Tale of the Tape: Oklahoma

Thursday's game against Indiana may be one of the quietest 300-yard passing nights in recent memory for J.T. Barrett and the Ohio State offense. Sure, a good chunk of the yardage came on a couple of long plays that were essentially short throws with long runs made after the catch. But unless we do a full inventory of college football records, those yards still count. Ohio State made the right adjustments in the second half to get the offense humming the way that the coaching staff essentially said that it would go in 2017. Parris Campbell and Johnnie Dixon both had good and bad with drops and long scores. 10 different receivers had catches on the night and only Campbell had more than two catches (six). So much of Ohio State's fortunes will be pinned on Barrett and while that seems to be the modus operandi of the position, Barrett seems to get an extra helping or two of intense criticism. Barrett was 10-14 passing in the second half against Indiana for 209 yards and four touchdowns. Did Ohio State wear out the Indiana defense? Sure. But whatever adjustments that Ohio State made, worked. The Buckeyes tried to target tight end Marcus Baugh on several occasions and while he did haul in two passes, he also had a slip and was overthrown in the game. Kevin Wilson wants to get the tight ends more involved and Baugh definitely wants to play more of a role in the offense. Look for Baugh to be utilized more in the coming weeks.

The Sooners took a bit of a hit in the secondary with the season-ending injury to Jordan Parker. He was a starter for part of the 2016 season and even though he lost his starting job to Parnell Motley, he was very much in the plans of the Sooners. How happy is Oklahoma not to have to face Noah Brown this season? The corners have good size with both coming in at 6-foot with Motley and Jordan Thomas. Safety Steven Parker started last year in this game while Will Johnson is a 5th-year senior who played in the game as well and had seven tackles in the loss by the home team. It is hard to look at the numbers from the UTEP game to get any sort of idea how good this secondary unit is. UTEP was a terrible passing team in 2016 (103rd nationally). One thing that the Sooners will have to contend with is a new Ohio State passing offense at least from a structural standpoint. It had been about two years since the Buckeyes had run crossing patterns as anything more than window dressing and a review of the Indiana game shows that the Buckeyes are not afraid to run a few 'rub' routes. How will the Sooners react? Ultimately, the Big 12 has a reputation as being a pass happy league and in turn the defenses see the ball thrown a lot. Oklahoma was 111th in the nation last year in passing yards allowed per game and while the Ohio State passing game is far from solving is riddle, we just are going to have to trust that the Buckeyes have a plan to exploit things. EDGE: Ohio State