COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A tough week for Ohio State senior quarterback J.T. Barrett ended in a record-setting performance.

Coming off a 31-16 home loss to No. 2 Oklahoma in the previous game, the Buckeyes came under a lot of criticism and Barrett was the main target for his subpar game.

He answered his critics as he accounted for three touchdowns to set a Big Ten career record, and freshman J.K. Dobbins ran for two scores as No. 8 Ohio State defeated Army 38-7 at Ohio Stadium on Saturday.

Barrett, who ran for a touchdown in the first half, passed 20 yards to Terry McLaurin to make it 31-7 in the third quarter. Then with 7:01 left, he added a 9-yard scoring strike to Austin Mack to break former Purdue quarterback Drew Brees' conference record of 106 TDs responsible for in a career.

"I've known about the Big Ten Conference for probably 40-some years, and of all the great players that have played here, to say you're the number one touchdown maker in the history of the Big Ten Conference, that's awesome," Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said. "That's something that -- that's going to be a hard one to break. He's got a lot of games left. Much credit to him and I appreciate him."

Barrett had 32 yards on seven rushes along with 25 for 33 for 270 passing yards.

"These records I've broken I've never really thought about it, honestly," he said. "I'm honored. I didn't picture it. I thought about everybody who was a part of it in my time here and believed in me."

As for the criticism of him?

"People have a right to their opinion," Barrett said. "That's something that's part of our great country, freedom of speech, but they really don't know the inner workings involved every single week, game plan every single game."

Dobbins' 52-yard score early in the third quarter opened a 24-7 lead for the Buckeyes (2-1). He had rushed for 172 yards on 13 attempts.

Army's Darnell Woolfolk had 74 yards on 15 runs, and quarterback Ahmad Bradshaw completed 2 of 7 passes for 19 yards.

"We lost to a really good football team," Army coach Jeff Monken said. "That was a talented, tough, physical football team. I'm incredibly proud of our team and the fact that we fought and put in tremendous effort all the way through.

The Buckeyes led 17-7 at the half on runs of 5 yards by Barrett and 2 yards by Dobbins in the first quarter before Army countered with a 3-yard TD run by Woolfolk in the second.

Ohio State went 75 yards in eight plays on the opening drive, with Dobbins chewing up 36 of it on a run prior to Barrett's score with 12:23 left in the first quarter.

The Buckeyes on their next possession went 94 yards in 13 plays, with Dobbins scoring with 4:11 left in the first quarter.

Army (2-1) used 18 plays and 9:37 off the clock to go 99 yards to make it 14-7 with 6:26 remaining in the half, but Sean Nuernberger's 33-yard field goal with 3:06 left put the lead to 10 at the half before OSU took over in the third quarter.

"I thought we ran the ball very well," Bradshaw said. "Up front I thought our offensive line blocked them really well, but like coach said, they play really hard and are a very talented team and were able to win a lot of one on one battles."

NOTES: This was the first meeting. ... The Black Knights are 43-51-1 against Big Ten teams ... Coach Urban Meyer is 6-1 coming off a loss at Ohio State with an average margin of victory of 29.2 points. ... The last time Ohio State lost a nonconference home game -- Sept. 6, 2014 versus Virginia Tech -- the Buckeyes followed with 23 straight wins, including the 2014 national championship. ... The Buckeyes had not played a service academy since a 34-17 victory against Navy in the 2014 season opener in Baltimore, Md. ... Army has now played nine of the 14 teams in the Big Ten. The Black Knights have yet to play Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Purdue and Wisconsin.