DALLAS — If Jim Knowles had it his way he’d blitz every play. Ohio State’s third-year defensive coordinator loves scheming up blitzes and different blitz looks.
“That’s fun for me,” Knowles said Wednesday evening after the team arrived in Dallas for the Cotton Bowl.
He’s known for his creativity as a play caller and for six games, after the October loss to Oregon, Knowles dialed up the pressure. In those six games, Ohio State’s lowest blitz rate was 29.4 percent against Michigan, according to Pro Football Focus. It had five games over 30 percent, so it’s no coincidence Ohio State is third in the country in sacks, with 47, entering Friday’s semifinal matchup against Texas.
That sack total is the highest of the Knowles era. Ohio State finished with 28 in 2023 and 34 in 2022, leading to constant conversation by the fan base and national media that something was wrong with the defensive line.
Despite that success, Ohio State has dialed back blitzes in the Playoff and the pressure is still coming in.
The Buckeyes have 12 sacks in two games, the most in a two-game stretch under Knowles, and it’s not as if the offensive lines they played are bad. Oregon, before giving up eight to Ohio State in the Rose Bowl, gave up just 13 sacks on the season.
Ohio State’s success is a byproduct of its talent finally showing up in the biggest moments.
Former five-star edge rushers JT Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer look like defensive ends who are ready to get selected in the first two days of the NFL Draft in April. In the past they got pressure, but the sacks weren’t counting up. That’s not the case anymore. Tuimoloau has 10 sacks, doubling his highest career total and Sawyer has eight, more than his career-high 6.5 last year.
It’s hard to identify just one reason Ohio State’s defensive line has made such drastic improvement because there are multiple. Ohio State is disguising more things on the back end than it did all season, which is giving quarterbacks trouble, but it’s also do-or-die time for the Ohio State defense.
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Nine starters from the 2023 season returned to win a national championship, including Tuimoloau and Sawyer. They don’t want to let this moment pass them by.
“You get down to the end, and they want to keep playing together,” Knowles said. “They don’t want it to stop. Sometimes when you get to these moments of your career, we have veterans, there’s always that a little bit of extra level. That’s human nature. You think you have given it all until everything is on the line, and then you see, OK, wow, I do have an extra to give. I think you are seeing some of that.”
In the last two years, Knowles talked about his struggle to find balance at Ohio State like sending pressure, but not leaving people wide open in the secondary. Or playing coverage, but not giving quarterbacks all day to throw.
That was a massive talking point after the Oregon loss even with former Alabama coach Nick Saban saying that Ohio State had an “antiquated” pass rush scheme.
It’s been anything but that since, especially in the Playoff.
Ohio State dominated Oregon in a 41-21 quarterfinal win in which the Buckeyes sacked Dillon Gabriel eight times. (Robert Hanashiro / Imagn Images)
Ohio State had a blitz rate of just 7.5 against Oregon, its lowest of the season, but had 24 pressures. That was a season-high with the second-most pressures this season being 23 against Northwestern followed by 19 against Tennessee.
Ohio State has 43 quarterback pressures in two games.
On one hand, it looks like Ohio State’s defensive line is playing with an intensity that just wasn’t there in the regular season.
“I think our mentality these last couple weeks has been really just going after it, you know?” Cody Simon said. “I don’t want to say it wasn’t before that, but when it was time to go and get it, I think our guys have really been standing up for the challenge.”
It’s also a byproduct of how Knowles’ defense has evolved in his three years with Ohio State.
It’s hard for the common fan to see what’s happening on the field, particularly in the secondary, during a game. But Ohio State is changing its post-snap coverage often.
Disguising coverages is about more than faking blitzes. Ohio State has, at times, come out showing man coverage pre-snap and then dropped into a one-high or even three-high safety look.
That leads to quarterbacks holding onto the ball, giving Ohio State’s defensive line more time to rack up the pressures and sacks.
In the Rose Bowl, Dillon Gabriel held the ball for an average of 3.28 seconds per snap, per TruMedia, a drastic difference from the 2.39 time to release he had in the Oct. 12 game.
“You have to change the picture post-snap. That forces him to hold the ball and try to figure it out,” Knowles said.
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Knowles implemented his defense in 2022, but it took time for everybody to get used to what he wanted. Two years later, not only is everyone acclimated to what Knowles wants to call, but they are experienced.
“The staff has grown, but it’s a bunch of players who have grown and stuck together and played a lot of football now,” head coach Ryan Day said. “The combination of the scheme and the guys understanding how the scheme has adapted over time. That is one of the most important things. … You might have some talent, but when you have guys who have played a lot of football you can adjust quickly, put game plans together and guys recognize plays.”
More than experience, there’s also versatility in the secondary. Jordan Hancock has been an important piece of the defense because of his ability to play outside corner, slot and safety.
In the second half of the season, when Ohio State really began disguising things, Knowles made the conscious decision to move All-America safety Caleb Downs into the box more often to get him a chance to make more plays. That meant Hancock had to play safety at times and even go from the slot into a deep safety position after the snap.
There are weeks when Hancock doesn’t know what position he’s playing until Thursday (of a normal game week), but it’s not hard to adjust because he knows the whole defense.
Ohio State has maybe the most talented defense in the country, but it’s also an experienced group that can do whatever Knowles wants from them.
That will be important in Friday’s Cotton Bowl because Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers has struggled against pressure and changing coverage looks.
As Ohio State’s defense has evolved into what Knowles hoped it would be in the last two years, the playbook is open for the creative play caller. Even more so when Ohio State stops the run like it did against Oregon, allowing minus-23 yards.
To get to that point it all starts up front, with a defensive line that has completely flipped the overrated narrative that many had of it coming into the postseason.
Instead, it’s looking like a strength and a group poised to cause havoc against a Texas offensive line that has given up 78 pressures this season.
“We always knew what we had in our room. Now it’s just showing up,” Tyliek Williams said. “Teams are scheming us in different ways and it’s allowing certain players to make certain plays.”
(Top photo of Jack Sawyer and JT Tuimoloau: Adam Cairns / Columbus Dispatch / USA Today via Imagn Images)
