OSU could turn to running game against Purdue

COLUMBUS - There was no grade inflation when Ohio State fullback Brandon Smith was asked to evaluate the No. 12 Buckeyes' offense so far this season.

"I think a C+ or maybe a B-," Smith said at coach Jim Tressel's weekly press conference on Tuesday. "We've faced a lot of adversity with the quarterbacks changing, injuries and people moving around in a lot of different roles. But I think we've finally got our feet on the ground."

Keeping your feet on the ground has been a very productive strategy this season when playing Purdue, OSU's opponent in a 3:30 p.m. game Saturday at Ohio Stadium.

The Boilermakers (2-3, 0-1 Big Ten) rank 104^th out of 119 NCAA Division I football teams at stopping the run.

Penn State rushed for 202 yards last week in a 20-6 win over Purdue last Saturday. Two weeks ago, Notre Dame, which ranks 105^th nationally in rushing, ran for 201 yards. And Oregon got 330 rushing yards the second week of the season against the Boilermakers.

With Terrelle Pryor at quarterback and the return of tailback Chris Wells from a foot injury, the conventional wisdom says Ohio State has become more of a running team than it was earlier in the season.

But OSU is not necessarily running the ball more, just running it in different ways and more successfully. The Buckeyes have averaged 40 running plays a game in Pryor's three starts and 39 a game before that.

Either way, it would appear Wells and Pryor should be able to run effectively on Saturday.

But Tressel, not surprisingly, chose to put a positive spin on Purdue's defense by concentrating on how it played against Penn State. He pointed to the Nittany Lions converting only 4 of 14 third-down opportunities to back up his case.

"All you need to do is watch the Penn State game and you know how good Penn State's offense is and Purdue was toe to toe," he said.

Ohio State (5-1, 2-0 Big Ten) is coming off a 20-17 win at Wisconsin last Saturday night.

After a week of answering questions about playing a tough opponent on the road, the Buckeyes are facing a round of predictable questions about having a letdown against a less-hyped opponent this Saturday.

"If you want to be champions of the Big Ten, you'd better not have, quote-unquote, letdowns," Tressel said.

Smith echoed his coach's words. "We know inside our locker room how important (Saturday's game) is to what we want to accomplish. By the time of that kickoff, everybody will be fired up equally to any other game. They (Purdue) have lost some close games and it's the Big Ten."

Purdue has won only 12 of 48 games against ranked teams in coach Joe Tiller's 12 seasons and has lost its last 16 games against Top 25 opponents.

Purdue quarterback Curtis Painter was benched late in the Penn State game in favor of Joey Elliot, who led the Boilermakers' only scoring drive. But Tiller says Painter - who is one of only four Big Ten quarterbacks to throw for more than 10,000 yards in his career - will be back in the lineup on Saturday.

Tailback Kory Sheets has rushed for 498 yards, but more than one-third of those yards came in one game, when he broke loose for 180 yards in a 32-26 overtime loss to Oregon.