OSU fans were introduced to the “Bear” front after Virginia Tech Defensive Coordinator Bud Foster held the vaunted Buckeye offense to 327 total yards and 3 turnovers in an opening night 35-21 victory in Columbus last season.
After an offseason fueled by speculation into what Bud Foster had up his sleeve for Ohio State’s opening night rematch in Lynchburg, he pulled the ultimate rabbit out of the hat by utilizing the same defensive scheme that caused so much havoc last year, the same 4-6 “Bear” with jailbreak blitzes and a healthy dose of man coverage behind it.
The “Bear” front comes from the old Buddy Ryan 4-6 defense. Its’ calling card is 3 defensive linemen “covering” the center and both guards (a 0-technique and two 3-techniques). The defense works particularly well against OSU’s base split zone as the alignment prevents the Center and Guard from double-teaming the NG and climbing to a LB (4 hands, 4 eyes).
This creates a “free hitter” in the box, allowing the unblocked LB to fast flow to the ball. Ohio State did not adjust well to the front in game as evidenced by the offenses’ 2.7 yards per carry in last year’s season opener.
The “Bear” front’s stacked box necessitates that the secondary play a vast majority of its shells in man coverage. This places A LOT of stress on the secondary as they must hold up for 60 minutes with limited deep help. In last year’s game OSU took several shots downfield, but was rarely able to capitalize on the Cover 1 (1 deep safety) and Cover 0 (no deep safety) looks that Virginia Tech gave.
Several of Ohio States’ 2014 opponents attempted to recreate Virginia Tech’s success with the “Bear” front with varying degrees of success, although the offensive coaching staff quickly countered the alignment with play calls that attacked weaknesses within the alignment and the coverage behind it.
Attacking Man Coverage
A large part of the 4-6 defenses’ success is predicated on the secondary’s ability to play man coverage without giving up vertical chunk plays.
After hitting the classic “man beater” Double Slants for their 1st completion of the night, Ohio State tested the Hokies secondary for the first of many times that night with a vertical concept off play action.
This is a simple matchup-based route concept. Urban believes his slot receivers can beat VT’s nickel/safeties in a man matchup, and converted running back Curtis Samuel rewarded Urban’s faith with OSU’s first touchdown of the night. Notice the #1 (Wide receivers are numbered outside-to-in) WR pull up at 4 yards. The route is run this way to keep the CB near the LOS, creating room for the #2 WR to bend his route outside (notice the outside release) and create more room to make the catch. The Hokies played Cover 0 behind a 7-man blitz, leaving no deep help for the slot DB.
Getting to the Edges
While a well-executed “Bear” front does a great job clogging the tackle box the defense has several stress points. The first area many coaches choose to attack is the perimeter. As a “Bear” front will often place 8-9 defenders in the tackle box, anything that reaches outside must be run down by interior defenders. The OSU coaching staffs choose to attack the defense at this stress point early and often with the speed option and throws to the TBs in the flat, albeit with limited success.
Many coaches attack the perimeter of a “stacked” box using the speed option. The speed option “reads” off the playside EMLOS (End Man Line of Scrimmage), rebalancing box numbers by creating an unblocked defender. Running the speed option is relatively simple. If the “read” defender attacks the QB, give the ball to the pitchman. If the “read” defender slow plays the QB or widens with the pitchman, cut upfield and force the alley fill to make a tackle.
Another way to get the ball to the perimeter is through the short passing game to the flats. Ohio State made a concerted effort to overload the defense with TB flat routes that were really well-designed pick plays. Notice that #26 must navigate the traffic created by the bunch alignment to match Elliot’s motion. Watch the “routes” the bunched wide receivers run. This is a simple one read swing to Elliot with rubs from the 3 strongside receivers, another classic “man beater”.
The Dart
Ohio State’s second touchdown came off the “Dart” concept, a run-game adjustment made in response to the “Bear” front the offense saw as other teams attempted to replicate VT’s success early last season.
“Dart” is very similar to the “Dave” or “Power” play Ohio State has run for the last two decades. The key difference when running “Dart” is the backside Tackle pulls, rather than the backside Guard in traditional “Power”.
“Dart” works well against the “Bear” front because it allows the playside Guard and Tackle to double team the playside 3-technique and climb to the MIKE. Remember the “Bear’s” strength against Ohio States bread-and-butter split zone is its’ ability to eliminate double teams at the LOS.
Ezekiel Elliot made the most of his first run of the game, rumbling 80 yards for a touchdown off “Dart”. Pay attention to the double team and climb to the MIKE by the Left Guards and Left Tackle. Those blocks are key to making the play hit for chunk yardage.
Guess Who’s Back?
After a full season of inaction due to shoulder injuries, Braxton Miller announced his return to the college football world by breaking Twitter Monday night.
The converted QB’s 1st touchdown came off an OSU staple, the 3-man “Snag” concept.
“Snag” is a flexible route concept that can be used to beat both man and zone coverage. The #WR runs a “snag” route, looking to sit down inside the flat defender, the #2 WR runs a corner route, and the #3 WR runs a flat route.
Against zone the snag/flat route creates a horizontal stretch against the flat defender. Against man the QB is “alerted” to read the corner route first, as it will often be run against a defender with heads up or inside leverage (Look at the defender over Braxton; he is aligned inside of Braxton away from the direction in which the route will stem).
After little success running Braxton from the QB position all night, he went and did this:
There is little to say here in terms of schematics. Braxton simply beat the free hitters and hit the Xbox spin button. Amazing move from an amazing athlete.
Back to Last Season
Cardale’s final touchdown of the night came off the Counter OF, a play OSU utilized heavily during the second half of the 2014 season.
The Counter OF is very similar to the Ohio State-staple the Counter Trey with one key difference. Rather than pull the backside Guard and Tackle like the traditional Counter Trey, the Counter OF pulls the backside Guard and uses a TB/TE/FB to kick out/wrap.
The Counter is a great response to defenses that key “back flow” for hints to play direction. Notice the hard jab step that Cardale takes away from the play after executing the fake on jet motion.
The jet motion serves two purposes here. First it acts as backfield “flow” to slow down the defense’s run direction key, but more importantly it “clears out” the alley fill to the playside, reducing the defender’s numbers at the POA (Ohio State ran the counter off jet motion several times in the 2nd half of the National Championship game.
J.T Returns
Up 35-17 JT Barrett entered the ballgame and immediate made his presence known running the speed option. This is the quick decision making, acceleration, and shiftiness we have come to expect from Barrett in the run game.
Barrett capped off the drive by hitting Michael Thomas on a beautiful stutter-go against projected 1st round draft pick cornerback Kendall Fuller.
Fuller appeared to be using a “penny step” technique to read through the 3-step pass game (slant, hitch, etc.) before turning to bail if the ball didn’t come out after 5-7 yards. You can see by his inside leverage that he is aligned to take away inside breaking routes, which leaves him to “react” to a 9 route.
However, to execute the technique properly Fuller needs to align with outside leverage so his eyes can move between the QB and wide receiver. The double-move by Michael Thomas was a thing of beauty, selling Fuller on a 3-step route and forcing him to break on the double move.
So where does the offense go from here? Although they put up 572 yards of total offense and scored 6 touchdowns, turnovers and poor 3rd down conversion point to areas in which the team can improve. From the mid-1st quarter to halftime the offense struggled to move the ball with consistently. If this is an “off night” for the offense, image what they can do when all cylinders are clicking.