| The shine has come off this one in a hurry thanks to a pair of losses from Penn State, where the offense looked absolutely anemic without a fully healthy Sean Clifford. The line this week seems to reflect that he still isn't healthy, but absent hearing anything further, I generally assume guys are either going to play or not, so for these purposes, I'm going to assume he's good to go. He better be, because as good as the Nittany Lions defense is, and it is probably the best in the conference, if your offense still can't put up enough points to outscore Iowa and Illinois, good lord, how can they possibly expect to keep up with the Buckeyes. Oregon held them to 28, back when their offense didn't look like it did now...and it was barely enough. Even if Penn State can repeat that, which I think they can, Penn State is a better defense, and that Oregon team was missing Kayvon Thibodeaux, I'm not sure the Nittany Lions can get to 35. And no Big Ten team has held the Ohio State offense to under 45 points. And when Minnesota did that, we questioned what was wrong with their offense. Oddly, this is the third time in program history that Ohio State has scored 50+ points in four consecutive games. The two prior times were 2014 and 2017, and both times they had to play Penn State to get that program record setting fifth straight. Both times Penn State ended the streak, but both times Ohio State still won the game. Why we have gone from wondering if this is the year someone jumps up and keeps the Buckeyes out of the Big Ten Championship Game, to penciling them back into the playoff is the defense. Ohio State doesn't have to be great on defense, but after Minnesota and Oregon shredded them to start the year, we legitimately wondered how bad they could be. They still lack the elite pass rusher to erase the other holes that they've had annually, but the linebacker play has really been a pleasant surprise, with Ronnie Hickman taking a massive leap forward, and converted running back Steele Chambers looking like a natural. The secondary is still a little too dependent on turnovers though. The Nittany Lions' hopes hinge entirely on Sean Clifford being 100%, and the lines, both of them, but particularly the defensive line, have to shake off last week. The Buckeye running game is fairly big play dependent, so they have to bottle them hope, and rely on a secondary, which is leading the nation in opposing yards per attempt (4.9) and is second, behind Washington, in yards per completion (9.0) |
