I was searching around through mock drafts, last year’s all B1G teams, and the one good preseason all-B1G team that I could find. From all of that, it’s clear that OSU is talented (no kidding), but they don’t stick out as being more talented than in years previous.
A site with mock draft compilations:
https://www.nflmockdraftdatabase.com/mock-drafts/2020
Browsing through it, Young and Okudah are consensus top-ten picks in this years draft, and Dobbins is expected to go in the second round. They are the only ones projected to go in the first two rounds. In 2021, which I can only find first round mocks for, Fields is expected to be a top pick, and some mocks have Thayer Munford or Tuf Borland also getting selected. That isn’t a ton of players for OSU standards.
Last year’s all-B1G team:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_All-Big_Ten_Conference_football_team
Dobbins (2nd team coaches), K.J. Hill (3rd team media), Young (2nd coaches, 3rd media), and Jordan Fuller (2nd media) are the only players that returned this year for Ohio State. Again, nothing to sneeze at, but not astonishing.
Preseason all-B1G team:
https://athlonsports.com/college-football/big-ten-football-2019-all-conference-team
Ohio State is well represented, but does not stand out as being far and away better than every other team.
The takeaway from all of this is that Ohio State is better than usual for three possible reasons: 1) The coaching is better (appears to be true). 2) While the top end talent doesn’t jump out, there is more depth than in the past (not sure if true). 3) They are simply playing very well (true).
With all that being said, Ohio State is more talented than Penn State but not in an overwhelming manner that would preclude a competitive game. If we play our A game (we’ve only done so for a few halves at a time), and Ohio State plays their C game, we should win.
We can all imagine what our A game looks like: Clifford plays well, running game is established with Cain and Brown, play calling isn’t terrible, front 7 continues to hold strong against the run, Gross-Matos and Windsor have good days, and the secondary plays like it did during the first half of the season.
As for how Ohio State might end up playing its C game: We can hope that they are a little overconfident coming into this game. Dobbins’ comment sounds like it was in jest, but if we’re lucky, it reflects the actual attitude of the Buckeyes’ locker-room. But the simplest way for us to make them play bad is to make their quarterback play bad. Here are the most obvious ways it could happen: 1) More talent and more complex scheming than Fields has seen before (not including his limited snaps at Georgia). 2) He gets hit a lot, and he reacts poorly. 3) We make it a close game, and he reacts poorly. 4) The weather is crappy, and he reacts poorly. I’m not saying that any of those will happen, but they are possibilities. And even if Fields reacts well to those challenges, the rest of the team is also capable of faltering, too.
Before any lurking OSU fans jump on me for talking about their team without the proper reverence, keep in mind that this is a Penn State board and that I am presenting the glass half-full case for a Penn State victory. Sure, I could also make a long list of reasons why OSU will win, but what’s the point when everyone already thinks that Ohio State will win?