Ohio State, J.T. Barrett​ Not Ready for Michigan State

Following his successful call to score a touchdown when a knee to run out the clock would have sufficed in Michigan State's 35-11 win over Michigan on Saturday, Spartans head coach Mark Dantonio admitted that he was attempting to make a statement.

"I just felt like we needed to put a stake in them at that point," Dantonio said, via Ralph D. Russo of The Associated Press, via ABC News.

And why not? After all, Saturday's battle for the Paul Bunyan Trophy was Michigan State's last chance to make an exclamation point before a bye week precedes its Nov. 8 showdown with Ohio State.

But if this weekend was about punctuation marks, then the Buckeyes' 31-24 double-overtime win over Penn State could best be described as an ellipsis. Because, while Ohio State will likely head to East Lansing with a 7-1 record in tow, its latest effort made it clear that there's still much to be determined about this Buckeyes team.

Sure, Ohio State managed to head into one of the most hostile environments in the country and beat one of the nation's highest-ranked defenses with an injured freshman quarterback leading the way. But for much of the game, the Buckeyes looked less like the team that scored an average of 56 points in its previous four games, and more like the one that suffered a now-embarrassing loss to Virginia Tech on Sept. 6.

"We've got a lot of work to do as we continue this journey," OSU head coach Urban Meyer put it to ESPN's Holly Rowe after the game.

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Quarterback J.T. Barrett reverted from being one of the hottest players in the country to looking like an overwhelmed freshman, throwing two crucial interceptions, including a pick-six to Nittany Lions defensive lineman Anthony Zettel to start the second half. If you were upset you didn't get in on Barrett's 50-1 Heisman Trophy odds before they shrunk to 20-1 this past week, don't worry, they should be back in the value-bet range very soon.

Although he certainly played a big part in it, Barrett wasn't the only one who contributed to the underwhelming nature of Ohio State's most recent win. Facing the best defensive line they've seen since their defeat at the hands of the Hokies, the Buckeyes' offensive line struggled with consistency after pushing around undermanned fronts from Kent State, Cincinnati, Maryland and Rutgers in the past month.

"J.T. had a tough day," Meyer said. "But we also had a tough day protecting him against a real good D-line."

Ohio State's play-calling also left much to be desired, although that may have been due to a sprained knee suffered by Barrett heading into halftime. Nevertheless, Meyer and offensive coordinator Tom Herman appeared to be coaching inside of a shared shell, attempting 57 rushes compared to just 19 passes.

"We wanted to drop back and throw," Meyer admitted. "We had some issues upfront. We gotta get that cleaned up."

Regardless of the reason why, play-calling that appeared conservative in the first half only got safer in the second, allowing Penn State to climb back into the game and ultimately force overtime. Multiple 3rd-and-1 attempts by both Barrett and running back Ezekiel Elliott were stuffed up the middle, as if the Nittany Lions knew what was coming before the ball was even snapped.

"I didn't like the way we went about business in the second half," Meyer said. "We have to re-evaluate some things."

That's something to keep an eye on moving forward, as the Buckeyes' play-calling also clammed up in last season's Big Ten Championship Game loss to Michigan State. Speaking of the Spartans, while they enjoy a week off, Ohio State will host 4-4 Illinois in a game that the rest of the nation will surely see as a mere warm-up to the biggest game on the Buckeyes' schedule.

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Ever since last season's conference title game ended, all roads from Columbus have led to East Lansing and what appears to still be a de facto Big Ten East championship game on Nov. 8. Week 2 hiccups from both Ohio State and Michigan State threatened that notion, but both appear to be back on track, despite the Buckeyes' close call in Happy Valley.

That leaves Ohio State with two weeks and one game to get ready for the Spartans, with Barrett's health being Meyer's top concern and improving his offense line being priority 1B.

That's not to say that there weren't positives for the Buckeyes to take away from their most recent win—defensive end Joey Bosa has almost single-handedly improved the Ohio State defense, and Elliott rushed for 109 yards against the nation's top run defense—but this hardly looked like a team ready for its season-defining game.

And that's OK for the Buckeyes—at least for now.

Maybe lessons learned in State College will carry over to their meeting with Michigan State. Maybe momentum regained against the Fighting Illini will carry over into the following week. Maybe after four straight blowouts, Ohio State was just due for one bad game.

We don't know, and we won't know until the Buckeyes board their plane back to Columbus from Spartan Stadium. But what we do know is that even after Saturday, Ohio State remains in the hunt for the first-ever College Football Playoff but will need to improve in the next two weeks in order to stay there.

"The objective has been from Day 1 has been to compete for a championship in November," Meyer said. "Check off another one and get ready to go next Saturday."

Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Ohio State Lead Writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes obtained firsthand. All statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com and recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports.