Hot 11: Post Oregon

Everyone has had a week to work out their feelings over the loss at Oregon. The Buckeyes played the Ducks down to the wire but just couldn’t get over the hump.

But after this most recent week of turmoil at the top of the polls, did we see the top two teams in the nation on the field at Autzen?

Time will tell on that front, now is the time to move forward. Which kind of flies in the face of the Hot 11, a piece where we look back.

And the Buckeyes will be without Josh Simmons for what appears to be a long time, along with Will Kacmarek, both injured in the Oregon game.

How will the loss change the way our Hot 11 shapes up? Remember, the Hot 11 is not a one-week snapshot, it is a view over the course of the season, totaling six games at this point.

Rank	Player	The Details	Last
1.	Jeremiah Smith (81)	Jeremiah continues to lead the team, he had nine receptions for 100 yards and a touchdown against Oregon. People will remember the OPI call against Smith and look at the Texas/UGA game and wonder why the calls were different.	1st
2.	Emeka Egbuka (67)	When people said that Ohio State would have the best WR in the nation, they weren’t kidding, with two of the top two on the list. Egbuka had 10 receptions for 93 yards and a touchdown.	2nd
3.	Seth McLaughlin (54)	Nobody is talking about the play of the center for the Buckeyes because McLaughlin has been that solid in his role. Even in a loss, Ohio State had 467 yards of total offense and it all starts up front.	3rd
T-4.	Josh Simmons (50)	Simmons was hurt in the game and the forecast is not great. While we have not heard officially from Ohio State, it is a long-term injury. We will talk more this week on what that means.	T-8th
T-4.	Will Howard (50)	There will be some who favor revisionist history or recency bias that will say Will had a bad game. He was 28-35 for 326 yards and two touchdowns. Now, throwing for 326 yards may have been a result of losing Simmons and the run game not being as sharp in the second half. But don’t fall into the trap of remembering the unsuccessful run at the end of the game.	NR
6.	Caleb Downs (49)	Downs was active in the game with eight tackles, one for loss and two pass breakups. There will be the memory that the defense struggled to get the Oregon offense off the field. but Downs was a solid performer.	5th
7.	Tyleik Williams (43)	While it felt like Oregon ran and ran against Ohio State, the Buckeyes held the Ducks to just 155 yards, but unfortunately two touchdowns. Williams return to the line up was important to clog up the middle. Ohio State still seems to be at war with itself over what it wants to do defensively, but Williams is a big factor, regardless.	4th
8.	TreVeyon Henderson (40)	Henderson led the Buckeyes in rushing yardage with 10 carries for 87 yards, including a 53-yarder. The duo of Tre and Quinshon continue to carry the mail but what do things look like with a reworked offensive line?	11th
9.	Lathan Ransom (33)	Ransom plays a big role for the Buckeyes and even though he didn’t have a lot of stats in the record book this week, his value is worth 10 times what we see in the weekly numbers.	T-8th
10.	Quinshon Judkins (32)	Judkins didn’t have a lot of yardage, but did have a big rushing touchdown along with an impact in the passing game with two catches for 38 yards.	6th
11.	Carnell Tate (4)	Tate’s inclusion this week is a little surprising as he had a tame game against Oregon, but we have no issue seeing him in the top-11 of the team based on his season to date. Yes, Jeremiah and Emeka are going to take most of the oxygen out of the room, but nobody in the nation has a talent like Tate as their ‘No. 3’ receiver.	NR