COLUMBUS, Ohio - The open week is here, don't call it a bye week however.

Generally a bye week is something that has been earned in terms of a playoff or round-robin format. This is just something that occurs in the scheduling as there are 14 weeks of competition with the expectation of playing 12 games, every team getting two weeks without an opponent, otherwise known as an 'open week'.

But then again, the Buckeyes have 'earned' this week off and it is happening at the right time for the scarlet and gray as they have pushed through six weeks of competition and have passed all six tests with flying colors.

Sure, Ohio State fans would have loved to have seen something that more closely resembled the 48-3 trouncing in 2017 against the Spartans. But that may not have served as much of a purpose as the 34-10 win did on Saturday night.

The second half of the season is going to be more challenging than the first half with game against Wisconsin, Penn State and of course that team up north all on the schedule. If the Buckeyes would have cruised through the game on Saturday night without an ounce of resistance, this team really would have gone through 24 of 24 quarters of football without being tested.

And say what you will about any of the three major teams left on Ohio State's schedule, it is highly unlikely that Ohio State will march through all 12 quarters of those games without facing a challenge.

So it was a good thing that the Buckeyes did face some adversity, overcame it and sent everyone home happy.

Now the team gets to really focus on itself for a week, get on the mend and turn its attention to a two-game block that includes a road game to Northwestern and the 'next big test' of the season with Wisconsin coming to town, a team that the Buckeyes very well could face twice this season if everyone holds serve.

Damon Arnette left the game after about a half of action, Chase Young and Justin Fields both showed late in the game just how physical things were against the Spartans and countless other players spent a good amount of time with the trainers on Sunday after the game tending to bumps and bruises as we have reached the halfway point of the regular season.

That does not mean that it will be nap time around the WHAC for the next week however. The team will still be held to the rigorous standard set forth by the coaching staff, especially with a short week the following week with the Northwestern game taking place on a Friday.

But without a team 'this weekend' to prepare for, the Buckeyes can definitely monitor and keep players that need to be on a pitch count to that pitch count and focus internally on a few things before shifting into install mode for the Northwestern game.

The Buckeyes will be fortunate to have that second 'open week' coming on the heels of the Wisconsin game, another game that promises to be physical and hotly contested.

Ohio State won't get that opportunity after Penn State with that team up north taking place seven days later. The Wolverines will get their final open week a week later than the Buckeyes but won't have any time to let up during their final three-game stretch with Michigan State, Indiana and then of course the Buckeyes.

The Buckeyes could have the B1G East wrapped up before the Michigan game if they run the table and the Wolverines drop another game with (at) Penn State and Michigan State still on the schedule.

For the Buckeyes, put those thoughts to rest. Use this open week to get healthy and then be ready for a furious sprint to the regular season finish line with six games to go.

1 - Justin Fields is human, but that is just fine

You knew that at some point Justin Fields was going to have to throw that first interception of the season. While the Buckeyes offense is not throwing the ball 35-45 times a game, the Buckeyes still are quite reliant on Fields' arm and there are going to be some games where the path to victory is going to be dependent upon throwing the ball into the tightest of windows.

Fields went through the first five games without throwing a pick, despite coming close a couple of times. On Saturday Fields threw a ball in the first half that likely should have been intercepted but the luck ran out when Josiah Scott was the only player for either team near an errant throw near the goal line and just like that, perfection was over.

Fields took it all in stride as he spoke after the game.

"I think you all jinxed me about it talking about it so much last week, but it's all good." Fields said on Saturday after the 34-10 win over Michigan State. "Just got to move on to the next game."

Whether you are pitching a no-hitter, bowling a 300 game or anything of that nature, there is added pressure when you are trying to do something larger than just 'facing that one batter' or 'focusing on just one frame' etc. It might be best that the sophomore quarterback is now able to focus more on each play and not have the thought about 'giving up that bloop single' along the way.

Fields still has an ESPN QBR of 94.1 over the season (on a 1-100 scale) and his lowest score of the season was from the Michigan State game where he put up an 85.2 rating with 17-25 passing for 206 yards with 2 touchdowns and a pick.

Only Jalen Hurts (Oklahoma) and Tua Tagovailoa (Alabama) have higher season QBR ratings than Fields and no Big Ten quarterback has a higher season number than Fields' lowest rating of 85.2. In fact, when looking at Ohio State's final six games of the regular season, Sean Clifford (Penn State) has the highest mark of remaining foes at 79.9 while Jack Coan of Wisconsin is next at 76.4. Where is Shea Patterson (Michigan)? He is 9th in the league at 56.2.

We can dismiss QBR just like any other ESPN made up metric (hello FPI) but one thing that cannot be dismissed is that Fields as a quarterback has been a tremendous success to date, even with a couple of mistakes along the way. He may be better off now that he has allowed that first hit and get back to pitching his game as Ryan Day and the staff have done a masterful job calling games to date.

2 - Dobbins is back to being the real deal

We have talked at length about the necessity of JK Dobbins returning to freshman form for this Buckeyes team to be successful throughout the preseason and even into the early stretches of the year.

Even the most critical of critics cannot deny that Dobbins has not only reached that level but surpassed it as he sits No. 2 in the nation in rushing yardage with 826 yards.

In 2018, Dobbins did not reach the 826-yard mark until the 11th game of the season, a Maryland game where he carried the ball 37 times for 203 yards. Even in this gold-standard 2017 season that everyone wants to hold Dobbins to, he did not reach that mark until the 8th game of the year against Penn State in a 13 carry for 88-yard date.

Dobbins had four career games where he broke the 170-yard mark going into the season, this season he has already done it three times in six games and is on back-to-back games of rushing for more than 170 yards. Not to be lost in all this is that Dobbins has not rushed for more than 24 carries in any of Ohio State's games this season, with a season-low of eight against Miami (Ohio) and only has 116 carries on the season.

He is among the national leaders in yards per attempt of all backs with 100 carries or more, only trailing Jonathan Taylor (Wisconsin) by 0.1 yards per carry. Even Chuba Hubbard of Oklahoma State has a lower YPC average despite sitting at 1,094 yards as he also has 46 more carries than Dobbins does at this point of the season.

It is too early to compare some of these numbers to the all-time great Ohio State rushing seasons but Dobbins' 7.1 YPC is the highest number since his 7.2 YPC season as a freshman and then Carlos Hyde's 7.3 YPC mark in 2013. The last time before that? If you know this one off the top of your head you are either Jack Park or just lying, because it was Walt Klevay in 1950 with a 7.9 YPC mark. Impressive, right? Well, he only had 66 rushing attempts and 520 total yards on that season.

The point being, if he keeps up this pace, some records could fall as Dobbins is on pace for 1,790 yards based on a 13-game season, 1,927-yards based on a 14-game season and 2,065 yards based on a 15-game season. Ohio State's single-season record for rushing yards? It would be 1.927 on the button, Eddie George's 1995 Heisman winning campaign. It may be difficult to keep up the pace through the next seven-to-nine games, but we could be watching a very special season that will cement Dobbins in the record books and among some very talented company.

3 - Something's rotten in Ann Arbor

And it is the Michigan offense.

Now before anyone comes at me and points out that the Hawkeyes have the nation's No. 5 total defense, No. 11 rushing defense and No. 3 scoring defense, let me point out that Iowa has only played five games and has held Rutgers and Middle Tennessee State to single-digits while also playing Miami (Ohio), who the Buckeyes held to five points, Michigan and rival Iowa State, who by all accounts has a pretty decent offense but has also played a horrendous schedule.

No, the problems at Michigan are real and if you are an Ohio State fan, they're spectacular.

Michigan has had offensive coordinator Josh Gattis in the booth and on the field, they could put him in the international space station or probing the depths of the sea with James Cameron, it is not going to change the fact that there are some real problems with that offense and help is not on the way this season.

The Wolverines have 642 rushing yards this season, led by Zach Charbonnet's 260 yards on 61 carries, a 4.3 YPC for those doing the math at home. The next leading rusher has 150 yards (Christian Turner), the next leading rusher? Try 64 yards. By comparison the Buckeyes have almost three times as many yards and Ohio State's second leading rusher (Master Teague) has 156 more rushing yards than Michigan's leading rusher. Ohio State quarterback (Justin Fields) has 23 more rushing yards than Charbonnet.

Michigan must be a passing team then, right?

Wrong.

Shea Patterson has six touchdowns on the season through the air. Fields had six in the first two games of the season combined. Patterson's 58.3-percent completion rate isn't going to impress anyone either.

Probably one of the most damning facts is that Michigan may have one of the league's best receiving groups with Nico Collins, Tarik Black and Donovan Peoples-Jones. The three have combined for 35 receptions, eight more than KJ Hill has alone for the Buckeyes. They have combined for four receiving touchdowns, the same number that KJ Hill and Chris Olave each have, individually.

The offensive line has dealt with some early season injuries but just has not lived up to the billing that many gave it as the best line in the conference going into the season. Even the most true blue 'Michigan Man' would be quick to point out that they are not getting the production from that unit that they had hoped for going into the year.

Couple all of that together and you have the nation's No. 93 total offense, No. 73 passing offense, No. 102 rushing offense and somehow the sum of all those parts come in for being the No. 74 scoring offense. Somehow that is still ahead of Michigan State, Iowa, Purdue (without Elijah Sindelar and Rondale Moore for now), Northwestern and Rutgers.

So enjoy that big 10-3 win, my brothers to the north. there may still be three or four more losses on your schedule BEFORE you host Ohio State in the season finale, and there is a very good chance that the Buckeyes will have wrapped up the B1G East before they board the buses to Ann Arbor.

1 - How healthy are the Buckeyes?

Injury information is a little more difficult to come into contact with these days under Ryan Day and even if we do have it, we have to be absolutely sure of what we have with this new no-injury talk policy set forth by the Buckeyes. You just can't afford to be wrong when talking about something that seems to be taboo around the halls of the WHAC and earning the label of rumormonger on that front is not going to make your job any easier in daily dealings with the staff.

Ohio State went into the Michigan State game relatively healthy according to the status report as Rashod Berry did play as a gametime decision while Tyler Friday and CJ Saunders were still both held out. Both will get the extra week to continue to get healthy before a game to Northwestern where the Buckeyes could honestly make a decision to rest most/all players who are questionable on a health front and still have the depth to give the Wildcats all they can handle, and then some.

No, the question goes to the guys who did play and suffered some in-game knocks and bruises including and not limited to Chase Young, Justin Fields, Thayer Munford, Damon Arnette and others.

Expect Ohio State to be very guarded with information on their guys moving forward and for that to be a hot topic around message boards, podcasts and radio shows moving forward.

Football is a physical game, even with new targeting calls, blindside block calls and much more. Even with that, the Buckeyes will have to be ready to bounce back because while the Northwestern game does not appear to be all that imposing on paper, neither did Iowa or Purdue in previous seasons.

2 - Will we see a shake-up in the B1G?

While Ohio State and Northwestern have the open week, there will be some pretty interesting games this week in the conference. With apologies to Rutgers at Indiana, Maryland at Purdue and Michigan at Illinois, we are not all that interested in all of you.

Michigan State travels to Wisconsin and fans of the transitive property will be curious to see what a Michigan State team fresh off of playing Ohio State will look like against the Badgers offense and defense. The game is at Camp Randall Stadium, which certainly does not help the Spartans' chances but Sparty has won four of the last seven in this series including the last game played in Madison (Wis.).

Nebraska at Minnesota is not on the national radar for many with two unranked teams but this will be a chance to see how real the Gophers are and where the Huskers really are after winning an ugly game against hapless Northwestern on a last-second field goal.

Finally it will be a big one in Iowa City with Penn State coming to visit the Hawkeyes. Iowa can't look as bad on offense this week as they did last week against Michigan, can they? Penn State has set up and mowed down everyone on their schedule to date. The Nittany Lions have allowed seven points over their last eight quarters of football but what has been their real test this year? Four of five games have been played at home, the lone road game against Maryland might have to be the biggest test to date and the Terps walked into that game after a demoralizing loss to Temple. The Hawkeyes are not as inept as they showed on Saturday and the Nittany Lions are getting the same 'untested' questions and comments that the Buckeyes have received through the first half of the season.

A Penn State loss could really open things up for the Buckeyes in the B1G East and give them some more space from one of their biggest foes in the divisional race. A Minnesota win could keep them right there with Wisconsin for the B1G West while a Wisconsin loss could really throw that race into disarray.

It is a good week for the Buckeyes to be off and to grab some beers and pizza and watch the rest of the league to feed upon itself.

There are going to be several ranked vs. ranked games this weekend on the national stage and by rule, both teams can't win (granted, some losses hurt more than others), so you are going to see some tumult based on just that. But can Florida State break a four-game losing streak against Clemson? Alabama has won the last six against Texas A&M, this game is in College Station (Texas) and that was just an eight-point affair, will some of the issues with the Crimson Tide get exposed by the Aggies? Can LSU finally expose Florida as being an interloper in the top-10 or will a tough Gator defense finally throw some water on the Joe Burrow love fest down in Baton Rouge? UGA got off to a slow start against Tennessee last week, will South Carolina fare any better (probably not). And of course you have games like the annual Texas vs. Oklahoma game and Notre Dame hosting USC.

Every year there is a week or two where ESPN comes up with some catchy name like Separation Saturday or Showdown Saturday and everyone hopes for chaos. The Buckeyes are spared from that fate this weekend as they sit idle but we can assure you that Buckeye Nation will be watching with a keen interest and it is my prediction that we will see at least two major upsets happen this weekend and reshape the landscape in week seven.