As a tOSU fan, I can say tOSU is definitely beatable, although I do think they are the best team in the country. The weak link for tOSU is Fields at QB. His accuracy is not there yet, and neither are his reads and progression. He is mildly improving, but he needs a legitimate offseasons to take the next step. He also slides too much. He has a nice upside, but he doesn't handle pressure well. Luckily, he is athletic and get get himself out of trouble more than he gets himself into trouble.
The problem with my tOSU team is it is a bit of pick your poison, even if Fields struggles, because he isn't BAD. You have to stop Dobbins/Teague running first, which is hard with a talented offensive line. Myers, the center, is a tackle on any other team in the country, and he is an absolute manchild, that is incredibly athletic. I saw him play some high school sized kids in HS, and it was one of the most visually disgusting things you could see. He threw a smaller kid from Fairmont about 15 yards into their sideline. Soooo, if you stack the box, then Dobbins is still quick enough to get to the edge, and the TEs and WRs are excellent blockers.
Even then once you stuff the run, you have to still deal with Fields passing and running. He really isn't great at either, but he is still good...at both...both being the key word, making it incredibly difficult to defend, as there are so many great options to go to with Olave, Hill, Victor, Mack, and some of the talented FR WRs, who can catch balls short or deep.
Obviously, it depends on matchups, but the key there is to pressure Fields as a passer, and force him to throw errant passes or put tOSU in 3rd and long situations. I also think he is turnover prone against quality teams running and passing despite what his stats say. The rest you just have to deal with in terms of running and dobbins.
Defensively....good luck. If you have big, fast, athletic WRs and TEs, you might be able to win some jump ball scenarios against tOSU's DBs, but you can anticipate on losing some too....assuming the QB has enough time to throw without getting decapitated.
Somebody mentioned the points scored against tOSU by Rutgers and FAU. tOSU's 3rd string, including some walk ons were on the field the 2nd half...they gave up a few TDs...Whoop Dee Doo. The PSU game really wasn't close. tOSU dominated the game. Fields fumbled away a TD at the goal line losing 7pts. Then tOSU fumbled 3 other times inside their own 30, leading to 10pts for PSU, otherwise it is a 35-7 game without tOSU's self inflicted blows. Likewise, Levis is a better QB than Clifford, so the defense needed half a quarter to adjust to him, and then he also got shut down.
