Ducks Attack Message Board Forum

Against Fresno State, this OL just didn't play well. Fresno is a good program but not championship-caliber level good. It was incredibly discouraging and I think it was so bad that it could have cost us the game. Then against tOSU, this OL plays phenomenally for the most part against one of the most talented front 7 groups they'll face this year. My question is, what led to this drastic improvement and will we see the week 1 OL again?

- could have been game 1 shaking off the cob webs
- I saw Jaramillo rotate in at LT and Aumave-Laulu rotate in at RT but the starting lineup was still the same (Moore/Bass/Forsyth/Walk/Jones)
- perhaps the offensive staff knows there's a weak link somewhere in the line and called plays that don't expose this weakness
- tOSU defensive scheme was not particularly difficult to block against. They're talented for sure but the announcers said that they continued to play the same rush/coverage scheme and that may have made it much easier to block against? I know that Fresno State brought all types of pressures and didn't let AB settle in to pass the ball for most of the game. If this explains the improvement, it says that the OL gets an A+ for strength/conditioning but we'll see struggles down the line again if we face a team that has a lot of (exotic) blitz packages.

Anyhow this improvement we saw was almost unthinkable to me. How can the same 5 guys play so much better in the span of 1 week. The answer to this question is a major factor in how far we go this year.

First week jitters and going up against a team that already played a game. If I had to guess.

ducks5ever wrote:Against Fresno State, this OL just didn't play well. Fresno is a good program but not championship-caliber level good. It was incredibly discouraging and I think it was so bad that it could have cost us the game. Then against tOSU, this OL plays phenomenally for the most part against one of the most talented front 7 groups they'll face this year. My question is, what led to this drastic improvement and will we see the week 1 OL again?

- could have been game 1 shaking off the cob webs
- I saw Jaramillo rotate in at LT and Aumave-Laulu rotate in at RT but the starting lineup was still the same (Moore/Bass/Forsyth/Walk/Jones)
- perhaps the offensive staff knows there's a weak link somewhere in the line and called plays that don't expose this weakness
- tOSU defensive scheme was not particularly difficult to block against. They're talented for sure but the announcers said that they continued to play the same rush/coverage scheme and that may have made it much easier to block against? I know that Fresno State brought all types of pressures and didn't let AB settle in to pass the ball for most of the game. If this explains the improvement, it says that the OL gets an A+ for strength/conditioning but we'll see struggles down the line again if we face a team that has a lot of (exotic) blitz packages.

Anyhow this improvement we saw was almost unthinkable to me. How can the same 5 guys play so much better in the span of 1 week. The answer to this question is a major factor in how far we go this year.

When we played Jim Tressel in the Rose Bowl, they knew everything Alliotti wanted to do on Defense and routinely called plays on 3rd down to beat our Fire Zone 3 Blitz that we ran over and over all season. In this game, Kerry Coombs the DC failed to adjust to Moorhead until late in the game. As they say, "sometimes its the X's and the O's and sometimes it's the Jimmie's and the Joe's."

Also, the dig against Fresno is only accurate if you are talking the CFP - they'll fight to finish 1 or 2 in the MWC with Nevada. It's a team that has an offense and a lot of returning guys on defense. They aren't a bad team at all and that's why upsets happen when 1 team doesn't take the other as seriously. I don't think we lined up in a single 10 set all game against Fresno (1 RB, 0 TE, 4WR) and yet on the 1st drive against the Buckeyes there we were trying to spread them out of the box in order to run.

If the OL struggles at all the next 2 games then this will be a more pressing question but we should see a lot of guys on the OL get some more run in over these next 2 games too. Otherwise I'm not expecting any defense we play again to be able to throw something at us that we haven't seen before.

In week 1, our offensive line physically held up well in the passing game. The only exception where I saw a guy getting "beat" was #3 for CSUF frequently getting inside on Steven Jones, which accounted for some negative plays. I didn't see anyone else getting blown up or beat up. The issues were all in protection, which could be communication along the OL, or could be communication between Brown and Forsyth, who've never played a full game together before. So it all seemed like things to "clean up," and as you mentioned, with the less complicated looks that tOSU gave, they did just that.

What's a little more surprising to me is how much their run blocking improved. Some of it makes sense (guys were tripping over other guys last week, which is an example of those 'cobwebs'), but they also just physically moved people out of the way. Better double teams was a factor, but also just looked physically superior to tOSU's DL.

The offensive line is not quite young but not quite a veteran line either.

It’s possible out OL just had a really good game against tOSU and a poor game against Fresno.

Also, Ohio states’s front 7 didn’t seem like their typical front 7’s of the past.

It also helps when you see plays that JJIII destroyed the DE ribs, and big 12 was blocking like a man possessed on run plays. We also didn’t run anything much vs FSU outside the tackles. Which we killed OSU with.

Here is the Ohio State film study of Moorhead against Coombs where it shows just how badly they failed to hold containment on the outside on all 3 of those TDs to the outside.

https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-sta ... ohio-state

I was set to watch a full game video I found last night on youtube this morning, but it was taken down (not shocking). Anyone know where I might be able to find a game video?

From what I remember, I saw zero Pistol in the game, but I want to look again and see.

StevensTechU wrote:I was set to watch a full game video I found last night on youtube this morning, but it was taken down (not shocking). Anyone know where I might be able to find a game video?

From what I remember, I saw zero Pistol in the game, but I want to look again and see.

Stevens- I was thinking the exact same thing. I don't recall seeing any pistol either. Hope we're both right.


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There was pistol, shotgun and quite a bit of brass knuckles in the trenches

I thought I saw the pistol attempted on a couple or few occasions in the first half. Looked like they realized it's trash and went away from it altogether, which I was happy to see. I could be wrong but I recall at least one play where it was used and highly ineffective.

Quietduck wrote:There was pistol, shotgun and quite a bit of brass knuckles in the trenches

mrpd21 wrote:I thought I saw the pistol attempted on a couple or few occasions in the first half. Looked like they realized it's trash and went away from it altogether, which I was happy to see. I could be wrong but I recall at least one play where it was used and highly ineffective.

I'm picturing Mastro going "No, really! It does work, I promise!" as Moorhead turns and walks away.

The pistol can actually work quite well but the team using it has to have the qb run the ball out of it or pull for a pass at least a third of the time if not more. Without that it is a quicker way to get stuffed.

Ohio State played almost exclusively their base 4-3 defense with a single high safety. They also ran 0 stunts, twists etc and just tried to play hat on a hat on the line. Our O-line really struggles with motion/switches after the snap. Fresno did an amazing job and disguising and running a ton of stunts and our O-line didn't properly shift the responsibility which led to a ton of unblocked Fresno players.

Overall, Ohio State just got out-schemed and out-coached on both sides of the ball. They are still more talented than us, but we had a perfect game plan on both sides of the ball.

Even though we don't play a team as talented as tOSU the rest of the way, we will see much better game planning several times over. I think UCLA can cause a lot of disruption to our offense with their attacking/blitzing defense.