Recap: Ohio State 23, Purdue 26

Hall made some big plays

If you thought that Ohio State (6-4, 3-3) would come out fast and looking ready to go for a November to remember, you weren't the only one. Sadly, it looked as if they didn't make any progress from the close-shave against Indiana. The trip to Ross-Ade stadium again seems to give fits to Ohio State offenses, and the defense looked terrible in a 26-23 overtime loss to Purdue. The Boilermakers (5-5, 3-3) had just been coming off 2 straight losses - both in ugly fashion. First came Michigan who they lost to 36-14, and then traveled to Camp Randall where the Badgers took care of business in fashion 62-17.

Of course, those games meant nothing to Purdue. Look at their home record before this game: 4-1. Their only loss came to Notre Dame. They beat Illinois and a Minnesota team that has shown much improvement from the past couple of years. Add to the fact that the Buckeyes have some weird phobia of playing against the Boilermakers at Purdue, and that's a recipe for confidence and success for Danny Hope's squad, which is now one win away from bowl edibility. As for Ohio State, things have taken a turn for the worse since their monumental upset of then highly-ranked Wisconsin. After that game, Ohio State was just 1 game away from being in control of their own destiny on their way to a B1G CCG. All they had to worry about was winning out, but even with Braxton Miller's heroics again, this time with a 4th down roll-out that ended in a fantastic Jordan Hall catch,  the Buckeye defense couldn't come up with a stop in overtime.

- OSU’s record in overtime is now 5-2. The lone previous loss was at Northwestern in 2004. This was OSU’s first overtime game since the dramatic 2009 win at home over Iowa that clinched the Rose Bowl berth.

- Basil had made 12 straight field goals before his miss on the final play of the first half. He is now 13 of 16 on the season. He was also 28 of 28 on PATs this season before the block.

- Two freshmen made their first career starts at Purdue. TY Williams started in place of Corey “Philly” Brown at wide receiver. Brown missed the game with an ankle injury. Antonio Underwood started in place of J.B. Shugarts at right tackle. Shugarts, who had started 24 consecutive games dating to the end of the 2009 season, missed the game with a knee injury.


- Ohio State had only one lead the entire game: 23-20 in the first overtime.

- OSU is now 2-4 in its last six visits to West Lafayette since 2000.