Ryan Day and Ohio State Buckeyes They came to match with Penn State Nittany Lions badly needs a statement win.

After losing on the road to the Oregon Ducks and struggling to beat the Nebraska Cornhuskers, the pressure was mounting for Ohio State to prove it could win a statement game. That’s exactly what they did this week.

Going on the road and knocking off the No. 3 ranked team in the country is the definition of a clean win.

Beating Penn State was the kind of win they needed to start securing their spot in the College Football Playoff as well. Failing to make the play-offs at this point would mean a complete collapse.

After the win, the day spoke About how important the win was to the Buckeyes.

“We were at a crossroads. This was a big game for us. We didn’t really want to say it publicly. But we said it behind closed doors. This was a big game for us for many reasons. We got a top-five away win like this in a tough environment, (Donovan Jackson) “We switched to left tackle; we thought about entering this game, it would be a difficult environment.”

The simple statement that Ohio State is at a “turning point” speaks volumes. He had to prove that the team belonged to him. A loss would put them in an incredibly high pressure situation going forward.

He also talked about how the team was feeling after the big win against the Nittany Lions.

“But I can tell you, when I walked out of that locker room, there’s a lot of excited guys in that room. It was probably the liveliest locker room I’ve been in in a long time. … Enjoy this night; coaches, players, staff, everybody involved, this is it, enjoy it.” It was a moment we had to take.”

It goes without saying that the Buckeyes deserve to enjoy every second of celebrating the win.

But the work has just begun. Ohio State still has a tough matchup against the red-hot Indiana Hoosiers in a few weeks, and they finish the season against the Michigan Wolverines. The Buckeyes need to take care of business in these two games.

Beating Penn State was a huge step toward the ultimate goal of a national championship. But Ohio State has a long road ahead of them to reach that goal and they need to stay locked in and continue to get better.