J.T. Barrett

Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett threw for 226 yards and a touchdown against Wisconsin. Was it best game as a Buckeye?

(Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer)

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Maybe you jumped right to Ohio State's win at Michigan State in 2014.

A redshirt freshman J.T. Barrett performed about as well as could be expected: 300 yards passing, 86 yards rushing, five total touchdowns. It all added up to a huge win that propelled the Buckeyes on their road to a national championship.

Is it possible that the game Barrett just played against Wisconsin was better?

Before we get into the numbers on the win over the Badgers, let's compare the stat lines from both games.

* Michigan State, 2014: 16-of-26 passing (62 percent), 3 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, 196.5 rating; 14 carries, 86 yards, 2 touchdowns.

* Wisconsin, 2016: 17-of-29 (58 percent), 1 touchdown, 1 interception, 128.6 rating; 21 carries, 92 yards, 2 touchdowns.

On the surface, clearly the Michigan State game looks better. And maybe it actually was. But is there an argument for Wisconsin's defense being much better than the one Barrett saw in 2014 in East Lansing?

Is there an argument for the Wisconsin performance being more gritty, and more impressive, given that everything wasn't clicking offensively for the Buckeyes the way things were two years ago?

In both games Barrett made incredible plays with his arms and his legs. In both games he didn't start great, but finished strong and found a way to get Ohio State a win. You could try to lump his 2014 game at Penn State into the fold for best game, but the passing numbers simply weren't there.

Perhaps it's a case of the Wisconsin game being a very good performance, but not quite to the level of that Michigan State game. But ponder that question as we take a look at Barrett's passing numbers through six games.

Barrett vs. Wisconsin

You saw the line breakdown from the game above. Here's how that looked in Barrett's passing chart:

It was again another game where Barrett didn't use the intermediate throws. It was either short, or long. Those are the throws that Wisconsin wanted to force Barrett into.

"We had some very set plays against them, and they zoned us off instead of playing man like we expected," Urban Meyer said. "It was just a chess match that they had some good calls there. What happens when that happens? It happens all the time. The guy with the ball in his hand has to be creative and make a play, and J.T. is as good as anybody."

What were those plays? Barrett buying time with his legs and pushing the ball downfield. We highlighted those plays here:

Overall with the deep ball last week, Barrett was 3-for-8 for 97 yards, but here's something to consider: There was a ball off Terry McLaurin's hands in the end zone, and another good end zone throw on which Curtis Samuel adjusted poorly and let it fall incomplete.

Connect on those two and Barrett's completion percentage jumps up by eight points, he's got about 60 more yards passing and two more touchdowns. From a statistical standpoint, that would have made this game feel much more like that game against Michigan State in 2014.

Barrett's interception against the Badgers came with a wet ball that slipped out of his hands in the 30 seconds it rained hard during the game.

He's always going to be good with his legs, it's when he combines the throw game with it that Barrett becomes a truly great quarterback. We're three throws way from Barrett being truly great against Wisconsin, and maybe the best he's ever been in a Buckeye uniform.

Barrett's season numbers

Barrett went over 1,00 yards passing in the win over Wisconsin. Here's how his season passing line looks: 96 of 152 (63.2 percent), 1,207 yards, 16 touchdowns and four interceptions.

Barrett is 10th in the country with a passer rating of 159.34.

Here's what Barrett's season-long passing chart looks like:

And here are Barrett's top five targets through six games:

1. Curtis Samuel: 33 targets, 28 receptions

2. Noah Brown: 24 targets, 16 receptions

3. Dontre Wilson: 21 targets, 16 receptions

4. Marcus Baugh: 16 targets, 7 receptions

5. Parris Campbell: 12 targets, 8 receptions