Ohio State Football: Why successful season includes going undefeated

Every year the Ohio State football team is expected to win the Big Ten and make the College Football Playoff. This year add going undefeated as well.

Entering every year, Ohio State has goals of winning the Big Ten, making the College Football Playoff and ultimately winning the national championship. Anything short of these goals taints the season and leaves it less successful than it could have been.

This year I would add another goal to the list of must have in order to be truly successful – go undefeated in the regular season.

Now I don’t think that one loss would put us out of the playoffs – in fact all of the original goals would still be achievable for the Buckeyes with a loss. I do think that in order to break national perception Ohio State must win every game left on their schedule.

In both 2017 and 2018 the Buckeyes suffered embarrassing losses. Not just to teams with less talent but Ohio State got dominated and blown out in both those games. This has started to become a national identity for the Buckeyes.

ESPN just did an article about what question marks top teams still have and they had this to say about Ohio State.

"Can this year’s team avoid a 2018 Purdue repeat?The only question about this team at this point is whether it’s going to have its 2018 Purdue moment and get tripped up along the way to the conference championship game and a potential playoff berth. The Boilermakers took down No. 2-ranked Ohio State 49-20 in the eighth game of last season, which ultimately kept the Buckeyes out of the playoffs. Ohio State is currently 7-0, ranked No. 3 in the AP poll and once again looking like a playoff contender. However, this eighth game is against Wisconsin, which is coming off a bad loss to Illinois and potentially looking for redemption and a bounce-back to prove it is the top team in the conference."

Ohio State has to beat this narrative, and the 2019 version looks like the best team to do it. This team has been dominate on both sides of the ball regardless of who they have played.

There have been few question marks other than health so far this season. And Ohio State has played better than any other team left on the schedule.

In order then for the Buckeyes to avoid a “Purdue” they have to win every game. Any loss would be viewed as losing to a team far below where they are playing, even Wisconsin and Penn State.

Ohio State has to have adjusted priorities this year and winning every game is a non-negotiable. Fair or not, this team has the added burden of erasing the ghosts of Iowa and Purdue, and so far they seem up to the task.