With all of the turnover we have had on defense I noticed the unit mixing things up a bit. There were actually some bright spots. You will find my notes from Martin Stadium below. Take em or leave em.
Overall: I think there were signs of life. Fewer blown assignments. The explosives we gave up were largely due to their WR being taller than our DBs and getting away with many a push off. Certainly a concerted effort to get bigger players on the field by our coaching staff. I appreciated the two high look and not bringing much pressure. When you are facing and offense that has as much trouble finishing drives as Stanford has this year using a bend but down break strategy seems prudent.
DL: fairly straightforward approach here. Lamont got a little less run than he had been. Nice to have Rodgers back.
LB: IMO this was J Rodgers best game of the year. He was not forced to play laterally which seems to be his weakness. Woods played more downhill than he had been.
Rush: Stone played the majority of the game. freshman Rocky Katoanga got his first run of the year (that I remember) mostly rushing the passer on passing downs. No sign of Willie Taylor that I saw.
Nickel: this position was the most interesting to me. Treveon Brown Played on first down and rushing downs. Marsh played on passing downs. He really struggled. One bad blown assignment and got picked on by larger Stanford TEs.
Strong safety: Thomas did not play in the 1Q but played his best game of the year after that. Pat Nun (previously nickel) took the other SS reps.
FS: no notes. Ross played fine. He is young and athletic and will improve.
Corner: sigh. Mostly a rotation of strong, Hicks, and Langford. Strong and Langford got the majority of the snaps. Consistently in the right place, consistently beaten to the ball giving up big plays.
I will be fascinated to see how we defend the quick slant that OSU has been using all year.
Overall: I think there were signs of life. Fewer blown assignments. The explosives we gave up were largely due to their WR being taller than our DBs and getting away with many a push off. Certainly a concerted effort to get bigger players on the field by our coaching staff. I appreciated the two high look and not bringing much pressure. When you are facing and offense that has as much trouble finishing drives as Stanford has this year using a bend but down break strategy seems prudent.
DL: fairly straightforward approach here. Lamont got a little less run than he had been. Nice to have Rodgers back.
LB: IMO this was J Rodgers best game of the year. He was not forced to play laterally which seems to be his weakness. Woods played more downhill than he had been.
Rush: Stone played the majority of the game. freshman Rocky Katoanga got his first run of the year (that I remember) mostly rushing the passer on passing downs. No sign of Willie Taylor that I saw.
Nickel: this position was the most interesting to me. Treveon Brown Played on first down and rushing downs. Marsh played on passing downs. He really struggled. One bad blown assignment and got picked on by larger Stanford TEs.
Strong safety: Thomas did not play in the 1Q but played his best game of the year after that. Pat Nun (previously nickel) took the other SS reps.
FS: no notes. Ross played fine. He is young and athletic and will improve.
Corner: sigh. Mostly a rotation of strong, Hicks, and Langford. Strong and Langford got the majority of the snaps. Consistently in the right place, consistently beaten to the ball giving up big plays.
I will be fascinated to see how we defend the quick slant that OSU has been using all year.