As advertised - Off the Tracks of the prestigious Big Ten Bloggers has taken over Buckeye Lane.
I would like to thank Travis Miller of Off the Tracks for sharing his insight and his website.
Go see Buckeye Lane’s takeover of Off the Tracks.
Buckeye Lane: Give me a description of what you think will happen on Saturday. Do you think Purdue can beat Ohio State? Better yet, tell us what’s going to happen - final score and everything.
Off the Tracks:I think Purdue has a really good chance to win on Saturday, but it will take their best effort of the season to date. I am excited to see what we can do against a really good defense as I agree we haven’t truly faced anyone of note yet. In the first half of every game we have been able to move the ball and score in almost every way imaginable. We’re 8 of 10 on field goals (with one being blocked). We’ve scored on a short field from turnovers and on long drives. We’ve had 1 yard scoring plays and an 80 yard scoring play. We’ve even returned two kickoffs for touchdowns. The only time we’ve had trouble scoring is when we get too cute like we did against Notre Dame. Instead of ramming the ball down their throats we tried to pass too much and ended up settling for field goals instead of touchdowns in the red zone.
I have no doubt we’ll be able to score against the Buckeyes because we have too many weapons to be completely shut down. The question is can we score enough. If our defense starts giving up yards and points in bunches we’re in trouble. Purdue has had a habit of getting ahead early and putting things on cruise control. So far the defense has surrendered just 20 points in the first half, and 14 of those came in the opener at Toledo. The offense has scored in all 20 quarters so far, so they have done the job for pretty much the entire season. The second half defense has struggled, but they are giving up points late when other teams are in desperation mode. Notre Dame honestly moved the ball so well because of some amazing grabs by their receivers and by simply refusing to punt the entire second half. Both Minnesota and Central Michigan have proven they can move the ball well at times this year, but were held in check until the game was well in hand for the Boilers.
I think the first half will be critical, and if Purdue can get a lead early they have a great chance to pull the upset. They have not played from behind since they trailed 7-0 in the first quarter at Toledo. The game will be more decided by Special teams and the Purdue defense against the Ohio State offense than anything. Right now I would say Ohio State’s offense has an edge on our defense and special teams are about even.
Because of Chris Wells (right) though I am very concerned, as he is the best back we will have faced so far and I know Ohio State can very easily keep our offense off the field by pounding him, then go to Brian Robiskie deep. I honestly don’t know what will happen on Saturday, whether it will be a defensive stalemate like the 2002 game or a back and forth trackmeet like the 2000 game. I can honestly see either, and I think a defensive stalemate actually favors us because we’ve proven we can score when absolutely necessary. I know Ohio State is better, and I honestly think they will win about 24-21, but Purdue pulling the upset would not surprise me by a similar score.
Buckeye Lane: Tell me a little bit about your team. Buckeye fans know about Curtis Painter and Dorien Bryant, or at least I think they do, but tell me about other players on this team. RB Kory Sheets is having a good year, who are the difference makers? Anyone on defense, who should Buckeye fans be worried about?
Off the Tracks:#24 Kory Sheets has been solid and has really stepped up since #33 Jaycen Taylor was forced out for a few weeks with a broken arm. He now has 30 career touchdowns and is just a redshirt junior. With eight more games (including bowl game) and at least 12 next year he stands an excellent chance of breaking Mike Alstott’s career touchdown record of 42. He also stands a good chance of being our first 1,000 back since Joey Harris in 2002. He’s good at catching the ball out of the backfield and he has some shifty moves in the open field. He will be tested against Ohio State and I have a hard time seeing us losing if he gets to 100 yards for his 4th straight game. Getting there is certainly not going to be easy though.
Another player to watch is tight end #28 Dustin Keller (left). Keller is very, very athletic for a tight end and has a habit of making great adjustments in the air as well as breaking tackles on the run. Generally it takes at least 2-3 guys to bring him down in the open field, and you can forget about tackling him one-on-one on the run. Keller actually scored the winning touchdown as a freshman in our last meeting.
What I like about this team offensively is its balance. In addition to Sheets, Keller, and Bryant having good seasons catching and running the football we also have #1 Selwyn Lymon,#21 Greg Orton, #88 Jake Standeford, #85 Kyle Adams, and #6 Desmond Tardy as weapons that Painter normally throws to at least 2-3 times a game. Painter has done a fantastic job of spreading the ball around, as his 18 touchdown passes have gone to eight different receivers. Tardy is also a former high school quarterback who lines up in the slot like Bryant, and he has been known to throw on occasion with a TD pass against Hawaii last year.
Defensively there isn’t one player that is central to the defense like Anthony Spencer was last year, but that is what makes the defense better I think. Both #5 Terrell Vinson and #23 Justin Scott have a pair of picks, but one of our better safeties may be #2 Torri Williams. Williams suffered a gruesome knee injury last season in the opener against Indiana State after missing the 2005 season with a broken leg. He is still not playing entire games, but when he is in there he is a difference maker.
#42 Anthony Heygood plays outside linebacker this season after converting from running back and he has been a breath of fresh air for us. This will be just his sixth game at the position but he is one of leading tacklers and is known as a hard-hitter. As a whole the defense has simply lacked focus, as it has been very good when the game is on the line, but has slacked when we have built a big lead. It is certainly night and day better than last year. #32 Cliff Avril is our leading pass rusher with three of our nine sacks, but my biggest concern defensively is we have not been able to consistently get into the backfield like in past seasons. Part of that may be the defense hiding its hand against inferior competition though, as we have blitzed more than last year, but not much at all with the big leads.
Buckeye Lane: Also, go into a little on what it is like to be a Purdue fan. What’s it like at the games? How would Buckeye fans be treated inside Ross-Ade? What teams do Purdue fans hate the most? Maybe Notre Dame, but what about within the Big Ten?
Off the Tracks: Being a Purdue fan is interesting because we’re right in the middle, being always good enough to contend but never truly break through. We don’t suck so bad that there is no hope every year, but we’ve been unable to break through and sustain a position with the big boys of the conference. We seems to go in cycles where every 3-4 years we have a team good enough to contend for the conference crown, then fall back to mid-tier bowl status. Lately we’ve been getting a ton of “but who have you beaten” comments since we have won 16 of our last 22, but not a single one of those wins were against a winning team and just one (Minnesota last year) came over a bowl team. We’ve been a consistent bowl team and that has spoiled our fans a bit because we’re a long way from the Jim Colletto and Fred Akers years that saw a maximum of four wins per season. We can never seem to break through to something bigger though and this is honestly our next good shot to do so. Five of our six losses last year were to teams ranked at game time (Notre Dame, Iowa, Penn State, Wisconsin, Hawaii), so we desperately need to break through and beat a ranked team, which hasn’t happened since 2003.
Honestly, this is the biggest game we have played in three years since the infamous fumble game against Wisconsin. Because we have lost so many games in agonizing fashion over the past six years Purdue fans are almost resigned to wait for the other shoe to drop. Buckeye fans will probably be treated fairly warmly at Purdue (except by my wife, who is a University of Miami alum), and I expect a very close, hard-fought Big Ten contest. In past Purdue-OSU games at Ross-Ade the Buckeyes have traveled very well and I’ve never seen a ton of bad blood between the two schools.
In football there’s no contest. We hate Notre Dame and we hate them a lot. With Indiana we have been so dominant recently that it hasn’t been much of a rivalry, but I can see that changing this year. Most Purdue fans view Michigan and Ohio State as big conference games simply because of both school’s histories and the fact that we need to beat both if we’re going to have national success. Until we do that regularly we’ve accomplished very little.
Buckeye Lane: Are you as tired of seeing “Holy Buckeye” play as we are of seeing the “Holy Toledo” Brees to Morales play of two years earlier?
Off the Tracks: LOL, this was actually my question reversed to Buckeye Lane. I was at both games, as I was a junior in 2000 and the 2002 game was one of the first dates with my now wife. In 2000 I remember seeing the ball in the air with Morales being wide open and just praying he would catch the ball. Even if he fell down afterward we’d be in the red zone. When he caught it and waltzed into the end zone the student section just exploded in sheer joy, as we knew the Rose Bowl was actually a real possibility at that point. I know Ohio State fans take BCS bowls for granted now, but imagine not going in 34 years and being terrible for about 25 of those. It was a joy as a fan you can’t imagine and I still love watching the play.
Now fast forward to two years later. We were in the midst of a season where we were 4-5, but the five losses had all been by less than a touchdown. We had lost games by missing field goals, not running out the clock, and just about every other way you could imagine. Now we were leading and going toe-to-toe with a team that would win the national title and we needed to make one play to seal it even though we were playing quarterback roulette. The Krenzel to Jenkins pass absolutely ripped my guts out and even though we got the ball back with a chance to score again Orton’s game-sealing interception was practically pre-ordained. When Jenkins made the catch I collapsed into my seat screaming, “NO!” and my wife, having barely known me at the time, had to wonder what was wrong with me.
To this day though I still question whether Mike Nugent and co. got that field goal off in time before the half. At least with both plays the fanbases are equal in terms of agonizing endings and it’s amazing that they occurred in back-to-back games in West Lafayette.
LTP: Slim to none. Coming into the season I thought it may have been the first time I can remember ever thinking we had a legit shot at winning in The Shoe. OSU had a hundred question marks and NU was under the radar with all of our skill players returning, a solid line and a defense that was allegedly going to be our best in a decade. Well, 
