EUGENE, Ore. — Ohio State’s defense got a ton of positive press clippings in the offseason and they were all deserved. Not anymore.
It was OK to look at a group bringing back so much talent and experience and think that maybe the Buckeyes could have a historic group that no offense could penetrate.
It was OK to think that passing the ball on this unit wasn’t a good idea because of all the weapons in the secondary.
It was OK to think the pressure would come in abundance from the front seven because even if your linebackers were young, they were darn good. Give them a few games to figure it out and they’d be ready to go by the time OSU headed to Oregon.
Not anymore.
The Buckeyes lost that benefit of the doubt Saturday night thanks to a 32-31 loss where it felt like the Ducks did practically whatever they wanted. It never seemed like Dillon Gabriel felt the presence of a defensive line featuring a bevy of former highly rated recruits with plenty of snaps under their belt.
The defensive backs — especially Denzel Burke — often looked like the inferior unit going up against wide receivers who hadn’t shown anything that suggested they were true downfield threats. Yet Gabriel had no problem launching it down the field on the way to 341 yards and two touchdowns, plus a 27-yard rushing touchdown.
Then there’s the crazy amount of defensive line substitutions that never made much sense. But maybe that’s a story that’s worth its own headline at some point.
This defense was supposed to be the backbone of a 2024 Ohio State team with national title aspirations. Instead, it’s been a unit that’s spent multiple weeks showing us that maybe there were cracks in the armor that we didn’t want to see, and all it needed was a worthy opponent that could actually make it pay for those flaws.
This is a new era of college football. This loss doesn’t kill anything for the Buckeyes. It just makes that journey a little longer now that Oregon takes a commanding lead in the Big Ten standings. The conference now goes through a team that has only played three games as part of the league.
This defense hasn’t lived up to the hype. Halfway through the season and headed into a second bye week, we have to acknowledge that going forward.
Jim Knowles’ unit doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt anymore. When the Buckeyes return to the field on Oct. 26 to face Nebraska they’ll do so while having to again reestablish themselves as an elite defense.
No more talking about how good you think this group might be. It’s time for them to actually go out there and prove it.
