Defensively Speaking: Indiana

Ohio State’s defensive performance against Indiana was very encouraging. A lot of the mistakes from the previous game appeared to be corrected, and Jim Knowles’ creativity was on display throughout the game.

For the third straight week, Knowles primarily employed a Cover 1 Rat scheme in coverage while also mixing in some Cover 3 Buzz and Tampa-2. Below is an example of Cover 1 Rat, where everyone is in man coverage with the exception of one LB who covers the low middle hole and reads the QB’s eyes (in this case, Tommy Eichenberg), and one deep safety (in this case,…