Numbers May Not Look The Same, But Caleb Downs Is Still Having A Tremendous Impact

At this point in his true freshman season last year at Alabama, safety Caleb Downs had 63 tackles, two interceptions, one pass breakup, and one forced fumble.

Downs went on to become the first true freshman to ever lead the Crimson Tide in tackles, finishing with 107, which was 40 more than any other player.

Now as a starting safety at Ohio State, Downs is currently fourth on the team in tackles with 35. It’s a far cry from his production at Alabama, which has some people wondering why.

What’s wrong?

Well, nothing’s wrong.

“No, he’s all over the field. He’s having a huge impact on our defense,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said this week. “He had some huge tackles in the [Penn State] game, some huge plays in the game. And he’s a huge part of our defense.”

Sometimes those huge plays are one-on-one touchdown-saving tackles, like he had against Nebraska. Sometimes they occur when all you may see is a blur flashing into the play to bring a ball carrier down before they even get started. There’s a reason why Downs is second on the team with 5.5 tackles for loss, after all.

And sometimes the plays are made that don’t have a statistic attached to them.

The final offensive play for Penn State was an example of that. The Nittany Lions called a pass play in a run formation at the one-yard line on fourth down. Everybody on the defensive side of the ball had to gear up to stop the run just as they had done the previous three snaps.

On the snap, PSU quarterback Drew Allar dropped back, strong safety Lathan Ransom went with star tight end Tyler Warren, and Downs stayed back to defend tight end Khalil Dinkins. Allar wanted to throw to Warren, but he couldn’t because he was covered, so instead he threw to Dinkins who was being covered by Downs. The pass fell incomplete and the Buckeyes held.

No stats were awarded for what was arguably the biggest play of the game for the Ohio State defense. But that doesn’t take away from Caleb Downs’ impact.

“That’s 100% what you practice shows up in the game,” OSU defensive coordinator Jim Knowles said on Tuesday. “I think that’s the benefit of two veteran safeties and knowing the situation and the call and what’s going to happen.

“Their reaction was spot on. I mean, they just jumped the right guys and took it away. And it’s tough playing that situation because you’re in there defending the run and then you’ve got to be able to cover those kind of routes. And they both did, yeah. I mean, Caleb made the play, but Lathan jumped that route quickly, which took that away, which I think is a big deal.”

It was a great play by Downs, but it wasn’t out of the ordinary for him this season. Part of his job has simply been to be in the right place at the right time and eliminate a play before it ever happens, and he’s done it very well.

How does he do it?

“He sees the play before it happens,” Knowles said. “I think he’s got incredible talent, but then he’s got the vision. All the best defensive players I’ve been around, they see it before it happens based on the formation and the film study. It just gives him another leg up.”