neutralize him, and you know, if
(03:47):
you can neutralize him, that's probably win for Ohio State.
If it can turn into a you know, if they
Ohio State can actually really create an advantage there, then
that really turns into a huge advantage for Ohio State.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Yeah, and Kamara doesn't have the status this year. He
had them last year, so he's a known player. A
year ago he had fifteen tackles for loss, he had
ten sacks. So this is the guy that has produced
in the past and can produce again. Certainly won't take
him for granted in the game planning. We've also got
(04:19):
defensive tackles in their Tyrek Tucker number ninety five, number
ninety seven that we've seen in there before Mario Landino
in some of the games that we've watched. So a
solid defensive front that is made, I guess helps make
the linebackers look very very good. And the three linebackers
that Ohio State will be dealing with, Aidan Fisher number four,
(04:42):
Elijah Hardy number twenty one, and Isaiah Jones forty six.
They like to play all three of those, and they're
all very good tacklers. They are smart. They can get
to the play, they can see the play and read
it well. I don't think tom that they make. They're
kind of air free and they can make plays. They're smart.
(05:04):
You can't just assume like you've got to beat them.
You can't assume they're going to beat themselves. And so
when I look at the ohiosted offense against them again,
you're gonna need to see Bo Jackson be his own
blocker at times. He's gonna have to make some people miss,
but he's gonna have to run hard. And we've seen
these Ohio State running backs running hard. They just have
to realize that as they're running, there's gonna be a
(05:25):
linebacker right there with them, you know, whether it's in
the hole or as they're getting to the sideline, They're
never going to be far from one of these three linebackers.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
And you know the impact of those three linebackers kind
of goes back to some of these guys up front.
Ken Tyreek Tucker, the defensive tackle you mentioned, he's one
of those guys who came from James Madison with Kurt Signetti.
Can he occupy guys or can you get a combo
block with Carson Hinsman and Luke Montgomery and then Luke
Montgomery can get up to the second level and then
(05:57):
take out one of those linebackers that's going to be
you know, again, this all kind of goes back to
the trenches. But the linebackers themselves, Yeah, absolutely, We've We've
said plenty of nice things about them all week long,
and we'll continue to save plenty of nice things about them.
These are guys who, as you said, they're really solid.
You don't see them out of position, you don't see
them missing tackles. They're not you know, there is not
(06:17):
an RVL recentness group. They are a talented group. They're
really really disciplined, smart group that does not make mistakes.
But they're also not completely freakish athletes where they you know,
they're gonna make superhuman plays. They're gonna make they're gonna
make the routine plays routinely, which is one of those
things that Ryan another Ryan daism, and that's you know,
(06:39):
that is a compliment that if you make the routine
plays routinely, and so then you're going to have to
Ohio State is going to have to do something, whether
that is, as you said, bo Jackson making his own
blocks or Bo Jackson making the guy in the whole
miss or whatever it is, or the Ohio State offensive
line playing one of its best games. That's the kind
of stuff that's going to take to sort of maybe
(07:00):
neutralize those linebackers. And you can probably scheme them out
of the game to a certain degree because there's not
there's not incredible sideline to sideline there with the linebackers,
So if you do go wide, especially in the throw game,
you can maybe kind of take some of those guys
out of the picture a little bit. But you know,
it is it is a good group, and it is
(07:20):
not a group. It is a group you've really got
to work to get out of the game. They're not
gonna they're not gonna get themselves they're not gonna run
themselves out of the play, and they're not going to
get themselves out of the game.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah, and you mentioned Tyreek Tucker, the defensive tackle ten
tackles for loss on the season, so again he's not
just necessarily going I'm here to occupy blockers now like
he will try to get into the backfield as well.
Isaiah Jones, Relijah Hardy too, and Aidan Fisher. So Jones
has twelve tackles for loss this year, Hardy has eleven
and a half, Aidan Fisher has seven. To give you
(07:51):
an idea that they do use them to attack as well,
and they're not necessarily the dragged down tacklers. They can
hit you pretty good. It will be interesting to see
how Ohio State attacks, and they like to play all
three if they can, which means one of them is
going to have to deal with Max Claire or willcas
Merrick perhaps and or Bo Jackson on the wheel route.
(08:13):
Bo Jackson has been very effective as a pass receiver
this season, frankly, all the running backs have, so if
that's I think that's also an area where Ohio State
can have an advantage. And we haven't even gotten to
the full passing game yet, But with these three linebackers,
they like to keep them in in all situations. If
(08:33):
possible when they go to two linebackers, generally you'll see
Jones leave and then the nickelback will come on and
they'll go from there. And you know, I guess that
can move us towards the secondary here because we always
talk about D'Angelo Pond's at corner at one of the corners,
(08:55):
but we don't necessarily for me watching these guys watching
three or four games now, nobody even Dangelo Pon's necessarily
doesn't really jump out. But if you're not throwing at him,
he's not going to. I guess perhaps the lack of
seeing him should be the clue there. But when you
(09:15):
watch the secondary and their two starting safeties have nine
combined interceptions, so that's definitely something. But for me, I
think the Ohio State passing attack I'm always going to
choose them over any defense that I've seen so far
this year because it's not been a great year for
defenses I think overall nationally, and Indiana certainly has some
(09:38):
of the best numbers that we've seen, but I think
Ohio State has the advantage here in terms of the
skill out wide and those who will be defending them.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
That feels like the spot where if you're going to
sort of project Ohio State to have an advantage and
it not be kind of you know, they could play
each other more or less to a stalemate that feels
like we're That advantage probably lies where the Indiana's corners.
You know, D'Angelo Pon's. Like you said, we haven't talked
about him other than the fact that he's there and
he's good because he's a little like Jermy Matthews where
(10:10):
we don't you just don't talk about Jermy Matthews because
no one's throwing at Jerma Matthews. And that is that
is a good thing. If you were a corner, if
no one's throwing at you, Ponds is going to get
thrown at because he's either going to be on Carnell
Tait or Jeremiah Smith this weekend, and he is listed
at five nine. That is that is an important part.
That is probably the most important part of his bio
other than the here's all the reasons he's good at football,
(10:32):
he's also five nine, and that's something that you can
be as good as you want unless you can out
jump Jeremiah Smith by six inches. Ohio State's going to
have some kind of an advantage there, and Jeremiah Smith
seems like a pretty good jumper name for Carnell Tate.
So that's that's something that I'm really kind of keeping
an eye on where you know, we saw them kind
of try try that sort of fade to Jeremiah Smith
(10:53):
once in the end zone last week. If you're in
first in goal and you're at the three yard line,
that would be absolutely one to two of the plays
I would think about running down there. If I'm running
four plays, I might try that twice because you just
you give your best playmaker a chance to make a
play in a one on one situation, or if Indiana
(11:15):
is going to shade a safety over there, then you
give yourself equate the numbers in the run game. But
either way, I think they're gonna show that. I think
they're going to go to that, and I think, you know,
either Carnel Tait or Jeremiah Smith, whether it's against Pond
or against Sharp the other corner on the other side,
I would be exploring that on a regular basis because
(11:35):
I think that there's going to be something there at times.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, Number twenty two, Jamari Sharp is the other corner,
and when we were watching these games last year Tennessee.
We would see like, oh, they're gonna throw at Ricky Bryant.
That corner is like you could Ricky Gibson. Yeah, Ricky Bryant,
former Buckeye right wide receiver, but Ricky Gibson and you
see different guys each time. We would watch these games like, well,
that's gonna be the guy that they go after, And
(12:00):
I would say that's maybe sharp, just because we haven't
seen much of offenses going after Ponds. But I don't
think Ohio State's going to shy away from either guy
just because why no disrespect. You've got Carnal Tayton and
Jeremia Smith. It shouldn't matter what corner. What really matters
is you know what safety is over top of them?
What will kind of help are the corners getting because
(12:23):
they're going to go after anybody where they have a
one on one advantage, and they do see any one
on one situation as an advantage and and so they'll
go after them. The nickelback here, Devin Boykin five ten
one ninety five. The two safeties that we mentioned, Amaro
Farrell number one. We saw him in a game earlier
(12:44):
this year. Kind of get get lost with his eyes
and give up a big touchdown right behind him, like
just ran right by him. I assume he's going to
be more locked in this time. Lewis Moore is the
other safety and more and Farrell again four or five interceptions.
They've got nine combined, so that's significant. I think a
(13:09):
lot of the I wonder how much not having been
able to see all of these interceptions, like how much
of this is bad quarterback play? How much of this
is pressure from the defense that forces some bad throws,
which then takes me back to we didn't really touch
on the Ohio State offensive line, but this is a
(13:29):
group that is playing better than it has all season long.
Been waiting for the right guard situation to finally get
locked in, and taker Shibola seems to have done that.
And you know, Austin Siravelled at left tackle has been
fantastic all season long. I believe it was second team
All Big Ten. Philip Daniels last week at right tackle
(13:50):
very very good as well. The interior has been The
left side interior Luke Montgomery has been very good. Carson
Hinsman one of the best centers in the Big perhaps
in the nation right now. If you're Ohio State, you
have to feel pretty good about your offensive line against anybody.
And then against this Indiana defensive line, which is not
(14:13):
the biggest line, the defensive ends are six to one.
You know they're all to sixty two seventy. Whether starting
defensive ends are six y to one, which you know
they can get under you, I guess, is one thing
to look at. And the tackles are are fairly active.
But the way this offensive line is playing and you
get their will cos American there at tight end as well.
(14:36):
This is a situation where I think this is another
advantage for Ohio State.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
All right, Tony, you know we are all about letting
people behind the behind the curtain here and I am
in a hotel right now out of town on a
trip in advance of the Big Ten championship game. And
as you were talking there, the fire alarm was going
off in the background. So we had a little intermission.
Did they let's go out to the lobby thing for
a minute, the dancing, popcorn and everything, And now we're back.
(15:10):
So if I don't exactly answer directly what you asked
right before the before the break, that's why. So anyway,
the Ohio State offensive line. You know, I think one
thing that has been really interesting to me is watching
the Indiana offensive line as opposed to the Ohio State
offensive line over the course of the season, where we
have seen sort of similar issues positionally, where it's like boy,
(15:32):
the right guard and right tackle there have been some
issues and boy, especially the right guard. But the Ohio
State issues seem to have sort of resolved themselves. Where
we'll get to the Indiana offensive line on the net show.
But the Buckeyes it feels like Tager Shabole and Phil
Daniels have taken some real meaningful steps over the course
of this season to improve and to resolve some of
(15:53):
the issues they were having. And one of the big
issues they were having was they were really struggling to
pick up twists and stunts and that's a Indiana is
going to do a lot on the defensive line, so
that's going to be a really really big you know,
this is this is a real, real good test for
the Ohio State offensive line. Have they really solved the problem?
How much of it is that the fact that they
haven't played a lot of great offensive lines over the
(16:15):
last month or so, This is you know, Michigan's defensive
line was was pretty good. This is a better defensive
line that Michigan had. So this is going to be
the best test Ohio States had, you know, for their
offensive line in at least a month, maybe more so
that that's gonna be something that I'm really watching. How
do they handle some of the games that Indiana is
(16:35):
going to be playing up front, because all it takes
is just a little bit of confusion and you get
someone coming clean and I'm I'm expecting Indiana to, knowing
what we've talked about in terms of their secondary, probably
try and turn up the heat on Julie and say
it and he's he's handled that pretty well. But you know,
you get one guy who comes through and you force
(16:57):
a turnover, whether it's a bad throw or a you know,
you force a fumble, whatever it is. In a game
that could be as close as this one could be,
that could be the difference right there.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
You know, this will be the best defensive line probably
since Texas. Maybe Wisconsin's tough, Penn State's tough, Michigan's tough,
but overall like the effectiveness, maybe it's Indiana and of
course Ohio State rush for seventy seven yards against Texas.
Bo Jackson did not play in that game. They held
him out because he's a true freshman and thought maybe
(17:28):
the game would be too big for him. But that's
the low watermark for Ohio State, and they've not been
under one hundred and sixty four yards in the last
five games. And really that's I think all of November.
That's the best picture of what Ohio State is now
because that that encaps lates Penn State and Michigan. It's
not just beating up on Purdue, UCLA and Rutgers. So
(17:49):
I think right there we have a pretty good idea
of how the Ohio State offensive line is going to
do by time. I would like to say that I
think that is the first fire alarm and Buckeye weekley,
So congratulations, and that's that's maybe we've.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Had so many loud, shrill noises and not just when
Kevin's on the show, I mean lots of lots of uh,
you know, trucks. I don't know. We really need to
go back and do like a real true catalog of this.
It feels like there there's been fire alarms when we've
been at the Woody before. But I don't know if
we were recording at that point, so this may this
(18:25):
may be history in the making.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
I do want to leave just a little bit of
it in the show, just so people are aware that
this is what they I'm sure they'd be upset if
I cut it all out and like, but I wanted
to hear the fire alarm.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
I'm sure the look of pure joy on my face
as I recognize what is happening is, uh, we'll really
really bring everything home for everyone. So yeah, yeah, by
all means, go ahead leave that in.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
I'm going to superimpose the Herb Street earthquake face at
Oklahoma State. So anything else on the I stayed off.
Have we mentioned the name Julian saying once in this show?
Speaker 2 (19:04):
I just talked about him handling pressure. Yeah, I mean,
I mean, if you think he's going to be a
significant portion, or at least a relevant portion of this conversation,
then you go ahead talk about him a little bit.
What position do you play again?
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Yeah, he is quarterback. He is the second Team Big
second team All Big Ten quarterback for Nanda Mendoza, first
team from Indiana. It's almost at this point he's a given.
So you talk about everything else around him, knowing that
you know, he's just going to be fine. He'll throw
for you know, between two hundred and sixty and three
hundred and sixty yards with between two and five touchdowns
and complete between seventy three and ninety percent of his
(19:38):
passes and never once be the issue. And you know
he's He's drown five interceptions now on the season. I
don't know that any of them. None of them are
good interceptions. The two against Ohio were tips, So it's
like three bad decisions basically led to those three interceptions.
The other three interceptions, including the one last week against
(20:01):
Michigan where he mistakenly thought Michigan is running Cover one,
they're running Cover two and Jyra Hill is able to
just stop his route in flats and intercept that pass.
So you know he's gonna have to be on point
and they're going to try to fool him the same
way that Michigan did. It's just you can only fool
him for so long because he's really, really good at
(20:21):
all of this. And so I think this will be
the best quarterback Indiana scene. I think we would agree
with that. But they see a good one every day
in practice. Yes, so does Ohio State. Again, I'll go
back to the Michigan game. If you give him time
to throw, Ohio State's going to win. If he's clean,
(20:41):
Ohio State's going to win.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yeah. I think that's exactly where this whole conversation starts
and ends. Ohio State is going to be able to
run the ball enough to put themselves in a position
to win. I don't think they'd run the ball incredibly,
but they're going to run the ball enough to put
themselves in a position to win. And then it's just
a matter of does Julian say and have time because
I think the Ohio State wide receivers are going to
be able to make get open enough to make a
(21:06):
few plays. Because I don't think they're gonna need thirty
five points to win this game. I think they can
win this game with twenty four to twenty eight points.
And if they can, if you get a couple touchdowns
to the two wide receivers, you're halfway there right there.
And I think that Julian saving saying having two touchdown
passes is basically that's the table stakes. I think Indiana
(21:27):
might I think if you just told Kurt Signetti all
I'm gonna tell you is Julian Sand's gonna have exactly
two touchdown passes. He might legitimately take that because it's
possible that, you know, High State does not run the
ball particularly well in the red zone, so they didn't.
They had four touchdowns last week against Michigan. All four
were through the air or was it three? It was four? Right? Four? No,
(21:47):
twenty seven to nine. There we go, three touchdowns, three
touchdowns through the air. It's been a long week. Did
I mention that it's been long week? It's been a
long week. Three touchdowns last week all through the air.
They were in the red zone a bunch did not
run it in. That's that's a spot where ohiost and
Indiana have both sort of struggled to sort of short
yardage running. So can o'higo State run the ball in
to the end zone. Maybe, But if it's only two
(22:09):
touchdown passes and then they're kicking a bunch of field
goals on top of that, I think Kurtzignetty might take
his chances with that.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Yeah, any field goal in the red zone is a
four point win basically for the defense in this game.
So there you go with thoughts on the Ohio State
offense versus the Indiana defense. We'll flip the side here
on the next show and give you guys that perspective
as well. If you're watching the YouTube, please hit that
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Hello, everybody, Welcome to the Buckeye Weekly Podcast. I'm Tony
Gerdaman here as always with Tom or Tom.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
How's it going, Tony. We are somehow just one day
away from a number one versus Number two game in
the Big Ten Championship game. So this is the second
week in a row that we're kind of treating like
the Ohio State Michigan week, and I'm a little bit
glad that there's not another big high stakes game next week.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
We'll get a little bit of a time off one
way another and be able to come up for air,
as Ryan Day and Urban Meyer would like to say,
and take a look around. But that is not now. Now.
We are neck deep in this and we are today.
We're going to take a look at the Ohio State
offense versus the Indiana defense, and I guess we could
just start from the ball on back and start with
(00:50):
the matchup on the line of scrimmage because time, as
you know, games are one up front, and Ohio State's
offensive line kept Julian saying sparkling last week in a
snow game. I don't even know if they had to
take his jersey to the laundry room. Probably not, Probably
still not that they'll be wearing it this week. I
believe they're wearing their home reds.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
But.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
That has to be different this week. And in terms
of who's going to be doing that this week, I
guess we could start with Stephen Day, the Indiana defensive
end who has been kind of all over the backfield
over the last month and I think ten tackles for
lost in his last three games and has really turned
(01:34):
it on. I guess if Ohio State, we already did.
If Ohio State's gonna win, but they need to be
aware of him, they will be aware of him. And
if the Ohio State tackles can keep him as far
away from Julian sand as they did Derek Moore and
Jayshon Barham, then Ohio State's going to be doing pretty
(01:54):
well here. But you've got to get him under control
and make sure he's not an impact player in this game.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Absolutely he is. He's a guy who it just it
feels like you see him three times a game, and
when you see him, it is very often directly before
a punt and you know he will make that play
where it goes from second and seven to third and twelve,
or third and third and three to fourth and seven,
whatever it is, it generally is not a good thing
(02:21):
when you see him and the announcers just talking about
him on the broadcast. So, yeah, if you can win
that matchup, that's a big individual one and we're going
to do a show probably on that at some point
later this week as well. But if they can win
at the line of scrimmage, that feels like that's one
of the spots that Indiana absolutely has to win. Just
(02:43):
across the front in general, the defensive front is very
good for Indiana, The linebackers are very good for Indiana.
The secondary is pretty good for Indiana. And the way
you sort of cover up for the fact that your
secondary is just pretty good is by winning at the
line of scrimmage, by getting Ohio State so they can't
run the ball and getting Ohio State into obvious passing
(03:04):
situations where they're then you can be a little more
predictable with you know, be a little more aggressive because
the opponent is in a little bit more of a
predictable spot, and you also keep the secondary from having
to cover for quite as long, and you potentially, if
you can flush Julian Sand out of the pocket, can
take away half the field and all this stuff, but
it all starts right up front. And you know, Daily,
(03:27):
I think is a really really important matchup Kamara on
the other side of the you know, kind of their
other edge number six, he's another one to kind of
keep an eye on. He doesn't have the stats that
that Daily does, but he's he's another guy that if
he if you can neutralize him, and you know, if
(03:47):
you can neutralize him, that's probably win for Ohio State.
If it can turn into a you know, if they
Ohio State can actually really create an advantage there, then
that really turns into a huge advantage for Ohio State.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Yeah, and Kamara doesn't have the status this year. He
had them last year, so he's a known player. A
year ago he had fifteen tackles for loss, he had
ten sacks. So this is the guy that has produced
in the past and can produce again. Certainly won't take
him for granted in the game planning. We've also got
(04:19):
defensive tackles in their Tyrek Tucker number ninety five, number
ninety seven that we've seen in there before Mario Landino
in some of the games that we've watched. So a
solid defensive front that is made, I guess helps make
the linebackers look very very good. And the three linebackers
that Ohio State will be dealing with, Aidan Fisher number four,
(04:42):
Elijah Hardy number twenty one, and Isaiah Jones forty six.
They like to play all three of those, and they're
all very good tacklers. They are smart. They can get
to the play, they can see the play and read
it well. I don't think tom that they make. They're
kind of air free and they can make plays. They're smart.
(05:04):
You can't just assume like you've got to beat them.
You can't assume they're going to beat themselves. And so
when I look at the ohiosted offense against them again,
you're gonna need to see Bo Jackson be his own
blocker at times. He's gonna have to make some people miss,
but he's gonna have to run hard. And we've seen
these Ohio State running backs running hard. They just have
to realize that as they're running, there's gonna be a
(05:25):
linebacker right there with them, you know, whether it's in
the hole or as they're getting to the sideline, They're
never going to be far from one of these three linebackers.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
And you know the impact of those three linebackers kind
of goes back to some of these guys up front.
Ken Tyreek Tucker, the defensive tackle you mentioned, he's one
of those guys who came from James Madison with Kurt Signetti.
Can he occupy guys or can you get a combo
block with Carson Hinsman and Luke Montgomery and then Luke
Montgomery can get up to the second level and then
(05:57):
take out one of those linebackers that's going to be
you know, again, this all kind of goes back to
the trenches. But the linebackers themselves, Yeah, absolutely, We've We've
said plenty of nice things about them all week long,
and we'll continue to save plenty of nice things about them.
These are guys who, as you said, they're really solid.
You don't see them out of position, you don't see
them missing tackles. They're not you know, there is not
(06:17):
an RVL recentness group. They are a talented group. They're
really really disciplined, smart group that does not make mistakes.
But they're also not completely freakish athletes where they you know,
they're gonna make superhuman plays. They're gonna make they're gonna
make the routine plays routinely, which is one of those
things that Ryan another Ryan daism, and that's you know,
(06:39):
that is a compliment that if you make the routine
plays routinely, and so then you're going to have to
Ohio State is going to have to do something, whether
that is, as you said, bo Jackson making his own
blocks or Bo Jackson making the guy in the whole
miss or whatever it is, or the Ohio State offensive
line playing one of its best games. That's the kind
of stuff that's going to take to sort of maybe
(07:00):
neutralize those linebackers. And you can probably scheme them out
of the game to a certain degree because there's not
there's not incredible sideline to sideline there with the linebackers,
So if you do go wide, especially in the throw game,
you can maybe kind of take some of those guys
out of the picture a little bit. But you know,
it is it is a good group, and it is
(07:20):
not a group. It is a group you've really got
to work to get out of the game. They're not
gonna they're not gonna get themselves they're not gonna run
themselves out of the play, and they're not going to
get themselves out of the game.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah, and you mentioned Tyreek Tucker, the defensive tackle ten
tackles for loss on the season, so again he's not
just necessarily going I'm here to occupy blockers now like
he will try to get into the backfield as well.
Isaiah Jones, Relijah Hardy too, and Aidan Fisher. So Jones
has twelve tackles for loss this year, Hardy has eleven
and a half, Aidan Fisher has seven. To give you
(07:51):
an idea that they do use them to attack as well,
and they're not necessarily the dragged down tacklers. They can
hit you pretty good. It will be interesting to see
how Ohio State attacks, and they like to play all
three if they can, which means one of them is
going to have to deal with Max Claire or willcas
Merrick perhaps and or Bo Jackson on the wheel route.
(08:13):
Bo Jackson has been very effective as a pass receiver
this season, frankly, all the running backs have, so if
that's I think that's also an area where Ohio State
can have an advantage. And we haven't even gotten to
the full passing game yet, But with these three linebackers,
they like to keep them in in all situations. If
(08:33):
possible when they go to two linebackers, generally you'll see
Jones leave and then the nickelback will come on and
they'll go from there. And you know, I guess that
can move us towards the secondary here because we always
talk about D'Angelo Pond's at corner at one of the corners,
(08:55):
but we don't necessarily for me watching these guys watching
three or four games now, nobody even Dangelo Pon's necessarily
doesn't really jump out. But if you're not throwing at him,
he's not going to. I guess perhaps the lack of
seeing him should be the clue there. But when you
(09:15):
watch the secondary and their two starting safeties have nine
combined interceptions, so that's definitely something. But for me, I
think the Ohio State passing attack I'm always going to
choose them over any defense that I've seen so far
this year because it's not been a great year for
defenses I think overall nationally, and Indiana certainly has some
(09:38):
of the best numbers that we've seen, but I think
Ohio State has the advantage here in terms of the
skill out wide and those who will be defending them.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
That feels like the spot where if you're going to
sort of project Ohio State to have an advantage and
it not be kind of you know, they could play
each other more or less to a stalemate that feels
like we're That advantage probably lies where the Indiana's corners.
You know, D'Angelo Pon's. Like you said, we haven't talked
about him other than the fact that he's there and
he's good because he's a little like Jermy Matthews where
(10:10):
we don't you just don't talk about Jermy Matthews because
no one's throwing at Jerma Matthews. And that is that
is a good thing. If you were a corner, if
no one's throwing at you, Ponds is going to get
thrown at because he's either going to be on Carnell
Tait or Jeremiah Smith this weekend, and he is listed
at five nine. That is that is an important part.
That is probably the most important part of his bio
other than the here's all the reasons he's good at football,
(10:32):
he's also five nine, and that's something that you can
be as good as you want unless you can out
jump Jeremiah Smith by six inches. Ohio State's going to
have some kind of an advantage there, and Jeremiah Smith
seems like a pretty good jumper name for Carnell Tate.
So that's that's something that I'm really kind of keeping
an eye on where you know, we saw them kind
of try try that sort of fade to Jeremiah Smith
(10:53):
once in the end zone last week. If you're in
first in goal and you're at the three yard line,
that would be absolutely one to two of the plays
I would think about running down there. If I'm running
four plays, I might try that twice because you just
you give your best playmaker a chance to make a
play in a one on one situation, or if Indiana
(11:15):
is going to shade a safety over there, then you
give yourself equate the numbers in the run game. But
either way, I think they're gonna show that. I think
they're going to go to that, and I think, you know,
either Carnel Tait or Jeremiah Smith, whether it's against Pond
or against Sharp the other corner on the other side,
I would be exploring that on a regular basis because
(11:35):
I think that there's going to be something there at times.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, Number twenty two, Jamari Sharp is the other corner,
and when we were watching these games last year Tennessee.
We would see like, oh, they're gonna throw at Ricky Bryant.
That corner is like you could Ricky Gibson. Yeah, Ricky Bryant,
former Buckeye right wide receiver, but Ricky Gibson and you
see different guys each time. We would watch these games like, well,
that's gonna be the guy that they go after, And
(12:00):
I would say that's maybe sharp, just because we haven't
seen much of offenses going after Ponds. But I don't
think Ohio State's going to shy away from either guy
just because why no disrespect. You've got Carnal Tayton and
Jeremia Smith. It shouldn't matter what corner. What really matters
is you know what safety is over top of them?
What will kind of help are the corners getting because
(12:23):
they're going to go after anybody where they have a
one on one advantage, and they do see any one
on one situation as an advantage and and so they'll
go after them. The nickelback here, Devin Boykin five ten
one ninety five. The two safeties that we mentioned, Amaro
Farrell number one. We saw him in a game earlier
(12:44):
this year. Kind of get get lost with his eyes
and give up a big touchdown right behind him, like
just ran right by him. I assume he's going to
be more locked in this time. Lewis Moore is the
other safety and more and Farrell again four or five interceptions.
They've got nine combined, so that's significant. I think a
(13:09):
lot of the I wonder how much not having been
able to see all of these interceptions, like how much
of this is bad quarterback play? How much of this
is pressure from the defense that forces some bad throws,
which then takes me back to we didn't really touch
on the Ohio State offensive line, but this is a
(13:29):
group that is playing better than it has all season long.
Been waiting for the right guard situation to finally get
locked in, and taker Shibola seems to have done that.
And you know, Austin Siravelled at left tackle has been
fantastic all season long. I believe it was second team
All Big Ten. Philip Daniels last week at right tackle
(13:50):
very very good as well. The interior has been The
left side interior Luke Montgomery has been very good. Carson
Hinsman one of the best centers in the Big perhaps
in the nation right now. If you're Ohio State, you
have to feel pretty good about your offensive line against anybody.
And then against this Indiana defensive line, which is not
(14:13):
the biggest line, the defensive ends are six to one.
You know they're all to sixty two seventy. Whether starting
defensive ends are six y to one, which you know
they can get under you, I guess, is one thing
to look at. And the tackles are are fairly active.
But the way this offensive line is playing and you
get their will cos American there at tight end as well.
(14:36):
This is a situation where I think this is another
advantage for Ohio State.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
All right, Tony, you know we are all about letting
people behind the behind the curtain here and I am
in a hotel right now out of town on a
trip in advance of the Big Ten championship game. And
as you were talking there, the fire alarm was going
off in the background. So we had a little intermission.
Did they let's go out to the lobby thing for
a minute, the dancing, popcorn and everything, And now we're back.
(15:10):
So if I don't exactly answer directly what you asked
right before the before the break, that's why. So anyway,
the Ohio State offensive line. You know, I think one
thing that has been really interesting to me is watching
the Indiana offensive line as opposed to the Ohio State
offensive line over the course of the season, where we
have seen sort of similar issues positionally, where it's like boy,
(15:32):
the right guard and right tackle there have been some
issues and boy, especially the right guard. But the Ohio
State issues seem to have sort of resolved themselves. Where
we'll get to the Indiana offensive line on the net show.
But the Buckeyes it feels like Tager Shabole and Phil
Daniels have taken some real meaningful steps over the course
of this season to improve and to resolve some of
(15:53):
the issues they were having. And one of the big
issues they were having was they were really struggling to
pick up twists and stunts and that's a Indiana is
going to do a lot on the defensive line, so
that's going to be a really really big you know,
this is this is a real, real good test for
the Ohio State offensive line. Have they really solved the problem?
How much of it is that the fact that they
haven't played a lot of great offensive lines over the
(16:15):
last month or so, This is you know, Michigan's defensive
line was was pretty good. This is a better defensive
line that Michigan had. So this is going to be
the best test Ohio States had, you know, for their
offensive line in at least a month, maybe more so
that that's gonna be something that I'm really watching. How
do they handle some of the games that Indiana is
(16:35):
going to be playing up front, because all it takes
is just a little bit of confusion and you get
someone coming clean and I'm I'm expecting Indiana to, knowing
what we've talked about in terms of their secondary, probably
try and turn up the heat on Julie and say
it and he's he's handled that pretty well. But you know,
you get one guy who comes through and you force
(16:57):
a turnover, whether it's a bad throw or a you know,
you force a fumble, whatever it is. In a game
that could be as close as this one could be,
that could be the difference right there.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
You know, this will be the best defensive line probably
since Texas. Maybe Wisconsin's tough, Penn State's tough, Michigan's tough,
but overall like the effectiveness, maybe it's Indiana and of
course Ohio State rush for seventy seven yards against Texas.
Bo Jackson did not play in that game. They held
him out because he's a true freshman and thought maybe
(17:28):
the game would be too big for him. But that's
the low watermark for Ohio State, and they've not been
under one hundred and sixty four yards in the last
five games. And really that's I think all of November.
That's the best picture of what Ohio State is now
because that that encaps lates Penn State and Michigan. It's
not just beating up on Purdue, UCLA and Rutgers. So
(17:49):
I think right there we have a pretty good idea
of how the Ohio State offensive line is going to
do by time. I would like to say that I
think that is the first fire alarm and Buckeye weekley,
So congratulations, and that's that's maybe we've.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Had so many loud, shrill noises and not just when
Kevin's on the show, I mean lots of lots of uh,
you know, trucks. I don't know. We really need to
go back and do like a real true catalog of this.
It feels like there there's been fire alarms when we've
been at the Woody before. But I don't know if
we were recording at that point, so this may this
(18:25):
may be history in the making.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
I do want to leave just a little bit of
it in the show, just so people are aware that
this is what they I'm sure they'd be upset if
I cut it all out and like, but I wanted
to hear the fire alarm.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
I'm sure the look of pure joy on my face
as I recognize what is happening is, uh, we'll really
really bring everything home for everyone. So yeah, yeah, by
all means, go ahead leave that in.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
I'm going to superimpose the Herb Street earthquake face at
Oklahoma State. So anything else on the I stayed off.
Have we mentioned the name Julian saying once in this show?
Speaker 2 (19:04):
I just talked about him handling pressure. Yeah, I mean,
I mean, if you think he's going to be a
significant portion, or at least a relevant portion of this conversation,
then you go ahead talk about him a little bit.
What position do you play again?
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Yeah, he is quarterback. He is the second Team Big
second team All Big Ten quarterback for Nanda Mendoza, first
team from Indiana. It's almost at this point he's a given.
So you talk about everything else around him, knowing that
you know, he's just going to be fine. He'll throw
for you know, between two hundred and sixty and three
hundred and sixty yards with between two and five touchdowns
and complete between seventy three and ninety percent of his
(19:38):
passes and never once be the issue. And you know
he's He's drown five interceptions now on the season. I
don't know that any of them. None of them are
good interceptions. The two against Ohio were tips, So it's
like three bad decisions basically led to those three interceptions.
The other three interceptions, including the one last week against
(20:01):
Michigan where he mistakenly thought Michigan is running Cover one,
they're running Cover two and Jyra Hill is able to
just stop his route in flats and intercept that pass.
So you know he's gonna have to be on point
and they're going to try to fool him the same
way that Michigan did. It's just you can only fool
him for so long because he's really, really good at
(20:21):
all of this. And so I think this will be
the best quarterback Indiana scene. I think we would agree
with that. But they see a good one every day
in practice. Yes, so does Ohio State. Again, I'll go
back to the Michigan game. If you give him time
to throw, Ohio State's going to win. If he's clean,
(20:41):
Ohio State's going to win.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yeah. I think that's exactly where this whole conversation starts
and ends. Ohio State is going to be able to
run the ball enough to put themselves in a position
to win. I don't think they'd run the ball incredibly,
but they're going to run the ball enough to put
themselves in a position to win. And then it's just
a matter of does Julian say and have time because
I think the Ohio State wide receivers are going to
be able to make get open enough to make a
(21:06):
few plays. Because I don't think they're gonna need thirty
five points to win this game. I think they can
win this game with twenty four to twenty eight points.
And if they can, if you get a couple touchdowns
to the two wide receivers, you're halfway there right there.
And I think that Julian saving saying having two touchdown
passes is basically that's the table stakes. I think Indiana
(21:27):
might I think if you just told Kurt Signetti all
I'm gonna tell you is Julian Sand's gonna have exactly
two touchdown passes. He might legitimately take that because it's
possible that, you know, High State does not run the
ball particularly well in the red zone, so they didn't.
They had four touchdowns last week against Michigan. All four
were through the air or was it three? It was four? Right? Four? No,
(21:47):
twenty seven to nine. There we go, three touchdowns, three
touchdowns through the air. It's been a long week. Did
I mention that it's been long week? It's been a
long week. Three touchdowns last week all through the air.
They were in the red zone a bunch did not
run it in. That's that's a spot where ohiost and
Indiana have both sort of struggled to sort of short
yardage running. So can o'higo State run the ball in
to the end zone. Maybe, But if it's only two
(22:09):
touchdown passes and then they're kicking a bunch of field
goals on top of that, I think Kurtzignetty might take
his chances with that.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Yeah, any field goal in the red zone is a
four point win basically for the defense in this game.
So there you go with thoughts on the Ohio State
offense versus the Indiana defense. We'll flip the side here
on the next show and give you guys that perspective
as well. If you're watching the YouTube, please hit that
thumbs up leave comments about Hey, great to hear a
new noise. I'm a Buckeye weekly podcast. It's always appreciated.
(22:37):
Who knows what's going to be next one day, maybe
an elephant, Well, Blair, it's trunk and we'll get to
hear something like that, something new noises for all the
kids out there, or possibly possibly and five start writing reviews.
Always appreciate it, and you can continue to find us
at Buckeyeheddle dot com. So thank you all for tuning
in and I'll talk to you all later
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