Ohio State Football: Bye week comes at bad time for OSU

Normally, bye weeks are good. They allow you to get healthier and get some rest. They help you mentally reset and get ready for the grind of the rest of the season. For the Ohio State football team, the bye could not come at a worse time for them.

The Buckeyes have been hitting their stride the last few weeks. They have played three straight dominant games and have looked increasingly better every week. They have some great momentum going and it’s a shame that the momentum now stops with a bye week.

Of course, the bye week will help further heal C.J. Strod’s shoulder and Haskell Garrett’s leg. Those two injuries are extremely important in terms of getting healed up. But the team was playing the best football they have all season long and it sucks they now have to stop.

The good news is that they can use the game immediately following the bye to re-ramp up before they finish with a brutal stretch of games. They play IU the week right after the bye in Bloomington in a game that they shouldn’t have too many problems with.

After that game, they play a Penn State team that is coming off their first loss of the season. There is an excellent chance that this game ends up being a night game in the Shoe, so the Buckeyes will need to be in top form for that game.

While I’m not saying the Ohio State football team will overlook IU in any way, they can use the bye week to help prepare for Penn State as much as they are the Hoosiers. Ohio State needs to show the rest of the country that they are the best team in the Big Ten.

For now though, it’s rest and recuperation. A little rest might not be the worst thing in the world.