Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Last season- OHio State struggled with teams that had these 3 things:
1 were highly talented
2. Could run the ball physically
3. Had Offensive coordinators who knew how to take advantage of their completely predictable, vanilla defensive scheme. 
They lost 2 of those games and nearly lost 2 others ( Utah, Nebraska)

I assumed they would improve those things this season with the coaching changes to defense and the offensive line. But I didn’t know how long those things would take to be visible. 

I also thought, and said, ND will be as good as anyone on the schedule on both lines, so they would slow the game down and run clock and make OSU drive the whole field patiently.  (PFF has ND listed as one of the nations best O-lines and D-lines)

OSU showed dramatic improvement on running when the opponent knows your running, stopping the run, and making it difficult to call offensive plays, because the defense is disguised.

when you have a 5 week stretch-  of 4 teams known to be physical on your schedule- that can wear a team down. ( Wisconsin, Iowa, MSU, and Penn State)

Based on what I saw Saturday, they look substantially more prepared to wether that than they did last season. 

The winning trends you mention are great. But it won’t mean anything during the actual game.  Just like their winning streak against UM last season didn’t help them from being physically pushed around all day. 

Why is this so hard for you to understand?

Stats tell a story, but there is nuance and momentum and human aspects to the real games.

Did I not call the style of game versus ND correctly?  Again- look at Georgia’s first game last season- a 10-3 win over Clemson.

Teams look different in week 5-6 than they do in Week 1. 

Now if they don’t look any different against the lessor teams in terms of offensive explosiveness- I will start to feel differently.  But based on that one game, how it played out, the quality of the opponent- I am very optimistic that they will be hard to beat by any style of team.

• Limiting big plays defensively: They weren't bad at this on Saturday but that first play stung and they were oh-so-close to blowing that up. First, they almost got Buchner. Second, they were in position to bat the ball down. Third, the safety who came up to cover the WR hit the WR right as he caught the ball, trying to break up the pass. That was a mistake on his part. If there is someone behind you to contain then go for the INT/PBU but if not (as in this case) then you shouldn't take that risk because if you miss then you give up a ton of yards (54 in this case and the catch/contact was only about 8 yards from the LOS).
• Explosiveness offensively in the running game. Henderson and Williams combined for 29 carries for 175 yards which is fine. That is an average of just over 6 per but their four longest runs were 16, 15, 12, and 12. Break one for an extra 60 in there and you get 29 for 235 for an average of over 8.
• Explosiveness offensively in the passing game. I assume this will come with JSN and Fleming returning but averaging <10 per catch and <7 per attempt isn't very scary to opposing defenses.

MB - although this could be its own thread, I always welcome a chance to sabotage a Buckeye thread. 😜