The next opponent on Ohio State’s calendar is the last team that the Buckeyes and their fans want to see: BYE.

BYE is my least favorite game every single year. From the fans’ perspective, there is absolutely nothing to be gained from playing against this team. They don’t improve our Strength of Schedule; they don’t help us improve our perception – in fact, we’ll probably be completely ignored this week. We just can’t beat this team. Sure, BYE has such an inferior talent level that our entire two-deep can mail it in and use the weekend to recover from any nagging injuries, but where’s the entertainment in that?

As an opponent, BYE is so putrid that Ohio State – the No. 1 team in the country, with the nation’s longest active winning streak (21) – isn’t even being televised this week. As a matter of fact, no record of this weekend’s game will even be kept. No stats, no highlights, nothing. BYE is like the Washington Generals of college football. Speaking of that, RIP Washington Generals.

BYE is such a cupcake opponent that OSU players love to face off against them, but they bring absolutely nothing to the table as far entertaining fans. Instead, we’re left with scouting Michigan rooting for Michigan to lose, among of a list of other games that are nice to watch but just don’t get our adrenaline flowing like the Scarlet and Gray.

And BYE shows up at the worst possible time. After seven weeks of Ohio State’s expected-to-be-fine-tuned offense sloppily rumblin’, bumblin’, stumblin’ to closer-than-necessary victories over vastly less talented competition, the Buckeyes finally switched to J.T. Barrett as the starting quarterback – who was promptly named the Big Ten Player of the Week.

Unsurprisingly, the OSU offense finally soared en route to a 49-7 victory over Rutgers. So after nearly two months of Ohio State fans clamoring for the offense to come remotely close to hinting at its potential, Urban Meyer made the switch at quarterback and the end product looked glorious. Now, eight games into the season, the Buckeyes are starting to show fans what we presumably could have seen in Week 1.

And just as the offense looks to get clicking and gain momentum as we push towards meaningful November contests, BYE rears its ugly head and wastes our time. What a tease! I want to see J.T. Barrett accumulate even sweeter stats, while living up to his nickname of “The Distributor”, as he gets our boatload of talented skill players plenty of opportunities to make plays.

But, alas, we’re stuck with BYE this week. We’ll have to wait another week to see how smooth the Ohio State offense really is and how goof the Buckeyes really are as a complete team, as they continue to gel more and more towards the most important games on the schedule. In the meantime, this coming weekend is a time for doing work around the house and rooting for Michigan to lose.

The Ohio State Buckeyes have been the target of much criticism over the course of the season for their inconsistent play.  However they may earn the moniker of most consistent “Coach Slayer” should Rutgers’ Head coach Kyle Flood be shown the door this week.  Looking back to the end of the 2014 regular season, the Buckeyes victory over That Team Up North lead directly to the firing of Brady Hoke.  Earlier this year the University of Maryland fired football boss Randy Edsall after a three touchdown loss to OSU.  And now with the Rutgers beat down that we all watched this past Saturday, Flood might be finding his spot right behind these gentlemen in the unemployment line.

So if you’re reading this as an Athletic Director that’s trying to get rid of a pesky coach, give Gene Smith a call.  Urban and the boys would be happy to give you good reason to send the guy packing.

#1: TBDBITL got busy across the pond

Because the choice between a weekend trip to Piscataway or London might be the easiest decision ever made, The Ohio State Marching Band accepted their invitation to play during the Jacksonville Jaguars and Buffalo Bills contest at Wembley Stadium in London.  The Pride of the Buckeyes, naturally, were at their best.

#2: Nebraska’s nightmare continues

This local newscaster says it best.  If Ohio State ever had a season like this one I might just…  Oh… 2011.  Please don’t remind me.

#3: Penn State played Maryland and Zzzzz…

The game was actually pretty good (if you could ignore Maryland’s uniforms or avoid falling asleep like I did).  These two former opponents of the Buckeyes competed in their rivalry(?) game which resulted in a one point win for the Nittany Lions.  When you win 36 of the 39 meetings between the two schools, it’s not a rivalry.

#4: Oh Big Ten Network, you shouldn’t have!

In an early Christmas present to us all, the B1G Network immortalized last week’s Michigan loss with this gem.  Jalen Watts-Jackson BROKE AND DISLOCATED his hip during that celebration.  Wow.

#5: Buckeyes get back to form

Many had been calling for J.T. Barrett to take the reins of this offense for months.  This weekend on the Jersey Shore, he proved that he deserves his starting role.  Was it all part of the Urban Meyer plan?  We will never know for sure.

Lets all just take a second to bask in this feeling that we have going through our body’s right now. That feeling that THE BUCKEYES ARE BACK. Maybe I am being a little dramatic due to the fact that we really never went anywhere, in fact we are yet to lose a game since last season, but it’s no secret that the team has left a lot to be desired this season.

Thank god that it seems like that part of the season is behind us! The question is who is behind this offensive resurgence? I think that answer is pretty obvious, Mr JT Barrett. I wish there was someone else to thank along with JT just because I don’t want it to look like I’m dumping on Cardale, but the facts are the facts. From the second JT got the football, the game seemed to be in control. He is just simply able to do things in this offense that Cardale is not able to do. Key to remember about these two is Barrett was recruited by Urban to run this offense, Cardale was a Tressel recruit, not built to run a read option offense. The difference between these two is not just about their physical tools, but also their mental makeup. Cardale has proven to be a better leader than many ever thought he could be, but JT is simply on another level. It is not hard to see on the field that the rest of the team just rally’s behind JT. Not to mention that he was voted team captain as a Sophmore. That is extremely impressive!

Lastly, I would like to touch on a topic that almost makes me sick to think about, but as I said before, facts are facts. All year I have defended Cardale because Urban was saying that someone had to beat him out for Jones to lose his job, at the same time the nation was calling for JT because of how successful he had been in the redzone. Even with all the facts Urban did not seem to want to make the change to JT. Bottom line is Urban should have made this move many weeks ago. It has been obvious to everyone else that this was the thing the Buckeyes needed to get rolling and so far so good. That being said, none of us are in the locker room so we don’t know all the details, but from what we know, that move has been a long time coming. I am just thankful the Buckeyes look comfortable and poised for a post season run!

Is the Big Ten East the best division in college football? Its four best teams include two unbeatens (Ohio State, Michigan State) and two teams (Penn State, Michigan) with two losses each. Penn State’s two losses are to Temple (7-0) and Ohio State (7-0). Michigan’s two losses are to Utah (6-0) and Michigan State (7-0). That’s right: None of the division’s top four teams have lost to anything other than an undefeated team. No other division comes close to matching that feat.

Michigan’s streak of shut outs came to end last week in the most unimaginable way. The bizarre botched punt and ensuing touchdown return defies description. But its impact goes beyond the collective jaw-drop of a sports fan nation. The Big Ten East race has been significantly altered by that single, mind-boggling play. While I won’t pretend that there weren’t other ways Michigan State could’ve won that game, they were all just as unlikely to happen as the thing that did. So take away that or some other equally absurd ending, and we’d be looking at this:

1t. Ohio State (3-0)
1t. Michigan (3-0)
3t. Michigan State (2-1)
3t. Penn State (2-1)

At this point, Penn State seems to be at least a step behind the other three, although it’s never safe to count anyone out. But let’s assume that both Michigan and Michigan State beat the Lions and win their games against all other non-OSU Big Ten teams. That leaves us with two potential end-game scenarios: Ohio State beats Michigan State and heads into a battle with Michigan for a spot in the Big Ten Championship Game and probably the playoff, or Ohio State loses to Michigan State and can not make the conference title game. Beating Michigan would only put us into a tie with Sparty, who already owns the tie-breaker. And not making the conference championship game most likely means not making the playoff.

But that didn’t happen. Michigan isn’t out of the running yet, but it’s likely going to take Michigan State losing twice and Michigan running the table for the Wolverines to get to Indianapolis. With virtually no reasonable road blocks ahead of them except for each other, the top four Big Ten East teams are headed for a heck of an ending.

Since it has been the dominant topic of this space for most of the season thus far, I have to address the change at the quarterback position for Ohio State. When the Buckeyes take the field tonight, J.T. Barrett will be the starter for the first time since last November. His performance on third down and in the red zone in recent weeks (and particularly against Penn State) has earned him the spot. Ultimately, the inability of Ohio State to develop a deep-passing game was Cardale Jones’ downfall. It’s bizarre that a quarterback who’s 10-0 as a starter, was MVP of the Big Ten Championship Game and won a national title is going to be the backup, but it was just as bizarre that a quarterback who owns most of the school’s passing records and finished in the top 5 in Heisman voting the previous year was a backup. We always knew it was a strange situation we were in, and I hope that fans don’t forget how much Jones has contributed to this team.

As you probably know and have read about, J.T. Barrett was recently announced the starter over Cardale Jones for the upcoming game against Rutgers and on. After months of many fans calling for this to happen, and months of Urban being redundant that J.T. had not yet beat out Cardale, the switch was made.

Obviously, Cardale had some of the highest expectations of all returning college football players. After all, he was the 3rd string QB that led the team to beat Wisconsin, Alabama, and Oregon in an extremely impressive stretch that put Ohio State on top of College Football. His potential was and is apparent to anybody who watches. He is one of the biggest QBs in all of football, and has one of the strongest arms in all of football. He is undefeated as a starter. So, why was the switch made?

“Just sheer production. … Red zone production, third-down production made the difference.” said Urban Meyer on Tuesday.

If you go off of the stats, and the fact that he won the B1G Championship, the Sugar Bowl against “almighty” Alabama, and the National Championship against Oregon, you would think there’s no way he could be demoted. But, if you closely watch the game, you see why. His running threat is fairly non-existent which allows defenses to key on Zeke, and without Devin Smith and the coaches trust for that deep threat, his famous deep ball isn’t there. His short throw accuracy also isn’t as great as you would expect from a projected first round pick, which, inevitably, makes for struggles in the red zone.

Of course, those red zone struggles led to the J.T. Barrett package in that area of the field. Not only was he slightly better than Cardale in that spot of the field, but the team went from 6-16 under Cardale to 12-12 under J.T. Then, after more struggles from Cardale during the Penn State game, J.T. was handed the reigns to the offense. From there, J.T. led the team to flashbacks of last year, and he “beat-out” Cardale.

Now, what will the offense look like with a “new” starting QB? Let’s look at his stats and game scores from last year.

J. T. Barrett 2014 stats

Navy – W 34-27. 12-15, 226 yards passing, 2 TD, 1 INT. 9 rushes, 50 yards.

Virginia Tech - L 35-21. 9-29, 219 yards passing, 1 TD, 3 INT. 24 rushes, 70 yards, 1 TD.

Kent State - W 66-0. 23-30, 312 yards passing, 6 TD, 1 INT. 8 rushes, 6 yards.

Cincinnati - W 50-28. 26-36, 330 yards passing, 4 TD. 14 rushes, 79 yards.

Maryland - W 52-24. 18-23, 267 yards passing, 4 TD. 16 rushes, 71 yards, 1 TD.

Rutgers - W 56-17. 19-31, 261 yards passing, 3 TD. 7 rushes, 107 yards, 2 TD.

Penn State - W 31-24. 12-19, 74 yards passing, 1 TD, 2 INT. 20 rushes, 75 yards, 2 TD.

Illinois -  W 55-14. 15-24, 167 yards passing, 2 TD. 7 rushes, 38 yards.

Michigan State - W 49-37. 16-26, 300 yards passing, 3 TD. 14 rushes, 86 yards, 2 TD.

Minnesota - W 31-24. 15-25, 200 yards passing, 3 TD, 1 INT. 17 rushes, 189 yards, 1 TD.

Indiana - W 42-27. 25-35, 302 yards passing, 4 TD, 2 INT. 20 rushes, 78 yards.

Michigan - W 42-28. 13-21, 176 yards passing, 1 TD. 15 rushes, 89 yards, 2 TD.

Overall - 203-314, 2,834 yards passing, 34 TD, 10 INT. 171 rushes, 938 yards, 11 TD.

Obviously, these numbers are great. He broke the record for most passing TDs by an Ohio State QB when he threw for his 31st. He also broke Braxton’s single season yards record of 3, 310. And, he broke Drew Brees’s B1G single-season TD record when he recorded his 43rd score against the team’s rival. Then, to cap it off, he finished 5th in the Heisman race, even after not playing in the B1G Championship with a broken ankle.

Some of you may think, “Well, all those stats were last year, what about this year? He didn’t play well early in the season when replacing Cardale.”

“The first few weeks I was trying to come out, trying to make plays and forcing it.” J.T. admitted after the Penn State game. “That’s asking for bad things to happen, when you try to force things instead of letting them come to you.”

Like I alluded to earlier, J.T. is 6-6, 56 yards passing, and 2 TDs, along with 21 rushes for 164 yards and 5 TDs. He has shown flashes of his consistency and greatness of last year, along with a new level of speed. He showed the ability to continuously make the correct reads, specifically in the read-option with Ezekiel Elliott and Braxton Miller.

“Barrett makes a difference for them. There is no doubt about it.” said Penn State coach James Franklin after their loss to Ohio State. “Braxton Miller is a special athlete with the ball in his hands and their people up front and their tailback played very well. Give those guys credit. Good football team.” With a better decision maker in J.T., and those two elite runners with a powerful line will be something extremely difficult to stop.

Overall, I would certainly expect a more high scoring offense. J.T. is a smoother operator, and if nothing is open downfield, unlike Cardale, he can pick up adequate yards. With all the playmakers this team has (when healthy, of course), they need somebody to get them the ball. Who better to do just that, than The Distributor, J.T. Barrett. He may not possess the arm that Cardale has, but he didn’t have it last year, either, and look at the points the team put up. I predict the team will get their first 50 point game under J.T. Saturday night, but that of course gives the opposing offense more chances, which will likely result in more points for them as well. So, look for more points on both sides, but look for our side to look more like the offensive juggernaut everybody was predicting them to be.