The media questioned him, fans were angry with him and some even wanted him benched.

Terrelle Pryor needed a big game, perhaps more than ever before in his brief career. And when it was all said and done Saturday, that’s exactly what he had. He gave perhaps his best performance in a Buckeye uniform during a 38-7 route of Minnesota.

Pryor finished the day with 239 yards and two touchdowns through the air to go along with his team-leading 104 yards and a touchdown on the ground.

For all the criticism, which Pryor has consistently said he’s willing to shoulder, Pryor has accounted for more than two-thirds of the Buckeye offense. If there was any doubt that the offense lives and dies with him, the contrast between the Purdue and Minnesota games might put it to rest.

In Buckeye losses, Pryor has just two touchdowns compared to five turnovers. In wins, he has 17 and 10.

But it is performances like Saturday’s that make the rest of the team comfortable putting the game in the hands of its sophomore quarterback.

“I don’t like to hear people say that he hasn’t improved from last year,” sophomore center Mike Brewster said. “He tries his hardest every game, and a lot of times the blame should be put back on us for not doing our jobs. … After the [Purdue] game, [Pryor] stepped forward and told us the blame should be put on him and that he’s working to get better. We just told him that we’re all behind him and that we love him, and we’re always here to support him.”

Injuries don’t slow down offense

The injury problems on the Buckeye offense began two weeks ago when starting tailback Dan Herron went down.

They continued Thursday when starting left tackle Mike Adams was ruled out. They concluded midway through the second quarter against Minnesota when starting tailback Brandon Saine left the game with a possible concussion.

Thanks to timely contributions from backup linemen Jim Cordle and Andrew Miller and running backs Jordan Hall and Jermil Martin, the offense didn’t miss a beat, putting up 31 points in the second half of Saturday’s game to go along with 509 yards of total offense.

“You know, it has hurt us not having Boom,” coach Jim Tressel said. “We obviously weren’t excited about the prospects of playing the second half or whatever without Brandon. Jordan stepped up … and Jermil did a heck of a job.”

Hall and Martin each scored the first touchdowns of their careers during the second half Saturday. Hall, a true freshman, wasn’t as out of place as one might think being in the backfield with Pryor; the two played together at Jeannette High School in Pennsylvania.
Martin, a redshirt freshman who is now making the transition to running back, felt good just to make a contribution on the field after nearly two years of doing so in practice.

“It was a dream come true,” Martin said of his touchdown. “I’ve always had that drive and motivation, and it was great to go out and show it today. Terrelle told me ‘good job,’ and that I was finally proving myself.”

Meanwhile, up-front, the offensive line made a drastic improvement from the Purdue game despite the injuries. After giving up five sacks in the loss last week, the line only allowed its quarterback to be brought down once against Minnesota.

“Andrew Miller was ready and Jimmy Cordle was ready, and fortunately we got those guys back because they were gone there for a while,” Tressel said. “We’d have been really in trouble if that [injury to Mike Adams] would have happened two weeks ago.”

Posey breaks free, breaks out

If DeVier Posey wasn’t Pryor’s favorite target already, 161 yards receiving and two touchdown catches, each longer than 57 yards, should be enough to get him there. Posey now leads OSU receivers in yards and touchdowns and has nearly twice as many catches as the next best on the team. Furthermore, his 161 yards against Minnesota were the most for a Buckeye receiver since Ted Ginn’s 167 in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl against Notre Dame.

A hamstring injury slowed down Posey’s development in the off-season. Now fully healthy, the sophomore receiver is ready to step into a playmaking role for the offense.

He was one of the few bright spots for OSU in the loss to Purdue, with multiple big plays and a touchdown in the fourth quarter that led a near-comeback.

Posey carried the momentum from the closing minutes a week ago into the Minnesota game, improving from his slow start early in the season.

“I feel, personally, that I’m nowhere near where I want to be yet,” he said. “I haven’t reached my full potential, especially because of my hamstring issue early on. I’m learning a lot and really trying to incorporate that knowledge onto the field.”

Defense continues dominance

Not to be overlooked in Saturday’s performance was the defense, which has allowed just seven touchdowns in the last 27 quarters. Two of those, one against Indiana and one against Minnesota, came against OSU’s second and third teams after the Buckeyes had already secured their win.

It has been tough to predict which offense will show up, the explosive one or the turnover-prone one, but the defense has been consistant. If the Purdue game was a letdown, then Saturday was business as usual for the Buckeye defense.

“We just needed a positive result after last week and we were happy to get it,” junior linebacker Brian Rolle said.

All season long, the defensive charge has been led by the line. The rotation of as many as eight players has swarmed opposing quarterbacks for most of the season, resulting in 23 sacks on opponents thus far.

Three of those sacks came from the hands of junior Thaddeus Gibson Saturday, a career high and the fifth-most in OSU history. The defensive pressure the line created allowed the Buckeyes to force four turnovers, including the first career interception by senior linebacker Austin Spitler.

“I have to give all the credit to the defensive line,” Spitler said. “They got good pressure and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.”

Senior defensive lineman Doug Worthington stressed the importance of needing to move on from the Purdue loss, even if the fans and media might have made it difficult.

“We wanted to make sure we came out and redeemed ourselves in front of our fans,” Worthington said. “We worked on a lot of things this week and tried to put the Purdue game out of our heads. As far as we’re concerned, it’s all about moving forward.”