The Illinois Fighting Illini host the Ohio State Buckeyes this weekend and back in August if you’d have said one team would be undefeated and the other would have three losses the easy money would have been on the Zooker’s team to be the 3-3 team. However, tables are turned and while folks anticipated Ohio State being able to continue their push in the Big Ten it is the Illini that have made a run to the top of the Leaders division.
Meanwhile Ohio State sits at .500 right now with two losses in the Big Ten and plenty of question marks surrounding the team. Most of those question marks are on offense as the Buckeyes are averaging just 315 yards per game and 24 points a contest. Looking deeper into the offensive woes and you can see that outside of the Buckeyes 517 yards against Akron they are boasting a less than healthy 275 yards a game in their other five outings.
Not good offensive numbers and those numbers are the product of a combined quarterback completion percentage of 48.5% and a running game that is not good enough, at 169 yards per game, to offset the poor passing production. Quarterback Braxton Miller did give the Buckeyes a spark last week against Nebraska, helping Ohio State jump out to a 27-6 third quarter lead before going down with an ankle injury. The freshman is supposed to be back this weekend for the game in Memorial Stadium which is a plus for the Scarlet and Gray.
However, for all of their offensive woes the Buckeye defense has played pretty damn well. Giving up just 308 yards a game and holding opponents to 17 points despite dealing with playing plenty of snaps. Last weekend against Nebraska this defense finally, truly broke. The mental stress of not having Braxton Miller running the offense and Buckeye drive after drive stalling coupled with the fatigue of having to strap it up and trot out there after each short offensive series just broke this defense.
Enter Illinois and their offensive attack spearheaded by Paul Petrino and operated by Nathan Scheelhaase. This offense is going to tax the Buckeyes on the edge and up the middle through their multiple looks and various formations. While the nation’s eyes will be on the Buckeye offense and Braxton Miller the issue we’re going to be watching for is how this Buckeye’s defense handles the Illinois scheme.
With the 48.5% completion mark the quarterback braintrust of Joe Bauserman and Braxton Miller are sporting the best thing the Buckeyes’ defense can do for the team is give them the ball back. In other words turnover the Illini and limit Petrino’s unit to short drives. The Buckeyes’ offense needs all the chances that they can get to score the football. Miller and Bauserman are going to they’re going to throw errant passes, the running game is going to stall behind this offensive line and the Buckeyes are going to have three and outs.
They need to possess the ball as much as possible to score points.
For that to happen this Buckeyes defense must be up to the challenge of stopping Scheelhaase, Troy Pollard, Donovonn Young, Jason Ford and AJ Jenkins for four quarters. This is no small task as the Illini have developed into a well balanced machine on the offensive side of the football. Petrino’s boys have three ball carriers with over 300 yards rushing the football in Pollard (361), Scheelhaase (347), Young (314) and then there’s Ford coming in with 279 yards as well. On the edge they have playmaker AJ Jenkins who has 815 yards receiving on 46 catches, already blowing past his season yardage totals from a year ago.
Their scheme is dynamic. For those of you who haven’t got a chance to watch them play I highly recommend tuning into the game to see how Petrino decides to attack this stout Buckeye defense. Illinois runs a spread style but there are so many different elements to their approach that it is tough to pigeon hole them a la a Mississippi State, Oklahoma State or a West Virginia. It is a balanced attack that runs the ball exceptionally without an true #1 back and a team that throws the ball both laterally and vertically well.
Even as a spread team Illinois is still capable of running the ball between the tackles, hammering out tough yards and pushing defenders around. Short yardage in their tight package the team is very comfortable hammering out a couple yards for a first down or a score. The scary thing this team is even better spreading teams out; running quarterback draws, the zone reads and the zone runs that allow their playmakers to find their way into space.
On the passing side of things Petrino employs crossing routes, quick hitters and uses AJ Jenkins to stretch defenses deep but there is one extremely scary part of this offense; play action. The Fighting Illini have some of the best run action plays that I’ve seen this season. The fake zone read, the fake stretch zone and the fake inside run are all spectacular. Scheelhaase works the fake, gets his eyes down the field and delivers strikes, usually to Jenkins. Thanks to Illinois’ commitment to the run game safeties and linebackers get frozen or sucked into the fray and Scheelhaase is able to take advantage of huge openings in the backend.
In order to be successful Ohio State is going to have to keep doing what they are doing as well as improve on some areas where they are lacking. Those negatives? Discipline on play action, defending the zone read and missed tackles. Ohio State flows fast to the football but this is a negative when play action and zone read are concerned. Overpursuit and missed keys lead to opening in the backend during play action passes and that is how touchdowns are scored, ask Taylor Martinez.
Another thing we can ask Martinez about is Ohio State’s handling of the zone read play. Responsibilities football is the name of the game and when defenders don’t take care of every element of the play it can go for a big gainer from either the quarterback or any of the running backs involved. For Ohio State that means Scheelhaase and any of the three weapons that Petrino employs in the backfield can get loose when a defender is not in the right spot.
Stopping play action and the zone read are critical but Ohio State’s easiest but most impactful fix will be making tackles. There were a lot of missed tackles against Nebraska and that’s as much a product of technique as fatigue. Not wrapping up, not coming to balance, taking a poor pursuit angle and diving at legs are how four yard gains turn into forty yard gains. Whether it is the first quarter or the fourth quarter Buckeye defenders have to come to balance, close the gate, shoot their guns, fire the hips and run their feet.
This should be an interesting match up because this Buckeyes defense with fast linebackers like Andrew Sweat and Storm Klein plus a strong defensive front four is capable of stopping the Illinois rushing attack without dropping an additional defender into the box. They flow to the football well, defend the edge in exceptional fashion and, when their defensive backs are dialed in, are capable in the back four.
Illinois is going to show a lot of formations, play actions, misdirection to go along with their straight ahead running game and it will be on the Ohio State defense to get the Illini off the field. The Buckeyes’ offense needs chances with the football, they don’t get those chances with Scheelhaase and Co. driving up and down the field against their defense.
