COLUMBUS \u2014 The warmup games are done for Ohio State, especially for its defense, which faced a crescendo of tests the first three weeks of the season. The Buckeyes\u2019 revitalized secondary, in particular, was up for evaluation \u2014 it\u2019s a group that, to date, seems a rising staircase away from the beleaguered way it finished 2022.<\/p>\n
Now comes the highly-anticipated main event, Ohio State at Notre Dame, a top-10 battle of unbeatens on Saturday night. And it\u2019s a Fighting Irish offense that also has been revitalized with the addition of veteran transfer quarterback Sam Hartman<\/a>.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why the Ohio State defense, especially the secondary, wanted to have a strong sense of itself after taking on last year\u2019s nation-leading passer Austin Reed<\/a> and the wide-open Western Kentucky offense. Cornerback Denzel Burke<\/a> believes it accomplished that mission following the 63-10 victory.<\/p>\n The Ohio State defense, after giving up a touchdown drive midway through the first half, tightened the loose bolts, grabbing four turnovers along the way and, in fact, outscoring WKU with two takeaways that went for six.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like we played good, played solid,\u201d said Burke, whose forced fumble was recovered in the end zone by defensive tackle Tyleik Williams<\/a> for one of the two defensive touchdowns. \u201cBut we\u2019ve still got a lot of stuff to clean up.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re trying to play at a high level, and, with these [lesser challenging] games, we wanted to play at a high level so when these matchup games come we\u2019re ready. Next week we go to South Bend, it\u2019s a real one.\u201d<\/p>\n Yes, even moments after the win over WKU he was well aware of where Ohio State was headed next.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been circled on my list since the beginning of the season,\u201d Burke said. \u201cGot a couple of other games circled up, but this \u2026 is going to be a big one. It\u2019s going to test us. And we\u2019re ready.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s because, for the secondary at least, there was a sense it passed its first major challenge of the year from Reed and a talented set of receivers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe weren\u2019t really tested as a whole back end the first two games (wins over Indiana and Youngstown State) and I feel like we got tested this game \u2026 and I feel like we got an A on the test,\u201d Burke said. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of what we needed going into Week 4, going into Notre Dame.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re trying to bring \u2018BIA\u2019 (\u2018Best in America\u2019) back and Silver Bullets back, and I feel like we\u2019re on the road to doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n Burke definitely appears to be back, rebounding from a 2022 season in which he played despite several physical maladies throughout. He\u2019s made highlight-reel plays look routine, like in the way he forced that fumble.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s probably one of best [plays] I\u2019ve had ever, causing a forced fumble,\u201d he said. \u201cI kind of just threw my body in there and see what happens, and the ball came out. Wow.\u201d<\/p>\n It was exemplary of the overall play of the Ohio State secondary.<\/p>\n \u201cWe call ourselves \u2018Skunyuns\u2019, man,\u201d Burke said. \u201cWe\u2019re gonna put our face in the fan every time. We\u2019re gonna be physical, we\u2019re gonna get in your face. We\u2019re going to show our presence.\u201d<\/p>\n He opted not to give the background for the nickname \u201cSkunyuns\u201d, but as he said earlier, he knows their first major test against a balanced offense, like by Wake Forest transfer Hartman, is right up the road.<\/p>\n \u201cOh,\u00a0good\u00a0<\/em>quarterback,\u201d Burke said of Hartman. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a great game. We\u2019re going to have to be on our P\u2019s and Q\u2019s.<\/p>\n \u201cI just can\u2019t wait to go up there and have fun, play with my brothers and put on a show for Buckeye Nation.\u201d<\/p>\n The post Ohio State secondary clears first hurdle in Notre Dame tune-up<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" COLUMBUS \u2014 The warmup games are done for Ohio State, especially for its defense, which…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16958\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}