osu 63, Michigan 39

[drok]

I'm really not ready to think about this game again. It fundamentally impacted my fandom in a way that no other game has. I don't think I'm being dramatic in saying so. "The Horror" was more a loss of innocence situation. Thats the only other game that comes remotely close. But this, this was something else entirely. I really don't know how to describe it, but I doubt I will ever recover from it.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Pretty much how I felt, Drok.

I remember when Lloyd lost to the Vince Young QB'ed Texas in the Rose of 2005 with a walk off FG to win 38-37. Carr was devastated and I don't think he ever recovered his zest for football coaching. The following year M went 5-3 in the BIG and lost to Nebraska in the Alamo to end that year 7-5 - his worst record. That was the beginning of a 3 season time frame where M got soft in a country club atmosphere. Lloyd finally retired following the 2007 season featuring B2B season opening losses to Appy State and Oregon in a blow-out. Next up was a decade of lost hope exacerbated by a grumpy Carr who probably made things a lot worse than they needed to be.

I'm a bit concerned that Harbaugh may suffer the same fate with him heading back to the NFL if the 2019 season ends in an as frustrating way for him as it did this season and for Lloyd Carr in 2004/5. Watch the Peach Bowl interview he did on Monday. He seemed strangely detached if not down-right disinterested. He does have a habit of disliking stupid questions from the sports press and claming up a bit but there were some good questions that without elaborating he simply answered yes or no and then stared out blankly.

[iam416]

Buchanan:

When I rewatched the game with an eye toward M's defense, I remained completely stunned that M didn't generate pressure on Haskins. That shocked me during the game and still shocks me. I knew M's interior players weren't great, but I though they could get push up the middle with various blitzes. And I knew M's edge rushers were exactly the speedy guys that had given OSU fits for most of the season. From M's perspective, I think everything unravels from this point.

M's back 7 is pretty good. They have two very good corners and a LB that run with most RB/TE types. They have chinks, but you either have to have 3rd and 4th WRs that can take advantage of those or scheme them into mismatches. Ohio State did a little of the scheme approach, but mostly it was just throwing the ball to whoever Watson was flailing is arms at trying to catch up. That's not to say OSU didn't convert against other DBs, but Watson was automatic.

I thought M had two really terrible plays. The throwback TD to Dixon is the first. Ohio State has run that play at least once every game. Or close to it. There's no reason not to be prepared for that and there's certainly no reason to have Dixon 15 yards open. The other play was the Campbell 75 yard TD. I'm not sure Mettellus could play that any worse. It was like he was auditioning to be part of the Ohio State defense that had given up one 80 yard TD play after another on horrific safety support play.

Where I falter is the the solution. It's quite obvious other teams with less talent gave Ohio State more problems. And it's quite obvious that Ohio State didn't even have to really work -- the throws were pretty easy. So, I think the approach Don Brown took was actually probably about as bad an approach as you could take. Anything would have been better. But, I don't know enough about defense to get into what would have been better or best.

[Jeff Buchanan]

...... same for me. I understand basic schemes and terms but there are so many variations on those themes. Who knows what Brown could have done to improve the pressure metric on Haskins. It was probably that single failure that resulted in the brutalization of Brandon Watson.

I suppose it's possible that given the decent pressures Brown obtained against every other team he faced, he got fooled into thinking S play wasn't as weak as it actually was. In this circumstance he didn't account for the what ifs. It appears that he did try variations of a zone D. Here's a description:

OSU motions to a bunch set and runs a Drive concept (Shallow and Dig from the same side). # 3 runs the Shallow, #2 a vertical, and #1 the Dig that he sits down in a wide open zone. Haskins finds him at the 1st down marker and he runs for another 7. (The defense is in an) NFL Front (2 3-Techs) gets little pressure. Paye nearly gets home, but ball is out. Coverage is, I think, essentially Invert 3 with man on the single WR, Watson has the strong flat and the 3 safeties roughly take the deep 3rds. It might be complete anyway (this coverage is weak in the Hook/Curl zones) but this throw is as easy as it gets.

Brown ran quite a few 3 man fronts. Most of them unsuccessful in their intended purpose I guess. But I think he screwed himself with the apparently new stuff he threw in.

[Dr. Strangelove]

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