Football

Reading the Buckeye Leaves: Illinois Week

by Tony Gerdeman
J.T. Barrett Ohio State Football Buckeyes

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The game before The Game.

It could be more vanilla than the annual Spring Game or an exhibition of innovative plays to force the Michigan coaching staff to work overtime.

Either way, Illinois has shown to be a poor tackling team, which more closely resembles the Spring Game hypothesis.

When Illinois Has the Ball

Illinois lacks the ability to control the line of scrimmage primarily due to their youth and lack of experience. The inability to run the ball consistently puts Illinois in 3rd and long situations, where the Illini rank 92nd nationally in 3rd down conversions.

The lack of rushing attack and minimal time in the pocket forces Illinois to move the pocket on designed bootlegs to the tight ends. This will strain the discipline of the Ohio State linebackers.

Illinois has only 26 red zone appearances on the season, but has converted on 88% of those attempts. For comparison sake, Ohio State has 55 red zone appearances on the season. The Fighting Illini struggle moving the ball between the 20s, but use creativity and misdirection to sneak players into the end zone.

Illinois will need to play near-flawlessly versus Ohio State to come out victorious, but should the Illini be forced to throw, Jeff George Jr. will be their guy. He will need to limit turnovers to provide the offense with the ability to control the clock.

Should the Illini be within striking distance, Cam Thomas has the ability to create offense on his own. Thomas can provide a solid passing attack, but strains the defense with his speed and athleticism outside the pocket.

When Ohio State Has the Ball

A new wrinkle to the Trips formation was the insertion of Marcus Baugh lined up on the line of scrimmage as the third option to the wide side of the field. His immediate move to the sideline post-snap forces opposing defenses to attack the run or retreat to the flat to account for Baugh. Either way the defender is wrong, which has led to some nice gains for the Ohio State offense. Look for the Buckeyes to continue to use this formation, and possibly show a new wrinkle out of this look.

The Buckeyes utilized a shovel pass on multiple occasions last week with very little success. This is the only play the Buckeyes have run out of the formation that shows an H-Back and RB lined up a yard behind the end man on the line of scrimmage.

If this play is going to have success, the formation will need to be used in a broader set of plays, which is something to look for in a game where a number of new plays could be used to force Michigan into the film room a little bit longer this week.

 

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4 Responses

  2. Sick of seeing all these damn posts on here debating how bad we should beat Illinois by, how long to leave the starters in or what kind of style points we should lay on Illinois. Are you kidding me, with this jekyl and Hyde team who the hell knows who will show up. This game could just as easily go 4 quarters as a blow out. Are we forgetting the team we have been watching all year???

    1. You mean the team that constantly blows out bad teams?

  3. Set the Ol’s hair on fire and run the ball, everything opens after that.

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