Ohio State wasn’t perfect against Iowa, but its defense sure came close.

Even though the Buckeyes didn’t have their best offensive day against Iowa, they still scored more points than a Kirk Ferentz-led Hawkeye team has ever allowed. Given that, the good certainly far outweighed the bad in Ohio State’s 54-10 win over Iowa, especially on defense – where Dan’s prediction that the defense would outscore Iowa’s offense came true – though there are reasonable questions to be asked about Ohio State’s rushing offense after the Buckeyes struggled in that regard on Saturday.

We spend the first half of this week’s show sharing our thoughts on the Buckeyes’ performance against the Hawkeyes before looking ahead to the biggest game of the season to date this week at Penn State. How much of a threat do the Nittany Lions really pose? We discuss the ways in which Penn State will challenge Ohio State and where the Buckeyes should have the advantage.

Finally, with less than two weeks to go until the start of basketball season, we draft dueling lineups from the Ohio State men’s basketball team for a hypothetical head-to-head game of Buckeyes vs. Buckeyes.

The full rundown of what we’re talking about this week:

• 0:00: A new introduction courtesy of Jim Knowles
• 0:57: We expected the defense to dominate Iowa, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t impressive
• 4:47: Is Zach Harrison another alpha dog on the defensive line? He sure played like one Saturday
• 8:24: Ohio State’s new defensive coaches are getting the best out of players like Harrison, Tommy Eichenberg and Lathan Ransom
• 11:49: Denzel Burke seems to have turned a corner in Ohio State’s last two games
• 13:27: Ohio State had one of its worst running games in the last decade against Iowa
• 17:21: Does C.J. Stroud need to run the ball more to keep defenses honest? Ryan Day might not want him to
• 22:07: Jaxon Smith-Njigba wants to play as much as he can, but he needs to be healthy to actually help
• 28:31: Caden Curry goes from playing high school defensive tackle to covering kickoffs in one year
• 29:42: Penn State’s performance against Minnesota showed we can’t write off the Nittany Lions, particularly their passing offense
• 34:15: Penn State’s secondary might be the best Ohio State has faced this year
• 36:49: The Nittany Lions’ run defense looks vulnerable to a bounceback performance for Ohio State’s rushing offense
• 38:29: Why we both think Ohio State will cover against Penn State (with nearly identical score predictions)
• 41:31: Why we’re both currently picking Georgia, Ohio State, Clemson and another SEC team to make CFP
• 47:10: Where Dan thinks Ohio State will be in the initial CFP rankings if it beats Penn State (which might make Buckeye fans mad)
• 48:13: Drafting dueling lineups from the Ohio State men’s basketball team