Ohio State vs. Youngstown St. - Second Quarter Analysis

Sorry that I'm not churning this out as fast as I'd like. I'm new at this, and not to mention I've been pretty busy with class and drinking the last few days.

2nd Q

0:08 left in 1Q, Pettrey squibs it to the 17, returned to the 33.

15:00 / 1st & 10 / YSU 33 / Base Nickel(?) / Turnover
YSU goes for a zone read option pass type of look. Homan blitzes the wide side, QB reads the blitz and keeps it. Looks downfield, sees nothing, Heyward (+0.5), Abdallah (+0.5) and Wilson (+2) are all on top of the QB before he gets to the LOS. Wilson forces a fumble, and after Hines (-0.5) botches the scoop, Laurinaitis (+1) comes up with the recovery. OSU football.

14:52 / 1st & 10 / YSU 34 / Ace Wing Left Twins Right / 25 yd
Bauserman pitches left to Wells (+2) on the wide side. Boone (+1), Cordle (+1), and Ballard (+1) fortify the point of attack, and Rehring (+1) gets to the 2nd level and locks up the backer. Smith (+1) cleans up the play-side corner, leaving a lot of fake grass in front of the runner. Beanie stumbles a bit just as he passes the first down marker, perhaps preventing the TD. Wells runs through one tackle before the safeties take good angles from the back side and gang tackle him inside the YSU 10.

14:25 / 1st & Goal / YSU 9 / I-form Double Tights / 3 yd
Isolation right. Pretty good blocking all around. The back-side LB (maybe a safety playing up) shows tremendous speed by zipping past Boone (-0.5) and getting Wells from behind. Could have been six had Boone gotten a good chip on that guy.

13:42 / 2nd & Goal / YSU 6 / Ace Wing Left Twins Right / -2 yd
Toss left. Boone (-1) gets toasted as his man disrupts the play in the backfield, preventing Wells to get back to the LOS. Ballard (-0.5) blocked nobody, Rehring (+0.5) took his guy out of the play, Person (-2) goes low and gets a face full of FieldTurf, and Cordle (-1) is slow to get to the 2nd level, missing his man. Result: loss of two, and four defenders who were in position to make the TFL. Let’s hope we see less of this versus Ohio U.

13:00 / 3rd & Goal / YSU 8 / Shotgun 3 WR / 0 yd
Cordle (+0.5) does a good job of picking up the blitz as Bauserman (+1) throws a perfect ball to Hartline on the fade route. Hartline can’t come down with it, but we won’t dock him points since (1) he ran a great route, and (2) he did a great job of dragging the toe and giving himself a chance, despite the drop. Buckeyes stall in the red zone again, and the FG crew trots out.

12:54 / 4th & Goal / YSU 8 / Field Goal / 18 yd
McQuaide (-0.5) puts the snap a bit off the mark, but Thoma (+1) gets it down and Pretorius (+1) knocks it through. 16-0 Buckeyes.

12:51 / - / - / Kickoff / -
Pettrey (+1) boots the kick deep for a touchback.

12:51 / 1st & 10 / YSU 20 / Base 4-3 / -1 yd
YSU motions over the slot receiver, and uses the HB as a lead blocker as they run a stretch play to the right. Jermale Hines (+2) takes on his own man, reaches around him, and makes the tackle in the backfield all by his lonesome. Great play. If he gets taken out of the play, there may have been a nice gain.

12:14 / 2nd & 11 / YSU 19 / Base Nickel / 5 yd
YSU lines up in the shotgun with 4 wides (trips left) and a HB. With 4 down linemen and only Laurinaitis behind them, Freeman out over a WR, Heacock sends Moeller on the blitz from the NB. The stunt call on the DL was just called at an inconvenient time, and the HB takes a hand off right up field before Moeller gets him. Rose (-0.5) and Abdallah (-0.5) crash left and fail to feel their way to the ball, leading to the decent gain.

11:30 / 3rd & 6 / YSU 24 / 3-3-5 / Penalty
YSU lines up with 4 WR trips left and OSU comes out showing the 3-3-5 look with Gibson at the Leo. Jenkins shows corner blitz, then YSU checks with the sideline for the playcall. YSU goes for the quick slant, Hines (-1) loses control of his body and basically tackles the WR before the ball gets there. Pass interference, and a first down.

11:25 / 1st & 10 / YSU 32 / Base Nickel / Penalty
False start on the offense.

11:25 / 1st & 15 / YSU 27 / Base Nickel / -6 yd
YSU comes out showing 5 wides, and OSU responds by rushing just four. The DTs cross, and Gibson (+1) just overpowers and out hustles an OL and a half, forcing his way into the pocket where he makes the play and tosses the QB to the ground for a sack. +1 for the defensive backfield, and Larimore (+0.5) gets props for coming with the pressure.

10:45 / 2nd & 21 / YSU 21 / 3-3-5 / 7 yd
OSU sends pressure, and YSU luckily had a HB slip screen called. Moeller (+1) was there on top of it at the LOS, but he was blocked in the back by the OL out there helping. Torrence (-0.5) has some trouble getting off a blocker at the point of attack. Freeman (+0.5) with good back-side pursuit to help stop the bleeding. Pretty ridiculous that #66 didn’t get flagged for absolutely drilling Moeller right in the middle of the back. (BTN’s clock is back!)

9:57 / 3rd & 14 / YSU 28 / Base Nickel / 7 yd
Pressure from Rose (+0.5) forces a quick throw, which is completed and leads to a tackle by Moeller (+0.5)

9:12 / 4th & 7 / YSU 35 / Punt Return / 11 yd
Good kick backs up small to the 20 yard line. As is his custom, he bounces around a little bit and makes a few people miss before ultimately doing nothing.

9:00 / 1st & 10 / OSU 31 / Shotgun 3 WR / 4 yd
Inside sort of trap to Wells (+0.5), who does a good job of dodging the DE who toasts Nicol (-1). DB ends up making the play. Usually a good sign.

8:23 / 2nd & 6 / OSU 35 / I-form Twins Right / 12 yd
Boeckman (+1) takes a three-step drop and delivers a near perfect ball to Hartline (+1) on a short out or drag type of route in the flat. Solid hands as usual, and nice YACs, getting the first down and more. Short passes like this will neutralize a blitz pretty well, especially when you have a QB/WR combo like Boeckman and Hartline; their privity and timing allows them to run stops, hooks, slants, quick outs, etc. in the dark.

8:17 / 1st & 10 / OSU 47 / Shotgun 3 WR / 0 yd
Boeckman (+0.5) gets all day to throw. Wells (+1) and Boone (+1) do a great job of picking up the blitzers and knocking them out of the play. Boeckman, taking his time, steps up and goes for Robiskie (-0.5). Yeah, tough catch blah blah blah, he should come down with that one more often than not. These underthrows still make me nervous. What happens when you have 6’4” manchild robot beast Taylor Mays back there playing CF. Robo can’t out-jump everybody on the planet. It’s probably six if Boeckman leads Robo to the middle of the field.

7:51 / 2nd & 10 / OSU 47 / I-form Right Twins Left / 9 yd
Solid protection, and Boeckman (+0.5) checks down to Ballard (+1) and delivers a pass slightly behind his man. Nice snag by Ballard though. Todd left some YACs on the field there.

7:11 / 3rd & 1 / YSU 44 / I-form Twin TE / 4 yd
Isolation right. Rehring (-0.5) gets lost in the hole and just chips in on Smith’s (+0.5) block. Beanie busts it outside and picks up the first and a few more.

6:42 / 1st & 10 / YSU 40 / Strong-I Twins Left / 6 yd
Rehring (-0.5) can’t keep his man out of Boeckman’s face, forcing him to step up into the pocket and deliver a very high throw to the tall Robiskie (+1) who comes down with it for a small gain. Boeckman did end up getting drilled on the play by a LB dropping out of coverage to apply pressure. Very good protection other than #71.

5:59 / 2nd & 4 / YSU 34 / Ace Right Twins Right / 1 yd
Boeckman (+1) sees nothing downfield, tucks it, and runs to the sideline for a short gain. Good decision. No stupid forced throws.

5:26 / 3rd & 3 / YSU 33 / Shotgun 3 WR / 0 yd
Boeckman (-1) takes a short drop and fires an incompletion into the heart of the coverage. Herron was wide open in the flat, and likely would have converted. Leaving more points on the field, and stalling in YSU territory for the 4th drive in a row. Yuck.

5:22 / 4th & 3 / YSU 33 / Field Goal / 50 yd
Good snap, hold, kick. Probably good from 60. Pretorius (+2) hits the 50 yarder and puts the Bucks up 19-0.

5:17 / - / - / Kickoff / -
Pettrey (+1) boots the touchback.

5:17 / 1st & 10 / YSU 20 / 3-3-5 / 3 yd
Inside run plus outside blitz equals Homan and Laurinaitis cleaning up in the middle for a short gain.

4:44 / 2nd & 7 / YSU 23 / 4-3 Under / 0 yd
YSU runs a Tebow-esque QB draw with lead blocking. Freeman (+1) blows it to smithereens.

3:54 / 3rd & 7 / YSU 23 / Base Nickel / 2 yd
Swing pass to the HB on the wide side. Homan beats two blockers to the ball, but misses the tackle (push). Denlinger (+0.5) is there on the play along with back up.

3:09 / 4th & 5 / YSU 25 / Punt Return / -
Small (+2) fields the 50 yd punt at the 25, sheds a few tacklers and cuts it up the left sideline. Hartline (+1), Moeller (+1), et al. Freeman (-2) with the stupid penalty (obv in hindsight… wouldn’t have scored either way). Either way, it’s nice to see that Ray Small is still the best punt returner in the country so long as there’s a flag on the field.

2:48 / 1st & 10 / YSU 45 / Shotgun Split RB / 0 yd
Boeckman (-1) goes for Smith in the flat, but doesn’t step into his throw and puts it at his feet. Got to hammer out these technique issues as a 2nd year starter.

2:42 / 2nd & 10 / YSU 45 / Shotgun 3 WR / 9 yd
Quick slant to Small (+0.5) from Boeckman (+0.5). A+ execution. No pass protection required for this quick route.

2:03 / 3rd & 1 / YSU 36 / I-form double tight / 2 yd
Iso right. Rehring (-0.5) doesn’t block anybody on the pull. Wells (+0.5) powers through the LOS to move the chains.

Screw you BTN / 1st & 10 / YSU 34 / Strong-I Right Twins Left / 4 yd
Swing pass to Wells in the flat. Robiskie out of position to make a block, and there were too many defenders anyway. OSU calls a TO.

1:24 / 2nd & 6 / YSU 30 / Ace Twins Right / 30 yd
Browning (-1) looks lost out there with the heavy blitz coming. The rest of the line and Wells hold, and Boeckman (+2) keeps his cool as he delivers a perfect ball to Robiskie (+2), who got the inside on a fly route. Perfect timing, fitting in the ball just before the safety can come and help over the top. Touchdown Buckeyes, PAT good, 26-0 Buckeyes. N.B.: Robiskie gets crushed and facemasked at the end. The CB lands right on Robo, slamming his bad right shoulder into the turf. More props to Boeckman for delivering a perfect ball with defenders breathing down his neck. Very good to see.

1:16 / - / - / Kickoff / -
Pettrey kicks it to the 5, and the YSU returner brings it up past the 20.

1:11 / 1st & 10 / YSU 23 / Base 4-3 / 2 yd
YSU shuts it down, looking to head to the locker room. Abdallah (+0.5), Laurinaitis (+0.5), and Hines (+0.5) on the play.

0:33 / 2nd & 8 / YSU 25 / Base Nickel / -2 yd
Rose (+1) comes in untouched and crushes the ball carrier.