Despite entering the 2015 season with the highest of expectations, the Ohio State football team has, by all accounts, struggled through the first five weeks of the season. Despite compiling a perfect 5-0 record and extending their nation-leading win streak to 18 games – and their road game win streak to 15 games, the top-ranked Buckeyes have heard nothing but grumbles from their fan base. But Ohio State fans need to realize one thing: even though the offense isn’t tallying 1,000-yard/60-point outings each week, this Buckeye football team is exactly where we should want it to be.

For the sake comparison, I’d like you to bring two very memorable seasons to the forefront of your mind – the 2002 season and the 2006 season. Those two Ohio State football teams entered their respective seasons with drastically different expectations, and the style of their week-by-week outcomes had just as much contrast – other than the one main constant, winning.

Ohio State entered the 2002 reason ranked No. 13 in the AP Poll, following a loss in the Outback Bowl the previous year – Jim Tressel’s first year at the helm. Throughout the season, and en route to completing its undefeated national championship season, OSU won seven games by seven points or less, including two overtime wins. Every week seemed like a heart attack-inducing grind offensively, but the Buckeyes got the win every time it stepped onto the field. Fans’ hope skyrocketed as the season progressed, but expectations kept us grounded – all the way until the team defeated the big, bad Miami Hurricanes in the Fiesta Bowl.

Fast-forward to 2006, when the Buckeyes came into the season as the No. 1 ranked squad and perceived national championship favorites. That team had too much speed and talent throughout its lineup, the pundits said. With Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith dazzling fans each week – paired with the deep wide receiver corps of Ted Ginn, Jr., Anthony Gonzalez, Roy Hall, Brian Robiskie and Brian Hartline, and Antonio Pittman and Beanie Wells at running back – the offense just couldn’t be stopped. Outside of one-score wins against Illinois and second-ranked Michigan, the Buckeyes steamrolled their opponents throughout the season – as “steamrolled” as possible in the Tressel offense – as they advanced to the national championship game against the Florida Gators.

The correlation I want to make is that the 2015 Ohio State football team – the first team ever to be unanimously voted as the preseason No. 1 team – entered the season with the expectations of the 2006 team, but through its first five games, has performed at a level comparable to the 2002 team. While it has been frustrating for fans who have expected offensive fireworks on a weekly basis, Buckeye Nation should actually find some level of comfort in the team’s struggles.

Unlike the 2006 team that was able to coast through the majority of the season and read its press clippings as the anointed “champion-to-be”, the 2015 Buckeyes are starting to be doubted, blasted, mocked and disrespected. Those things equate to the extra hunger and motivate that propel teams with chips on their shoulders to greater things, whereas the lack of those traits often lead to the sudden demise of a much-lauded and much-favored team.

No matter what any Ohio State fan says – if the 2015 Buckeyes continue to plug away and record one ugly win after another en route to a 15-0 record and a repeat national title, all of us will enjoy the ride.

Before I get into the meat of this article there is an issue that I would like to address. It is pretty obvious that coming off of a national championship the Buckeyes have not played quite as well as we had hoped they would. News flash! This game is not easy. It is easy, however, to tell when a fan actually knows anything about football and when they are just a blow-hard trying to be a tough guy by tweeting at OSU’s 18-22 year old players telling them how bad they suck and how much of a disgrace they are. If you are one of these football experts PLEASE do us all a favor and delete your Twitter. No one cares what you have to say because you are ignorant. Truth hurts.

Now that I’ve got that off of my chest, let’s talk football! There is something that every one of us needs to remember when watching the Buckeyes and yelling at the TV screen. Urban Meyer knows more about the game of football than all of us combined. In case you’ve forgotten, he has won THREE national titles. One of those titles happend to be for our team just last year. That being said, can we please stop questioning the QB decision?! If JT was out playing Cardale in practice than he would be starting, but he is not! Not to mention even when Jones has been benched and JT was put in, the offense did not run any better that it did with Cardale. I’m going to say this again it’s URBAN MEYER. Trust your coach and support his decisions. If you watched the post game interview right after the game was over when Indiana was one play away from tying the game up, Urb looked like he just got done telling a dirty joke to the coaching staff. He wasn’t worried. If Urban looks confidant, we should too.

If you want to  question a coach/ coaches it’s the offensive coordinator possition  being run by Ed Warinner and Tim Beck. There is no rhythm or consistency to our offense. Guys look out of sorts and confused at times. This my friends is an issue! I don’t know if this means that Urban needs to just take it over and run it himself or what, but after six games it is not much better than it was early in the year.

The point to this article is to simply say trust your coach. He is the best in the business. We may end up losing a game or two this year, (yes I know it’s hard to believe) but not even Urb is perfect. We could easily slip up on a team we should beat, but that is football that is the way it goes sometimes. That’s why they say repeating is so hard, but if anyone can do it, it’s Urban Meyer!

Last week saw the return of Ohio State’s high-powered offense, which produced 500 yards for the first time since week one. The defense remained stout, reining in Western Michigan’s passing game and holding the Broncos to just 12 points. Michigan held steady production-wise, and managed to not turn the ball over at all while their defense manhandled BYU stunning shut out that landed the Wolverines at #22 in the AP poll, the same spot BYU held going into the game. Both defenses now rank in the top 10 nationally in terms of points allowed.

The Big Ten season opens for both teams today, and so begins the journey to The Game. Despite a couple of lackluster games, Ohio State is still in the driver’s seat for the national championship. Michigan’s strong non-conference showing has added a new sense of excitement for the season-ending clash. Michigan State is the primary hurdle for each team on the road to that face-off, but both will get the Spartans at home.

Today, both Ohio State and Michigan head out on the road again after three straight home games, all wins. The Buckeyes take on the somehow-undefeated Indiana Hoosiers, and Michigan pays a visit to the floundering Maryland Terrapins, reeling from last week’s beatdown by West Virginia.

The Michigan/Maryland game has been moved from an 8:00 kickoff to noon to avoid complications from Hurricane Joaquin. This is a significant blow to Maryland, who could have certainly benefitted from the electric atmosphere of a night game. While a Terrapins win would have still been a long shot, it’s almost an impossibility now. The weather will barely even impact Michigan’s game plan, which has settled into about a 60-40 run/pass split, and Jim Harbaugh probably wouldn’t mind leaning even more heavily on his running backs against a Maryland team that ranks 101st nationally in rushing defense.

There shouldn’t be much rain in Bloomington on Saturday, but Urban Meyer would like to unleash a storm of deep throws on the Hoosier’s dismal pass defense (#127 out of 128). That this was a point of practice emphasis following a rash of underthrows last week is a happy coincidence, and one that should be of utmost concern to Indiana. But Ohio State must take the Hoosier attack seriously too: Indiana ranks 18th nationally in total offense, higher than any team the Silver Bullets have faced so far.

If Ohio State and Michigan continue to progress throughout the Big Ten slate, then that meeting at the end of November—the 112th between the two programs and the first between Urban Meyer and Jim Harbaugh—will be the renewal of a rivalry that hasn’t been truly competitive in nearly a decade.