michael coen
College football and college basketball writer
LOS ANGELES — From the moment the team’s designated interview period for Ohio State cornerback Denzel Burke began, a throng of reporters crowded into a crowded conference room on the second basement floor of the Sheraton Grand. The Sheraton Grand is decorated from top to bottom with decals, signs, and signs. A bouquet of flowers in anticipation of the Rose Bowl. The flowers around the grounds are so prominent and displayed everywhere that if you’re a guest unfamiliar with this year’s College Football Playoff, which pits the Buckeyes against Oregon State in the highly anticipated quarterfinals, you’ll think Valentine’s Day has come early. No wonder.
For all the wrong reasons, Burke has developed into a mainstay ahead of Wednesday’s rematch between two of the Big Ten’s best programs. He endured the worst game of his career when the teams met for the first time at Autzen Stadium on Oct. 12, a heartbreaking night that changed the trajectory of Ohio State’s defense. Ta. The Ducks made Burke, who was named first-team All-Big Ten by the league’s coaches in 2023, a ruthless stripper who threw deep passes for 162 yards and two touchdowns, making him one of quarterback Dillon’s best NFL passers. He had a perfect NFL passer rating of 158.3. Gabriel threw a pass in Burke’s direction. The fact that Burke was the player who coined the team’s lofty slogan, “Natty or Bust,” in early March only added to the discomfort. He received a one-week hiatus from social media to distance himself from online abuse.
“I’m kind of in a dark mood,” Burke said Monday morning.
Painful introspection spread from Burke to every corner of Ohio State’s defense, giving up just 34 points in the first five games combined until the Ducks scored 32 points alone and racked up 496 yards of total offense. Ohio State’s defense, which was not playing well, sent a surprising message to Ohio State. The rest of the league. Gabriel finished the season as a Heisman Trophy finalist, completing over 67 percent of his passes for 341 yards and two touchdowns, all without being sacked. Oregon State’s two leading receivers, Tez Johnson and Evan Stewart, sacrificed Burke and the rest of the Buckeyes’ secondary with 14 catches and 224 yards.
Such a disillusioning performance led to widespread compositional changes at Ohio State, ultimately leading head coach Ryan Day to describe the team’s defense as “re-engineered.” This is after the Buckeyes spent their humble bye week analyzing everything they had on film to start the game. season. What has lasted from mid-October to the present is a renaissance of sorts, with defensive coordinator Jim Knowles finding ways to boost his team’s pass rush while also strengthening coverage in the secondary, which currently leads the nation in total. energized the unit. After dominating Tennessee in the playoff opener, they had both total defense (242.2 yards per game) and scoring defense (11.4 points per game). Suddenly, Ohio State’s morale was so high that Coach Burke took his “make it or fail” proclamation to a new level, more or less guaranteeing his team to win the national championship.
“Now I know how to handle everything,” Burke said, “especially now that we’re going through the playoffs and going into the next chapter of our lives after winning the championship game. ..I have confidence in this team,’ I have confidence in the head coach, I have confidence in the scheme that we have, I have confidence in my brothers. ”
So what exactly has changed? Coaches and players have been hesitant to reveal the details of the defensive changes since the loss to Oregon, but Pro Football Focus analyzes Ohio State’s pressure rate and personnel distribution. Some of the tweaks are discernible, both suggesting an increase in overall aggression. Comments from Knowles, reminiscent of his stint as defensive coordinator at Oklahoma State (2018-21). During this period, the Cowboys finished in the top 12 nationally in sacks three times in four years, including setting a new program record with an astonishing 56 sacks in Knowles’ final season. Included. His group ranked second in the nation in tackles for loss with 117 that year, a number that led college football in each of the past two seasons.
However, the Buckeyes have been far more cautious heading into the start of the 2024 season, holding a blitz rate of just 39% across Big Ten competition in their opening three games against Michigan State, Iowa State, and Oregon State, per game. He averaged 10.7 blitzes. The Ducks’ 32-31 win over Ohio State reached its nadir when Gabriel was blitzed on just 36.1% of his dropbacks, the lowest point for Knowles in conference play up to that point. It was a point. He completed 12 of 13 passes for 103 yards and one touchdown. About those snaps. Gabriel’s success rate on blitzes with the Buckeyes was an extremely high 92.3%, far higher than his final season record of 69.8%, which was higher than his injury-free period. This is his career best record. Burke never gave up more than 74 yards in a game against a power conference opponent until the Ducks had seven catches for 23.1 yards per completion.
“Denzel is a strong guy,” fellow cornerback Davison Igbinosun told FOX Sports. “But I think that game against Oregon definitely could have broken him down and shut him into a shell. Then he might have started to act differently. But I don’t think he acted differently. The next day after the movie, he was like, ‘I have so much respect for him for this whole situation. ”
From that point on, Knowles further dug into his offensive mindset, making Day one of the highest-paid coordinators in the country ahead of the 2022 season. His blitz rate jumped to 62.5% in the win over Purdue, and then reached at least 50% in games against Northwestern and Michigan. A narrow victory over the No. 1 opponent at the time. 3 Penn State (37.5%) was the only game against a Big Ten opponent in which Knowles’ blitz calls were below the floor set by Oregon. In the six conference games following Ohio State’s loss to the Ducks, he averaged a quarterback dropback rate of 45.2%, an increase of more than 9% from that fateful night in Eugene.
Ohio State Buckeyes: Can they get revenge on Oregon State?
This increase coincided with quite notable role changes for several individuals within Mr. Knowles’ defense. Caleb Downs, a consensus All-American in his first season after transferring from the University of Alabama, has dropped from 14 snaps per game when lined up in the box as a safety to one in six weeks. That increased to nearly 26 shots per game. From late October to late November, he helped the Buckeyes’ run defense. In the case of nickelback Jordan Hancock, who played almost exclusively as a slot corner during the first half of the season, his revised job description includes playing at least 13 snaps per game at free safety during the same six-week period. , which included playing a season-high 39 snaps as a free agent. He will be safe against Tennessee. Inside linebacker Cody Simon’s pass rush opportunities increased from 4.4 per game prior to the loss to Oregon to 7.8 per game in the second half of conference play.
“I think we’re getting in line faster,” Knowles told FOX Sports. “We’re reacting to different formations and things that happen during the game because there’s always what I call ‘unscouted plays.’ [the other teams] They’ve been practicing all week too, but they don’t know what they’re doing. So we’re just watching them react to things like that that happen during the game. We’re doing it faster and more efficiently. ”
All of this combined to create some gaudy team statistics going into the Rose Bowl. After giving up zero passing touchdowns after the loss to Oregon State, Ohio State has recorded at least four sacks per game in five of its last six games. At least one takeaway in six consecutive games entering the postseason. Only one opponent had a third-down conversion rate higher than 37% in the second half of the year. He’s only allowed 3.5 yards per play over the past five games. In his last three opponents combined, Burke gained 22 receiving yards.
But since the trip to Autzen Stadium, the Buckeyes haven’t faced anything like that since 10 weeks ago, when Stewart’s breakneck pace, Johnson’s precise route accuracy, and Gabriel’s pinpoint accuracy led to a loss to Ohio State. It was a receiving corps like the one that gave them trouble 10 weeks ago when they were sent in. It sent me into a spiral of remorse that may or may not have saved the season. We’ll find out when Burke and a rejuvenated defense take the field this week.
“I think he has a real vision for himself and a deep-seated confidence that he realized he was stronger than he thought.” [by bouncing back from that game]Knowles said of Burke: “But I kind of knew that if I played that position at this level, or the next level that he’s going to go to, I’m going to have some bad days.” , if you’re going to go to the NFL and be a great corner, you better understand that and not take it personally. ”
Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball with an emphasis on the Big Ten for FOX Sports. please follow him @Michael_Cohen13.
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