Ohio State would be a scary College Football Playoff matchup for anybody

Whether the Buckeyes can overcome a weird loss and make the tournament or not, Saturday showed they’re becoming a more and more dangerous opponent for just about anybody. With a 49-37 victory over Michigan State in East Lansing, Urban Meyer’s Ohio State Buckeyes put themselves on the College Football Playoff committee’s map in a major way. While the Buckeyes lack other major wins and have a huge hiccup on their resume in the form of a home loss to 4-5 Virginia Tech, they have the handy excuse that it was redshirt freshman J.T. Barrett’s second game starting after a fall camp injury took Braxton Miller out of the equation. Additionally, they could pad their record with a win at 7-2 Minnesota on Saturday and a Big Ten championship win over Nebraska or Wisconsin. They’ll probably need some luck in the form of a two-loss Big 12 or Pac-12 champion, but the chances of Ohio State winning the Big Ten and showing up in the Playoff are real. So are the Buckeyes a contender? I’ve covered Urban Meyer’s program in the recent past, asking if his offense had reached peak form and examining the hire of Chris Ash and whether Ohio State would recover its defensive tradition. In light of that success in East Lansing, it’s time to revisit those questions. Safe and sound defense Ash’s version of quarters coverage, or cover 4, is unique in that it is designed to offer the safeties more time to read a play for run or pass. It is thus less susceptible to play action and deep passing plays. Ash isn’t forcing the edge with his safeties, but instead leaves that task to the corners or linebackers. He uses the safeties to fill the alley and pursue the ball from shallower alignments. …

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