Look at last year. Even with all their talent against Tulsa (unranked):

3 - 3 after first quarter

6 - 13 at the end of the first half

That's struggling.

Barely beat Minnesota(unranked) (two touchdowns but it was closer than that). Minnesota led at the half.

Actually lost to Oregon.

Barely beat Penn State (won by 9 but only scored 6 points in the 4th quarter).

This is with two top ten in the NFL draft receivers, and a couple more that will likely go high in this year's draft.

This is just last year. Every year it is similar, they struggle to put teams away early in the season despite their talent level.

So all I'm sayin' is, if you're going to play Ohio State, its good to get an early season game.