While Ohio State’s defense was struggling again last season, Knowles was coordinating one of the best units in the country.
His Oklahoma State defense finished fifth in total defense and ninth in scoring while the Buckeyes were 59th and 38th, respectively.
Knowles arrived in Columbus with the expectation of doing the same thing with the Buckeyes — sooner than later.
So far, so good: The Buckeyes are 10th in total yards allowed and sixth in scoring defense after eight games.
However, the Buckeyes have faced only one offense with much firepower, and that one put up 482 yards and scored 31 points for Penn State last week.
Ohio State gave up nine “explosive plays,” including two runs of 10 yards or more and seven passes of 15 or more, and two helped the Nittany Lions erase an early 10-0 Buckeye lead.
In the second quarter, the Nittany Lions scored on a 58-yard pass, and they had a 26-yard touchdown catch set up by a 42-yard pass play.
Four turnovers crippled Penn State, though.
Interceptions stopped the first two PSU drives, and a fumble and another pick (returned for a touchdown) helped Ohio State bury the hosts 44-31 with a 28-point fourth quarter.
Asked if that is a fair trade in his eyes, Knowles gave a definitive, “No.”
“They still all count, and they still all need to be dealt with,” Knowles said of the big plays Tuesday. “We had a few too many against Penn State, and we’ve dealt with them. It’s never okay, but I guess you can build the positive out of it when it happens and you’re doing a lot of good other things and you win the game. You can take it and show why it happened and how we can fix it. But it doesn’t even it out.”
In the case of two of the touchdowns, Knowles said better fundamentals would have provided a better result.
Tanner McCalister and JK Johnson had a chance to bring down Parker Washington for a short gain on the 58-yarder, but he spun away from both of them and raced down the sideline to the end zone.
That was an opportunity for the DBs to do what Knowles calls “vicing the ball” by maintaining leverage on the ball-carrier from either side.
“I call it owning your hip. If you’re outside and you miss, make sure he goes inside. If you’re inside and you miss, make sure he goes outside,” Knowles said.
“It is a defensive fundamental, and we’ve had plenty of good ones, but when it goes wrong you can say, “Okay guys, that’s a vice tackle. This is why we do that drill.’”
Clinging to a 16-14 lead in the fourth quarter, Ohio State looked poised for a goal-line stand when linebacker Tommy Eichenberg slashed into the backfield on a fourth-down run, but Keytron Allen ran through his grasp and found the end zone for a go-ahead touchdown.
“There’s a time for a roll tackle, like a single-leg takedown, and those are more difficult to do when they happen quick like that, like right on on the snap,” Knowles said. “You saw him do it plenty of times on the perimeter where you have more time to run, where you can go in there and roll, but when it happens that fast, that’s what he needed to do. And he knows that because if you’re up too high, you can slide off. You’ve got to be able to go low and roll, but it’s just difficult to get in that position.
“So those are drills that we do all the time, and we show the good examples along with the ones that didn’t go quite as well so that the guys are more motivated to keep doing the drill.”
SATURDAY’S GAME
Ohio State at Northwestern, Noon, ABC, 1410
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