Ryan Day’s Buckeyes entered Week 6 as the No. 1 team and played like one. Minnesota never stood a chance in the history of the matchup, and Saturday night wasn’t any different. A one-sided 42-3 game, and the Buckeyes are now 5-0. Julian Sayin almost had a perfect game, completing 23 of 27 passes for 326 yards and three touchdowns. Yet his success is not his alone but a combined effort with his team’s defense that gives him an unsaid advantage, and Ryan Day’s pointing right at it.

Julian Sayin went off against Minnesota as he completed 23-of-27 passes for 326 yards with three touchdowns. And there’s no one who’s more excited about it than Ryan Day. But along with Sayin’s exceptional gameplay, he also points out one major advantage that makes it a bit easier to play QB in The Shoe. “We are very deliberate about how we try to bring along our quarterbacks,” Day said. “When you have a defense like we do right now—that’s playing the way we do—you can bring them along in a certain way. You’re seeing it every week, Julian plays with more and more confidence.”

Julian Sayin’s consistency is aided by Matt Patricia’s dynamic defense that never lets scoreboard pressure get to him. And it’s exactly what the team up north doesn’t have right now. Michigan’s defense, while solid, hasn’t been nearly as dominant this season. They currently sit 33rd in scoring defense (17.8 PPG) and 25th in total defense (291.3 YPG), with particular struggles in pass coverage (71st nationally), per week 5 rankings. Naturally, for Bryce Underwood, that means a far smaller margin for error. Unlike Sayin, he doesn’t have the same defensive safety net.

Even with signs of progress in their recent 24-10 win over Wisconsin, the Wolverines are still a step behind Ohio State’s defensive standard. As Ryan Day rightly said, OSU’s defense consistently takes the pressure off its young QB.

Even in today’s game, they did the same. Ohio State was allowing just 5.5 points per game, but against Minnesota, they didn’t even allow that. The OSU racked up 474 yards of offense. The defense, meanwhile, held the Golden Gophers to just 94 passing yards. Even the run game was put down. Ohio State’s defense completely halted the Gophers’ running game to a mere 68 yards and never allowed them a single chance to gain momentum. Even against Washington, their defense was nothing but eruptive. They held the team to just 6 points and sacked their QB, Demond Williams Jr., 6 times.

Even Minnesota’s HC P.J. Fleck knew what he was going to face. “They’re holding opponents to five points, so Washington did a good job scoring one more point than what they’re averaging. That’s an above-average performance.” All this just adds up to Julian Sayin’s resume. Against the Huskies, he went on throwing for 326 yards with three touchdowns. Even against Texas, he proved what he’s capable of, completing 13 of 20 passes for 126 yards and a TD. Ohio State’s defense ends up taking all the pressure off Sayin’s shoulders. But with all this success, Ryan Day’s team also had to face a major setback against Minnesota.

Ryan Day gives injury update on DE

Ohio State is on the right path to recreating last season’s success, and its undefeated status shows it perfectly. But against Minnesota, they did face a tough blow when DE Kenyatta Jackson Jr. went down with an injury in the first quarter. Now, the moment this happened, NBC broadcasters who were covering the game immediately said it’s a stinger, which was caused after Johnson got hit by Minnesota QB Drake Lindsey. Trainers helped Jackson get off the field, and he didn’t return for the rest of the game.

Sideline reporter Patrick Murphy hit everyone with an update, saying, “Reporting on the TV broadcast was that Kenyatta Jackson Jr. has a stinger. He’s on the sideline still and doesn’t have his helmet.” But despite getting out of the game, Jackson never left the ground. He changed his uniform and came right back on the sidelines to support his team. This even gave fans hope that his injury is not that severe.

Then, after the game, Ryan Day made an official statement on his condition and said, “It was good to see Kenyatta up and moving around and cheering on, supporting his teammates. We’ll take a look at it and have an update hopefully soon.” Potentially losing a player like him is a major setback. As Jackson started in all games last season, recording 15 tackles and a sack, helping the team win the national championship title. After his injury, UNC’s transfer Beau Atkinson came in to fill the spot. Now, Ohio State gets ready to take down Illinois next week to add another victory to its remarkable season.