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Another week, another victory for Ohio State. Here's the breakdown.

Offense

The Buckeyes really excelled running the ball. Beanie Wells only had 85 yards on the ground, but you have to keep in mind he aggrivated his ankle injury. Maurice Wells had a surprisingly good showing (15 carries, 74 yards) in relief, and Brandon Saine even got in on the act. Purdue was loading against the run all game, and the Buckeyes as a team managed to still average over four yards per attempt.

In terms of the passing game, quarterback Todd Boeckman had a solid but unspectacular effort. He started the game on fire, getting quick touchdowns to Ray Small and Brian Hartline. For whatever reason, it looked to me like he was trying to do too much late. Deep throws into double coverage may work for Brett Favre, but Boeckman is not that type of quarterback. In a game that was less of a blowout, I doubt that he would have attemped all those throws, but OSU was firmly in control throughout.

An encouraging aspect of the passing game was balance among the receivers. Although only four players caught passes, Brian Robiskie, Hartline and Small all saw an even amount of throws. The less teams can double up on Robiskie, the better it is for the OSU attack.

Defense

Apparently the defense hasn't spent much time on catching drills recently. Dropped interceptions became a theme for the Buckeye D, and were the only weakness of the unit.

This section gets shorter and shorter every week, because there's really not much to improve on. They allowed four rushing yards and carried a shutout 59 minutes and 50 seconds into the game. There's really nothing I can tell you here that you don't already know.

Special Teams

Coverage units continue to be an issue, as does the return game. It's possible that this team just isn't going to be as good in this area as the teams of Tressel past, but I still think that they need to start experimenting with different players in the return game.

To be fair, there was one new return man for the Bucks this week. Something tells me that backup quarterback Robbie Schoenhoft isn't the guy who's going to take a kick to the house though.

Overall

This game was hyped to be a big test for the Buckeyes, but it ended up being a big yawn. OSU had the game in hand by the end of the first quarter. The offense didn't quite perform up to expectations, especially given the way Notre Dame shredded the Purdue defense last week, but Beanie Wells was hobbled and Boeckman was making uncharacteristic throws.

As for the Big Ten's top offense, once they ran into the OSU D, they sputtered under the pressure. The Boilers tied a school record with 12 punts.

OSU is clearly the class of the conference, and it's doubtful that they'll be challenged before the start of November. More and more, it's looking like that home game against Illinois will be the toughest game of the season for the Bucks. The trick will be keeping up the intensity against lesser teams the next few weeks.

The bottom line is this team is bringing it each and every week. Last January's blowout loss in the championship game is clearly on the minds of the players, and they look determined to get redemption. With USC's loss at home to Stanford, the Buckeyes' rise to title contention is only one more upset away.

Tags: ohio state football