J.T. Barrett is Driven and Hungry
By every meaningful statistical measure, Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett had his worst game of the season in the Buckeyes’ 31-16 loss to Oklahoma.
His .543 completion percentage was his lowest, as were his 183 yards passing and 5.2 yards per attempt. It was the only game where he didn’t throw a touchdown and the only game where he threw an interception.
In the five games since Oklahoma, he has thrown 18 touchdowns and zero interceptions, completing 72.3% of his pass attempts.
That’s quite the turnaround. What has Barrett done differently?
“I don’t know if there’s any one thing,” OSU quarterbacks coach Ryan Day said. “But I just know that he’s driven. And again, any time that you lose like that, you just become more hungry to get out there and play better. Obviously we didn’t play like we wanted to play that night. So we’re hungry to play at a high level and go win a big game. That’s kind of the carrot that’s out there right now.”
Bad Memory Lane
A year ago, the Buckeyes did everything they needed to in order to beat Penn State, but over the course of the final quarter they did everything they needed to in order to give the game away.
In the end, it was the Nittany Lions who left as victors and it was the Buckeyes who were left wondering how it all went wrong.
Nobody on the Ohio State roster or coaching staff has forgotten the feeling of walking off the field in Beaver Stadium last year knowing that they messed up.
“I think we were just stunned,” defensive end Sam Hubbard said. “We didn’t respect a really good opponent and took for granted winning. That’s one thing Coach Meyer was saying. When you go into an historically great program like Nebraska or Penn State and you don’t respect them, you don’t prepare like they’re a great team, you can have what happened last year.”
It’s All in the Details
The Buckeye defense has played well enough this season to be No. 3 in the Big Ten in scoring defense and No. 10 in the nation (15.4 ppg).
But they have been far from perfect, particularly against the pass.
They gave up 420 yards passing to Indiana at the start of the year, then followed that up by allowing 386 yards passing to Baker Mayfield and Oklahoma. They held Army, UNLV, Rutgers, and Maryland each under 100 yards passing, but that was pretty much expected. They then gave up 349 yards passing to Nebraska two Saturdays ago. The bulk of those yards came when the game was already 42-0, but they still happened and it’s still a concern moving forward.
What have the Buckeyes been working on to make sure Penn State doesn’t have similar success through the air?
“I think it’s details,” defensive coordinator Greg Schiano said. “At this level, the highest level of college football, the margin of error is so slim. And one little step here, one little misalignment there, can be the difference between a 77-yard play and a 7-yard play. Unfortunately, some of that has happened to us this year. We have to be more detailed with what we’re doing.”
With Saquon Barkley coming up, mistakes will be costly, which is why the Ohio State defense will attempt to eliminate them.
“We’re playing awfully hard, no complaint with that,” Schiano said. “Just need to be a little more detailed, and that’s kind of been our emphasis.”
No More Night Games?
Typically, when Ohio State and Penn State get together — wherever it may be — the game is played at night. Due to the game being on FOX this season and FOX having the World Series, the Buckeyes and Nittany Lions will be playing at 3:30 pm instead.
Currently — and you might want to expect this to change — there are no more night games scheduled for the Buckeyes this (regular) season. Of course, the only other kickoff time known right now is the Michigan game, so more night games are still possible.
If Buckeye defensive end Nick Bosa had his way, however, there’d be no more night games this season.
“Yeah, I’m done with night games, sitting around all day and waiting to play these games,” he said. “I like just getting up, having the team meal, breakfast, then maybe a short break, then maybe lunch and the game. I like the 3:30, 4:00 games because it gets everything going, you’re not just sitting around waiting.”