Probably true.
Although I have felt OSU has looked clunky ( for lack of a better word) since their bye week. It may be at least partly due to the incredible number of serious injuries this season. The RB room, CB room and DL room have been in shambles most of the season.
Also- the narrative around them not being physical is quite far from reality.
The BIG is a physical conference. In a 5 week stretch- they beat MSU, Iowa, Wisconsin and Penn State- not to mention ND.
Yes, Georgia and UM are VERY physical teams.
But Ohio State did not lose to UM this year due to that- like they did in Ann Arbor last year.
They lost because they were not as mentally tough on that particular day- The media, and UM got into their heads. They were so focused on proving they were “ tough” that they starting making huge mental mistakes they really hadn’t made all year.
I watched a great and detailed film study of the game that was done by a Georgia analyst and he commented that it was kind of a weird game to watch Michigan win by 22 when Ohio State had beaten them on roughly 3 out of four plays.
Michigan didn’t wear them down physically.. they wore them down mentally. That’s on the coach for making the opponent bigger than they are.
But it was not the normal trend for OSU- who faced down adversity all season and responded with high quality execution.
Having said all that- what makes Georgia so damn hard to win against is not just the elite quality of their players but their level of execution on both sides of the ball is as good or better than anybody in the country. Their offense is extremely hard to stop even if you have a good defense, and their defense is hard to score run even if you have a good offense. Not much in the way of weakness there.
I hope to see Ohio State play crisp and nearly error free game. I feel like if they do that they will at least make a game of it. No hero plays- just trust your training and do your job. So for example- if your a DB, don’t overplay the run, cover your guy the way you’ve done all year, and don’t panic when the balls in the air by either falling down or not turning back to look for the ball and committing stupid pass interference. Or- if you are an OL- don’t commit false starts when Ohio State goes up-tempo like you have done all year and did repeatedly against Michigan.
Stuff like that.