How Ohio State's adjustments vs. Northwestern can help vs. Indiana: Film study

Who thought we would be hyping up Indiana week? But here we are.

Ohio State beat Northwestern 31-7 on Saturday to set up its third top-five matchup of the season but the first at home.

That should give Ohio State the advantage against a team that it has more talented than, but Indiana is good enough to give the Buckeyes problems.

Today, we’ll look at some of the ways Northwestern gave Ohio State issues and how the Buckeyes’ adjustments can help against the Hoosiers.

Running game got going

Northwestern has a lot of issues, but stopping the run game isn’t usually one of them.

The Wildcats entered the game with a top-20 run defense and had been giving up just more than 3 yards per carry. They stifled Ohio State’s running game early, too. A lot of that had to do with Northwestern because it was loading the box and focused on shutting down Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson.

Ryan Day mentioned after the game that Ohio State had to change a few things to get the running game going. Credit to offensive coordinator Chip Kelly for sticking to the run but not being stubborn and running right at Northwestern over and over again.

Ohio State’s TreVeyon Henderson (32) had 74 yards rushing on Saturday vs. Northwestern. (David Banks / Imagn Images)

Ohio State started making Northwestern run horizontally to stop the run. It ran a pitch to Henderson on the second drive to get things started. There was a quarterback option too, but it opened things up with more gap schemes.

This was a good one from Kelly.

A lot of times you’ll see the run go with the pulling guards.

This time, Judkins ran away from the pulling linemen and followed wide receiver Emeka Egbuka outside. This is where Ohio State’s perimeter blocking prowess came in handy because you see Gee Scott and Carnell Tate blocking downfield to open things up.

After the first quarter, Ohio State did a nice job of keeping Northwestern off balance in the running game.

Here, you’ll see another gap scheme work at the 1-yard line.

There was nothing too complicated with this one as the left side of the line blocked down and the pullers filled in nicely as Judkins walked into the end zone.

Ohio has a versatile offense, so it doesn’t have to use solely a gap-scheme attack. Later in the game, when Ohio State got Northwestern moving and began throwing downfield, it opened up the zone runs.

Ohio State started wearing down Northwestern in the second half. Another adjustment it used was the addition of tight ends in the backfield.

Judkins was a benefit of the adjustment here.

A few plays before this, Ohio State used Jelani Thurman in the backfield, on the opposite side and blocked in on the side where the run was going. That resulted in a 19-yard run by Henderson.

Here, Thurman went to the weakside of the formation and Judkins went to the strongside, which opens things up. You can see the Northwestern linebacker freeze after jumping to the side of Thurman and having to adjust.

Here was another one, this time with Bennett Christian in the backfield. Henderson did a nice job following him, but it was good to see Christian executing that block. Ohio State is deep at tight end, even with Will Kacmarek out, although it’s hoping he comes back soon, and with Scott on the bench after getting the wind knocked out of him.

Although not completely new, this was a nice addition to the offense.

GO DEEPER

Ohio State takeaways: Secondary needs work, Will Howard strong ahead of another top-5 matchup

Ohio State is going to have to find ways to move Indiana on Saturday because the Hoosiers have the best rush defense in the country, giving up just 72 yards per game. Ohio State won’t be able to just line up and run right at the Hoosiers, so it’ll need to get creative, moving them left to right, pulling guards and even using tight ends.

All of this was good to see for an Ohio State offense that averaged 5.2 yards per carry against a good Northwestern front.

Secondary concern

Looking back at the game, Ohio State wasn’t as bad in the first two drives as originally thought, but there’s one concern before the Indiana game: the sideline throws.

Ohio State played a lot of man coverage early against Northwestern, and we’ll get into that, but Ohio State giving up these types of throws, against Northwestern doesn’t bode well for Saturday’s matchup.

Denzel Burke hasn’t had the season anybody was expecting, and it has been more than just the Oregon loss. Teams aren’t scared to throw his way anymore like they were a year ago.

This is good coverage by Burke, but he has to turn his head around and play the ball. This happening one time isn’t a problem, but teams have started testing Burke along the sideline more each week, and he has struggled with it. The concern is that these types of throws are strengths for Indiana.

Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke is one of the most accurate quarterbacks in the country, completing 71.8 percent of his passes, and he excels at the back-shoulder throws. That has become a staple of Indiana’s offense. At any point, Rourke can wind up and let that go.

Reel’d it in! 🎣 @IndianaFootball with a big gain pic.twitter.com/9gsAJMbt2j

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 21, 2024

This isn’t just a Burke thing. Davison Igbinosun has struggled with his hands, and Indiana surely will try to frustrate him too.

Saturday can be a redemption day for the Ohio State secondary. It played well against Penn State, but it has no real playmakers, and Indiana has a legitimate explosive passing offense.

Knowles’ balancing act

After struggling to get much of a pass rush to begin the season, Ohio State has been getting more aggressive this season under defensive coordinator Jim Knowles. The Buckeyes got a fair amount of pressure, a rate of 46.7 percent, to be exact, and finished with a blitz percentage of 53.3, their second-highest of the season, only topped by last week’s 60 percent blitz rate.

Northwestern, however, had a good game plan against Ohio State to start. It expected a lot of man coverage and pressure, and it picked the right times to mix in some quarterback runs.

This quarterback draw was perfectly timed.

Ohio State wasn’t ready for it, and Sonny Styles, who had a good game, had no chance there against the Northwestern offensive lineman one-on-one.

This can be a concern when playing a lot of man coverage, especially when blitzing in man, and Northwestern took advantage of that. It had some good man-beating routes, and when Jack Lausch didn’t have time, he tucked the ball and ran.

Ohio State stopped a lot of that in the second half, however, giving up just 84 total yards. Part of that adjustment was Knowles picking his spots better when it came to sending pressure and using coverage shells.

Since the loss to Oregon, Knowles has done a great job of scheming things, both pressure and drop coverage, to fit the defense and adjust to the offense he’s facing.

Here’s a nice play on third down. Instead of blitz Knowles went with coverage and what looked to be a Cover 2, or Tampa 2, shell,and Northwestern, likely expecting man coverage, ran a mesh concept with two drags and a curl route in the middle.

It seemed like Lausch panicked not seeing man coverage, and Ohio State was able to react to the scramble better because it was in zone.

Ohio State doesn’t have to blitz every play or use man coverage because Knowles can mix things up. But sometimes, even when a coach thinks he has the perfect call, the players have to make a play like Igbinosun did here on fourth down.

Northwestern’s offensive line held up, and it got the look it wanted on the dig route to Bryce Kirtz. He had a good day against Ohio State, tallying seven catches for 92 yards, but this time, Igbinosun made a nice play on the ball a few plays after being called for pass interference on a similar look.

The key for Knowles against Indiana is to pick his spots and be unpredictable, which he’s good at. Northwestern put a good script together after having two weeks to prepare, so don’t be surprised if Indiana has some success early. But Saturday’s game is going to come down to adjustments, and Knowles has been terrific with those since the Oregon loss.

Two extra thoughts

• Day mentioned that Ohio State will continue to rotate at cornerback, and it needs to. Gone are the days when the coaches could put Burke on one side and trust him to shut down his side. He hasn’t earned that right this year. Jermaine Mathews will get more time. He got beat in man for what should’ve been a touchdown against Northwestern, but the ball was overthrown. Still, he has played well this season. He has given up 10 passes on 16 targets for 96 yards and can be an impact player going forward.
• I was even more impressed by Will Howard’s performance than I was when I watched it live. He didn’t run the ball much with one carry, a QB sneak for zero yards. Instead, he thrived in the pocket and made some terrific throws downfield. His touchdown to Tate was a perfect throw, along with one that was called back to Jeremiah Smith. Howard’s getting better with his decision-making, and if he can mix in some consistency down the field, Ohio State’s offense won’t have a weakness.

(Top photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)