The Ohio State Buckeyes have left little to be desired on the offensive side of the football to this point in the year. In many instances, it felt like they had just coasted to their victories with little urgency on the offensive side of the football.

On Thursday, Buckeyes' head coach Ryan Day addressed the concerns about his offense in emphatic fashion, stating that efficiency on offense is how team's control the game.

"Efficiency is what we are after. That is how you control the game. When it is time to turn up the gas, we will."

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This claim is music to the ears of Buckeye fans everywhere. Sometimes, when a team gets so far into a season, majoring in one thing, it simply becomes their personality. This is a fine outcome in some cases, but it could cost a team from achieving the ultimate goal.

For Ohio State, Day did the same exact thing last year with his National Championship team. He cautiously got his team to the playoffs, conserving their usage. When the postseason rolled around, he took the training wheels off the offense, result in a dominant effort from the Buckeyes offense.

It appears that he believes he and the 2025 version of the program have a similar ability to drop the clutch and find a new gear.

The perfect evidence of this was Saturday's game against the Penn State Nittany Lions, as Ohio State took its methodic approach through the first half. They had the ball for the fourth time in the half with two minutes to go, leading by 10 points. If they went on a scoring drive, the Buckeyes were going to extend their lead and get the ball coming out of halftime.

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Instead of doing that, they fumbled on the first play, Penn State recovered, and punched the ball in for a touchdown. Immediately, Ohio State's potential three-touchdown advantage was trimmed to just three points.

How did the Buckeyes respond? They came out of the halftime locker room firing. 

Day's offense completely flipped the switch and put together three straight scoring drives. The drives were fueled by big plays, which paved the way for the offense to amount three-straight touchdown drives to put the game away.

The intent of a slow-paced attack is a sound game plan for the Buckeyes. Day knows that he is prepping his team for a 16 game season, not a 10 game season. However, the negative was on full display last weekend if Ohio State during the first half. When you chase efficiency, one mistake can cost you a drive, a game, or a season. 

Saturday proved to the Buckeyes that it may be time to start changing their philosophy while also proving to them that if they get into a tough situation, they have the guns to get out of it. The No. 1-ranked Buckeyes, who are clearly the best team in football, just confirmed that they have another level to get to for the rest of the season.

If other teams weren't already discouraged, they should be now before it's too late.