Buckeyes Bounce Back in Blowout Win

As the saying goes..."Two wrongs don't make a right".

In the case of the Ohio State Buckeyes, two wrongs made a right on Saturday as they trounced the Purdue Boilermakers with a dominating 49-0 shutout victory, the largest shutout victory over Purdue in Buckeye football history.

The two wrongs which fueled the Buckeye blowout were the stunning 26-18 upset a year ago at Purdue and last week's 31-18 defeat at Wisconsin that stripped OSU from the No.1 ranking.

Needless to say, the Buckeyes had a couple reasons to come into the game angry, and angry they played scoring six first half touchdowns.

Setting the tone on their opening offensive possession, the Bucks ran Boom Herron on five straight plays covering 60 yards ending with a Herron earning an 11-yard touchdown on the ground.

Then, the Buckeyes special teams (which has struggled the entire season) fell on a loose ball after a punt hit a Boilermaker player giving Ohio State the ball on their 39-yard line. The offense took advantage of the excellent field position as Herron scored his second touchdown run, this time from two yards out.

Scoring the Buckeyes third touchdown on the ground was Jordan Hall in the beginning stages of the second quarter.

The Buckeyes then put their foot on the gas as Terrelle Pryor connected on TD passes of 22 yards to DeVier Posey, seven yards to Dane Sanzenbacher and 15 yards to Corey Brown to make it 42-0 at the break.

It wasn't just the Buckeyes offense that was having their way; the Buckeyes defense forced the Boilermakers to punt the ball away on their first five possessions. On the sixth, Ohio State safety Orhian Johnson picked off quarterback Rob Henry.

In fact, the Boilermakers never came close to scoring. Their only chance came on Carson Wigg's 56-yard field goal attempt in the final minute. They had driven to the Ohio State 39 which turned out to be their deepest penetration of the game.

Purdue came into the game leading the Big Ten in rushing and defense against the run, but the Buckeyes offense and defense didn't seem to care.

The Boilermaker running game tallied a mere 30 yards on the ground, 200 yards less than it was averaging. It had rushed for at least 200 yards in each of the last five games.

Meanwhile, Ohio State ran for 184 yards, led by Herron's 74 yards on 16 carries, including the previously mentioned scores.

After a poor performance against Wisconsin, Pryor completed 16 of 22 passes for 270 yards, although he did throw two interceptions.

The Buckeyes will continue to try and work their way back up the BCS standings next Saturday as they travel to Minnesota to take on the Golden Gophers for a Big Ten, night battle.

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