J.T. Barrett strolled to the interview scrum with Bose headphones resting atop his head and his eyes glued to his iPhone. He offered a jovial "Hello" as he sat down to take questions from a horde of reporters, his normal Monday routine.
He knew which questions were about to come his way, mainly revolving around the fact he completed only 9-of-21 passes on Saturday for 93 yards—the third-lowest output of his career for a game in which he started. Barrett turned off the bass-driven tones of PartyNextDoor, sat his personal items down and began to give his side of why the Buckeyes struggled so mightily to throw the ball two days earlier. There were issues, but Ohio State still beat a solid Indiana squad by three touchdowns.
“I think on offense in particular, it was more of, I guess there were times when we did have everyone on the same page and that's when we did have more successful plays of course but we were in some good plays a lot of times,” Barrett said. “And whether it be me messing up on an assignment or a read or a receiver messing up, or an O-linemen messing up, we just weren't clicking on all cylinders on all units at all times and I think that's often times what was the problem.”
Barrett shouldered the blame immediately after the game on Saturday. Urban Meyer called the lack of passing yards "alarming," a claim he rescinded on Monday a bit after viewing the film. Barrett did too; he instead claimed the mistakes are all fixable, gave credit to Indiana's defensive backs and didn't indict any position for a rough day through the air.
“I do what it takes to win. If that means I run the ball 26 times in order for us to win by 21 points, by golly you best believe I'm going to do that.”– J.T. Barrett
“Alarming is probably a little overreactive, but we've just got to get to practice and get it better,” Meyer said. “You never want to take credit away from the team you played. It was a good team we played.”
“I think it was just this week and that was a good team that we faced. I think our game plan was good, we just missed on those plays and just everybody on a whole on offense,” Barrett said. “Not just one particular group.”
Meyer said he knows "exactly" what plagued his passing attack. Both he and his quarterback spoke of misfires down the field both to Curtis Samuel in the first quarter then James Clark in the third. Samuel and Clark created separation, but Barrett either underthrew the pass or just missed them.
His receivers didn't always help out the situation, either. Dontre Wilson dropped a pass. Noah Brown did too. Marcus Baugh saw one go right through his hands and end up in an Indiana defender's arms.
But Barrett still likes the way the ball leaves his hand and he is as accurate as he ever was. He added that the way Meyer, quarterbacks coach Tim Beck and offensive coordinator Ed Warinner handled things on Sunday's practice didn't deviate from a day after the Buckeyes beat Rutgers 58-0. But those errors aren't going away and need attention with a top-10 matchup under the lights in a hostile environment coming down the pipe at Wisconsin.
“There was a couple mis-hits that usually hit, or when we do hit we're dominating. If we don't hit, we have to work a little harder,” Meyer said. “And just the style; we're a pretty good run team. It's always been that way.
“We're kind of a shot team. When we hit shots, it's really good. If it's not, we have to find out why and get it fixed.”
The Buckeyes don't have much time to fix it, with a scheduled day off the practice field on Monday and practices Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday relegated to installing a game plan. Meyer claims the passing game is going to be "worked on extremely hard" this week before the team boards a plane for Madison on Friday. The Buckeyes are third in the country in rushing offense at 323.6 yards per game, while the Badgers are ranked seventh nationally in defending it. Wisconsin allows only 90.4 yards per game on the ground.
“Typical Wisconsin,” Meyer said. “Outstanding.”
The Badgers allow 201 passing yards per game, ninth-best in the Big Ten. They enter at 4-1 and off a bye week, ranked No. 8 in the latest AP Poll. Meyer called Indiana his team's "stiffest test" in the days leading up to watching Barrett and Co. struggle to move the ball through the air on a windy day at Ohio Stadium.
The head coach claims his quarterback doesn't struggle to throw the football in less than perfect weather conditions, despite Saturday's wind and last season's rainstorm against Michigan State representing two of this three career-worst passing performances.
The struggles came as a result of misfires, a lack of execution and inconsistencies, they said. Meyer claims it will be better come Saturday.
“J.T. is fine. J.T. is going to play well, and that certainly had nothing to do with what happened Saturday,” Meyer said. “A little breezy but that was not a problem at all.”
The tone of Barrett's voice was softer than usual when he met with reporters on Monday, unless he spoke about the opportunity to play in a raucous environment like Camp Randall Stadium for the first time or his hip-hop music. Ohio State doesn't plan to scrap everything and go back to the drawing board in order to improve its passing game.
The Buckeyes are not ready to hit the panic button quite yet, even if their star quarterback ran the ball 26 times.
“I think it was get back to the fundamentals of what we do,” Barrett said. “The main thing is that the fundamentals lacked in the game and that's how we played poorly because we didn't play with great fundamentals.
“I do what it takes to win. If that means I run the ball 26 times in order for us to win by 21 points, by golly you best believe I'm going to do that.”
