‘How good are they?’ Nick Saban throws shade at Ohio State defense

Nick Saban is impressed by the Oregon Ducks offense! He's not as impressed with the Ohio State defense, and he made that clear on the Pat McAfee Show on Friday.

When asked about the Buckeyes loss against Oregon, Saban said, "We talk about these teams that have the number one defense in the country, they're the number one scoring defense. But who did they play to come up with those stats? And then they play somebody really good and they sort of get, you know, exposed a little bit, and you start to wonder, you know, exactly how good are they?"

It's a fair question to ask from Saban, but it's also a tad harsh. In the first five weeks of the season, Ohio State certainly didn't play any notorious offensive powerhouses. Akron, Western Michigan, Marshall, Michigan State and Iowa were the Buckeyes first five opponents, and none of those teams are world-beaters on offense, but Ohio State gave up 34 points in those five games combined, only giving up double-digits in one game. That's impressive no matter who a team plays.

Plus, to say Ohio State was "exposed" by giving up 32 points to one of the more efficient offenses in the nation seems to be jumping the gun a bit. Dillon Gabriel and the Ducks gained almost 500 yards against Ohio State, but that's just as much a testament to how good Gabriel has been, as it is a sign of how poorly the Buckeyes defense played. Ryan Day's team was probably never going to average under seven points allowed per game, but they haven't quite been "exposed" yet like Saban claims. If, coming out of the bye week, Ohio State struggles again against a fun Nebraska team, then it may be time to rethink how we view OSU's defense. But not yet.

Ohio State has much more difficult schedule in second half of season

Whether Ohio State was "exposed" won't matter in a few weeks, when fans get to see how dominant the Ohio State defense is against multiple quality offenses in a row, which is what it will face in the latter half of the season.

After a bye week, Ohio State will face Dylan Raiola and Nebraska, and then take on all of Penn State, Indiana and Michigan in the final five weeks. If Ryan Day and the Buckeyes defense want to show Nick Saban and the country that they're as good as they showed during the first five weeks of the season, they'll have plenty of chances in the home stretch of Big Ten play.