Three-Point Stance: Saturday's best and worst, Buckeyes falter

Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell’s thought-provoking Three-Point Stance is here with Saturday Shine and Saturday Shame from the weekend as well as analysis on J.T. Barrett.

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So what is Saturday Shine and Saturday Shame? Essentially it’s a look at the teams, and sometimes players, who should be proud or ashamed of their performances from the weekend. This includes Thursday and Friday games, of course. So let’s take a look at those that shined first…

- Clemson defensive line: It was simply an amazing show to watch as the defensive line, from starters to backups and ends to tackles, dominated a good Auburn offensive line and reached double digit sacks. We knew how talented the unit was coming into the season, but the results were off the charts Saturday night.

- Baker Mayfield: He’s a gamer, a leader, an improviser, a tough guy and a winner. His performance against Ohio State, especially after last season’s loss, was nothing short of remarkable. He spread the ball around, kept plays alive and clearly wanted to win more than anyone else on the field.

- Lamar Jackson: Remember him? A rough ending to last season overshadowed his Heisman year a bit and maybe made a lot of us forget how good and dominant he really is. UNC had no chance.

- USC: After a weak opener, USC dominated Stanford in a game I thought they would lose. Sam Darnold had some big moments, they had two 100-yard rushers, and most importantly, the defense looked much better.

- TCU: While Oklahoma’s win over Ohio State was clearly the biggest for the Big 12, TCU’s win over Arkansas was huge as well. Arkansas is unpredictable and certainly ripe for defeat at any time, but the Horned Frogs look good early in the season, especially on defense.

- Duke: The Blue Devils dismantled a Northwestern team that many picked to win the Big Ten West.

- Oregon: The Willie Taggart era is off to a fine start with a 2-0 record to open the season including a nice home win against Nebraska. The offense looks especially potent, at least compared to last year, while the defense is coming together. In a season or so, Oregon could be a problem for the Pac-12, as this is a young team.

- Georgia defense: The Dawgs' defense was all over the field in their win over Notre Dame, and they look like one of the strongest units in the SEC. That and a three-pronged rushing attack bode well regardless of who the quarterback is.

- Michigan defense: The defense could make this list every week. This week they had two defensive touchdowns and a safety to lead the Wolverines to victory and avoid a letdown game.

- Will Grier: After a tough loss to Virginia Tech, Grier and company bounced back against an always-tough East Carolina team. His day was as good as any quarterback this weekend, at least for signal callers that played against a solid opponent.

- Minnesota: The Fighting Flecks are 2-0, and the offense looked good against Oregon State.

- TaQuon Marshall: The Georgia Tech quarterback has answered my question about replacing Justin Thomas. I didn’t think he’d be this dynamic this fast. After five touchdowns against Tennessee in week one, he had four more in a win over Jacksonville State this weekend.

- Shea Patterson: It was a record-setting day for the Ole Miss quarterback, who broke the school’s all-time single game passing mark with 489 yards. Considering some of the names that have played under center in Oxford, that’s impressive regardless of the opponent.

- Josh Rosen: 25 completions with 23 to wide receivers and five scores. Hawaii isn’t good, but this was a clinic. In is his last five quarters of football, Rosen is 41-51 for 621 yards with 9 TDs and zero picks.

- Auburn offense: How many times was Jarrett Stidham sacked by the Clemson defense? How ineffective was the offense in the second half? How badly did the offensive line get beaten up? It was overall a simply awful performance.

- Jarrett Stidham: Stidham gets an extra mention simply because he held onto the ball way too long. I feel for the kid - he didn’t have much time to throw the ball most of the night and his receivers didn’t get much separation - but many other times he just didn’t show the proper clock in his head to get rid of the ball or at least throw it away.

- Baylor: Stidham’s old team could use him despite the way he holds the ball, as Baylor has now lost to Liberty and UTSA for a 0-2 start under Matt Rhule. That’s very ugly.

- Ohio State offense: See below. They were simply awful against Oklahoma, and J.T. Barrett gets a lot of the blame.

- Max Browne: The last-ditch effort to live up to that five-star ranking is not going well. He threw for just 138 yards and had two picks against Penn State.

- Texas A&M: After a historic collapse against UCLA, a 10-point win over Nicholls isn’t exactly impressive.

- Northwestern defense: After giving up 20 and having to come from behind against Nevada, the defense was exposed against Duke, who passed and ran all over them.

- Arizona and Arizona State: Things don’t look much better than last season for either team with losses on Saturday to Group of Five programs.

- Oregon State: It’s going to be a long, long season.

- UNC defense: The defense has looked awful in an 0-2 start giving up massive numbers. Lamar Jackson is expected, but they made Ross Bowers and Cal look great in week one, so it’s not a strong unit.

- Josh Allen: Why is Allen on this list? He completed 22-of-32 passes for 328 yards and two scores against Gardner-Webb. One reason. Did you see Iowa’s defense on Saturday against Iowa State? That’s the team that shut Allen down. Ouch.

OK, I was wrong.

It’s Week 2 and I was wrong - that’s sad. I bought into Ohio State’s new offense, the changes that would be made by new offensive coordinators Kevin Wilson and Ryan Day and the improvement quarterback J.T. Barrett would make as a downfield passer.

I ignored the fact that Barrett was remarkably inaccurate last season downfield. I ignored the fact that Ohio State was lacking difference-makers at wide receiver. I ignored the offensive line question marks. And now I am paying the price.

I picked Ohio State to win the national title and, as a result, picked Barrett to win the Heisman Trophy as the quarterback of the best team in the country. And now that is all impossible. Impossible. you say? Yes, it’s over. The Ohio State team I saw get dominated by Oklahoma has zero chance of making the playoff and thus winning the national title. The J.T. Barrett I saw on Saturday night has zero chance of becoming an accomplished downfield passer and hasn’t improved a bit in that aspect of his game.

And it’s not only Barrett. The Buckeyes impressed me in no aspects of the game. The vaunted defensive line was handled most of the game, the running game was average at best and the young secondary was toyed with.

But when it came down to the offense, it was clear that Oklahoma had zero fear of Barrett beating them downfield, and they had no reason to. Now I’m not even sure if he’s the guy who should start for this team moving forward if they want to win the Big Ten and somehow try to get to the playoff.

Am I overreacting because I look so dumb with my pick? Maybe. But ask any Ohio State fan this morning or anyone who watched the Oklahoma game Saturday night and see if they think Barrett has improved and is the answer for the Buckeyes at quarterback. The answer looks like a resounding no.