Ohio State’s Defense Establishes Its Elite Standing By Carrying Ohio State to Another Big-Game Win

Going into Saturday’s game at Ohio Stadium, Penn State’s defense was widely considered to be the best in the country. Coming out of Saturday’s game, Ohio State’s defense can stake its own claim for being the best in the nation.

The Buckeyes’ defense was nothing short of dominant against the Nittany Lions. Until Penn State’s final drive of the game, which came at a point when Ohio State should have been up by three scores with under three minutes left to play if not for a missed field goal by Jayden Fielding, Ohio State held the Nittany Lions to only 167 yards of offense and six points. The Buckeyes did not allow Penn State to convert any of their first 17 third- or fourth-down conversion attempts of the game.

Penn State went 1-16 (6.3%) on 3rd down in the loss vs Ohio State.
With a minimum of 15 third down attempts, that's the worst 3rd down conversion pct by any AP-ranked team in a game over the last 10 seasons. pic.twitter.com/v08lvUkv5d
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) October 21, 2023

Much like in its first marquee game of the season against Notre Dame, Ohio State needed its defense to dominate, as its offense scored only two touchdowns. The Buckeye defense delivered once again, further demonstrating its evolution into one of the elite units in college football this season as Ohio State earned a 20-12 win over an undefeated Penn State team that had scored at least 30 points in all of its first six games.

“The toughness, the physicality on defense, we started off with really stopping the run and forcing them to throw the ball. And there's a lot of people who did a lot of great things on defense,” Ryan Day said after the game. “But I gotta give Jim Knowles a lot of credit and his staff for the adjustments they’ve made. That was two top-10 wins now in the first seven games where our defense played really well, and I'm happy for our guys. I'm happy for the success they’ve had. They came off of last season with a few scars, as we all did, but you’re starting to see the confidence grow in a big way.”

Playing against an opponent whose defense entered the week ranked No. 1 in the FBS in yards allowed per game, Ohio State wanted to make a statement that the best defense on the field was actually the one wearing scarlet and gray, and that’s exactly what it did against Penn State.

“We took it personal because we feel like we're the best defense in the country, so we just had to show those guys we came here to play,” Ohio State cornerback Jordan Hancock said. “They had a lot of attention on their defense, but I feel like we just had to play with a chip on our shoulder.”

For most of Day’s Ohio State tenure, the Buckeyes have been defined by having elite offenses but subpar defenses. The latter proved to be Ohio State’s undoing last season, as the Buckeyes gave up 87 total points and 1,063 total yards in their final two games of the year against Michigan and Georgia, both of which they lost.

This year, Ohio State’s offense hasn’t performed at the same level as Day’s past teams, as the Penn State game was the third time in seven games this year that the Buckeyes were held to 23 points or fewer – already tied for the most such games in a single season since Day’s arrival in Columbus as Ohio State’s offensive coordinator in 2017. But that hasn’t yet mattered for the Buckeyes, at least not in terms of wins and losses, as they’ve been consistently able to rely on their defense.

“It means a lot,” Hancock said of the defense leading Ohio State to victories. “Maybe in the past couple of years, the offense couldn't rely on us, but that's not the case this year. And we just want to make a statement to the whole country that we can win games on defense.”

“We feel like we're the best defense in the country, so we just had to show those guys we came here to play.”– Jordan Hancock

Now more than halfway through the regular season, Ohio State has yet to allow more than two touchdowns or 17 points to any opponent this year, and Saturday was the fifth time in seven games that the Buckeyes held their opposition under 300 yards in a game. For the season as a whole, Ohio State has now allowed averages of only 10 points per game and 260 yards per game.

What’s clicked for the defense that’s allowed it to ascend to an elite level in Knowles’ second season as defensive coordinator? Knowles believes both the amount of talented veterans he has and their increased comfortability in his defensive scheme this year have a lot to do with that.

“We’ve got great leadership. We’ve got guys who want to hold up our end, guys who want to be counted on,” Knowles said. “And you throw that in with an extra year of knowledge of the scheme, that knowledge of the scheme is a really big deal. Being able to see the forest through the trees, understanding, being able to handle adjustments during the week.”

Ohio State still needs its offense to get better in order to achieve its biggest goals of beating Michigan, winning the Big Ten championship and winning the national championship. Day said as much after the game, feeling that the Buckeyes “left a lot of plays on the field today on offense.”

But Day still came out of Saturday’s game feeling great about the win and his team as a whole because he feels Ohio State has the potential to beat anyone if its defense continues playing as well as it has so far.

“That’s championship-level defense,” Day said. “And if we keep growing as a team, we’ll be tough to beat here down the road.”