Ohio State Makes A Statement Against Wisconsin Even as Questions Linger with Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Cornerbacks

While both of us expected Wisconsin’s defense to make life a little more difficult for Ohio State’s offense than Toledo could, the Buckeyes kept things rolling against the Badgers, scoring touchdowns on their first four possessions to race out to a 28-0 lead before ultimately cruising to a 52-21 victory.There were no shortage of standout performers for the Buckeyes in Saturday night’s conference opener, from Miyan Williams, Cade Stover and the entire run-blocking unit on offense to Jyaire Brown, JK Johnson, Tanner McCalister and Tommy Eichenberg on defense. Of course, there are still a couple of lingering health-related questions for the Buckeyes after star receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba and starting cornerbacks Denzel Burke and Cameron Brown both missed the game with injuries.We talk about all of that in the first 40 minutes of this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays, then look ahead to this week’s game against Rutgers, make our one-month-in picks for who will make the College Football Playoff and share our takeaways from Monday’s Ohio State basketball media day.The full rundown of what we’re talking about this week:0:50: Ohio State exceeds our expectations again with a dominant offensive performance5:25: Miyan Williams might be Ohio State’s best running back, and that’s no knock on TreVeyon Henderson10:42: Ohio State’s run blocking has been great, and that’s a credit to Justin Frye, his offensive line, the tight ends and the wide receivers14:50: Farmer Gronk is showing the value of actually throwing to the tight end22:15: Ohio State needs to be cautious with Jaxon Smith-Njigba, but don’t assume this is a Nick Bosa situation30:37: Jyaire Brown and JK Johnson stepped up nicely at cornerback34:52: The pass defense still hasn’t really been tested, and it’s probably going to be a while before it actually is37:38: Tanner McCalister shows why Ohio State brought him in as a transfer39:31: Tommy Eichenberg continues to establish himself as Ohio State’s best defensive player41:55: Why we‘re expecting another blowout win vs. Rutgers48:45: Should Ohio State be ranked higher than third in the polls?51:07: Our picks to make the College Football Playoff one month into the season53:58: Minnesota looks like the Big Ten West frontrunner, and Michigan State might be this year’s Indiana58:43: What we learned from Ohio State men’s basketball media day1:09:20: Dan and Griffin compliment players chosen by a random number generator