Ohio State football: 3 takeaways from win vs. Arkansas State
By Ryan Stano
We don’t know how good the Ohio State football team’s defense is yet
Two games into the season and we aren’t sure just how good this Buckeye defense is yet. They allowed the Red Wolves to score 12 points, which is two more than Notre Dame did the week before. The problem with that is Notre Dame isn’t very good either.
We found out that Notre Dame stinks after they lost at home to Marshall. Marshall actually scored more points than the Buckeyes did too. Ohio State shut out the Fighting Irish in the second half, but what does that really mean? Is the defense good for is Notre Dame just that bad/
The Buckeyes played great run defense against Arkansas State on Saturday, but the passing defense was suspect. That was particularly the case when the Red Wolves went after Denzel Burke, who has had a rough start to the season.
There’s no question that the defense has improved from last year. Even in two games we can see that. The question is how much they have improved. Are they a top-10 defense? Top-20? Can they be relied upon in a game against an opponent who’s actually good?
We likely won’t find out until late in the schedule. Wisconsin lost on Saturday too, so Ohio State’s only real challenge left on the schedule is TTUN. The Buckeyes have plenty of time between now and then to find out how much this defense has improved.
The final takeaway from this game has to do with the Big Ten at large.