Ohio State Football: Buckeye evaluation, just win baby

November football feels like March Madness. As the Ohio State football team enters the regular season’s final weeks, the message is clear: just win, baby.

The Ohio State football team is in the middle of its home stretch of the regular season, which doubles as its toughest span of games. Ohio State has passed tests against Penn State and Nebraska, earning wins with different luster or lack thereof, depending on who you talk to about the score.

However, wins do not always have to look pretty or come easy as they did in the middle portion of the schedule. Despite their records, the Nittany Lions and Cornhuskers are better than the win-loss column may indicate.

Two weeks ago, we learned how much QB Sean Clifford means to Penn State’s success, and his injury is part to blame for losses against Iowa and Illinois, though no excuse.

Furthermore, Ohio State’s nine-point margin of victory over Nebraska was Scott Frost’s team’s largest defeat of the season that has had four matchups against Top-10 opponents. The Cornhuskers are the second-highest yardage offense in the Big ten behind C.J. Stroud and the Buckeyes high octane attack, so I was pleased with the defensive performance overall.

Up next for Ryan Day’s group is the giant-killers of Purdue, which has knocked off two Top-3 teams already this season. Playing the Boilermakers is every Top-5 team’s worst nightmare, but I have a feeling whatever magic they have will not be enough to encore for the third time. Jeff Brohm had a solid group of players that are performing well, led by WR David Bell.

There will be no shortage of wide receiver talent in Columbus on Saturday, with Bell and the deepest room in the country on the opposite sideline. An under-the-radar aspect of this game is Purdue’s record – the Boilermakers are 6-3, but that includes a close contest against Notre Dame and a win over Oregon State (5-4).

I give them credit for scheduling Power 5 non-conference opponents and believe the committee should have the Boilermakers ranked tonight. Not scheduling the Fighting Irish could have positioned Purdue at 7-2 inside the Top-15 with the likes of Baylor and Mississippi State, but such is life with the Big Ten’s scheduling standards.

As for Ohio State, it is easy for fans to panic when there are red-zone struggles and inabilities to run the ball. However, these defenses are among the best in the country, so I believe these are temporary hardships. Every unit besides the safeties has been elite in at least two games on offense, defense, and special teams this season.

The play calling will improve as Ryan Day is too creative with far too many weapons at his disposal to be this vanilla. Stroud has the athleticism to be at least Dwayne Haskins, and everyone knows it. Like everything else this season, patience is required to see results – they are coming.

The most glaring issue right now is the sudden regression of the offensive line as a run-blocking unit. Could it be due to having too many Tackles on the field remains to be seen? But for the Buckeyes to win games, this has to be fixed.

Purdue is a good team coming to the Horseshoe on Saturday afternoon, but the Boilermakers are playing off an emotional win. The Buckeyes’ offense will be too much to handle in the second half. I like the Ohio State football team to win comfortably – not like the last two weeks nor during the blowout streak, but somewhere in the middle.

At this stage of the season, the way the year is trending; a win is a win. Alabama rushed for six yards against LSU last Saturday and won. Yes, Alabama ran for six yards. Nobody is head and shoulders above the rest, and every team has weak areas.

November football has embraced March Madness levels of survive-and-advance this year. With Purdue, Michigan State, and Michigan all looming, it does not have to look pretty; in fact, it could look ugly, but just win, baby.