COLUMBUS, Ohio –– Game 1 is in the rearview for Ryan Day and the Buckeyes after a lead-up to fall football in the Big Ten that didn't feel a second shorter than it actually was.

Day's initial reaction to Ohio State's performance following the game Saturday was one of general satisfaction, given that even a rusty Buckeye team managed to hang 52 on a conference opponent and hold Nebraska to just three points in the second half.

But by the time Day joined 97.1 The Fan on Monday, he had time to go back through the tape to comb through the finer details of his team's quality of play.

So, did his outlook change? Not particularly, but that doesn't mean the second-year Buckeye head coach didn't have plenty of interesting things to discuss in the wake of the season-opening victory.

Below, we discuss what Day viewed as his biggest disappointment from Saturday, his thoughts on upcoming opponent Penn State, and how Justin Fields might improve moving forward.

It wasn't the Xs and Os that bothered Day most about the Buckeyes' first game. Rather, it was the crowd reaction –– or lack thereof –– when Sevyn Banks took a fumble recovery 55 yards to the opposite end zone in the third quarter.

“You talk about game-changers, once that happened, I felt like the scoreboard was flipped and something significant would’ve really had to happen for us to lose that game,” Day said. “That was really the checkmate play.”

The touchdown from Banks, which came on a fumble from Nebraska’s Adrian Martinez on a QB run, made it 38-14 with 8:02 to play in the third quarter and made it 24 unanswered points for the Buckeyes.

“He runs in the end zone, we kick the extra point and I look around and I’m like, ‘Did anyone just see that?’” Day said.

They might not have been there in person, but plenty sets of eyes were watching the big Buckeye win, and Banks’ big play in particular.

Entering the Big Ten’s opening weekend, it looked like the Week 2 matchup between Ohio State and Penn State might be a contest to decide the conference’s best team this season.

Instead, some of the bluster was taken out of the matchup after Michael Penix Jr. stretched the Hoosiers past James Franklin and Penn State on a game-winning two-point conversion in overtime to knock off the Nittany Lions in Week 1.

Still, Penn State remains a top 20 opponent for the now-No. 3-ranked Buckeyes, and could prove by season’s end that its loss to Indiana was nothing more than a fluke.

“When you watch the film, other than the scoreboard, they outplayed Indiana,” Day said. “In terms of yardage, they really played well for the majority of that game and then it just got away from them at the end.”

Day hasn’t lost to Penn State since he joined the Ohio State program in 2017, but given the razor-thin results the matchup tends to produce more often than not, he knows better than to overlook his opponent this week.

“They’re good. They’re good really in all areas,” Day said. “They’re very good.”

Ohio State may have had one of the top offensive lines in the nation last season, but the Buckeyes were near the bottom of the conference in sacks allowed.

Not a great thing for a team with a quarterback as valuable as Justin Fields, but it was not always his front line’s fault. Fields has a tendency to hang onto the ball in the pocket, which was on display again Saturday and led to a few big sacks from the Nebraska front.

However, Day said he won’t try to correct that tendency too much.

“He extends. Sometimes his checkdown is his feet. I don’t want to take that part of his game away, so if that means every once in a while there’s gonna be a sack, then that’s OK too,” Day said.

While the criticism may seem like a nitpick given Fields’ near-perfect 20-for-21 performance, Day said there are still improvements to be made.

“I think there were times where, as he goes to extend, he could probably keep his eyes downfield longer and not really go into the tuck mode and allow his receivers to continue to get open,” Day said.

Many of Fields’ most eye-popping highlights to date come from his uncanny ad-libbing ability, and it doesn’t sound like Day will look to limit that any time soon.