The Ohio State Buckeyes were downright disappointing against the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Saturday. Despite a terrible offensive performance, the defense played well and the Buckeyes ultimately escaped a potential setback at home.

Here were the players who needed to increase their stocks in the 21-17 win and the players whose stocks fell.

At the start of the season, the talk in the wide reception area was about the trio of Emeka Egbuka, Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate. Since the start of the season, Egbuka and Smith have been dominant, while Tate has taken a back seat.

This game was his coming out party for the year.

Tate led the Buckeyes in receptions with four, turning those receptions into 102 yards and one touchdown.

Before this game, I wrote about Josh Simmons’ correct replacement strategy, which was moving Tegra Tshabola to left tackle and inserting Austin Siereveld at right guard. Instead, Ryan Day and his staff decided to start Zen Michalski at left tackle.

That proved costly as the senior struggled throughout the match.

Not only did Will Howard face a lot of pressure coming from his blindside, but the entire offensive line failed to generate any push or open any holes for the running game. The blame cannot be entirely on Michalski, but the entire unit deserves a lot of the blame.

Perhaps things will get better with a small reshuffle now expected this week ahead of the clash with Penn State.

The veteran linebacker and leader in the second level was once again a one-man wrecking crew. Ohio State’s defense played very well in this game while the offense struggled, but Simon was still the star.

He led the team with eight total tackles (four solo) and also had three tackles for loss.

Simon was a big reason why this team narrowly escaped defeat and a devastating upset.

It was as if this team was already looking ahead to Penn State and not focused on Nebraska, despite a bye week. That’s the technical staff.

Ryan Day is a great coach and Ohio State wouldn’t feel better if they let him go. For that reason, fans should put their emotions aside and think logically. That said, Day has some things he needs to work on and Chip Kelly struggled with his play calling in this game.

Even this group needs to improve as leaders of these young men.

Hopefully Ohio State will be ready next weekend.