Real Pod Wednesdays: How Ohio State Impressed Us at Purdue and What We Expect from Ohio State vs. Penn State

Ohio State played one of its most complete games of the season against Purdue, but a much bigger test awaits this week against Penn State.

We spend the first half of this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays breaking down what impressed us most from Ohio State’s 41-7 rout of Purdue, including the performance of Dallan Hayden (and why Ohio State should scrap its plan to redshirt Hayden), more creativity in the run game on offense and the play of Ohio State’s defensive ends, Cody Simon, Davison Igbinosun and Jermaine Mathews Jr. on defense – all the while analyzing how everything we saw against Purdue could translate to the Buckeyes’ next game against the Nittany Lions.

In the second half of the show, we preview this week’s top-10 matchup at Ohio Stadium, identifying the biggest challenges Penn State will present to the Buckeyes and where Ohio State could have advantages in the biggest game of the season to date for the scarlet and gray.

The full rundown for our post-Purdue, pre-Penn State edition of RPW:

0:17: The Big Ten tiebreakers don’t favor Ohio State, making this week’s game a must-win for Buckeyes
4:49: Dallan Hayden should have a bigger role and shouldn’t redshirt after his performance at Purdue
14:15: Different concepts in the run game, including quarterback runs, led to better results than before
22:11: Will Carnell Tate and Brandon Inniss see more playing time after making big plays vs. Purdue?
26:06: Cody Simon is pushing Steele Chambers for his starting job, but both will continue to play
30:12: JT Tuimoloau is getting into a groove and Jack Sawyer also had his best game vs. Purdue
33:28: Denzel Burke would be tough to replace, but Ohio State has other capable cornerbacks
37:26: Penn State’s defense presents a major test for Ohio State’s offense
42:33: Drew Allar has been efficient, but Penn State’s passing offense hasn’t been explosive
44:25: Ohio State’s receivers are its biggest advantage, offensive line is its biggest concern
48:48: This game likely comes down to who wins the line of scrimmage (on both sides)
50:48: Who does Ohio State most need healthy: Denzel Burke, Emeka Egbuka or TreVeyon Henderson?
56:10: Our confidence percentages that Ohio State will win and score predictions

You can listen to Real Pod Wednesdays in the audio player at the top of the page or subscribe to RPW on your podcast listening platform of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts) to stream each week’s episode.