COLUMBUS, Ohio — Everyone has an opinion about what held Ohio State’s defense back the most against Alabama in the College Football Playoff national championship. Was it Ryan Day’s insistence on using a Cover-3 approach with one high safety? Was Kerry Coombs’ game plan inadequate for a team as talented as Alabama? Was the culprit a dip in cornerback recruiting a couple of years back that this year’s freshmen could not fill? Doug Lesmerises and Nathan Baird charted every defensive snap of the Buckeyes’ 52-24 loss and — virtually — talked through what they saw. NATHAN: I went looking for situations where a two-high safety look would have obviously bailed out Ohio State. By and large, when OSU had both Josh Proctor and Marcus Williamson on the field, they were both playing outside of the box. Mostly I found a lot of plays in which Alabama either out-executed the Buckeyes…
Continue Reading: Explaining where Ohio State football’s defense actually went wrong against Alabama
