The Buckeyes lost that benefit of the doubt on Saturday night thanks to a 32-31 loss in which it felt like the Ducks had done virtually everything they wanted. It never seemed like Dillon Gabriel felt the presence of a defensive line that consisted of a bevy of formerly high-snap recruits.

The defensive backs – especially Denzel Burke – often looked like the inferior unit when facing wide receivers who had shown nothing to suggest they were true downfield threats. But Gabriel had no problem slinging the ball down the field en route to 341 yards and two touchdowns, as well as a 27-yard rushing touchdown.

Then there’s the insane amount of substitutions in the defensive line that never made much sense. But maybe at some point this will be a story worthy of its own headline.

This defense should be the backbone of a 2024 Ohio State team with national title aspirations. Instead, it was a unit that spent several weeks showing us that perhaps there were chinks in the armor that we didn’t want to see, and all they needed was a worthy opponent to actually pick them up for those deficiencies could pay.

This is a new era of college football. This loss doesn’t hurt the Buckeyes. With Oregon now taking the lead in the Big Ten standings, that journey just gets a little longer. The conference now goes through a team that has only played three games as part of the league.

This defense didn’t live up to the hype. In the middle of the season and heading into the second bye week, we have to acknowledge that going forward.

Jim Knowles’ unit no longer benefits from doubt. When the Buckeyes return to the field to face Nebraska on October 26, they will need to re-establish themselves as an elite defense.

Stop talking about how good you think this group could be. It’s time for them to actually go out and prove it.