So far, this season has gone very closely to how the 2017 season went. Knock on wood, hopefully the rest of this season doesn’t go the way that season went. 

Schedule Similarities:

• Started off the season against a Big Ten opponent on the road on a Thursday where you struggled the majority of the game (2017 was Indiana, 2021 was Minnesota).
• The following game they lost against a big out of conference opponent (2017 was Oklahoma, 2021 Oregon)
• A get right portion of the schedule where you can get your issues fixed.
• A huge game against Penn State at home in late October.
• A trap game right after Penn State (2017 was Iowa, and this year the Buckeyes play  @ Nebraska right after PSU, and that game could be tricky).
• A highly ranked Spartan team will visit the shoe toward the end of the season. 

Style of Play Similarities:

• The offense was kind of clunky coming out of the gate, but got some big plays against Indiana and Minnesota. Then not being efficient driving the ball against Oregon and Oklahoma showed up. Then the offense put up a lot of points leading up to Penn State (38,54,56,62,56).

The defense struggled in one major aspect of the game to come out. In 2017, it was the passing game where Richard Lagow (paging BuckeyeJack) threw for 410 yards, and Baker Mayfield threw for 386 yards. In 2021, it was the rush defense, where Mohamed Ibrahim (Hope his recovery is going well) rushed for 163 yards, and CJ Verdell rushed for 161 yards.

Players: 

• A star freshman RB emerges. In 2017 it was J.K Dobbins, and this year it’s TreVeyon Henderson. Both are dynamic and had/have yards per carry above 7, which is absurd.
• Qb’s struggled a bit to start the season, but played excellent to gain some Heisman consideration, J.T Barrett played great, especially the PSU game, but came crashing to a halt when he threw 4 picks at Iowa. 
   

This team, just like the 2017 team (they started of the year #2 in the AP) has a ton of talent. If they continue to put it together, they should come out better than the 2017 team. Assuming the Buckeyes beat the Nittany Lions, let’s pray that Nebraska is not this team’s Iowa. 

Mod Edit- Try harder on title.