Jim Knowles and Ohio State were looked at heading into the season as arguably the best team in college football, in large part because of their incredible defense. The defense looked good early, but the level of competition wasn’t the best.

In the Buckeyes’ first big test against Oregon, the defense struggled. Dillon Gabriel threw for 341 yards and 2 touchdowns, and the Ducks finished with 496 yards of offense. A key factor in that game was Ohio State’s inability to get to the quarterback without a sack.

Last week featured another road game against a big-time team, and the defense was much better with big-time stops in the 20-13 win against Penn State. On Tuesday, head coach Ryan Day admitted the staff re-engineered the defense after the Oregon game, and Knowles was asked about the changes.

One thing Knowles admitted has been different for Ohio State since the lost to Oregon is how to get pressure up front:

“I think we need to keep finding ways to bring more pressure, and it was evidenced in that game,” Knowles said. “We made a push to do it and that’s who we really want to be.”

The longtime coordinator also claimed he was comfortable with the process of re-working the defense. Knowles knows he had to look in the mirror after the letdown vs. the Ducks, and it’s led to some clear answers:

“Yeah, I feel comfortable with it. What happened happened, so you have to look at yourself and it’s my job to have the answers,” said Knowles. “I know systematically what the answers are, so getting back to that. There’s definitely a comfort zone to that.”

While the team has improved, a lot of the work Knowles said was to get back to the basics. That’s allowed the defense to get players in a better position to succeed:

“It’s just a process of going back to the basics,” Knowles said. “Alignment, things got out of whack in that game somewhat, and just trying to give the players every chance to succeed. For me, it’s all about going back to the basics. You can get yourself out of whack sometimes trying to match people up and get everybody in the right places and trying to be perfect… We realized it’s more important just to have guys with their feet set and ready to play when the ball is snapped.”