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Ohio State defense punishes Purdue

Oct 7, 2007 - 5:42 AM WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana (Ticker) -- With a defense like this, Ohio State might not lose a regular-season game in a long, long time.

The Ohio State defense nearly pitched a shutout and Todd Boeckman threw two touchdown passes in the first quarter as the fourth-ranked Buckeyes posted a 23-7 Big Ten Conference victory over No. 23 Purdue on Saturday.

It has been nearly two years since Ohio State (6-0, 3-0 Big Ten) and coach Jim Tressel have experienced a regular-season defeat. With Saturday's win over the Boilermakers (5-1, 1-1), the Buckeyes extended their school-record regular-season winning streak to 24 games.

Ohio State has not lost in the regular season since a 17-10 setback at Penn State on October 8, 2005. The team's only defeat since was a 41-14 loss to Florida in last year's national championship.

The way the defense is playing, Ohio State will have a pretty good shot at returning to the national championship game, especially if Boeckman plays like he did in the first quarter.

Boeckman threw a 26-yard TD pass to Ray Small and a six-yard scoring strike to Brian Hartline as Ohio State jumped out to a 14-0 lead after the first quarter.

From there, the game was in the Buckeye defense's hands, and they more than held up their end.

Purdue scored its only points of the game with 10 seconds left in the fourth quarter when Curtis Painter threw a one-yard TD pass to Jeff Lindsay to deny Ohio State its first shutout of the season.

"I asked (Ohio State head coach Jim) Tressel before the game if this was the best defense he's ever had, and he said 'It might be'," Purdue coach Joe Tiller said. "Obviously (Ohio State) has good football players all over the place and they did a good job defensively; I really like their linebacking corps."

Boeckman completed 17-of-29 passes for 200 yards, but he did throw three interceptions and the Buckeyes did not score a touchdown after the first quarter.

"I thought our defense played well and created some turnovers, but it seemed like every turnover was inside the five-yard line, which is the same as a punt," Tiller said. "I'm glad we got the turnovers, but I think the position where they occurred put a lot of pressure on the offense."

Ryan Pretorius kicked three field goals, and the Buckeyes limited the Boilermakers to four yards rushing on 17 carries.

Having to shoulder the offensive load for Purdue, Painter struggled, completing 31-of-60 passes for 268 yards while getting sacked three times.

"They didn't really do much differently than other teams we've played," Painter said. "We knew they were a good defense going into the ball game, but when they did give us opportunities we didn't take advantage of them."

Saturday was the the first meeting between the teams since 2004, when Purdue posted a 24-17 win here.