Ohio State registered a first round knockout Saturday in West Lafayette, scoring 28 first quarter points against Purdue, before finishing off the punchless Boilermakers 56-0. Braxton Miller threw four touchdown passes in the first half, and took the rest of the day off, as the Buckeyes went to halftime with a 42-0 lead and coasted home to their 21st consecutive victory.

On the game’s second play, OSU cornerback Doran Grant picked off Purdue’s Danny Etling, and returned the interception 33 yards for the score. The first time they had the ball, it took the Buckeyes offense just two plays to score again, this time on a 40-yard strike to tight end Jeff Heuerman, and the Boilermakers were essentially finished with the first quarter barely underway.

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- Saturday,  November 2, 2013

- Ross-Ade Stadium - West Lafayette, IN

- Ohio State (8-0, 4-0) at Purdue (1-6, 0-3)

- 12:00 p.m. ET

- TV: BTN -

The 4th-ranked Buckeyes take their 8-0 record and their 20-game winning streak on the road to West Lafayette this weekend to play the Purdue Boilermakers, a program that has given Ohio State fits over the last decade. Somehow, Purdue manages to cause more trouble for the Buckeyes than they should, given the talent differential, but this year’s game figures to be the exception to that rule.

The Buckeyes are peaking offensively after scoring nine touchdowns last week, in the process rolling up more total yardage (686 yds) against Penn State than any opponent in the history of Nittany Lions football. Meanwhile Purdue has stumbled to a 1-6 record under former OSU assistant Darrell Hazell, and has yet to win a game against an FBS team, let alone a Big Ten opponent. Even with that seeming mismatch looming for Saturday’s noon kickoff, the recent history of this series has to be taken into account.

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Ohio State scored touchdowns on six of its seven first half possessions Saturday night, to blow out an overmatched Penn State team 63-14, in front of 105,889 at Ohio Stadium. The Buckeyes have taken some flack this year for not looking like Alabama, Oregon or Florida State, all despite having not lost a game since the 2011 season. But after Braxton Miller ran for two scores and passed for three more in less than three quarters of work, Ohio State may have at least worked their way back into the national title conversation.

This was the Urban Meyer offense that Ohio State fans have been waiting to see...clicking on all cylinders with a healthy Miller and a dominant offensive line. The Buckeyes ran the ball at will, with Carlos Hyde punishing Nittany Lion defenders on the rare occasions they got in his way at all. Hyde had 130 yards on 13 carries, with two touchdowns...all by halftime, and finished with 149 yards and a 9.2 per carry average.

Miller had perhaps the most complete game of his career, throwing for a career high 252 yards on 18 of 24 passing, with three touchdowns and no interceptions, and added 68 rushing yards, including touchdown runs of 39 and 6 yards. He gave way to backup Kenny Guiton with the score 49-7 in the 3rd quarter, and watched Guiton add two rushing touchdowns of his own in mop up duty.

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- Saturday October 26, 2013

- Ohio Stadium - Columbus, OH

- Penn State (4-2, 1-1) at Ohio State (7-0, 3-0)

- 8:00 p.m. ET

- TV: ABC -

The Buckeyes welcome the Penn State Nittany Lions to the Horseshoe this weekend for their third nationally televised night game in four Big Ten contests. The first two resulted in closely-contested wins for OSU, and the Bucks will head into November with an unblemished mark if they can get past the Lions to register their 20th straight victory under Urban Meyer.

Ohio State is ranked 4th in both polls, and hope remains that a berth in the BCS championship game is achievable, as long as they continue to post W’s, and a couple more of the unbeatens have an off day sometime between now and the conference championship games in early December. OSU backers have long since conceded that they will not climb over any of the other unbeatens on style points, because the strength of their schedule will not permit it. So it’s 13-0 or bust, and Penn State represents nothing more or less than the next hurdle in that race.

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