Ryan Day spent months building this defense and somehow still needed until October to figure out what he actually had. Ohio State brought in roughly 51 new players, spent the winter, spring, summer, and fall camp evaluating the roster, and handed Matt Patricia the job of shaping the unit. Five games into the season, the identity was still a work in progress. Great timing. Then Iowa happened, and suddenly Day had a version of the defense he could believe in. Ohio State spent the entire offseason putting it together. It just took until October for the thing to finally start making sense.

Ryan Day believes Ohio State finally has something defensively it can “grab onto” after beating Iowa.

“This is an opportunity to say we went on the road in a tough environment against a very good team and we won with a certain style, and so that’ll give this team confidence and something to build on,” Day said.

Fair enough, but Ohio State’s defense has looked elite right up until it suddenly forgets how to play defense. The Buckeyes have allowed only 63 points through five games, but 38 of them came in the fourth quarter. That is not exactly the profile of a unit that has mastered finishing games.

Texas made that painfully obvious. Ohio State led 23-3 after three quarters, then allowed touchdown drives of 91, 72 and 73 yards. Apparently, 45 minutes of great defense was supposed to be enough.

Illinois exposed a different problem. Ohio State allowed just 19 points but surrendered 462 yards. The scoreboard looked respectable, but the defense was still getting moved.

The warning signs were not exactly subtle either. Land-Grant Holy Land wrote after Illinois that Ohio State was “not nearly championship caliber right now,” pointing directly at a front seven that struggled to fill gaps and consistently create pressure. The preseason expectation had been much higher. Even after losing eight starters to the NFL for the second straight year, Ohio State was still viewed as capable of fielding a top-five defense.

Then came Iowa. After allowing 90 yards on the Hawkeyes’ first two drives, Ohio State settled down and held them to 238 total yards and just 39 rushing yards. Day called it “a huge step for this group in the right direction collectively,” while admitting that replacing the players Ohio State lost “doesn’t just happen overnight.”

That is the real test now. Iowa showed what this defense can look like when it settles in and plays with control. Texas showed how quickly that can disappear, while Illinois showed that the underlying performance can still be shaky even when the score looks fine. With Maryland, Indiana, USC and Oregon coming next, Ohio State is about to find out whether Iowa was a real turning point or just one clean afternoon.

That still was not the only box Day wanted checked. Since the Texas loss, he had been asking Ohio State to stop playing in stretches and finally finish an entire game.

Day Finally Got the 60 Minutes He Wanted

Day has long been consistent with his goal for the Buckeyes since the beginning of the season: staying locked in for the whole game. Though Ohio State opened games well this year, it hadn’t played four clean quarters.

The Texas loss in Week 2 was a one-point game, while the defense gave up a lot of yards against Illinois. During the matchup with Iowa, the Buckeyes led from the third play and did not let go, as they outgained the Hawkeyes 484-238 and held the ball for more than 38 minutes.

“That was the number one goal,” Day said. “We talked about that as a team: drop the expectations and just go compete for four quarters. We’ve come out strong early, which is good to see, but the ability to stay focused and finish throughout four quarters was even more of a challenge for us. And so we wanted to play 60 minutes. I felt like we accomplished that goal and got the win.”

Day saw progress against Iowa, but he also made it clear there were still mistakes on tape to clean up. Ohio State has outscored Kent State, Illinois and Iowa 132-36 since the Texas loss and now sits at 4-1 overall and 2-0 in the Big Ten. With Maryland next, followed by Indiana, USC and Oregon, the defense will have to prove the Iowa performance was progress it can repeat, not just one clean afternoon.