This Ohio State Team Might Be Better Than Last Year’s National Championship Squad

Looking back at Ohio State’s schedule, it’s hard to get a read on this team. The win to start the year against Texas seems unimpressive, the win at Washington might not be as solid as we thought, and beating up on Minnesota is precisely what Ohio State should do.

Even with all of that prior knowledge, I’m starting to believe that this year's Ohio State team is better than the one that just won a national championship.

After losing Jim Knowles to Penn State this offseason and losing most of the defensive line to the NFL, the question marks for this defense were immense. Bringing in Matt Patricia to lead your defense was another questionable decision. Obviously, Patricia has coached some phenomenal defenses, most notably during his time in New England, but since then, it’s been a rockier road for him.

That’s what has made this year's defensive jump for Ohio State so impressive. He’s doing things scheme-wise that no other coach in college football is doing. It helps to have guys like Caleb Downs, Arvell Reese, Sonny Styles, and Caden Curry on your defense that you can ask to do so many different things. Specifically with Downs and Reese, the number of ways you can trick opposing offenses with how you lineup these two is the greatest gift a defensive coordinator can receive.

Also, I don’t mind watching Knowles struggle after taking the money to stay in conference. Giving up 42 points to 0-4 UCLA, uh, uh-oh.

Everyone knows Ohio State’s defense is playing at a historic level, but the offense is finally starting to play at a national championship level as well. Ryan Day remembered that he has Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate at receiver, and if you throw it to them downfield, it’s going to have a really high success rate.

This past week, especially, it was comforting to see the connection grow between Tate and Julian Sayin. Day did a great job of scheming Tate open more, and he took advantage of the extra attention Minnesota added to Smith.

It’s also not very surprising to see Max Klare’s best game coinciding with Sayin finally throwing the ball downfield. He had 5 catches for 63 yards, but more importantly, he was involved far more in the middle of the offense, showing that Day has more trust in Sayin to take riskier shots in that portion of the field.

The more we see from Sayin and Bo Jackson, the more my confidence in this team grows. The defense will be the reason Ohio State could win a championship; however, the offense will determine how great this team truly is. Next week on the road at Illinois might be a test for this team.

Which Illinois will Ohio State have to deal with? If it’s the one we’ve seen the last two weeks, then the Buckeye defense might be in for its most challenging test of the season.