It is time to put on our blinders.  This is (Beat)Purdue week.  There is no other week on our calendar. No peeking ahead allowed.  Eat, sleep and drink Boilermakers, and only Boilermakers.  Better treat that last part as a figure of speech lest we enhance the waiting list for liver transplants.  You have to admire, though, a team named after an adult beverage.   Not many schools, with the possible exception of the Miami Hurricanes do that.  Not a bad idea though and just think of the commercial possibilities.  The Missouri Martinis, brought to you by the fine people from Absolut,  or the Florida Screwdrivers sponsored by the Florida orange growers. and if they played football,  the Manhattan Manhattans.  Endless possibilities and a new source of revenue for those embattled athletic directors.

                The Michigan State game was fun.  We stuffed their run game (5 yards), found some offense (182 yards on the ground and 213 yards passing), and played well enough on defense to keep the Spartans from being much of a threat.  Our passing to the tight ends seems to have become more than just a novelty and Santonio Holmes is an emerging star.  I also like the occasional use of FB Brandon Joe at TB. OK, Smoker had a lot of passing yards (355), but we forced him into some key mistakes at crucial times as well.  The Spartans, as always, hurt themselves with some really stupid penalties.   All in all it was a semi-dominant performance by the Buckeyes over a ranked team.  It was not, however, a performance on which to get fat and happy. The OSU coaches will be able to point out that we gave Smoker too much time, we settled for field goals on 4 drives, and just so the special teams don’t feel left out, the MSU kick off return might have been disastrous.  Had the Buckeye offense not answered with a drive of its own, the return could have changed the momentum if not the outcome of the game. I wonder how much  to make of Mike D’Andrea’s absence.  Let’s be positive, though.  Holding MSU to 5 yards on the ground once again made our opponent one-dimensional.  The sack total may not have been impressive, but the Buckeyes hurried and harassed Smoker into many bad throws, especially in the second half.  On the offensive side of things, Craig Krenzel made the two-QB situation a moot point by running for 55 yards and passing for 213 and 3 TD’s.  Lydell Ross gained 125 yards for his third straight 100 yard outing.  It doesn’t take a long memory to recall some games with less than 125 yards of total offense.  BJ Sander continues to be an absolute weapon with his punting.  So things are looking brighter in Buckeyeland, at just the right time.

OK, Purdue.  Excuse me, but doesn’t Joe Tiller look way too much like the actor Wilford Brimley? Just seeing him on the sidelines makes me crave oatmeal.  Tiller, of course, introduced the Basketball on Grass(sounds like  the NBA regular season) concept to the Big 10.  Wouldn’t it have been fun if they had recruited MSU QB Jeff Smoker to run this offense?   To his credit, Tiller has been one of the more influential coaches in the Big Ten in recent years.  A lot of coaches have brought innovative offensive schemes to struggling programs in the Big Ten, but there is one huge difference between Joe Tiller and Jim Wacker.  Tiller has won games and even a Big Ten championship while doing so. Also, while his offense has been stealing the headlines, he has quietly built a fine defense.  Some say Purdue’s defense is the best in the conference.  We know better, but, none the less, the Boilers are formidable on defense.  It is hard to get a handle on the 2003 Boilermakers.  They were highly regarded coming into the season.  They disappeared from view when they lost their opener at home to Bowling Green.  Then they re-surfaced by winning six games in a row before getting embarrassed by Michigan on the road.  Just when it looks like they have folded their tents they dominate a pretty good Iowa team at home.  However, their most impressive win may have been at Wisconsin.  That was the week after the Badgers had upset the Buckeyes.  Likely, that a lot of folks in Madison found it hard to play through hangovers from the frivolity of the week before.  Purdue brings a good scheme and a lot of experience on offense.  They have had a pretty balanced attack.  Jerod Void carried 34 times for 120 yards last week against Iowa.  Iowa, as we well know, had been pretty good at stopping the run all year.  This should be interesting and perhaps pivotal to see if the Buckeyes can take the run away from the Boilers.  If Purdue runs for much more than100 yards, they have a decent chance of getting out of Columbus with an upset.  Don’t bet on it, Iowa is good but they don’t have the front seven that the Buckeyes do.  With the Silver Bullets feeding off the 3:30 PM game crowd, I expect Purdue to be forced to depend on the arm of Kyle Orton.  That won’t be enough. The Purdue receivers are good, but UM was successful pressing them on the line of scrimmage.  The Bucks should be able to do the same.  As always we will yield some yardage, but few points.  The bigger question is will OSU be able to move the ball on Purdue.  The Purdue defense has been good, but not great.  The Boilermakers rank 3^rd or 4^th in most statistical categories in the Big 10 and will likely finish 3^rd or 4^th  in the final conference standings.  The Buckeyes have superior athletes on defense and enough playmakers on offense to win over Tiller’s scheme, not matter how well conceived.  The list big games  Purdue has won on the road is amazingly short..   Maybe they miss their little train, or the crowd noise in Ross-Aide that gets piped in every time the call goes out to “Boiler-Up”.  What exactly does it mean to “Boiler-Up”? The Boilermakers actually got their name, when, back in the early days, Purdue used ringers from a nearby plant, which manufactured  boilers for steam engine trains.  .  Nice concept, name your team after cheaters, but hardly original.  We have the OU Sooners named after the folks who illegally jumped the gun on the Oklahoma land rush of 1889.  Did Barry Switzer think  that one up? We even have the University of Idaho Vandals.  Very strange. Do the players all carry cans of spray paint onto the field?     Is the Purdue big drum making the trip?  Will the Golden Girl’s probation officer allow her to travel to Ohio?    If Purdue was intimidated by the crowd in the Ann Arbor, just think what we can do to them in the Shoe. We need the 12^th man to bring it all day long. I sense blood in the water.

                Nationally, last week we saw three huge dominoes fall into place with the losses of VT, Miami and Florida State.  That helped propel the Bucks into 4^th place in the polls and 3^rd place in the BCS.  If OSU and USC win out, there is still a chance for OSU to jump over USC and land in the Super Dome eyeball to eyeball with the OU Sooners.  The Buckeye cause would be greatly helped if LSU would lose. Since the polls are a big part of the BCS formula, we need to get past LSU, for our superior strength of schedule to get us ahead of the Trojans.   A Washington State loss would also help the cause, by depriving USC of a quality win.  LSU still must play at Alabama, at Ole Miss, and Arkansas at home, before the SEC championship game.  I really like the chances of Nick Saban screwing it up somewhere along the line.  Saban was not exactly known for winning championships during his stay in East Lansing. This is all wildly speculative and premature, as the Buckeyes face two huge challenges with Purdue and somebody else, who’s name I forget, next week.

  We need to recognize the sound of silence,….. finally, coming from Coral Gables.  Thank you Tennessee Volunteers for knocking the Miami Hurricanes from the national stage.  Kellen Winslow is an idiot, and   the Hurricanes are bogus.   .  Larry Coker deserves some criticism for standing by and watching much of the clean up work done by Butch Davis come unraveled.  The Canes look pretty much like the thugs and punks of  Jimmy Johnson/Dennis Ericson era.  The good news is that with back to back losses, one of which was at home, we no longer have to listen to the Canes.  Good riddance and enjoy the Continental Tire Bowl. A word to Mr. Winslow Jr.:  There are a lot of us who thought you were a spoiled jerk, with no regard for anyone but yourself.  Thanks for opening your mouth and removing all doubt.