There’s no sugarcoating Ohio State’s defensive play against Oregon, but we still think the Buckeyes can achieve all of their goals.

Ohio State’s defense was bad against Oregon, especially when considering what this year’s defense is supposed to be with all of the talent the Buckeyes have on that side of the ball. The Buckeyes’ defense gave up way too many big plays without making big plays themselves, allowing eight plays of 25 yards or more while recording zero sacks and zero takeaways.

We still believe Ohio State’s defense can be the best in the country, but the Buckeyes must take full advantage of their bye week to figure out why they haven’t played up to their talent and improve accordingly.

Ohio State was much better on the other side of the ball against Oregon, with Will Howard having a great game aside from his mistake on the final play, but Josh Simmons’ likely season-ending injury looms large as the Buckeyes must figure out a way to replace arguably their most irreplaceable player at left tackle.

All of that said, Ohio State still effectively controls its own destiny in the Big Ten and College Football Playoff races, and we still expect the Buckeyes to prevail as Big Ten and possibly national champions – though they no longer have a mulligan to work with as they enter the second half of the regular season, which includes four challenging games even though we think Oregon is the toughest opponent Ohio State will face until the CFP.

We discuss all of that and more, including our thoughts on the controversial pass interference penalty against Jeremiah Smith, Dan Lanning’s clever gamesmanship and Ryan Day’s late-game clock management, on our Oregon post-mortem/midseason bye week episode of Real Pod Wednesdays.

• 0:00 Intro
• 0:28 Andy’s Prevailing Thoughts on the Oregon Loss: Defense Disappoints, Will Howard Impresses
• 5:28 Josh Simmons’ Injury Hurts Ohio State’s Outlook More Than the Oregon Loss
• 8:27 No Sacks, No Takeaways and Eight 25+ Yard Plays Allowed: A Bad Combination
• 11:25 We Weren’t Confident OSU’s Defense Would Make A Late Stop, Which Sums Up How It Played
• 14:10 Ohio State’s Defense Still Has the Talent to Be the Nation’s Best, But Must Figure Out Fixes
• 17:09 One Game Shouldn’t Define Denzel Burke, But Jermaine Mathews Jr. Should Get More Reps
• 22:06 Pass Interference Call Was Questionable, But We Tip Our Hats to Dan Lanning’s Gamesmanship
• 31:22 Was Throwing in Field Goal Range A Mistake or Should Ryan Day’s Aggressiveness Be Lauded?
• 34:37 Why Andy Thinks the Narrative About Ohio State’s Final Drive in 2022 Peach Bowl is Unfair
• 36:46 Ryan Day’s Late-Game Clock Management Needs to Be Better, But Everything’s Easier in Hindsight
• 39:35 Ohio State Has Used Its Mulligan, But Still Controls Its Destiny in Big Ten and CFP Races
• 44:13 Options to Replace Josh Simmons: Zen Michalski, Austin Siereveld and Donovan Jackson?
• 49:30 National Championship Confidence Has Decreased, But We’re Still Picking OSU to Achieve Its Goals
• 55:35 Andy Will Spend His Bye-Week Saturday Playing Football