 |
Ohio State vs. Indiana Preview By Tony Gerdeman |
 |
Saturday night in Bloomington, #9 Ohio State (3-1) and Indiana (3-1) will meet for the 83rd time in the two schools’ history.
The Buckeyes own the series edge with a 65-12-5 record against the Hoosiers.
Ohio State is 23-2-1 all-time in Bloomington. The last time the Hoosiers won at home was a 41-7 win in 1988. Prior to that, their only other win in Bloomington against the Buckeyes came in 1904.
The last time Indiana beat a ranked opponent was in 2006, when they bested 15th-ranked Iowa 31-28, despite being 19-point underdogs.
Ohio State has won the last 14 meetings with the Hoosiers and hasn’t allowed an offensive touchdown to Indiana since 2004.
The Buckeyes have won 15 consecutive Big Ten road games with their last loss coming at Penn State in 2005. (The Big Ten record for consecutive road wins is 17, held by the University of Michigan.)
Jim Tressel is 7-3 in Big Ten road night games and 5-3 in conference road openers.
When Indiana Has The Ball
The Hoosiers run what is known as the Pistol offense, which sees the quarterback lined up in an abbreviated shotgun--about four yards from the line of scrimmage, with the tailback lined up behind the quarterback in essentially an I-formation.
The formation allows for a downhill running game while allowing an offense to keep the spread and zone read tendencies. And in just their first year with this offense, the Hoosiers aren’t doing too bad with it, averaging 398.2 yards of total offense per game.
Quarterback Ben Chappell has been charged with keeping this offense on track, and to this point he has done a very nice job. He is completing 65% of his passes and threw for 270 yards last week against Michigan. Unlike many spread offenses, the Hoosiers are more than happy to throw the ball downfield and Chappell’s four interceptions show that he’s not always as accurate as Indiana needs.
This week, with starting safety Kurt Coleman serving a one-game suspension for the Buckeyes, expect the Hoosiers to target his replacement whenever they can. And no matter the replacement, be it Anderson Russell or Orhian Johnson, the Hoosiers run a lot of misdirection, so as one of the last lines of defense, Russell and Johnson cannot let themselves get caught up in the wash.
Indiana has numerous weapons to work with and have already had two different running backs rush for over 100 yards in a game this season. The first was Demetrius McCray, who rushed for 134 yards on just 17 carries against Western Michigan. However, he only had one carry last week against Michigan, so the Hoosiers may be moving more towards Darius Willis, who happens to own the other 100-yard game on the season.
The redshirt freshman Willis rushed for 152 yards against the Wolverines last week, including an 85-yard touchdown run to give the Hoosiers a fourth-quarter lead. He also had three receptions in that game and if the Buckeyes leave the flats open, Ben Chappell will take advantage.
And while the Hoosiers have some talented rushers, it hasn’t always come easy for them this season. To open the season, they could only manage 73 yards rushing against Eastern Kentucky. Since that game, however, Indiana is averaging 188 yards rushing and had a season-high 197 last week against the Wolverines.
It is safe to say, however, that Indiana has yet to see a defense even close to what they’ll be seeing from the Buckeyes on Saturday.
The Ohio State defensive line will rotate players throughout the game as they try to keep everybody fresh against Indiana’s sometimes hurry-up attack. And in order to keep the Buckeyes from rotating, expect to see quite a big of play-calling at the line of scrimmage from the Hoosiers. They don’t want the Buckeyes to get any fresher than they’ll already be.
The Indiana offensive line has only allowed two sacks this season and if they can keep Ohio State’s defensive line at bay, then you can expect to see them throwing deep to receivers Tandon Doss, Demarlo Belcher and Terrance Turner. Doss is the best of the bunch and is leading the team with 26 receptions for 374 yards, but has yet to reach the endzone via the air. Doss also has four carries on the season--three of which came last week against Michigan, including a 25-yard touchdown run. The Hoosiers also ran the triple-option with Doss as the pitchman last week, so the Buckeyes will definitely be keeping an eye out for him no matter where he is on the field.
All three of these receivers are 6’3” or taller and will pose physical mismatches against the Ohio State cornerbacks, but they don’t necessarily have the speed to simply leave the Buckeye defenders behind. The coverage should be fine, and it will be up to each individual player to make a play on the ball.
One wrinkle to keep an eye on will be when wide receiver/back-up quarterback Mitchell Evans comes into the game in the Hoosiers’ version of “The Wildcat”. Evans has carried the ball nine times and thrown it three, and being a former quarterback, he is much more comfortable behind center than most gimmickers.
The Indiana special teams have some very capable players, most notably returner Ray Fisher. Fisher went to the same high school as Ted Ginn Jr., so he knows the legacy of his position. He already has a 91-yard kickoff return for a touchdown this season and is averaging 35.8 yards per return. He’s also the team’s punt returner, but so far has only had four returns for 24 yards this season.
Place-kicker Nick Freeland is leading the conference in scoring at 9.8 points per game, but he’s already missed three of his twelve field goal attempts. He has had misses from 22 yards, 38 yards and 42 yards.
Punter Chris Hagerup has been solid, averaging 40.3 yards per punt, but hasn’t really shown the same leg that made him a second-team Freshman All-American last season, though he did miss the spring due to ACL surgery, so he may still be working out some kinks.
When Ohio State Has The Ball
Last week, going almost exclusively from the shotgun, the Buckeyes rushed for 236 yards against Illinois. That followed a 247-yard effort on the ground the week before against Toledo. Obviously, things are starting to emerge in the running game. However, this will be the best defensive line the Buckeyes have faced since USC. Seriously.
Defensive ends Greg Middleton and Jammie Kirlew have combined for 42 sacks over their careers, and they were all over the backfield last week in Ann Arbor. Middleton is currently tied for the Big Ten sack lead with three and Kirlew leads the conference in tackles for loss with 8.5 (including 2.5 sacks). Offensive tackles Mike Adams, Andrew Miller and J.B. Shugarts are going to be in for a full day. Given that Adams did not play against USC, it is going to be immensely interesting to see how he plays against this active defensive front.
It’s not just the edges that pose problems on the front four, because the Hoosiers have two very young and talented defensive tackles making their marks. Redshirt freshman Larry Black Jr. has been an incredible surprise this season. He’s big (6’2” 306) and constantly active. His five tackles for loss is third on the team. True freshman Adam Replogle didn’t start until the second game of the season, but he’s been in the lineup ever since. The brother of strongside linebacker Tyler Replogle, the younger Replogle doesn’t yet have the size of Larry Black Jr. (6’3” 282), but he’s gotten better every week.
It remains to be seen whether the Buckeyes will continue to focus most of their offensive energy on the shotgun, but wherever quarterback Terrelle Pryor is lined up, we can be sure that the Buckeyes are going to continue running the ball. But it might not be as easy as it has been recently. The Hoosiers are second in the Big Ten against the rush, allowing just 94.7 yards per game.
When the Buckeyes are running the ball, expect them to continue to mix the carries between Boom Herron and Brandon Saine. Last week, Saine was on the verge of taking over the Illinois game, carrying the ball seven times for 64 yards during one series in the first half. However, he only had 17 yards with his other six carries throughout the rest of the game.
The Ohio State running game won’t just be going against a formidable front four, because this may also be the best group of linebackers the Hoosiers have had in years. Middle linebacker Matt Mayberry leads the team in tackles with 26, including 3.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks. In fact, the top three tacklers on this team are all linebackers, which tells you the defensive line is doing their jobs by keeping the offensive line from getting to the second level.
If the defensive line can be slowed down, then the Buckeyes should be able to have some success throwing the ball. The Hoosiers are allowing 233 yards passing per game and if the Buckeyes want to, they can top that number sometime in the third quarter.
In order to make this passing game even more dangerous, receiver DeVier Posey is going to have to start making some plays. He’s leading the team in receptions (15), but is only averaging 10.9 yards per catch. The Buckeyes need some explosion out wide, yet they haven’t really tried to go deep much with Posey. That may change this week if the weather allows.
And it probably wouldn’t hurt to get a few more receivers involved in the offense to see if there are players on this team who can make things happen. An offense can never have too many playmakers and the Buckeyes need to add a few more arrows to their quiver.
The Indiana defensive backfield has two former receivers in it as cornerback Ray Fisher and free safety Nick Polk have both started games on the offensive side of the ball in their careers. This is Fisher’s first year as a cornerback, however, so expect to see him targeted a bit. Polk is a big hitter but does have some coverage issues. Strong safety Austin Thomas is big (6’2” 220) and likes to hit about as much as Polk does.
One area where we may see some big plays from the Buckeyes would be with Ray Small in the punt return game. The Hoosiers have already allowed ten punt returns (Ohio State has allowed one), and opponents are averaging 11.4 yards per return with a long of 40 yards. The Hoosiers have also already had one punt blocked for a touchdown this season. The Buckeyes should be able to take advantage of numerous situations in the punting game this week.
Punter Jon Thoma returned last week against the Illini to continue his solid punting. On the season, he’s only averaging 39.6 yards per punt, but seven of his eleven punts have been fair caught and six of them have been inside the 20-yard line.
Place-kicker Aaron Pettrey is second in the conference in scoring, averaging 9.5 points per game. Obviously, this average needs to come down--or at least be arrived at in a different manner. The Buckeyes have to stop relying on field goals as often as they do, as six of his nine field goals have come from inside the red zone.
How It’ll End Up
Being a night game, the Hoosiers will obviously be quite excited for this matchup. Unfortunately for them, this will be an Ohio State crowd per usual in Bloomington.
Indiana will likely have counters to the running game that we saw with the Buckeyes last week, but expect a few twists to what the Hoosiers are expecting.
Terrelle Pryor will probably be running around a bit more this week, but it will likely be due to avoiding the Indiana pass rush. When Pryor gets sacked--and he will--he must hang onto the ball and cannot put his defense in a difficult situation to overcome.
The speed option seems like a good way to neutralize Indiana’s aggressive defensive ends, and it’s also a good way to use the Buckeyes’ speed to their advantage.
For the Hoosiers, it’s going to be difficult to find any running room up the middle, which is why we should see quite a bit of misdirection--and even some option, in an effort to use the Ohio State speed against itself.
But being honest, the Ohio State defensive line isn’t going to allow the Hoosiers to do much of anything. The misdirection is a nice idea, but if the line of scrimmage is blown up before anybody even has a chance to be misdirected, Indiana will be looking at several tackles for loss in the backfield.
To counter the Indiana defensive line, the Buckeyes will spread the field and force the back seven to make plays. They will make some, but not enough.
The Hoosiers will put up an all-out effort and will refuse to quite.
In the end, however, Ohio State’s superior talent will win out.
Ohio State 34 - Indiana 10
Return to the-OZone Front Page
(c) 2009 The O-Zone, O-Zone Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, rebroadcast,rewritten, or redistributed.