Ohio State football: 5 reasons the Buckeyes will beat Iowa
By Alec Hartman
4. The Buckeyes’ defense will make life difficult for first year quarterback Nathan Stanley.
Ohio State’s secondary has been exploitable at times this season but it takes a sure signal-caller in order to do so.
Since week three, only one quarterback has thrown for over 200 yards against the Bucks’ defense. No, that was not PSU’s Trace McSorley. Nebraska’s Tanner Lee managed 300 yards mostly in garbage time during the Buckeyes’ 52-14 blowout win.
Stanley has played reasonably well this season. In fact, he was almost the lead man in pulling off an upset against the Nittany Lions a couple weeks back. Stanley largely outplayed McSorley by throwing for almost 200 yards and two touchdowns.
More from Ohio State Buckeyes
- Ohio State losing Quinn Ewers a week after the Michigan loss is bad optics
- Ohio State football: CFP still possible as long as defense not hot mess
- Ohio State football: Once C.J. Stroud settled in, Minnesota was done
- Ohio State basketball: Aaron Craft back in uniform for Buckeyes
- 2021 NFL Draft chatter: Justin Fields falls into Patriots laps after trade up?
The Hawkeyes look to have the beginnings of a solid quarterback in Stanley but he simply won’t hold up against a constantly improving Buckeye defensive front. Defensive ends Sam Hubbard and Nick Bosa have been great this season recording 16.5 combined tackles for loss. Hubbard had 1.5 tackles for loss in the last game alone against Penn State.
Stanley may have shown some promise so far this season but all of that will come to an end at least for this week. Greg Schiano and the Bucks’ defensive staff will be sure to dial up some pressure to force Stanley into making the tough decisions. It will be very difficult for him to sustain productivity all game against the Bucks’ defensive front which will ultimately give the Bucks a decided advantage down the stretch.