Football
Navy Cutters Hoping to Scuttle Buckeye Defense
By John Porentas
Cutter Sailing Ship The U. S. Navy has used the cutter to help defend the nation since, well, the nation began. Now they're hoping to use cutters not to sink the enemy, but to sink the Buckeyes.
The original cutters were sailing ships, defined until recently by the position of the mast. Single-masted ships that had a mast located foreward of 50 percent of the length of the ship but no more than of 70 percent of the length of the ship were known as cutters. They are small but highly maneuverable, quick, and nimble vessels with a variety of uses. Cutters now are defined differently. Cutters can be powered by sails, oars or even motors. Every vessel utilized by the U.S. Coast Guard is now called a cutter, but the one thing that remains constant is that they are smaller, quicker, nimble vessels which are extremely versatile and useful.
The Navy offensive will use cutters to try to open up running lanes for the vaunted Navy ground attack (how ironic). The cutters they will be using won't have masts or sails and won't cruise up the Olentangy to level a broadside at the OSU defense. These will have cleats, helmets and face masks, and they are known as the Navy offensive line.
Like their cutter sailing counterparts, the Navy offensive line is small. Starting left tackle Jeff Battipaglia goes just 256 pounds, left guard Osei Asante 265, center Curtis Bass 265, right guard Andy Lark 267, and right tackle Matt Malloy just 260. By today's college football standards, that is a tiny line.
What the Navy line has going for it is two things. Like a Naval cutter, they are quick and nimble, but even more importantly, just like the ships, they are cutters, as in cut blockers extrordinaire.
This group of five undersized linemen are arguably the best bunch of cut blockers in college football, and it's those five smallish, quick, nimble cutters that will line up with their hand in the dirt for the Navy offense that will pose major problems for the OSU defense.
For those of you who may not be familiar with cut blocking, it's really quite simple. It is not a block in which the blocker tries to get his shoulders into the defender and drive him back or move him to one side or the other. It is a block aimed squarely at the legs of the defender with the express intention of cutting them out from under him and getting him on the ground. Cut blocks negate size and strength advantages because it's really hard to impose your strength on someone while you're lying on your back. Cut blocking also has the advantage of not requiring an exceptionally large blocker to execute it. A 260 pound guy can take the legs out from under a 300 pounder pretty easily if he can get to those legs. That's where the quick and nimble part comes in.
It's a perfect blocking scheme for the undersized Midshipmen, something that has not escaped former OSU Head Coach Earle Bruce. Bruce was OSU's offensive line coach for Woody Hayes in the 1968 season, a year when the Buckeyes were playing with a small offensive line themselves.
"My two guards were 195 pounds and one was 205 when we won the national championship 1968," said Bruce.
"The center was 190.
"When we lined up to play Purdue that year, which was the big power in 1968 and 67, they put 240 and 260 pound guys over our guards.
"I asked the kids how they were going to take care of that big guy. They said 'Hey coach, we'll find a way,' and they found a way," Bruce said.
The way was to stay low, to cut the bigger defenders. The Buckeyes did just that in 1968 and won a national title.
That was a long time ago, but the concept of cut blocking with smaller linemen remains valid. Bruce recalled a more recent example of a team cut blocking successfully, an example that is a lot more current and a bitter memory for Buckeye fans. The Buckeyes played the Air Force Academy in the 1990 Liberty Bowl and were defeated 23-11. Like the Naval Academy will do Saturday, a smallish Air Force offensive line cut block the Buckeyes all day.
"When you've got a small offensive line team they scramble block, they go after your legs," said Bruce.
"They fire out at you low and cut you. They just go after your knees.
"Defensive linemen don't like that. They don't like anybody coming at their knees."
As the game progressed the cut blocks began to add up and take their toll. OSU's defenders began paying more attention to where the cut blocks were coming from than to where the ball carrier was going. That turned out to be a disaster.
"When we played Air Force, Air Force sometime didn't hit you but the back ran by you because the guy would be looking the wrong way (at the cut blocker), and they kind of reach your outside leg and go after it.
"You go out (to avoid the cut block) and they cut in behind you," Bruce said.
The OSU defensive staff has been coaching up the OSU front seven all fall on how to play against cut blocking. The counter to cut blocking sounds absurdly simple.
"Our guys are going to have to stay on their feet, because if they're not on their feet, they're in trouble," said OSU Head Coach Jim Tressel.
Keeping their feet is step one for the OSU defensive front. What makes their task even more difficult is that the Navy offensive line doesn't just cut block. Once they have the defensive line wincing and playing back from those cut blocks, they will use their speed and quickness to simply run past the defensive linemen and go make a block in the second level of the defense.
"They like to sometimes just brush block the linemen then go block a linebacker," said Bruce, :"and they're really good at it. Our defensive linemen are going to have to engage them to keep them off the linebackers."
It will be a key matchup on Saturday, Navy's cutters against OSU's defensive front. If the Buckeye defensive front can keep their feet and also keep the Navy cutter linemen engaged, it will be and easy task for OSU's linebackers to torpedo the Navy running game and slow down the Navy offense. If the Midshipmen can get their cutters going up front, they could very well hop on board that ship and sail off into the sunset with a win in Columbus.
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