COLUMBUS, Ohio — Back in the summer, when Ohio State football coach Ryan Day and coordinator Jim Knowles were one-upping each other’s lofty standards for the defense, the whole thing seemed somewhat academic. Top 10, top five, whatever. The Buckeye offense was going to rain points on the Big Ten like a monsoon. So if Knowles’ first OSU defense merely held its own and gave the ball back to that machine as often as possible, that might be sufficient to chase a championship. As evidenced by Saturday’s 54-10 victory over Iowa, Knowles and his players opted not to settle for passable. Ohio State accomplished something remarkable Saturday – a singular achievement in all of college football in 2022. It convinced Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz to stop trotting out the battered corpse of Spencer Petras and let someone else play quarterback. Merely limiting Iowa’s limp offense would not have been sufficient.…
Continue Reading: Ohio State football’s defense buried Iowa, proving it can stymie Georgia or Clemson later
