Who will be the hated player for 2019?

Van Soderberg or PGOS.

Houhusky said:

Picking someone most people aren't mentioning....

Safety McKinney

He got fucking torched in the Rose bowl.... took poor angles, missed tackles, had blown coverages. Looked like Tripper Johnson was back there.

I know it was his first start, but it did not look good.

McKinney played significant snaps in every game last year. So if you didn't notice him until the Rose Bowl he must have been doing fine.

It did seem like big plays kept being made right in front of him but most of these were either due to our defensive formation putting him in a bad spot or someone else missing their responsibility. Going through the big plays/touchdowns:

Fourth & 1 conversion: Mike Weber run for 19 yards on 4th and 1- McKinney looks bad but he was put in a bad spot by a poor defensive call and a good offensive call.


They are in a jumbo package with 6 OL and an HB/FB. We are in a 4-2-5 shaded to the strong side. Their slot WR goes in motion before the snap and becomes a pitch option/blocker for a ZR/Run-pass option going to the weak side of our formation.

Our formation and their pre-snap motion takes 4 players out of the play before it even starts- two safeties are deep, Myles Bryant covering nobody in the slot on the strong side, and Benning who they basically give the outside gap so he feels great about getting to the pocket after the play is already going the other way.

This allows the OSU OL to double team both our weakside DE and DT and still have the HBack leading the charge. He smartly goes to the next level and takes out Wellington leaving McKinney to hold the edge against Haskins/Weber on the ZR with the WR in front. He has no chance there. And that is how you end up with Weber vs JoJo in the open field which, predictably, doesn't work out well for us leading to a 19 yard gain.

First TD: we only rush 3. Corners and slot are in man with Jojo and McKinney over the top. McKinney does a weird delay blitz that he appears late on if this was designed BUT he wasn't getting home anyway with 5 OL and a RB to block 3 + blitzer and

-you could throw a blanket over Myles Bryant, Wellington, and BBK in the middle of the field with no OSU player within 10 yards. Completely useless. If BBK drops back two more feet he has an INT.
-Bryant lets Parris run right by him and decides he'd rather hang out with his friend BBK than cover OSU's most dangerous receiver
-JoJo was both out of position in shading to the WR in the corner of the end zone who was already well covered and then is late in reacting to a WR breaking free uncovered right in front of him.

Second TD:

Another situation where McKinney gets hung out to dry that wasn't actually his fault.

OSU is in a 4 WR/1 RB set. #14 in the slot on the strong side runs a drag route across the middle leaving Parris all alone on the strong side with three receivers crammed together in the end zone on the weak side.

The RB drifts out of the backfield and is wide open in the flat on the strong side.

Miller is in coverage on Campbell with Bryant there as well.

Both Miller and Bryant (and BBK) then bite down on the RB as Haskins with all the time in the world facing a 3 man rush steps up in the pocket.

Leaving Campbell free and McKinney two steps too late.

This was bad communication between Miller and Bryant. No reason for them both to bite- one should have stayed with Parris (probably Miller.) McKinney couldn't cheat too much because he had to be aware of the three WRs to his left and expect that one of them would likely be coming across into his area of responsibility.

Third TD:

OSU 1st and 10 from the 1 after going 56 yards in 5 plays.

Not sure if this is a genuine RPO or a fake but McKinney is holding the edge and stuck between respecting the zone read and covering Berry coming out of the backfield. Similar to the 4th down play transcribed earlier- good play call by OSU against our defense gives them a 2 on 1 that they should win every time.

Even if you put this one on McKinney- this was a 1 yard touchdown after 4 9+yard plays in :40 all of which were due to breakdowns somewhere else.

Fourth TD:

This was a running TD but it was set up by a 34 yard pass to Hill who victimized BBK and Wellington.