Indiana vs Ohio State Rematch Could Be Brewing for the National Championship
I do have to say like, just the, the, the thought of Ohio State and Indiana on opposite sides of the bracket means that we, we may see a rematch of what we got to see on Saturday night in the Big Ten championship game, you know, so the, the national championship in theory, down in Miami could be an Indiana, Ohio State rematch. Now, obviously, like, we’ll see how it all plays out, but. I mean, like, sign me up for seeing something like that again, because I will tell you, that game on Saturday night lived up to every ounce of what I thought it could be.
Elite Defence on Display as Ohio State and Indiana Light Up Lucas Oil Stadium
It was an incredible atmosphere in Lucas Oil Stadium. It was loud. Those teams were playing some unbelievable defence. I mean, unbelievable defence. It was everything I hoped it would be, and then some, and then some, um. I thought Matt Patricia and the defence for Ohio State was outstanding. I thought Bryant Haynes and Indiana on defence were better than outstanding. They were fantastic. Bryant Haynes is one of the best assistant coaches, defensive coordinators in the country.
Indiana’s Overlooked Defence Proves Elite Against Ohio State
No one talked about Indiana’s defence this year because Ohio State was historically good, but man, the Hoosiers. They are so good on defence, slippery up front, they can run on the second level, play great zone coverage. D’Angelo Ponz is a star, only 5’9, but can cover. Man, that was, that was fun to watch. Um, so what did it come down to? It came down to a couple of things. As games with great opponents generally do, comes down to like 34 snaps of the football, and this one did as well.
Why Ohio State’s Red-Zone Issues Really Came Down to Short Yardage
Um, and it just so happened, Indiana was able to execute those snaps, and Ohio State was not. And so that’s the difference in the game. And let’s look at Ohio State here first, and they struggled in the Red-Zone, but it wasn’t just Red-Zone, it was actually more specifically short yardage. And when you’re not great in short yardage, you’re not gonna be great in the Red-Zone because typically, a lot of the short yardage plays happen in the Red-Zone. Whether you’re trying to get a 1st down or even a goal line situation.
Indiana’s Red-Zone Defense Shuts Ohio State Out in the Second Half
So there’s more opportunities for short yardage situations in the Red-Zone. And they failed in those situations. Now, one was a missed field goal, we understand that, but they failed on the 4th and 1 trying to quarterback sneak. So here we got 2 possessions in the 2nd half, in which Ohio State is down inside of the 10-yard line. And they come away with 0 points. So, Brian Haynes and the Indiana defence give up 0 points to Ohio State in the last 40 minutes of game time. Incredible. How do they do that? Turn them away in the Red-Zone.
Playing From Behind Exposes Ohio State’s Biggest Question
And it’s very clear that Ohio State now has. An area where they have a problem. And we’ve been waiting all year, like, well, what’s the question? My question with Ohio State is, was like, well, what’s the vulnerability? What are we gonna see? They’ve controlled every single game. This is the first game that we’ve seen them have to snap the football on offense with a deficit. We hadn’t seen that all year long. This is the first time that we’ve seen them have to play offense really under the gun, and, you know.
It wasn’t great in short yardage. And when you look at short yardage for Ohio State, and I made this point on the, on the broadcast, last year in the playoffs, they were really good in short yardage situations because they had a big mobile quarterback that they could run in those scenarios. 4th and 1s, 3rd and 1s. Will Howard was converting a lot of those zone reads, quarterback power, and now they don’t have that. They also had two backs that were physical, namely Quinshawn Judkin.
Who was very physical in nature, and so they were very good in short yardage in the playoff last year. Under the gun, they could get it done. This team hasn’t had to do that yet, so we didn’t really know. They haven’t had short yardage plays under the gun. In fact, the first time we saw that was in the first half against Michigan where they failed to get in in one of those Red-Zone possessions inside the five-yard line, had to settle for a field goal. And all of a sudden, it creeps up again. In that game, they tried to quarterback sneak.
Line of Scrimmage Issues Surface for Ohio State in Key Moments
It didn’t work. You know, they couldn’t get it done. And Their big back Donaldson is a guy that doesn’t get in a lot, so they go with Bo Jackson, and he’s a true freshman. They’ve got a quarterback that’s a pocket quarterback and an offensive line that hasn’t gotten it done at the line of scrimmage in those situations. It’s a good offensive line, they haven’t been great in that moment. So that’s a clear weakness, and they’ll have to address that moving forward.
Meanwhile, And there’s those couple of snaps right there. Meanwhile, Indiana. Well, Indiana had to answer questions throughout the year. So they were a more proven commodity in hindsight now, on Saturday night, in particular under the gun, because we saw them at Iowa. We saw them at Oregon. We saw them at Penn State, have to take offensive snaps under the gun.