Some glass half full thoughts going into one of the biggest games of the season:

• Sandwich Game: Going into 2024, I think we all pointed out this Nebraska game as a tricky sandwich game between OU and PSU. Nebraska is a well-coached team. Even after getting clobbered at IU, they were top 10 in SP+ on defense. I'm not saying yesterday was acceptable, but Nebraska's beatdown against Indiana combined with our frustration coming off a bye week dramatically skewed expectations.
   
• Winning Clunkers: Good teams win when they don't play well. UGA barely beat an awful Kentucky team 13-12. Penn State had a four-quarter dog fight against Bowling Green. Alabama beat a 4-3 South Carolina team 27-25. Oregon only beat Idaho by 10 and Boise State by 3. We all know all of those teams are capable of better football than they showed in these games. I'm willing to put Ohio State into that column.
   
• The Defense Answered: Ohio State's defense got put in awful positions yesterday and performed well.
  • Nebraska averaged 4.13 yards per play (OSU's woeful offense averaged over 6 by comparison). 
  • Ohio State forced a negative play on 26% of Nebraska's snaps (TFL, sack, or INT)
  • Nebraska had 12 drives. OSU forced 8 punts. They gave up one lengthy TD drive but held Nebraska to field goals on the 3 other possessions.
  • Michigan this year is Exhibit A as to how a great defense can look bad if the offense isn't doing its job. OSU was not playing complimentary football at all yesterday.  We ran 53 plays and had five three-and-outs. We kept running our defense out there and they answered.
     
• Zen's Injury Might be a Silver Lining: I don't wish injury on any kid in the program, but Zen getting injured is going to force Day to switch what clearly wasn't working. I imagine they will bump Jackson out to tackle. I'd also trust Chip to have more protection for the left side. Oregon made similar shuffles to their OL in the first few weeks and figured it out.
   
• Penn State is Banged Up: Penn State lost their starting QB (Allar), their best defensive end (Dani Dennis Sutton), and their right tackle (Donkoh) to injuries yesterday against Wisconsin. This is on top of their All-American safety KJ Winston being out for I think the year, as well as one of their best WRs being out (Saunders) in an already thin WR room.
   
• I Trust Chip Kelly: We kind of had a clunker against Marshall as well. It happens. The next week I saw a ton of creativity in the run and pass game. I trust Chip Kelly to incorporate Egbuka, Smith, and Howard in the rung game. I also think we go back to some more read plays where Howard throws when we have numbers. I think this offensive coaching staff and team figures it out.

All in all I think we are overreacting to yesterday. I think we beat Penn State in a dog fight. GO BUCKS.