Something we may have overlooked with OSU/Florida

[consigliere]

I know as Buckeye fans we are all huddled up out of sight trying to lick our wounds and get the bad taste of the BCS game out of our mouth, but thought this was an interesting article that I don't recall was posted on here:

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/vi ... p?t=166105

The one guy who saw it coming was the one guy in the Big Ten who voted for Florida in the final coaches poll, the one guy who recruited all but two of Florida's starting 22. Ron Zook, whose firing in midseason 2004 led to the hiring of Meyer, told those close to him that Ohio State would have trouble blocking Florida's long, lanky rush ends Jarvis Moss and Derrick Harvey.

It was early November when Ohio State trudged through what seemed like a meaningless look-ahead game against Illinois, a 17-10 win two weeks removed from the be-all, end-all Michigan game. But one thing stood out: The Buckeyes couldn't block Illinois freshmen Doug Pilcher and Antonio James--long, lanky, athletic rush ends who helped force Smith into a terrible performance (108 yards passing and in interception).

Fast-forward two months: Harvey and Moss ran by Ohio State's tackle tandem of Kirk Barton and Alex Boone nearly every play.

"We saw it on tape," Harvey says. "They were slow and had bad feet. There was no way they were blocking us."

Says Moss: "After that first series, we knew those two were in trouble--and so did they."

This is what I found interesting from the article, as it showed how the Illinois game was more telling than we thought it was, and how it hurt the Buckeyes more than we ever imagined. Also, I don't think anyone took into account that Ron Zook was the coach of Illinois, the team that gave us problems in the reg season and swallowed up Troy Smith.....and we were playing his former team and his former recruits in the BCS Title Game. The warning signs were definitely there.

[furls]

you are never going to block any DE's when you let them line up split five yards from the DTs and give them a ten yard running head start into the OTs. The adjustment that should have been made is that the Buckeyes should have run Pittman and Wells through C-Gap (between the tackle and TE) or B-Gap (between Guard and Tackle) to make the DEs play some sort of run defense and, thereby bring them closer to the tackles nullifying the speed advantage.