3 reasons Ohio State will get revenge against Clemson

2. The Buckeyes will be underrated.

It’s been a short and sweet season for the Buckeyes who were threatened many times by the possibility of it being too short to achieve their goals. With the season being so short, it was not surprising to see many eyebrows raised once the Buckeyes were called into the playoff with just six wins. The two things that cannot be disputed though are the Buckeyes’ undefeated record and the fact they played the best their conference had to offer.

There was not anything else the Buckeyes do otherwise to prove their worthiness but most importantly is there’s no other team who is remotely deserving of their place. Conversation about Texas A&M deserving the Buckeyes’ spot is bogus considering they got torched by current playoff contender Alabama. Texas A&M has not defeated Alabama since 2012 and the Crimson Tide’s margin of victory has not lightened in the past three seasons. Texas A&M has never even made it to a conference championship game let alone win one.

A short and easy season has allowed the Buckeyes a great opportunity to withhold some of their true strengths for worthy opponents. For the majority of the Buckeyes’ games, they’ve been able to play basic vanilla football to earn a victory. Now, they will be able to play all their trump cards which have been unused until now. There is certainly much more to this Buckeyes team that meets the eye considering the great talent they exhibit all throughout the roster.

Unfortunately, the Buckeyes had to play one of their trump cards against Northwestern due to missing quite a few star players. The explanation for why the Buckeyes were so hesitant to run the ball early against Northwestern was because they wanted to keep Sermon’s fantastic running ability a secret until they needed it. Everyone already knew that Fields was a star so it was beneficial to allow him to handle most of the work until backup was necessary. Imagine if the Buckeyes would have been able to wait to unleash Sermon against Clemson?

Clemson has been known for their great defense as much as any of the top teams including Alabama and Ohio State. However, the Tigers’ defense has regressed a bit this season compared to last. The Tigers were ranked second in scoring defense last season and are now outside the top ten. Their defense is not weak by any stretch but it has not gotten any better which is encouraging for a Buckeye offense that may have sneakily gotten better since last season and with less injuries. Expect the Buckeyes to have some surprises in store when they face Clemson.