Ohio State vs. the top 25

I was looking at the top 25 and thinking there are a lot of teams behind the Buckeyes that are better due to the current state of our defense.  This team has obvious issues vs the spread offense due to their lack of playmakers at linebacker and safety so I thought it might be fun to predict how the team would do against the rest of the top 25.

L  Alabama Crimson Tide – We’d do better than Michigan but not by much
L  Oregon Ducks – The defense would struggle to stop them
-   Florida Gators – I think we could hang with them as they played the same D last year and our O is better
W Kansas St. Wildcats – Snyder is a miracle worker but we win this one
L  Notre Dame Fighting Irish – Their D could stop us which would let them score enough to win
L  LSU Tigers – This is mainly on reputation as I’m not convinced yet that this team is for real
L  South Carolina Gamecocks – See LSU
W Oregon St. Beavers  - I don’t see it happening
L   Oklahoma Sooners They have the offensive firepower to beat us
-    Ohio St. Buckeyes – This would be a tie but a high scoring tie
-    Florida St. Seminoles – It depends on which Seminole team shows up.
L   USC Trojans This is a talented team and USC always shows up for the big games
L   Georgia Bulldogs – This is a talented team that seems to choke.  Cooperesque.
W  Mississippi St. Bulldogs -  I refuse to believe the 6th best team in the SEC is better than the Buckeyes
W  Louisville Cardinals – Big East teams are always overrated due to their schedule
-    Clemson Tigers – Boyd might win this game
-    West Virginia Mountaineers – Whoever scores last gets the Heisman
W    Texas Tech Red Raiders – Based mainly on their win vs West Virginia.  They won’t finish this high.
W    Rutgers Scarlet Knights - See Louisville
W    Texas A&M Aggies   - This is a decent team but not enough on offense to beat the Buckeyes
W    Cincinnati Bearcats  - See Louisville
W    Stanford Cardinal -
W    Ohio Bobcats – They might pull an upset but I doubt it
W    TCU Horned Frogs – They just lost their best player on offense.
-     Michigan Wolverines – This is always a tough game and Denard vs this Defense is scary.

I didn’t put a ton of thought into it and if I cared enough I would have looked at the stats for each team and offensive philosophies.  My guess is our record would be 11-8-6 vs the top 25.  Before the season I would have taken a team that good in a second. I just didn’t think the thing holding us back would be our defense.

We don’t deserve to go any higher until the defense puts back to back decent performances together.  Which I can’t imagine is going to happen based on what I’ve seen so far this season.