Written by Brian McPeek

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I love October.  The leaves changing colors.  Playoff baseball.  And football on all weekend.  In this week's Weekend Wrap, Peeks hits on the Buckeyes ugly win over Purdue and the performance of Terrell Pryor.  He talks about Michigan's shocking loss to Toledo in The Big House.  He talks Browns/Giants, and MLB Playoffs.  It's our Sunday night staple ... it's The Weekend Wrap.

Give Me a Sign 

I’m more than on-board with Terrell Pryor taking the helm of the Ohio State offense. I was thrilled to see him have more of a role in the embarrassing loss to USC and I was in agreement with Pryor starting afterward given the season was in flames and Pryor needed live-action snaps to prepare himself for 2009. 

And I still believe Pryor should be at the controls next week when the Buckeyes face off against Michigan State.  

But what’s good for the sixth year, All Big10 senior who was replaced after week three is good for the true freshman: show us something. 

Todd Boeckman, for all his warts, hung 38 points on Wisconsin last season and threw two TD passes last year against Purdue.  

And while Pryor is clearly the future, his past two weeks have been underwhelming in many regards. 

TP was 13/19 for 144 yards and an interception against Wisconsin to go along with 15 carries for 20 yards. In Saturday’s 16-3 win against Purdue, Pryor was 10/14 for 97 yards and rushed 14 times for 27 yards. 

29 carries for 47 yards in two full games is telling. And what it’s telling me is that Pryor is having some difficulties when it comes to making decisions and making reads. And while that’s to be expected and embraced by a team and a coaching staff hanging their future on #2 there is also a team full of players that deserve to have the guy under center who can give them the best chance to win during any given game. 

Blindly and stubbornly handing Pryor the reigns and never taking the time to check his pulse or the pulse of the offense as a whole would be as big a mistake as stubbornly sticking with Boeckman. Pryor needs to show progress. He needs to show he’s able to make his reads and make his decisions in the time Big10 defenses allow. The fact he’s averaging about 1.5 yards per rush tells us that he’s taking way too many sacks or tackles for losses. Sacks and indecision (along with a less than stellar receiving corps) were what greased the skids for Boeckman in Columbus. With Boeckman having spent six years in Columbus it was far less palatable for Buckeye fans to watch an ineffective offense. It became unbearable after the USC loss.  

That’s understandable and I credit Jim Tressel for making the switch to Pryor. But there comes a time when an experienced pocket passer with some skills and some big wins under his belt may be a viable alternative to an 18 year-old kid who is learning the ropes in a difficult environment. I’m not talking about a benching or a punishment because the kid offers elements to the offense that are necessary and that can’t be filled by Boeckman and he’s done whatever he’s able to do to put ‘Ws’ on the board. Pryor’s done all that while looking non-plussed while Boeckman always appeared, well, plussed when the pressure came. 

But it may soon to come to bear that Pryor needs to step back and digest all he’s swallowed in the last month. He’s had more than a mouthful forced upon him. If and when that time comes there are about 100 other kids on the roster counting on Tressel to make that call too. 

Spreading the Love 

Say what you want about that team up north, but they sure spread joy throughout the land. Thus far in 2008 they’ve made people in the Mountain West Conference (Utah), the Big10 Conference (Illinois), an independent (Notre Dame) and now the Mid-American Conference very happy with their play under Rich Rodriguez. 

It’s hard to say the Michigan Wolverines hit a new low after you fondly remember their loss to Appalachian State last season, but Saturday’s 13-10 loss at home to Toledo may be rock-bottom. Michigan had been 24-0 against MAC opponents before running into a 1-4 Toledo juggernaut in Ann Arbor. 

Toledo held R-Rod’s innovative spread offense to less than 300 yards of total offense and turned Michigan over three times on Saturday. 

I don’t know if things have hit rock-bottom for the Wolverines, but you’ve got to be able to see rock-bottom really easily if they’re not there yet. 

And that makes me happier than Buckeyes 16-3 win over a Big10 opponent pretty much any day.  

Maybe Gary Moeller has his act together these days. I have to believe he’d at least answer the phone. 

Etcetera 

• You ever have the phone ring at 4am? There is almost nothing good that can be coming out of that phone call. You pick up the call and wait for the bad news. That’s kind of how I’m looking at the 845pm Browns-Giants kickoff Monday night. Kickoff is that 4am phone call. 
  
• If any of you are NFL-centric this time of year you’re missing out on some fine October baseball. Terrific series brewing with the Red Sox and Rays and some bad blood being displayed between the Dodgers and the Phillies. Tampa and Boston played an instant classic on Saturday night when the Rays beat the Red Sox 9-8 in 11 innings. The two teams combined for 7 HRs in the first 5 innings and kept landing haymakers to the other’s chin. But the Rays battled back and got a huge win to send the series back to Boston tied at 1-1.

In Los Angeles the Dodgers bowed their backs and cut into the Philadelphia series lead. LA parlayed a 5 run first inning into a 7-2 win Sunday night over 45 year-old Jamie Moyer to make it a 2-1 Philadelphia lead in the series. Sunday’s game also featured some bench clearing festivities when Shane Victorino was buzzed head-high by Dodger pitcher Hiroki Kuroda. That was in response to Phillies starter Brett Myers throwing a fastball behind the back of Manny Ramirez on Friday in Philadelphia. 

Both series are on display Monday evening. The Dodgers-Phillies game runs at the same time the Browns and Giants are teeing it up. Something to keep in mind when the Browns game is over at about 915pm.