Ohio State Football: Defense shows stark improvement

The Ohio State Football team beat Indiana 23-3 on Saturday afternoon. While the offense looked bad and in dire need of improvement, Jim Knowles’ unit had a great day. In fact, they were the clear bright spot for the Buckeyes in the Week 1 victory on the road.

The Buckeyes allowed just three points and 153 yards of total offense against the Hoosiers. After an entire offseason stewing how they were the unit that blew the game against Georgia, the defense came out with fire in their belly and really played well.

One of the players who stood out to me in this game is Josh Proctor. Proctor is a guy that I didn’t expect to see much of this season. He hasn’t really been that good in his 5+ years in the program, with this being his sixth. He was outstanding on Saturday afternoon though.

Proctor finished the game with 4 tackles, 1 tackle for loss, and a pass defended. Three of his four tackles were really great and made me surprised that he was the one out there making plays. If he’s going to be that effective, you can’t take him off the field.

Denzel Burke also stood out in the secondary. He had two passes defended as well and was blanketing receivers all game long. He looked more like 2021 Burke instead of 2022 Burke. That’s the kind of player the Ohio State Football team needs at corner.

Sonny Styles had himself a good game in his first action as a starter too. he had 4 tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss. Styles is a player that is going to make a lot of impact plays in his career. This was just the start of things for him. He’s one of my favorite guys on this defense.

This is a defense that came out motivated and ready to play. It’s the kind of effort that shows me this unit is ready to finally pull its weight. They just have to keep it up.