Well done on the film study and quant research. I enjoy posts like these that really raise the bar.
I don't know who in their right mind would watch the film and come away believing that C.J. Mosley had to deal with more blockers than Ryan Shazier.
Let's keep things at a basic level here. Ohio State had their nickel defense on the field a LOT with only 6 men in the box constantly. Often there were only 5 men in the box. Their defensive coaches (Luke Fickel, nearly fired during the off season) did not do a very good job keeping the front seve- uhh, five-or-six out of bad situations where the offense had more blockers than the defense had to defend. Put that together with some shoddy defensive line play and inconsistent pursuit from other defenders and this was a recipe for Ryan Shazier to be anything but clean to the football.
Don't take my word for it. Here is an example of a play that many people are going to see and say this guy is horrible, he doesn't get off blocks, etc. But they'll generally be missing the details of the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Po4n2xehbc&feature=player_embedded#t=36
The first problem on this play is that Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris has created an extremely uncomfortable situation for the defense called and coached by Luke Fickell. Just look at the numbers advantage. The offense has 7 straight up blockers plus an 8th man jetting horizontally. The fly sweep prevents the play side safety from crowding up to the line of scrimmage to help even out the numbers advantage, because he has to respect the fly sweep. This ensures that the numbers advantage will remain, especially since on this play the QB is the ball carrier.
Let's keep in mind what this numbers advantage is. Normally if the QB is the ball carrier and he has 7 blockers against 7 defenders in the box, this is considered a numbers advantage for the offense as there's enough blockers to get a hat on every hat leaving nobody free to the ball carrier. This is even worse than that. This is 7 blockers to 6 defenders.
The second problem on the play is that the "deuce" combination block developing between Clemson LT Brandon Thomas and LG Kalon Davis is completely neutralizing Ohio State DT Adolphus Washington, sweeping him so far horizontally that he neutralizes fellow DT Michael Bennett (who himself didn't look all that interested in getting involved in the play). Brandon Thomas achieves such vertical push he's able to easily get to the second level and wipe out LB Camren Williams.
As the fly sweep man comes in the linebacker (Joshua Perry) that had been lined up on him unattached takes his sweet time coming back to the inside and then screws up his pursuit by hesitating and taking a poor angle. The back side safety (C.J. Barnett) similarly screws up his cleanup angle. Both of these men were completely unblocked and well within range to tackle Tajh Boyd for a short or perhaps a medium gain. If Perry had done an outstanding job on the play he may have read the lack of threats to get to the outside of him, knifed into the backfield and caught Boyd for perhaps even a loss on the play. If he felt uncomfortable with that he should have gotten Boyd for about a 5 or 6 yard gain. Barnett could have gotten him down at about the same gain if he'd done a good job.
But a lot of people are going to look at Ryan Shazier and see him take on the lead blocker in the hole and say that he didn't get off the block like he should have to make the play on the ball carrier. Bollocks to that. Shazier sealed the outside shoulder of the lead blocker with a hard hit in the hole leaving Boyd to float right through where the defense should've had help to get him down. But the help didn't get there.
And that happened a lot this year on Ohio State's defense. All of the above, constantly. The defense would start out disadvantaged schematically, then the defensive linemen would lose gap control, pursuit players wouldn't get where they were supposed to be, and Ryan Shazier has upwards of one or even two blockers to deal with on the play.
And if people think that was happening at Alabama with their extremely STRONG defensive linemen and well coached scheme, well hey then we're just going to have to agree to disagree on that one. Mosley is a good player with good instincts, but he had a free path to the ball a lot. Even when there were blockers out in the second level that could have picked him off they often didn't get out there clean and so he was able to beat them to the spot. And when the blockers did get there the defensive line and pursuit players often squeezed the lane and got the ball down so it never left the viewer with the kind of bad taste in their mouth that they often got when either Ryan Shazier made the play at Ohio State or nobody did.
Finally I will leave you with an example of what happened when Ohio State's defense played a lot better with fewer numbers disadvantages and better defensive line play. This is the Indiana game.
[video=youtube;wASW1LsnAHc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wASW1LsnAHc[/video]
You'll notice a big difference from this game to a lot of the others in the way the defensive linemen were able to hold up, keep their gap control and squeeze the lanes. Even when blockers went out into space on Shazier, they didn't come out clean or with great angles and he was able to beat them.
He had 20 tackles in this game including 5.0 TFLs, 1.0 Sacks, 1 PBU and 1 Forced Fumble. He was a one-man wrecking crew. That's the upside if you actually keep him clean like other linebackers out there.
Dude is gonna get eaten alive by the TEs, he is great agianst the run though, Zach got dragged around the field for 10 years God love em, Borland is way slower than Zach was - c'mon people 
:. CK :yourock: