This week, in many ways, feels like a brief victory lap for Ohio State.
The Buckeyes are riding high off a 20-13 win on the road over No. 3 Penn State and coasting into a home contest with 1-7 Purdue, who has yet to beat an FBS opponent this season. That's not the sentiment expressed by head coach Ryan Day, however.
Day's first words after fielding his first question on his weekly appearance on 97.1 the Fan's Buckeye Roundtable show was that the Buckeyes are "already on to Purdue." Using the phrase "humility is one week away" multiple times, Day expressed an urgency to continue refining his team's performance even against what is perceived as weaker competition.
While Day was happy with how his team won the game against Penn State in the fourth quarter, he wants to see more precision throughout ballgames to set his team up better. That will be the focus as Ohio State's season marches forward.
- On how satisfying the Penn State win was: "We're already on to Purdue, but great to see our guys finish out the game the way we did. ... But this win only allows us an opportunity to reach our goals."
- Day enjoyed how his team answered adversity in the fourth quarter on the road in Beaver Stadium. "When you get to the fourth quarter, the bottom line is, you've got to go win the game. ... To our guys' credit, they handled that the right way the last two weeks. And it doesn't matter what's happened up to that point ... you have to go win the game."
- On Ohio State's defense against the Nittany Lions: "There were some things coming out of the Oregon game ... we felt like we had to get aligned faster. ... The adjustments have been made, but they need to continue to be made. ... You've got to be on your stuff, you've got to upgrade on a weekly basis, but also it comes down to fundamentals. ... But humility is one week away, and we've got to make sure we show up against Purdue and play great football."
- The discipline on the offensive line allowed Ohio State to mix up snap counts and throw off the timing of Penn State's defensive line, Day said. "One of the things we really wanted to do was not have any penalties on the offensive line. No false starts, no holding calls, they did that. They stepped up in a big way. ... It helped us throughout the game because they knew we could use multiple cadences."
- On the physicality Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson showed as blockers: "The running backs both played very well when the ball was not in their hands. ... Then they also ran hard, ran really hard in the fourth quarter. ... That's what we need. That's who we are and that's going to be our identity moving forward. ... Precision will be very, very much at the forefront of what we do."
- On Purdue: "I know they've played well the last few weeks and have played some good teams really, really tough. ... This is a Big Ten opponent that's coming in here and humility is one week away. ... We saw last week against Nebraska, they came in and played really tough ... we've got to continue to build."
