SATURDAY’S GAME
Ohio State at Wisconsin, 8 p.m., ABC, 1410
J.T. Barrett struck the pose Saturday. On one of his 26 runs, he held the ball high and tight with the other arm out to the side and his body twisted in a way familiar to anyone who’s seen the Heisman Trophy.
Barrett remained a contender for college football’s top honor after the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes routed Indiana 38-17, though this will not rank among his top games.
Barrett tallied 137 yards and a touchdown on the ground at Ohio Stadium. He passed for 93, completing 9 of 21 passes with an interception and a touchdown. He failed to hit 100 yards passing for the first time since Ohio State’s 17-14 loss to Michigan State on Nov. 21.
Indiana coach Kevin Wilson said his team may have just got lucky because a couple times Barrett had players open and didn’t connect.
“In my opinion, from afar, I think that’s the best quarterback in college ball,” Wilson said. “I’m not saying that because he’s in our league. I’m not a homer. I’m not about helping our league because it’s good for us. That kid, with his unselfishness, went through a lot. He was the premier player in the country two years ago when he got injured. He is one of the best players in the country, one of the best teammates. I’m not in their locker room. I’m sure he’s a phenomenal leader. He might have been off today, but he’s human. J.T. Barrett’s an awesome football player.”
PHOTOS: Ohio State vs Indiana
GAME STORY: Buckeyes overcome adversity
NOTES: Barrett: ‘I have to do a better job’
Ohio State (5-0, 2-0) showed few faults in its first four victories, and it did beat the Hoosiers by three touchdowns. Of course, the passing game will have to perform better if Ohio State is going to survive the tougher games ahead on the schedule, starting with an 8 p.m. matchup Saturday with Wisconsin (4-1, 1-1) in Madison.
“It was just an awkward game,” Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said. “It was one of those games. A big part of our passing game is execution of the deep ball. That tends to get everybody off of us, and we just flat misfired on a few of them. I’ll know more after watching the tape. Whether it be pressure or misfire or whatever it was, we just have to do better.”
Indiana’s defense deserves some of the credit for slowing Ohio State’s passing game, though the Hoosiers haven’t been one of the Big Ten’s best defenses. They rank 10th in pass defense (205.4 yards per game).
Michigan State threw for 263 yards against Indiana in a 24-21 overtime loss. Wake Forest gained 172 yards through the air in a 33-28 victory over Indiana.
“They’re great athletes, and they covered our guys,” Ohio State right guard Billy Price said. “Some days you struggle with passing and some days you struggle on the run, and today was one of the days where we struggled with the pass. We’ll get better at it next week going into Wisconsin.”
Although Barrett had success carrying the ball, Meyer said he had too many carries.
“We had to win the game, and he’s one of our best players,” Meyer said. “Some of the things they were forcing to do on the perimeter run game, they were giving us the look to have him run it instead of hand it off all the time, which ideally where they’re handing it off. So once again well-defended, and I think we would all feel much better about ourselves if we hit three of those passes that are downfield because that’s the kind of game it was.
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