Denzel Burke dances after an interception in last week’s win over Akron. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Ohio State’s goal of creating more turnovers got off to a good start in Week 1. Now Jim Knowles’ crew is focused on consistency and improvement. That’s a good place to be this early in the season.
Columbus, OH – Denzel Burke closed on an Akron receiver, stole the football and established – at least for one game – that the Ohio State defense had found the missing-in-action piece from its 2023 arsenal.
Forcing turnovers.
Last year’s unit, one of the statistically best in the nation, recovered only four fumbles and intercepted only seven passes in 13 games. Not an aesthetically pleasing number. The 2024 Buckeyes are determined to flip last year’s minus-2 turnover margin into a large positive number.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State football and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
But it wasn’t just that Burke made the interception. It was how he did it. He attacked the ball that Adrian Norton bobbled and ripped it out with his right arm. He went for it.
“It’s my job to make a play,” Burke said Saturday.
That’s a defensive mindset worthy of appreciation.
But the Buckeyes weren’t finished creating turnovers.
Midway through the third quarter, backup defensive linemen Hero Kanu and Caden Curry combined to force a quarterback fumble. Safety Lathan Ransom, back leading the team in tackles after not finishing last season because of injury, fielded the loose ball on a bounce and took it 27 yards for a touchdown.
“I almost dropped it at first, I was so excited, because I knew if I could catch it, I could get to the end zone,” Ransom said Saturday. “Big smile on my face running down the field.”
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Gabe Powers, a backup linebacker, was part of a similar play in the final minutes of the No. 2 Buckeyes’ 52-6 victory over Akron. A short pass bounced high off the helmet of hard-charging freshman end Eddrick Houston into the hands of Powers for a 29-yard interception return for a touchdown.
“Once I saw it there, I knew I could get it, and it was a clear path to the end zone,” Powers said Wednesday after practice. “I was happy to finally be out there and get a chance to play.”
Seventeen points off turnovers was a beautiful start to turning around last season’s homely stat.
So, in what other ways must the Buckeyes improve on defense this season to achieve their championship goals? The list of desired improvements is apparently long. But no one is being specific beyond obvious and general statements. Coaches and players can’t point to anything and say: If we don’t do this better, we’re in trouble.
“We’d say everything,” head coach Ryan Day said Wednesday. “Getting three and outs, getting off the field on third down, you could name everything.”
Even the players agree.
Another Akron turnover from last week’s ball-hawking Buckeyes.
“Coach J (Larry Johnson) is always pushing the bar of greatness and technique and discipline,” defensive end J.T. Tuimoloau said Wednesday. “That was a great first impression, but you got to be consistent. It depends how many times we can do it over and over again. That’s the challenge for us.”
If becoming more consistent and general improvement are the big concerns, life under defensive coordinator Jim Knowles is as blissful as it gets. His stoic persona is the workplace nature he projects, but even he must be smiling when no one is looking at how elite his defense is.
“Everyone’s hungry to get to a place that we haven’t been the last couple years and finish the job,” Ransom said. “We played well, but we still left some plays out there. Nothing from what they did, just mistakes that we made. Even though we played so well, there’s so much we can improve on to be an even more elite defense.”
The untested unit, talented as it is, is the linebacking corps. That group got what felt like a final exam Saturday when starting Mike linebacker Cody Simon sat out injured. That put former safety Sonny Styles into a position he had trained little for, shifting from Will to overseeing the defense while wearing the helmet communication device and relaying play calls from Knowles.
Styles downplayed any perceived difficulty of being forced into an unexpected role. He clearly embraces the idea of knowing the other positions around you just in case and so you know what to expect those neighboring positions to do. The biggest change, he said, was wearing the headset.
“It wasn’t too crazy for me. A lot of positions are kind of interchangeable with our defense.” – Sonny Styles
“It wasn’t too crazy for me,” Styles said. “I feel like our positions are kind of interchangeable with our defense, so a lot of the concepts are similar, so it wasn’t a super hard switch for me.”
The next opponent is Western Michigan at 7:30 Saturday night. The Broncos are coming off a 28-14 loss at Wisconsin. They led 14-13 early in the fourth quarter.
“When you watch the film, you’re seeing them play a Big 10 opponent, which gives us a little bit more of a barometer of what we’re dealing with,” Day said. “They’re physical up front, they do have some really good skill players. It looked like a Big Ten style of game, and there’s a point where that game was in the balance. I know that has our guys’ attention.”
The Buckeyes will win. But Saturday night on the defensive side is about much more than that.
Saturday night is about more consistency and more improvement – whatever that looks like – and more turnovers. And defensive players scoring touchdowns would be a nice bonus.
Those plays are always statistically and aesthetically pleasing.
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