Ohio State football: Everything you need to know about Toledo

The Ohio State football team plays their second home night game in three weeks when the Rockets of Toledo come in this week to face the Buckeyes. It’s an odd night game, but a game that can be useful to the Buckeyes nonetheless because it comes right before the Big Ten season starts.

Toledo comes in with a familiar face on their top-five-rated defense. That guy is linebacker Dallas Gant, who transferred to Toledo in the offseason from the Ohio State football program. He’s someone that is now a starter for the Rockets and is playing a lot.

While Toledo is a highly-ranked defense, their competition has not been stiff. Toledo has played Long Island and UMass in their first two games. Not exactly a gauntlet. In those two games, they have allowed just 10 total points though, so their defense can’t be entirely ignored.

I still expect Ohio State to be able to do whatever they want offensively in this game. They get two of their weapons back on the outside, but I’d still like to see them try to establish the run early. They’re going to need higher production out of their running game than they’ve gotten so far in the first two weeks.

Defensively, I will be watching the secondary very closely. Josh Proctor had a much better game against Arkansas State than he did in the opener against Notre Dame. It was surprising that he got the start and he took advantage of it. I’m eager to see if he can do more of the same this week.

Additionally, Denzel Burke has had a rough go of it so far in 2022. His coaches gave him a vote of confidence today so we’ll see if that helps at all. I’d like to see Burke play some better ball on Saturday. They are going to need him down the stretch.

This game should be a blowout, but it can still be very valuable for a team that still has things they need to work on.