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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Ohio State doesn’t have a peer in the Big Ten, and a game happening 540 miles east of its 34-10 win over Purdue proved it. The Buckeyes weren’t perfect against the Boilermakers. They were also missing some key pieces, with Ian Moore replacing Phillip Daniels at right tackle and Carnell Tate’s absence being replaced in the aggregate at wide receiver. Then you add in the amount of tinkering they did offensively, and you get a game that was never in doubt, but not always the most exciting thing to watch. OSU has chosen a methodical approach to the regular season, tinkering with things offensively and often choosing efficiency over explosiveness. That’s been by design to get through the regular season. The idea of what everyone thinks this often can be, and at times has shown it will be, is coming. Just give it two more weeks. “When it’s time to turn up the gas, we will,” head coach Ryan Day said during his weekly radio show on Thursday. “When you’re efficient and you’re playing like that, a three-score game can feel way out of reach, where I feel like maybe in the past it was like, ‘OK, we’re just getting started on the game.” Latest Ohio State Buckeyes news Ohio State football learned plenty about its offense vs. Purdue, regardless of good or bad Former Ohio State athlete faces new legal trouble after crash Ohio State is missing a valuable player against Purdue: Stephen Means’ Halftime Thoughts No. 1 Ohio State vs. Purdue: Live updates from Week 11 Ohio State’s ‘problem’ is that it’s holding back on what it will be until it gets on the stage where it’s deemed necessary to bring that side out. But there’s a team that’s supposed to be on a collision course to meet OSU in Indianapolis that just opened up a whole can of worms in a road win that exposed exactly why it’s behind the Buckeyes in the first College Football Playoff rankings. Fernando Mendoza might’ve had a Heisman Trophy moment by leading a game-winning drive in a 27-24 road win over Penn State. But that drive being necessary shows where the Hoosiers could find themselves in trouble down the road. Penn State’s season has been a failure, but it still has a depth of talent that gave it enough of an advantage to force a four-quarter game at home that finally made Curt Cignetti sweat this season. Now imagine him facing a team with even more talent, indoors, and without deadly flaws that would result in a lost season. And that team hasn’t even hit its final gear yet. The CFP committee said that its reasoning for putting Ohio State over Indiana in the first rankings essentially came down to eye talent. The Hoosiers might have the better resume, but the Buckeyes look like the better team. Week 11 backed up those feelings. OSU is spending this entire month building up to November. 29 game against Michigan, where everyone is expecting — and borderline demanding — that it finally unleash its true self for good. What it does in he games leading up to that doesn’t actually matter because neither Purdue, UCLA nor Rutgers is anywhere near good enough to actually make them sweat. Indiana thought it was in the same boat, but a trip to State College proved differently, even if it still escaped with a win. Nothing has changed in terms of what teams are expected to be in the Big Ten Championship Game. All that both sides have to do is keep taking care of business and that game will ultimately decide the No. 1 seed in the playoff, the conference’s champion and perhaps even the Heisman Trophy. But two games more than 500 miles apart revealed that there are still levels to this. Maybe nobody belongs on the same tier as the Buckeyes, and the only thing standing in their way is a rival living in their head rent-free.
