COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The plan made sense, the Buckeyes stretching the Army defense sideways, but the facts are the facts, and the Ohio State passing attack lived behind the line of scrimmage in Saturday's 38-7 win.

J.T. Barrett finished 25 of 33 for 270 yards, and he played an efficient Barrett-type game and executed what was asked of him. But 15 of his completions were caught with the receiver either at or behind the line of scrimmage.

There were swing passes and bubble screens and the throws were traveling some distance horizontally, but they were in front of the defense, not through it, and it's worth considering in analyzing the passing attack.

Barrett's full breakdown:

* Passes caught at or behind the line of scrimmage: 15 of 15

* Thrown 1 to 3 yards downfield: 1 of 4

* Thrown 4 to 9 yards downfield: 7 of 8

* Thrown 10 yards downfield or more: 2 of 6

That's your 25 of 33. A perfect 15 of 15 behind the line, and 10 of 18 past it.

Good for the Ohio State offense and good for Barrett. But don't fool yourself about what you saw. That was a game plan with some rhythm, and a quarterback acting like a point guard, feeding K.J. Hill and Parris Campbell on the perimeter for open jumpers. Yards and yards and points are points, and the Buckeyes put up 586 yards, and 8.5 yards per play, on Army the week after gaining just 350 yards, and 5.1 yards per play, vs. Oklahoma.

But that wasn't really a passing attack in full effect. That wasn't Barrett answering all the questions about his throwing. But forget those 15 for 15 for a moment.

He sure did rip one that's worth remembering - a 20 yard pass in a line into the right corner of the end zone for a Terry McLaurin touchdown that was obviously the kind of throw that he'll need to make again.

McLaurin knows that was the real deal.

"Sometimes J.T. gets a lot of flak," McLaurin said, "and we just want to be open when he's ready to throw. And I felt like on that play specifically, I was open when he was ready to throw and it was on time and that's what it should look like.

"So we know every time is not going to be perfect like that, but we've just got to keep building on today and I feel like we're going to get there when it's time to get there."