Defensively Speaking: Indiana

Jim Knowles’ gameplan against Indiana served as further evidence that he and the defensive staff have learned from the Oregon game. Ohio State was consistently able to take away what Indiana did best throughout the day. Let’s take a look at the game Knowles called.

One noteworthy adjustment on Saturday was Knowles’ use of a Bracket/Cone combo in coverage. Bracket and Cone both describe coverage schemes where a Receiver is essentially double-teamed with a Safety looking to pick off any inside routes. The only difference is that Bracket generally describes a double on a Slot Receiver while Cone refers to a double on a Wide Receiver. See the following clip and diagram:

Note how everyone is in man coverage, but Lathan Ransom is looking to pick off any in-breaking routes from the Wide Receiver to the top of the screen while Caleb Downs is looking to pick off any in-breaking routes from the Slot Receiver to the bottom of the screen.

However, Knowles rarely called for schemes that dropped seven in coverage on Saturday. He frequently called blitzes on early downs – usually one of two different A-gap blitz variations.

The first variation is what I often refer to as Knowles’ favorite blitz because of how frequently he calls for it. It’s an A-gap blitz with the Nose stunting to the opposite A-gap:

The other A-gap blitz he frequently called was a “Center read” blitz. On this particular variation, the Nose will stunt to the B-gap and the blitzing Linebacker will decide which A-gap to insert based on the Center’s movement.

If the Center opens up away from the blitzing Linebacker, he will insert the near A-gap off the Center’s backside. See an example of this below (and try ignoring the fact that this should have been a TFL):

On the other hand, if the Center opens up towards the blitzing Linebacker, he will fight over top to the opposite A-gap:

These A-gap blitzes are very effective against zone runs because they create cross-dog fits and make it harder for the O-line to properly identify who to block and get up to the next level.

We also saw Knowles get into his bag on passing downs. Once again, Ohio State had a sack on a 2-steal zone blitz on Saturday:

Additionally, Ohio State had a sack on the Cover 3 simulated pressure they ran against Iowa:

I don’t believe the gameplan we saw against Indiana will be anything like what we see against Michigan on Saturday. However, I think the Indiana gameplan is a great look at how much this defense has grown this season.