Ohio State v. Miami: Defensive Review

The OSU Defensive Plan

As noted, Ohio State's primary objective was to stop the Miami passing game.  To do so, OSU played their 'nickel' defense the vast majority of snaps.  This included playing their base 4-2-5 over defense on first and second down against Miami's pro-style and unbalanced formations.  In practice OSU's alignment versus Miami looked like this:

As per norm, Ohio State would set their front to Miami's formation, and their secondary to the field.  By playing nickel, OSU was counting on their front to stop the Miami running game while being able to give the Miami passing game a variety of looks.

OSU did not sit still from their nickel, however.  Instead, on many first down plays (far more than usual) OSU was bringing a run blitz from their linebackers or secondary, generally from the 'Star' Tyler Moeller.

This combination proved effective against the Miami base offense.  Miami could not establish a run game against the Buckeye nickel.  This was for two primary reasons.  First, the inside three of Dexter Larrimore, John Simon, and Cameron Heyward controlled the front  They continually changed the line of scrimmage and prevented Miami from getting an offensive line movement.  Miami could not figure out a way to consistently get those three blocked.  Second, Tyler Moeller continued to display an uncanny ability to make plays from the edge in the run game.  Time and again he closed apparently open gaps for minimal gains.  He provides Ohio State a lot of flexibility to play a variety of nickel looks and yet have every gap covered in the run game. 

In so doing, OSU was able to deliver a double whammy against the Miami's play-action passing game.   One, play action is not as effective if the defense is not overly concerned with the run game.  And two, Miami's play action pass game is premised against getting defenses to crowd the line of scrimmage and then have 2 or 3 WR routes that look to make big plays deep.  That was taken away by an Ohio State defense that was in nickel defense and playing 2-high safeties (who were very physical with the MIami wide receivers). 

Miami thus had difficulty moving the ball on first and second down against OSU.  This plays right into  OSU's strengths as Buckeye defense thrives on third down.  In passing situations OSU went away from the increased blitzing they used against the run to playing their base zone third down defenses.  As typical, in third and short or medium they played cover 4 or quarter-quarter-half.   

Then, in third and long, OSU turned to a cover-2 zone.  The result was another stellar OSU defensive performance and a Miami unit that had a lot of difficulty moving the football in the first half. 

Miami did have some success moving the football against OSU in the third quarter.  This was a result of a few changes by Miami.  First, they went to an increasing use of one-back formations with two tight ends.  This created an additional gap that the Ohio State defense had to defend, stretching out the already stretched front six in OSU's nickel defense.  Miami could then run zone plays that could find creases in the OSU front. 

Second, Miami had to scrap its traditional pro-style downhill passing game in favor of shotgun, 3 and 4 wide receiver quick passing attack.  Though OSU fans may have been frustrated by Miami moving the chains this type of plan plays into OSU's hands.  OSU has shown itself willing to trade yards for time, particularly when it has a lead such as it had in this game.  OSU was content to sit in its zone coverage and let Miami chew up clock, which it did--it killed nearly an entire quarter with two possessions that only netted seven points.  Then, when a team begins to threaten, the Buckeyes will become more aggressive, such as they did on the perfectly performed fire zone blitz.  Here is the basic play diagrammed below:

And here it is in action:

So while OSU surrendered yards in the second half, it was never a question of what unit was in control.   The Ohio State defense came out with a good game plan and physically controlled the line of scrimmage, again demonstrating why the Jim Heacock led OSU defenses have been so successful.