On October 6th, 2007, the 4th ranked Buckeyes marched into West Lafayette to take on the then 23rd rated Purdue Boilermakers in a student-led “blackout.”

The Buckeye defense held star WR Dorian Bryant to negative recieving and rushing yards, Todd Boeckman threw three telegraphed interceptions, Ray Small and Brian Hartline caught TD passes, and ever-favored Ohio State rolled to a 23-7 victory.

This special saturday saw USC fall to Stanford, LSU narrowly escape from Florida on a last second TD pass, and the Buckeyes take another giant skip towards another National Championship appearance.

Purdue dropped from the rankings and later lost to lowely Indiana, making a Motor City Bowl appearance.  The loss allowed the Hoosiers to make their first bowl appearance in Gawd knows when, an embarrasment to the Boilermaker program.

This year, Purdue returns the most “NFL ready” quarterback in Curtis Painter; he’s new Drew Brees so fear not.  Painter has 5 TDs and 5 INTs on the year, but poses a minor threat to the lacksidasicle OSU defense who seems to allow every quarterback, from Ohio’s Boo Jackson to Wisconsin’s Allen Everidge, to pick them apart through the air.

Painter has put up 1225 yards, the most this Buckeye defense has seen in a while and runningback Korey Sheets is a solid compliment, if Purdue can open up its ground attack by being successful through the air.

However, the Beanie and Pryor show can not be stopped by this measly Purdue defense.  Wells has averaged 7.9 yards per carry and is likely to do the same this saturday.

Key Matchup: Ohio State’s defensive line vs. the Purdue offensive line and Curtis Painter.

Defensive tackles Nader Abdallah, Dexter Larimore, Doug Worthington, and Todd Denlinger, amongst others, must rush the passer.  Every opposing QB has had more than enough time to get off their passes, making all of them extremely efficient.  Too much time in the pocket allows too many possibilities.

Outcome Prediction: Too much Pryor and Wells in this one.  Painter will put up at least 200 yards passing, but Pryor will rush for at least 80 yards and pass for 180 more.  Beanie will have another 150 yard game to go with a few TDs.  This game is in Columbus by the way..

Ohio State 27 Purdue 13