COLUMBUS — If games were played on paper, Ohio State appears to be a clear-cut favorite to go into State College Saturday night and pull out another victory against Penn State.

Considering there will be no fans to produce the annual ‘white out,’ the Nittany Lions are coming off an upset loss at Indiana to open the season last week and the Buckeyes are sitting at No. 3 in the nation with a 1-0 record, all of those factors point in Ohio State’s favor.

However, as has been demonstrated time and time again, there are never any givens in college football. That’s especially true in this series, which has seen five of the last nine meetings decided by seven points or less.

“We have to bring it every single week,” OSU head coach Ryan Day said earlier this week during his weekly Zoom conference. “This week will go a long ways for us (in a lot of areas), but we’ll have to play well in all three phases. We know we’re going to have our hands full.”

The Buckeyes are coming off a decisive 52-17 victory against Nebraska. It was a game in which Ohio State yielding an opening-drive touchdown and gave up some chunk plays defensively, but were virtually unstoppable on the offensive side of the ball.

“Like everyone else (in the Big Ten), we’re a couple of weeks behind, but we learned some things about ourselves last week,” Day said. “We have to accelerate some things and get things fixed. Good teams improve a lot from week one to week two and we need to do that.”

If the Ohio State game wasn’t enough motivation for the Nittany Lions, the fact they dropped a 36-35 verdict in overtime when the Hoosiers were credited with a 2-point conversion that was looked at for several minutes in review before the referee stood with the call on the field.

“When you lose a game like (Penn State) lost last year, they’re going to be even hungrier to play us than normal,” Day continued. “We have to do a great job this week (in preparation). We have to address the issues we have and get them fixed. That’s a big part of coaching.”

On top of the on-field preparations for the Nittany Lions, one thing Day and the Buckeyes coaches have been drilling their team on once again is being vigilant in following the protocols in the COVID-19 era. Going on the road for the first time presents another challenge in that regard.

“It’s very, very different (than playing at home),” Day said. “We have protocols in place, we have to make sure we handle our business in terms of how we travel, how we handle the food, coming together (as a team) to eat and all of that stuff. There are so many people working to make sure our logistics are good. We don’t want the players to have to worry about those things. We want them focused on going to get their first road win. We’ve worked hard on the plan and we’re hopeful it runs smoothly.”

On the field, the Buckeyes are looking to establish a better running attack, involving the running backs. While quarterback Justin Fields was impressive last week on the ground, accumulating 54 yards and scoring a touchdown. But, Master Teague, Trey Sermon and Steele Chambers combined for 129 yards on 27 carries.

“I thought, as the game went on, the (backs) played better,” Day surmised. “Early on, I thought the running game in general was just OK, but that kind of happens in first games. We’re looking to take the next step and I believe we will because as we go against different looks and get a feel for what it’s like to be tackled again, we’ll get better.”

Fields picked up where he left off in 2019 as a passer. He completed 20-21 throws for 276 yards and 2 touchdowns. His lone incompletion was actually a drop in the end zone.

The biggest questions surrounding the Buckeyes passing game this week is the status of ultra talented junior Chris Olave. He caught 6 passes for 104 yards last week, but left the game with an injury.

Day indicated that if Olave wasn’t cleared to play, quite simply, they’d have to move some guys around. Fortunately, the wide receiver group is one of the deepest positions with a group of freshmen, including Jaxson Smith-Njigba, who made an impressive touchdown catch that was originally ruled out of bounds.

The Nittany Lions, meanwhile, are led by Ohio native Sean Clifford at quarterback. The Cincinnati St. Xavier product threw for 238 yards and 3 touchdowns, but he was picked off twice.

Devyn Ford was the leading rusher a week ago, gaining 69 yards and scoring once on 20 carries. Pat Freiermuth was the top receiver with 60 yards and a touchdown on 7 catches.

Penn State’s offense, which lost Journey Brown to a medical condition before the season started, announced earlier this week that Noah Cain would be out for the remainder of the season, too.