Before I get into this, let me preface by saying I think our DL has an advantage and can cause chaos, especially if we keep OSU behind the chains. As for our OL vs. their DL, that’s a draw. Now, their secondary and scheme versus our QB/offense is where things get concerning. Matt Patricia is from the Belichick tree, so he’s going to take away your strength and force you to win with your weakness—like making a righty go left in basketball.
You won’t see nearly as much confusion or creativity with blitzing as A&M, but the confusion will be in the secondary. They’ll show Cover 8, Cover 6, Cover 4, and Cover 2, disguising one as another, and also use combo coverages. This is exactly what Beck struggles with: coming off the first read or not trusting what his eyes see. When the picture starts changing, Beck tends to get confused or throw picks.
Getting back to winning with your weakness—and being a Belichick protégé—I’d expect him to use a number-two corner on MT with some help over the top, maybe a bracket, then put the top cover guy on somebody like Daniels with no help. It makes things confusing for a DC trying to scheme around stopping a slot guy, since that player can be moved around, you never know where he’ll align, and he’s often off the LOS. That makes it harder to jam or disrupt the release.
The game will come down to Beck and the passing game, plain and simple. We won’t be able to line up and maul them like an undersized A&M defense. We just need to run enough to keep them off balance—at least get the attempts. Unlike
@Hurricane23, I don’t like this matchup as much as the previous game, but I still see his point. There are enough areas where we have advantages, and IMO this game is very winnable. Just don’t beat ourselves—which is easier said than done.
