Three keys to victory for Ohio State Buckeyes against Purdue

The top-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes will pay a visit to the Purdue Boilermakers in Big Ten action on Saturday at Ross-Ade Stadium.

Even though Bill Parcells' famous quote "You are what your record says you are," would suggest a sizeable distance between the still undefeated defending national champion Buckeyes (8-0, 5-0) and their hosts (2-7, 0-6), Purdue shouldn't be expected just to roll over and hand Ohio State an easy W.

Here are three keys to victory for the Buckeyes.

Focus on the task at hand

There are so many ways to phrase this, but it all amounts to the same: you can’t look past anyone. Sure, these Boilermakers are a far cry from coach Jack Mollenkopf’s team’s, but it’s still a Big Ten test on the road.

There’s so much noise right now surrounding Ohio State, and for good reason. The Buckeyes seem well on their way towards achieving something truly special, the school’s first back-to-back national championships; but they aren’t there yet.

Whether it be talk about a pending visit to Ann Arbor, what the Big Ten Championship Game might look like against Indiana, or the CFP Standings, where Ohio State took first place in this year’s debut rankings this week, it could be easy to get ahead of yourself.

And that’s not even mentioning the school’s full-on Heisman campaigns for quarterback Julian Sayin and wideout Jeremiah Smith, or the fact that Sayin became the betting favorite for the Trophy this week, coupled with the selection of a handful of Buckeyes as semifinalists for some of college football’s other prestigious awards.

Staying locked in and executing to the highest standard has brought Ohio State this far, so it’s just a matter of keeping up what they’ve been doing. Because, at the end of the day, “the games still have to be played”, as former Buckeye great LeCharles Bentley told OnSi this week.

Keep Arvell Reese on the move

Reese is on a roll. Considered by many as the nation’s premier defender at this point in time, the Ohio State linebacker has really elevated his draft status in recent weeks by showing another component of his game that wasn’t exploited much at the beginning of the season: pass-rushing ability.

Reese has recorded at least one sack in each of his last four contests, and a total of seven tackles for a loss within this same timeframe. Capable of disrupting any offense in so many ways, moving Reese around the formation will put immense pressure on Purdue.

Pressure the back end of Purdue's D

I don’t know what’s more impressive: Quarterback Julian Sayin’s completion percentage of 80.7 for the year (which would shatter the all-time season record of 77.4 held by Bo Nix), or the fact that he’s achieving this while also averaging 10.0 yards per pass attempt, second best in the FBS, right behind Thomas Castellanos’ 10.3?

In any case, Sayin is completing passes at an insane rate, while also stretching the field vertically as he connects with the Nation’s best pass-catching duo in Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate.

There’s virtually no spot from where Ohio State can’t score a touchdown, and nothing stresses a defense more than having to defend the whole field, literally. Purdue is allowing the third-most passing yards per game (234.4) and the fourth-most points per game in the Big Ten (27.0), so Sayin could end up fashioning himself another Heisman moment against this unit.