Before the action even began Saturday, Ohio State already took care of business in Week 8, defeating Northwestern, 52-3. Buckeyes quarterback Justin Fields recorded another four-touchdown performance, and the Ohio State defense held Northwestern to just 199 total yards.

The performance gave the panel on College GameDay the opportunity to rave about Ohio State as a cut above the other top teams in the Big Ten this year.

“I was impressed with how Ohio State came out… You look at Northwestern, there’s nothing to excite you, nothing to get your juices going,” ESPN analyst Desmond Howard said. “But they came out and just played to a standard. Very impressed with Ohio State.”

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The Buckeyes have blown out all of their competition, as they own a 41.7 average margin of victory.

“There’s consistency every week, they’ve been the most complete team on both sides of the ball throughout the year,” ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit said.

ESPN analyst David Pollack echoed those comments and added that Ohio State is a cut above Penn State, Wisconsin and Michigan because of their quarterback.

“I think defensively, we can talk about all these teams, but when you look at the Buckeyes, they have a QB in Justin Fields … the QB position is what separates them.”

Fields has completed 70.7 percent of his passes for an average of 9.1 yards per attempt. He has 1,492 passing yards, 22 touchdowns and one interception. On the ground, he has 291 additional yards and eight scores.